HEAT

TRANSFER
CONTINENTAL GEOTHERMS
 Continental Geotherms

 Dominant thermal processes are radiogenic heat

production and conductive heat transport to the
surface. The surface rocks in continental are as have
considerably larger concentrations of radioactive
elements than the rocks that make up the oceanic crust.

 Radioactive elements decreases exponentially with

depth, H = H0e−y/hr .Thus H0 is the surface (y = 0)
radiogenic heat production rate per unit mass,and hr is
a length scale for the decrease in H with depth.
Continental Geotherms
Continental Geotherms
 Continental Geotherms

 Dependence of surface heat flow q0 on the radiogenic heat

production per unit volume in surface rock ρ H0 in
selected geological provinces:Sierra Nevada(solid square
sand very long dashed line),easternU.S.(solid circle sand
intermediate dashed line),Norwayand
Sweden(opencirclesand solid line),eastern Canadian
shield(open square sand short dashed line).In each case
the data are fit with the linear relationship.
Radial Heat Conduction in a
Sphere or Spherical Shell
 Radial Heat Conduction in a Sphere or
Spherical Shell

The temperature distribution in thick planetary

lithospheres, such as the lithospheres of the moon and
mars, are properly described by solution of the heat
coduction equation in spherical geometry.

The effect of the spherical geometry are not so important

for the earth’s lithospere, which is quite thin compared
with the earth radius.However, on a body small like the
moon, the lithosphere may be a substantial fraction of
the planet’s radius.To describe heat conduction in sperical
geometry, we must derive an energy balance equation.
 Radial Heat Conduction in a Sphere or
Spherical Shell

 Total heat flow out of

the shell :

 Total heat flow into the

shell at is inner surface
is :
TEMPERATURES IN
MOON
 Temperatures In Moon

Moon is in a steady-state thermal balance and that the

mean heat production is the same as the value we derived
for the Earth’s mantle, that is, H = 7.38 × 10−12 W kg−1,
the Moon has a uniform distribution of radioactivity, the
maximum temperature at the center of the Moon can with
the result Tmax = 3904 K, assuming k = 3.3 W m−1 K−1
and that the surface temperature is T0 = 250 K. This
conduction solution indicates that a substantial fraction of
the interior of the Moon is totally melted

The conductive solution is not valid or the radioactive

isotopes
are not distributed uniformly throughout the Moon
Steady Two-and Three-
Dimensional
Heat Conduction
 Steady Two-and Three-Dimensional
Heat Conduction

 The heat flux in the x direction is qx, and in

the y direction it is qy. The rate at which heat
flows into thee lement in the y direction is qy
(y) δ xl,where l is an arbitrary length in the
third direction (in two dimensional heat
conduction we assume that nothing varies in
the third dimension).
 Similarly, heat flows into thee lement in the x
direction at the rate qx(x)δyl. The heat flow
rates out of the element are qy(y+δy)δxl and
qx (x + δx) δyl. The net heat flow rate out of
the element is
 Steady Two-and Three-Dimensional
Heat Conduction

 In steady state, a nonzero value of the right side of Equation(4.44)

requires that heat be produced internally in the rectangular element.
The rate ofheat generation in the element is ρH(δxδyl); equating
this to the right side of Equation(4.44) yields

 Clearly, if we had heat conduction in three dimensions,

Equation(4.45) would be replaced by

 Fourier’s law of heat conduction relates the heat flow in any

direction to the temperature gradient in that direction. If we assume
that the thermal conductivity of the rock is isotropic, thatis, the
rock conducts heat equally in any direction, Fourier’s law can be
written
 Steady Two-and Three-Dimensional
Heat Conduction

 Upon substitution of Equations(4.47) and (4.48) into

Equation (4.45), we obtain

 Generalizing this to three-dimensional heat conduction gives

 If there are no internal heat sources, the temperature satisfies

 Equation(4.51) is known as Laplace’s equation. In three

dimensions, Laplace’s equation is

 Laplace’s equation is encountered in many other fields,

including fluid flow, diffusion, and magnetostatics.