Course Syllabus

MTF115, Heat Transfer, VT23 (7,5hp)

Updated on 27 December 2022

The course is given by the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences

 

Schedule

The course is given in Study Period 3 every year. The details of the schedule can be found on TimeEdit by search the course code 'MTF115'. 

 

Contact information

Examiner: Assoc. Prof. Hua-Dong Yao (huadong.yao@chalmers.se)
Teaching assistant: Valentin Vikhorev (valvik@chalmers.se)

 

Prerequisites

No specific pre-knowledge is required to participate in the course

 

Language

Lectures would be most likely given in English since there have been international students participating in the course every year, who do not understand Swedish. The project reports can be written in both Swedish and English.

 

Aims

The course gives detailed knowledge and physical understanding of heat transfer in conduction, convection and radiation, as well as in heat exchangers. The students will gain knowledge of theoretical, engineering and numerical methods to solve heat transfer problems. The skills in project work and problem solving will be developed. Numerical methods will be further practiced using the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software STAR-CCM+, which is popularly applied in the industry.

 

Objectives

  • Derive and understand the physics of the theoretical relations in heat transfer.
  • Use the simplified engineering solution methods that are used in heat transfer in order to make a quick approximation of the heat transfer for academic and industrial applications.
  • Use numerical solution methods for heat transfer in order to make a detailed approximation of the heat transfer for academic and industrial applications, and to gain a physical understanding of how heat transfer occurs.
  • Analyze and compare the results from different solution methods, and make a quick judgment of the validity of the results.
  • Understand how the theory describes flow and temperature distributions in academic and industrial applications.
  • Do project work.
  • Write a good report, and present either orally or via a video.
  • Use the CFD software STAR-CCM+.

 

Course structure

The first lecture is mandatory since it introduces the procedure of the whole course and all critical information about how to successfully pass the course. Each subsequent lecture includes group discussions. The theory of heat transfer is presented at the lectures and in lecture notes, which can be found in the course modules on CANVAS. 

 

Every lecture will be followed up with a hand-calculation (problem-solving) exercise and a computer exercise. In the hand-calculation exercise we use engineering methods (by hand), and in the computer exercise we use numerical methods (CFD) to solve problems. This is to give a deeper understanding of the assumptions made in the engineering methods, skills in using a CFD code, and a 'feeling' for how heat transfer occurs. The results from the CFD exercise should be reported in simple written reports that point out the main conclusions, while the hand-calculation needs not to be reported.

 

In the end, an extensive project will be conducted for 2.5 weeks. Note: the project is mandatory. It incorporates a hand calculation, a computer calculation, and a laboratory work. Two students per group will be assigned for a teamwork. The results should be reported by means of: 1) a written report with 20 pages maximum, and 2) an oral presentation that is recorded in a video with 15 minutes maximum.

 

The final written examination is 4 hours long. It is organized to justify the learned knowledge about the theories and hand-calculation methods, corresponding to the theoretical and problem-solving parts of the exam.  Both parts contain 20 sub-points. To pass the exam, at least 16 sub-points with a minimum of 6 sub-points in each part should be obtained.

Aids in the written examination: In the theoretical part no aids are allowed, and in the problem part the course book and an approved (typgodkänd) scientific calculator are allowed. The theoretical part must be handed in before the course book and the scientific calculator are being used. General notes on examinations can be found here:
https://student.portal.chalmers.se/en/chalmersstudies/Examinations

 

Grades 

The course gives a total of 7.5 hp, i.e., 4.5 + 3 hp. 

  • 4.5 hp are obtained based on the evaluation of 'pass' or 'fail' in the activities below.  
    • 20 bonus points, gained by participating in the lectures.
    • 20 bonus points, gained by participating in the hand-calculation exercises. 
    • 20 bonus points, gained by submitting the computer-exercise reports onto CANVAS.  
    • 20 bonus points, gained by participating in the laboratory work in the final extensive project and submitting the project report and video. Note: the extensive project is mandatory. 
    • To get 'pass', a minimum of 60 bonus points in total must be gained from these course activities. 
  • 3 hp for the exam. The levels of passing are A-C, which are evaluated based on the obtained sub-points with respect to the total 40 sub-points. The details are found in the exam instruction.

 

Content

The course comprises heat transfer through conduction, convection and radiation, and heat transfer in heat exchangers. Energy conservation is also a central issue, both when using engineering methods, when deriving the governing equations, and when discretizing them for numerical simulations. Energy conservation is the tool that is used to couple different heat transfer modes, or heat transfer in different spatial regions.

The heat conduction part of the course comprises one- and two-dimensional steady and transient heat conduction. We study both simple cases where analytical solutions may quite easily be derived, and cases that are more advanced where empirical correlations or numerical methods must be used.

Heat transfer through convection (both forced and natural) is a large subject. We derive and study the energy equation for laminar and turbulent flows. A number of external configurations, like convective heat transfer for a flat plate, a cylinder, and tube bundles are studied. We also study convective heat transfer for internal configurations such as pipes and channels.

Heat exchangers are the most common industrial heat transfer devices. Specific applications may be found in air-conditioning, power production, cooling of the oil in a car etc. The course comprises parallel-flow, counter-flow, cross-flow and compact heat exchangers.

In the end of the course there is a deep treatment of thermal radiation. We define emission, absorption, radiosity etc. Thermal radiation from grey surfaces, black body radiation, view factors, radiation, absorption and reflection are some of the phenomena that are treated.

For industrially applied problems in heat transfer one must in general use numerical methods. This is practiced in the computer exercises and in the project work. The importance of a good computational mesh is highlighted. The results are compared with analytical and empirical correlations. 

 

Learning outcomes

For a high grade in the course all the learning outcomes should be mastered efficiently and accurately. The students will, after completing the course, be able to:

  • Physically describe how heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation takes place in 1D, 2D and 3D, and to give a qualitative description of temperature (and velocity) distributions for general cases.
  • Use energy conservation to couple heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation.
  • Derive equations for heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation.
  • Discretize the equations for problem-solving by hand, and understand the foundations of the numerical tools that solve general heat transfer problems.
  • Specify initial and boundary conditions and solve the equations by hand, and with the help of CFD, and compare the results from the different solution methods.
  • Derive simplified equations for boundary layers, and understand how the boundary layers affect the heat transfer and near-wall fluid friction.
  • Understand how turbulence affects the convective heat transfer.
  • Know what dimensionless numbers are relevant for different kinds of heat transfer, and understand their physical interpretations.
  • Understand what the dimensionless equations say about how heat transfer occurs and, specifically, relate the energy equation (temperature) to those for momentum (velocity).
  • Realize that convection problems is all about finding the distribution of the convection coefficient (or the Nusselt number), and know which different methods that can be used to find this distribution.
  • Derive simplified relations for heat transfer by conduction, convection and radiation.
  • Solve engineering problems using the simplified relations, and understand the underlying physics and the assumptions made.
  • Come up with engineering ideas on how to improve heat transfer characteristics, and verify them.
  • Use the fundamental knowledge when doing engineering studies of complicated applications, such as heat exchangers.
  • Understand and simplify real problems so that they can be solved using engineering or numerical methods.
  • Use basic functionality in the mesh generation and CFD tools, and understand the basics on how to get good results from them.
  • Find and use correlations and tables for heat transfer.
  • Do project work.
  • Write a good project report.
  • Give a good oral project presentation.

 

Literature

Obligatory literature is given below. The books can be found in Cremona and the library. 

  • Incropera's Principles of Heat and Mass Transfer, Global Edition by Bergman / Lavine / Incropera / DeWitt, ISBN 978-1-119-38291-1. 
    • Alternatively, use one of the previous versions of the book named:
      • Principles of Heat and Mass Transfer, 7th edition, Incropera / DeWitt / Bergman / Lavine, ISBN 978-0-470-64615-1. 
      • Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, 7th Edition, Bergman / Lavine / Incropera / DeWitt, ISBN 978-0-470-50197-9.

  • The manual of the CFD software STAR-CCM+, which is integrated in the software.

  • Supplementary material on the course homepage and on Wiley's homepage.

  • The instruction to project works and writing reports from the general directives for Bachelor theses (kandidatarbete).