EME 165

ASSIGNMENT 2

Assigned: Friday, April 13th 2018

Due: Friday, April 20th 2018, by 5pm
Turn in Problems 5 & 6 for grading

Notes:
1. In order to get full credit, the following steps must be shown. Each of these steps will carry
points in the homework and exam grading.
2. You are strongly encouraged to use the posted equation sheets to work out the assignments.
3. Submit as a single pdf on canvas problems 5 & 6 for grading; INCLUDE a pdf of the code used in
addition to plots. Use a computer program to generate plots.
4. Use an app such as fastscanner to convert the photograph of your hand-written work to a pdf.

(a) A schematic representing the problem statement with a control volume identifying the
appropriate modes of heat transfer,
(b) What is given, and what needs to be found,
(c) The assumptions necessary to solve the problem,
(d) Energy balance and its simplified form for the particular problem,
(e) Symbolic steps towards a final solution. Do not substitute numbers into the equations until
the later stages of the problem solution.

Topic Edition 7 Edition 8 Steps needed in

solution
1. 1D conduction- measurement of 2.17 2.10 a-e
thermal conductivity
2. 1D conduction- graphical analysis 2.6 2.25 a-e
3. 1D cond. - cylindrical Prb 3 below Prb 3 below a-e
4. 1D conduction-spherical 3.73 3.57 a-e
5. Series-parallel resistances- Prb 5 below Prb 5 below a,c,d
Cartesian
6. 1D conduction- cylindrical Prb 6 below Prb 6 below a-e

3. In a laboratory experiment, a long, 3-cm diameter cylinder of fissionable material is encased

in a 2 cm thick graphite shell. The unit is immersed in a coolant at 330 K and the convective heat
transfer coefficients estimated to be 500 W/m2-K. If heat is generated uniformly within the
fissionable material at a rate of 5 MW/m3, determine the temperature at the centerline of the
cylinder (center of the fissionable material). The contact resistance to heat flux between the
fissionable material and the graphite shell is 0.001 m2-K/W and the thermal conductivities of the
fissionable material and graphite shell are 3 W/m-K and 50 W/m-K respectively.

5. Consider a wall of a home which consists of three layers of materials of identical thickness, L
as shown in the figures below. The outer layer has a conductivity kA W/m-K, the middle layer B
has a conductivity kB W/m-K and the inner layer has a conductivity kC W/m-K. The material
conductivities are such that kA < kC < kB.

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EME 165

The air inside the home is conditioned to be at Tinf,i through a forced convective system. The
convective heat transfer coefficient on the inside of the home is maintained by this system
at a value of hi. The outside air is at a temperature of Tinf,o and a steady wind maintains a
convective heat transfer coefficient at ho. Asume that Tinf,i > Tinf,o.
Consider two scenarios: Scenario (i), as shown in the figure (i), corresponds to night time.
Scenario (ii) corresponds to the morning time, wherein, in addition to the external
convective flow (which remains unchanged from the night conditions), solar irradiation Gsun
(W/m2) is incident on the outer wall. The incident radiation causes a reversal in the flow of
heat through the wall as compared to night time conditions.
The absorptivity of the wall to solar irradiation is α. The emissivity of the surface is ε.
Neglect irradiation from the surrounding sky.

(a) Provide analytical expressions that describe the steady state heat transfer rate per unit wall
area (W/m2) in terms of the known material properties, dimensions, and boundary conditions
for

i. Scenario (i) and

ii. Scenario (ii)
(b) Sketch the steady state temperature distributions in the three materials that comprise the
wall for

i. Scenario (i)
ii. Scenario (ii)
Provide adequate explanation for the sketched temperature distributions. For example, how do
the temperature gradients in each material compare? How do the profiles compare between
Scenarios (i) and (ii)?

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(c) Consider the transient between night time and morning. At t<0, we have Scenario (i). At t=0,
sunlight with irradiation Gs is suddenly incident on the outer surface.

Provide differential equations, simplified to the specific problem, which govern the temperature
distribution in the materials as a function of location (x) and time (t) along with the initial and
boundary conditions. There is no need to solve the equations.

Sketch the temperature distribution at time t=0, two intermediate times, t1 and t2, and the final
steady state morning time temperature distribution.

(60 points; show steps a, c, d)

6. Consider a copper wire of diameter di = 3.0 mm. The wire is insulated with a layer of rubber
that is do = 5 mm in diameter. The thermal conductivity of rubber id 0.3 W/m-K. The heat
transfer coefficient on the outside is 80 W/m2-K and the ambient air temperature is 300 K. The
allowable maximum temperature of the rubber insulation is 450 K.

(i) If the electrical resistance of copper wire per unit meter length is 0.0328 ohms/meter,
determine the allowable maximum current through this insulated copper wire.

(ii) Now suppose that you had a choice of varying the insulation thickness from do = 4.0 mm to
10 mm. Plot the heat loss through the insulation for the maximum allowable rubber insulation
temperature of 450K as a function of do. Also plot conductive, convective and total resistance
per unit length of the insulation on the same plot. Explain the trends observed in the heat loss.

(40 points; show steps a-e)