Heat transfer is a very important topic of engineering and there are various variations of heat transfer. One of these variations is the heat transfer through a cylinder. Cylindrical shapes are used generally in heat transfer applications. So, here we explain how to make heat transfer calculations of a cylinder with calculators.
Check: Most Used Textbooks About Heat Transfer in Engineering!
Heat Transfer Through a Cylinder
The calculation of the heat transfer of a cylinder is very simple. First of all, we need to calculate the total thermal resistance because of the thickness of the wall and the material of the wall of the cylinder. Then we can calculate the total heat transfer rate by using the temperature difference in conduction heat transfer.
Calculation of the Total Thermal Resistance of a Cylinder
This formulation is generally used in the calculation of the total thermal resistance of a cylinder;
-equ-
According to this equation;
- r2 is the outer radius of the cylinder,
- r1 is the inner radius of the cylinder,
- L is the total length of the cylinder,
- k is the thermal conductivity of the cylinder material.
As you understand, the total resistance increases with the increasing thickness of the cylinder. And the increasing length, the total area that heat transfer increases, so thermal resistance decreased. Also, with the higher thermal conductivity, the total conduction heat transfer of the cylinder increases.
Calculation of the Total Conduction Heat Transfer of the Cylinder
Firstly, the conduction heat transfer equation can be used in the calculation of the total conduction heat transfer through a cylinder.
In this equation,
- T1 is the inner wall temperature of the cylinder,
- T2 is the outer wall temperature of the cylinder,
- RTotal-cylinder is the calculated total conduction resistance value of the cylinder.
According to this formula, with the increasing amount of temperature difference between the inner and outer walls of the cylinder, the total heat transfer increases. Also, with the increasing total thermal resistance, the total heat transfer through a cylinder decreases.
The units in these calculations;
- All the length values are m and area values are in m^2, and ft^2 in English units,
- All the ‘k’ values are W/m-K and BTU.h-1.ft-1.℉-1 in English units,
- All the temperature values are in K and F in English units.
Conduction Heat Transfer Calculator for Cylinders
Furthermore, to make the conduction heat transfer calculations easier, we created a simple calculator that you can calculate the conduction heat transfers for cylinders easily.
The use of the conduction heat transfer calculator is very simple above. Firstly, you just need to enter the r1, r2, T1, T2, L, and k values inside the brackets, and click on the ‘Calculate!’ button to see the total thermal resistance and total cınduction heat transfer through the cylinder.
If you want to make another calculation, just click on the ‘Reset’ button and reenter the values.
Where is It Used?
Heat transfer calculations of cylinders are used in many areas of engineering. The most important application area of the heat transfer calculations of cylinders in engineering is the design of the thermal containers that hold hot or cold beverages and coffees. Also, engineers are designing these thermal containers by obtaining the best thermal resistance values that they can have. As we stated above, with the increasing amount of thermal resistance, the total heat transfer through conduction decreases.
The best thermal resistance is the vacuum where there are no molecules for the conduction heat transfer. So, there are thermal container applications where vacuumed walls are used. They can hold your coffee hot for hours.
Conclusion
So, the calculations of the conduction heat transfer through cylinders are very simple as you see above.
Also Mechanicalland does not accept any responsibility for calculations made by users in calculators. A good engineer must check calculations again and again.
Above all you can find out much more calculators like this in Mechanicalland! Take a look at the other engineering calculators available in Mechanicalland!
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