Heat Transfer

How heat moves — and how engineers speed it up or stop it. Thermodynamics says how much heat flows; heat transfer says how fast. Learn conduction, convection and radiation, thermal-resistance networks, and the design of heat exchangers — for engines, electronics cooling, buildings and process plants.

• Conduction — Conduction is heat flow through a solid (or still fluid) by molecular contact. Learn Fourier's law, thermal conductivity, plane walls, cylinders (pipes and insulation), and transient heating.
• Convection — Convection is heat transfer between a surface and a moving fluid. Learn Newton's law of cooling, heat-transfer coefficients, natural vs forced convection, Nusselt, Reynolds and Prandtl numbers, and common correlations.
• Radiation — Thermal radiation is heat carried by electromagnetic waves — it needs no medium. Learn the Stefan–Boltzmann law, emissivity, black and grey bodies, Wien's law, view factors, and radiation shields.
• Heat Exchangers — Heat exchangers transfer heat between two fluids. Learn types (double-pipe, shell-and-tube, plate, finned), parallel vs counter-flow, overall U, LMTD and effectiveness–NTU methods, fouling and sizing.
• Thermal Resistance — Heat flow behaves like electric current: temperature difference is the 'voltage' and thermal resistance the 'resistor'. Learn series/parallel networks, U-values, composite walls, contact resistance, critical insulation radius and electronics junction-to-ambient budgets.