Convection and Conduction Heat Transfer

All matter is made up of molecules and atoms. These atoms are always in different types of motion (translation, rotational, vibrational). The motion of atoms and molecules creates heat or thermal energy. All matter has this thermal energy. The more motion the atoms or molecules have the more heat or thermal energy they will have. Heat transfer is the exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. The rate of heat transfer is dependent on the temperatures of the systems and the properties of the intervening medium through which the heat is transferred. The three fundamental modes of heat transfer are conduction, convection and radiation. Heat transfer, the flow of energy in the form of heat, is a process by which a system changes its internal energy, hence is of vital use in applications of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Conduction is also known as diffusion, not to be confused with diffusion related to the mixing of constituents of a fluid. Heat energy transferred between a surface and a moving fluid at different temperatures is known as convection. In reality this is a combination of diffusion and bulk motion of molecules. Near the surface the fluid velocity is low, and diffusion dominates. Away from the surface, bulk motion increases the influence and dominates. Natural convection is caused by buoyancy forces due to density differences caused by temperature variations in the fluid. At heating the density change in the boundary layer will cause the fluid to rise and be replaced by cooler fluid that also will heat and rise. This continues phenomena is called free or natural convection. Conduction as heat transfer takes place if there is a temperature gradient in a solid or stationary fluid medium. With conduction energy transfers from more energetic to less energetic molecules when neighboring molecules collide. Heat flows in direction of decreasing temperatures since higher temperatures are associated with higher molecular energy. This book emphasizes on the principles of convection and conduction heat transfer.