A Heat Transfer Note on Temperature Dependent Thermal Conductivity

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the heat transfer through materials whose thermal conductivities vary with temperature. In particular, complete solu tions are given for the steady state, one dimensional conduction heat transfer through a material with a temperature dependent thermal conductivity by use of the Kirch hoff transform. To determine this property as a function of temperature and for an application temperature range, a series of tests should be performed at different aver age temperatures and temperature differences and then a suitable temperature func tion (polynomial, exponential, etc.) should be found from the definition of the effec tive thermal conductivity. Discussion and examples are given for the temperature dependent apparent thermal conductivity of thermal insulating materials.