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CONDUCTION OF HEAT

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 894 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CONDUCTION OF See also:HEAT . The mathematical theory of conduction of heat was See also:developed See also:early in the 19th See also:century by See also:Fourier and other workers, and was brought to so high a See also:pitch of excellence that little has remained for later writers to add to this See also:department of the. subject. In fact, for a considerable See also:period, the See also:term " theory of heat " was practically synonymous with the mathematical treatment of a conduction. But later experimental researches have shown that the See also:simple See also:assumption of See also:constant coefficients of conductivity and emissivity, on which the mathematical theory is based, is in many respects inadequate, and the See also:special mathematical methods developed by J. B. J. Fourier need not be considered in detail here, as they are in many cases of mathematical rather than See also:physical See also:interest. The See also:main See also:object of 0 C 0 the See also:present See also:article is to describe more See also:recent See also:work, and to discuss experimental difficulties and methods of measurement. 1. Mechanism of Conduction.—Conduction of heat implies transmission by contact from one See also:body to another or between contiguous particles of the same body, but does not include transference of heat by the See also:motion of masses or streams of See also:matter from one See also:place to another. This is termed convection, and is most important in the See also:case of liquids and gases owing to their mobility. Conduction, however, is generally understood to include See also:diffusion of heat in fluids due to the agitation of the ultimate molecules, which is really molecular convection.

It also includes diffusion of heat by See also:

internal See also:radiation, which must occur in transparent substances. In measuring conduction of heat in fluids, it is possible to some extent to eliminate the effects of molar convection or mixing, but it would not be possible to distinguish between diffusion, or internal radiation, and conduction. Some writers have supposed that the ultimate atoms are conductors, and that heat is transferred through them when they are in contact. This, however, is merely transferring the properties of matter in bulk to its molecules. It is much more probable that heat is really the kinetic See also:energy of motion of the molecules, and is passed on from one to another by collisions. Further, if we adopt W. See also:Weber's See also:hypothesis of electric atoms, capable of diffusing through metallic bodies and conductors of See also:electricity, but capable of vibration only in non-conductors, it is possible that the ultimate mechanism of conduction may be reduced in all cases to that of diffusion in metallic bodies or internal radiation in dielectrics. The high conductivity of metals is then explained by the small See also:mass and high velocity of diffusion of these electric atoms. Assuming the kinetic energy of an electric See also:atom at any temperature to be equal to that of a gaseous See also:molecule, its velocity, on See also:Sir J. J. See also:Thomson's estimate of the mass, must be upwards of See also:forty times that of the See also:hydrogen molecule. 2.

See also:

Law of Conduction.—The experimental law of conduction, which forms the basis of the mathematical theory, was established in a qualitative manner by Fourier and the early experimentalists. Although it is seldom explicitly stated as an experimental law, it should really be regarded in this See also:light, and may be briefly worded as follows: "The See also:rate of transmission of heat by conduction is proportional to the temperature gradient." The " rate of transmission of heat " is here understood to mean the quantity of heat transferred in unit See also:time through unit See also:area of See also:cross-See also:section of the substance, the unit area being taken perpendicular to the lines of flow. It is clear that the quantity transferred in any case must be jointly proportional to the area and the time. The " gradient of temperature " is the fall of temperature in degrees per unit length along the lines of flow. The thermal conductivity of the substance is the constant ratio of the rate of transmission to the temperature gradient. To take the simple case of the " See also:wall " or See also:flat See also:plate considered by Fourier for the See also:definition of thermal conductivity, suppose that a quantity, of heat Q passes in the time T through an area A of a plate of conductivity k and thickness x, the sides of which are constantly maintained at temperatures 0' and 0". The rate of transmission of heat is Q/AT, and the temperature gradient, supposed See also:uniform, is (0'-O")/x, so that the law of conduction leads at once to the equationgradient is of the See also:order of r° C. in too ft., but varies inversely with the conductivity of the strata at different depths. 3. Variable See also:State: —A different type of problem is presented in those cases in which the temperature at each point varies with the time, as is the case near the See also:surface of the See also:soil with See also:variations in the See also:external conditions between See also:day and See also:night or summer and See also:winter. The flow of heat may still be linear if the See also:horizontal layers of the soil are of uniform See also:composition, but the quantity flowing through each layer is no longer the same. See also:Part of the heat is used up in changing the temperature of the successive layers. In this case it is generally more convenient to consider as unit of heat the thermal capacity c of unit See also:volume, or that quantity which would produce a rise of one degree of temperature in unit volume of the soil or substance considered.

If Q is expressed in terms of this unit in See also:

equation (I), it is necessary to See also:divide by c, or to replace k on the right-See also:hand See also:side by the ratio k/c. This ratio determines the rate of diffusion of temperature, and is called the thermometric conductivity or, more shortly, the diffusivity. The velocity of See also:propagation of temperature waves will be the same under similar conditions in two substances which possess the same diffusivity, although they may differ in conductivity. 4. Emissivity.—Fourier defined another constant expressing the rate of loss of heat at a bounding surface per degree of difference of temperature between the surface of the body and its surroundings. This he called the external conductivity, but the term emissivity is more convenient. Taking See also:Newton's law of cooling that the rate of loss of heat is simply proportional to the excess of temperature, the emissivity would be See also:independent of the temperature. This is generally assumed to be the case in mathematical problems, but the assumption is admissible only in rough work, or if the temperature difference is small. The emissivity really depends on every variety of See also:condition, such as the See also:size, shape and position of the surface, as well as on its nature; it varies with the rate of cooling, as well as with the temperature excess, and it is generally so difficult to calculate, or to treat in any simple manner, that it forms the greatest source of uncertainty in all experimental investigations in which it occurs. 5. Experimental Methods.—Measurements of thermal conductivity present See also:peculiar difficulties on See also:account of the variety of quantities to be observed, the slowness of the See also:process of conduction, the impossibility of isolating a quantity of heat, and the difficulty of exactly realizing the theoretical conditions of the problem. The most important methods may be classified roughly under three heads—(r) Steady Flow, (2) Variable Flow, (3) See also:Electrical.

The methods of the first class may be further subdivided according to the See also:

form of apparatus employed. The following are some of the special cases which have been utilized experimentally: 6. The "Wall" or Plate Method.—This method endeavours to realize the conditions of equation (I), namely, uniform rectilinear flow. Theoretically this requires an See also:infinite plate, or a perfect heat insulator, so that the lateral flow can be prevented or rendered negligible. This condition can generally be satisfied with sufficient approximation with plates of reasonable dimensions. To find the conductivity, it is necessary to measure all the quantities which occur in equation (t) to a similar order of accuracy. The area A from which the heat is collected need not be the whole surface of the plate, but a measured central area where the flow is most nearly uniform. This variety is known as the " Guard-See also:Ring " method, but it is generally rather difficult to determine the effective area of the ring. There is little difficulty in measuring the time of flow, provided that it is not too See also:short. The measurement of the temperature gradient in the plate generally presents the greatest difficulties. If the plate is thin, it is necessary to measure the thickness with See also:great care, and it is necessary to assume that the temperatures of the surfaces are the same as those of the See also:media with which they are in contact, since there is no See also:room to insert thermometers in the plate itself. This assumption does not present serious errors in the case of See also:bad conductors, such as See also:glass or See also:wood, but has given rise to large mistakes in the case of metals.

The conductivities of thin slices of crystals have been measured by C. H. Lees (Phil. Trans., 1892) by pressing them between See also:

plane amalgamated surfaces of See also:metal. This gives very See also:good contact, and the conductivity of the metal being more than too times that of the crystal, the temperature of the surface is determinate. Q/AT = k (B' – 0" (/x = kdO/dx. (I) This relation applies accurately to the case of the steady flow of heat in parallel straight lines through a homogeneous and isotropic solid, the isothermal surfaces, or surfaces of equal temperature, being planes perpendicular to the lines of flow. If the flow is steady, and the temperature of each point of the body invariable, the rate of transmission must be everywhere the same. If the gradient is not uniform, its value may be denoted by dO/dx. In the steady state, the product kd9/dx must be constant, or the gradient must vary inversely as the conductivity, if the latter is a See also:function of 0 or x. One of the simplest illustrations of the rectilinear flow of heat is the steady outflow through the upper strata of the See also:earth's crust, which may be considered practically plane in this connexion. This outflow of heat necessitates a rise of temperature with increase of See also:depth.

The corresponding In applying the plate method to the determination of the conductivity of See also:

iron, E. H. See also:Hall proposed to overcome this difficulty by coating the plate thickly with See also:copper on both sides, and deducing the difference of temperature between the two surfaces of junction of the iron and the copper from the thermo-electric force observed by means of a number of See also:fine copper wires attached to the copper coatings at different points of the disk. The See also:advantage of the thermo-junction for this purpose is that the distance between the surfaces of which the temperature-difference is measured, is very exactly defined. The disadvantage is that the thermo-electric force is very small, about ten-millionths of a volt per degree, so that a small accidental disturbance may produce a serious See also:error with a difference of temperature of only 1° between the junctions. The, See also:chief uncertainty in applying this method appears to have arisen from variations of temperature at different parts of the surface, due to inequalities in the See also:heating or cooling effect of the stream of See also:water flowing over the surfaces. Uniformity of temperature could only be secured by using a high velocity of flow, or violent stirring. Neither of these methods could be applied in this experiment. The temperatures indicated by the different pairs of wires differed by as much as 1o%, but the mean of the whole would probably give a See also:fair See also:average. The heat transmitted was measured by observing the flow of water (about 20 gm./sec.) and the rise of temperature (about o.5°C.) in one of the streams. The results appear to be entitled to considerable See also:weight on account of the directness of the method and the full See also:consideration of possible errors. They were as follows: See also:Cast-iron, k=0.1490 C.G.S. at 3o° C., temp. coef.–0.00075.

Pure iron, k =o. 1530 at 30° C., temp. See also:

cod.– 0.0003. The disks were lo cms. in diam., and nearly 2 cros. thick, plated with copper to a thickness of 2 mm. The cast-iron contained about 3.5 % of 'See also:carbon, 1.4% of See also:silicon, and 0.5 % of See also:manganese. It should be observed, however, that he obtained a much See also:lower value for cast-iron, namely .105, by J. D. See also:Forbes's method, which agrees better with the results given in § lo below. 7. See also:Tube Method.—If the inside of a glass tube is exposed to See also:steam, and the outside to a rapid current of water, or See also:vice versa, the temperatures of the surfaces of the glass may be taken to be very approximately equal to those of the water and steam, which may be easily observed. If the thickness of the glass is small compared with the See also:diameter of the tube, say one-tenth, equation (I) may be applied with sufficient approximation, the area A being taken as the mean between the internal and external surfaces. It is necessary that the thickness x should be approximately uniform. Its mean value may be determined most satisfactorily from the weight and the See also:density.

The heat Q transmitted in a given time T may be deduced from an observation of the rise of temperature of the water, and the amount which passes in the See also:

interval. This is one of the simplest of all methods in practice, but it involves the measurement of several different quantities, some of which are difficult to observe accurately. The employment of the tube form evades one of the chief difficulties of the plate method, namely, the uncertainty of the flow at the boundary Steam Inlet of the area considered. Unfortunately the method cannot be applied to good conductors, like the metals, because the difference of temperature between the surfaces may be five or ten times less than that between the water and steam in contact with them, even ifflow in this method are radial. The isothermal surfaces are coaxial cylinders. The areas of successive surfaces vary as their radii, hence the rate of transmission Q/AT varies inversely as the See also:radius r, and is Q/2arlT, if l is the length of the See also:cylinder, and Q the See also:total heat, calculated from the condensation of steam observed in a time T. The outward gradient is dO/dr, and is negative if the central hole is heated. We have therefore the simple equation –kdo/dr = Q/27rrlT. (2) If k is constant the See also:solution is evidently o=a See also:log r+b, where a= –Q/27rklT, and b and k are determined from the known values of the temperatures observed at any two distances from the See also:axis. This gives an average value of the conductivity over the range, but it is better to observe the temperatures at three distances, and to assume k to be a linear function of the temperature, in which case the solution of the equation is still very simple, namely, o+1eo2=a log r+b, (3) where e is the temperature-coefficient of the conductivity. The chief difficulty in this method See also:lay in determining the effective distances of the bulbs of the thermometers from the axis of the cylinder, and in ensuring uniformity of flow of heat along different radii. For these reasons the temperature-coefficient of the conductivity could not be determined satisfactorily on this particular form of apparatus, but the mean results were probably trustworthy to I or 2 %.

They refer to a temperature of about 6o° C., and were Cast-iron, 0.109; mild See also:

steel, 0•I19, C.G.S. These are much smaller than Hall's results. The cast-iron contained nearly 3% each of silicon and See also:graphite, and 1 % each of See also:phosphorus and manganese. The steel contained less than I % of See also:foreign materials. The See also:low value for the cast-iron was confirmed by two entirely different methods given below. 9. Forbes's See also:Bar Method.—Observation of the steady See also:distribution of temperature along a bar heated at one end was very early employed by Fourier, Despretz and others for the comparison of conductivities. It is the most convenient method, in the case of good conductors, on account of the great facilities which it permits for the measurement of the temperature gradient at different points; but it has the disadvantage that the results depend almost entirely on a knowledge of the external heat loss or emissivity, or, in See also:comparative experiments, on the assumption that it is the same in different cases. The method of Forbes (in which the conductivity is deduced from the steady distribution of temperature on the assumption that the rate of loss of heat at each point of the bar is the same as that observed in an See also:auxiliary experiment in which a short bar of the same See also:kind is set to cool under conditions which are supposed to be identical) is well known, but a consideration of its weak points is very instructive, and the results have been most remarkably misunderstood and misquoted. The method gives directly, not k, but k/c. P. G.

See also:

Tait repeated Forbes's experiments, using one of the same iron bars, and endeavoured to correct his results for the variation of the specific heat c. J. C. See also:Mitchell, under Tait's direction, repeated the experiments with the same bar See also:nickel-plated, correcting the thermometers for See also:stem-exposure, and also varying the conditions by cooling one end, so as to obtain a steeper gradient. The results of Forbes, Tait and Mitchell, on the same bar, and Mitchell's two results with the end of the bar " See also:free " and " cooled," have been quoted as if they referred to different metals. This is not very surprising, if the values in the following table are compared: the water is ener- I -TABLE I.=Therm¢l Conductivity of Forbes's Iron Bar D (1•25 inches square). g ! eticall stirred. C.G.S. See also:Units. 8. Cylinder Method. —A variation of the tube method, which can be applied to metals and good conductors, depends on the employment of a thick cylinder with a small axial hole in place of a thin tube. j The actual See also:tempera- See also:ture of the metal itself can then be observed by inserting thermometers or thermo-couples at measured distances from the centre.

This method '~'watr has been applied by H. L. Callendar and J. T. See also:

Nicolson (Brit. Assoc. See also:Report, roseeam ~'J 1897) to cylinders of cast-iron and T1lamometer -i mild steel, 5 in. in diam. and 2 ft. See also:long, with 1 in. axial holes. The surface of the central hole was heated by steam under pressure, and the total flow of heat was determined by observing the amount of steam condensed in a given time. The outside of the cylinder was cooled by water circulating See also:round a See also:spiral See also:screw See also:thread in a narrow space with high velocity driven by a pressure of 120 lb per sq. in. A very uniform surface temperature was thus obtained. The lines of To $ wutor FIG. I.

Temp. Uncorrected for Variation of c. Corrected Variation of c. Cent. for Mitchell. Mitchell. Forbes. Tait. Forbes. Tait. Free. Cooled.

Free. Cooled. — 0° •207 .231 .197 .178 .213.. .238 .203 •184 Too° .157 .198 .178 .190 •168 •212 .190 .197 200° .136 .176 •16o .181 .152 .196 •178 •210 The variation of c is uncertain. The values credited to Forbes are those given by J. D. See also:

Everett on See also:Balfour See also:Stewart's authority. Tait gives different figures. The values given in the See also:column headed cooled " are those found by Mitchell with one end of the bar cooled. The discrepancies are chiefly due to the error of the fundamental assumption that the rate of cooling is the same at the same temperature under the very different conditions existing in the two parts of the experiment. They are also partly caused by the large uncertainties of the corrections, especially those of the See also:mercury thermometers under the peculiar conditions of the experiment. The results of Forbes are interesting historically as having been the first approximately correct determinations of conductivity in See also:absolute value.

The same method was applied by R. W. Stewart (Phil. Trans., 1892), with the substitution of thermo-couples (following See also:

Wiedemann) for mercury thermometers. This avoids the very uncertain correction for stem-exposure, but it is doubtful how far an insulated couple, inserted in a hole in the bar, may be trusted to attain the true temperature. The other uncertainties of the method remain. R. W. Stewart found for pure iron, k=.175 (i-.0015 t) C.G.S. E. H. Hall using a similar method found for cast-iron at 5o° C. the value •1o5, but considers the method very uncertain as ordinarily practised.

to. Calorimetric Bar Method.—To avoid the uncertainties of surface loss of heat, it is necessary to reduce it to the See also:

rank of a small correction by employing a large bar and protecting it from loss of heat. The heat transmitted should be measured calorimetrically, and not in terms of the uncertain emissivity. The apparatus shown in fig. 2 was constructed by Callendar and Nicolson with this object. The bar was a special See also:sample of cast-iron, the conductivity of which was required for some experiments on the condensation of steam (Prot. Inst. C.E., 1898). It had a diameter of 4 in., and a length of 4 ft. between the heater and the calorimeter. The emissivity was reduced to one-See also:quarter by lagging the bar like a steam-See also:pipe to a thickness oft in. The heating See also:vessel could be maintained at a steady temperature by high-pressure steam. The other end was maintained at a temperature near that of the See also:air by a steady stream of water flowing through a well-lagged vessel surrounding the bar.

The heat transmitted was measured by observing the difference of temperature between the inflow and the outflow, and the weight of water which passed in a given time. The gradient near the entrance to the calorimeter was deduced from observations with five thermometers at suitable intervals along the bar. The O C f J `y [W T, Tut •l Ta T3 ~, gMSM \\yl go almamnp See also:

mow vax~ ia0eaatan, 0aaf plagr mates ximn o,afrM See also:iiii A Drip Stirrer results obtained by this method at a temperature of 4o° C. varied from •116 to •118 C.G.S. from observations on different days, and were probably more accurate than those obtained by the cylinder method. The same apparatus was employed in another See also:series of experiments by A. J. See also:Angstrom's method described below. 11. Guard-Ring Method.—This may be regarded as a variety of the plate method, but is more particularly applicable to good conductors, which require the use of a thick plate, so that the temperature of the metal may be observed at different points inside it. A. Berget (Journ. Phys. vii. p. 503, 1888) applied this method directly to mercury, and determined the conductivity of some other metals by comparison with mercury.

In the case of mercury he employed a column in a glass tube 13 mm. in diam. surrounded by a guard cylinder of the same height, but 6 to 12 cm. in diam. The mean section of the inner column was carefully determined by weighing, and found to be 1.403 sq. cm. The See also:

top of the mercury was heated by steam, the lower end rested on an iron plate cooled by See also:ice. The temperature at different heights was measured by iron wires forming thermo-junctions with the mercury in the inner tube. The heat-flow through the central column amounted to about 7.5 calories in 54 seconds, and was measured by continuing the tube through the iron plate into the bulb of a See also:Bunsen ice calorimeter, and observing with a chronometer to a fifth of a second the time taken by the mercury to See also:contract through a given number of divisions. The calorimeter tube was calibrated by a thread of mercury weighing 19 milligrams, which occupied eighty-five divisions. The contraction corresponding to the melting of 1 gramme of ice was assumed to be •o906 c.c., and was taken as being See also:equivalent to 79 calories (I calorie =15.59 mgrm. mercury). The chief uncertainty of this method is the area from which the heat is collected, which probably exceeds that of the central column, owing to the disturbance of the linear flow by the projecting bulb of the calorimeter. This would tend to make the value too high, as may be inferred from the following results: Mercury, k=0.02015 C.G.S. Berget. k=0.01479 „ Weber. k=0.0177 „ Angstrom.

91 12. Variable-Flow Methods.—In these methods the flow of heat is deduced from observations of the rate of See also:

change of temperature with time in a body exposed to known external or boundary conditions. No calorimetric observations are required, but the results are obtained in terms of the thermal capacity of unit volume c, and the measurements give the diffusivity 893 k/c, instead of the calorimetric conductivity k. Since both k and c are generally variable with the temperature, and the mode of variation of either is often unknown, the results of these methods are generally less certain with regard to the actual flow of heat. As in the case of steady-flow methods, by far the simplest example to consider is that of the linear flow of heat in an infinite solid, which is most nearly realized in nature in the propagation of temperature waves in the surface of the soil. One of the best methods of studying the flgw of heat in this case is to draw a series of curves showing the variations of temperature with depth in the soil for a series of consecutive days. The curves given in fig. 3 were obtained from the readings of a number of See also:platinum thermometers buried in undisturbed soil in horizontal positions at M'Gill See also:College, See also:Montreal. The method of deducing the diffusivity from these curves is as follows: The total quantity of heat absorbed by the soil per unit area of surface between any two See also:dates, and any two depths, x' and x”, is equal to c times the area included between the corresponding curves. This can be measured graphically without any knowledge of the law of variation of the surface temperature, or of the See also:laws of propagation of heat waves. The quantity of heat absorbed by the stratum (x' x”) in the interval considered can also be expressed in terms of the calorimetric conductivity k. The heat transmitted through the plane x is equal per unit area of surface to the product of k by the mean temperature gradient (dO/dx) and the interval of time, T—T'.

The mean temperature gradient is found by plotting the curves for each day from the daily observations. The heat absorbed is the difference of the quantities transmitted through the bounding planes of the stratum. We thus obtain the simple equation- k'(db'/dx') —k"(dO"/dx") =c (area between curves)/(T-T'), (4) by means of which the average value of the diffusivity k/c can be found for any convenient interval of time, at different seasons of the See also:

year, in different states of the soil. For the particular soil in question it was found that the diffusivity varied enormously with the degree of moisture, falling as low as •ooto C.G.S. in the winter for the surface layers, which became extremely dry under the See also:protection of the frozen ice and See also:snow from See also:December to See also:March, but rising to an average of •oo6o to •0070 in the See also:spring and autumn. The greater part of the diffusion of heat was certainly due to the percolation of water. On some occasions, owing to the sudden melting of a surface layer of ice and snow, a large quantity of See also:cold water, percolating rapidly, gave for a short time values of the diffusivity as high as •0300. Excluding these exceptional cases, however, the variations of the diffusivity appeared to follow the variations of the seasons with considerable regularity in successive years. The presence of water in the soil always increased the value of k/c, and as it necessarily increased c, the increase of k must have been greater than that of k/c. 13. Periodic Flow of Heat.—The above method is perfectly See also:general, and can be applied in any case in which the requisite observations can be taken. A case of special interest and importance is that in which the flow is periodic. The general characteristics of such a flow are illustrated in fig.

4, showing the propagation of temperature waves due to diurnal variations in the temperature of the surface. The daily range of temperature of the air and of the surface of the soil was about 20° F. On a sunny day, the temperature reached a maximum about 2 P.M. and a minimum about 5 A.M. As the waves were propagated downwards through the soil the See also:

amplitude rapidly nitres showing the Flirtation. of Teaz/~eralui-e wit/olleizlk,. a. various dales. gums _damn= sm. mmmulewasomar 5-0 ss 4 C o' O See also:Scale.% See also:inch = zfoot applied to the study of variations of soil-temperatures by. See also:harmonic See also:analysis of the See also:annual waves. But the theory is not strictly applicable, as the phenomena are not accurately periodic, and the state of the soil is continually varying, and differs at different depths, particularly in regard to its` degree of wetness. An additional difficulty arises in the case of observations made with long mercury thermometers buried in See also:vertical holes, that the correction for the expansion of the liquid in the long stems is uncertain, and that the holes may serve as channels for percolation, and thus See also:lead to exceptionally high values. The last error 894 diminished, so that at a depth of only 4 in. it was already reduced to about 6° F., and to less than a° at ro in. At the same time, the See also:epoch of maximum or minimum was retarded, about 4 See also:hours at 4 in., and nearly 12 hours at TO in., where the maximum temperature was reached between r and 2 A.M. The form of the See also:wave was also changed. At 4 in. the rise was steeper than the fall, at to in. the See also:reverse was the case. This is due to the fact that the components of shorter period are more rapidly propagated.

For instance, the velocity of propagation of a wave having a period of a day is nearly twenty times as great as that of a wave with a period of one year; but on the other hand the penetration of the diurnal wave is nearly twenty times less, and the shorter waves See also:

die out more rapidly. 14. A Simple-Harmonic or Sine Wave is the only kind which is propagated without change of form. In treating mathematically the propagation of other kinds of waves, it is necessary to analyse them into their simple-harmonic components, which may be treated as being propagated independently. To illustrate the main features of the calculation, we may suppose that the surface is subject to a simple-harmonic See also:cycle of temperature variation, so that the temperature at any time t is given by an equation of the form 0 -00=Asin 2rnt=Asin girt/T, (5) where Bo is the mean temperature of the surface, A the amplitude of the cycle, n the frequency, and T the period. In this simple case the temperature cycle at a depth x is a precisely similar See also:curve of the same period, but with the amplitude reduced in the See also:pro-portion See also:ems, and the phase retarded by the fraction mx/2r of a cycle. The See also:index-coefficient m is d (rnc/i). The wave at a depth x is represented analytically by the equation B -Bo = Ae "'e See also:sin (2rnt -mx). (6) A strictly periodic oscillation of this kind occurs in the working of a steam See also:engine, in which the walls of the cylinder are exposed to See also:regular fluctuations of temperature with the See also:admission and See also:release of steam. The curves in fig. 5 are See also:drawn for a particular case, but they apply equally to the propagation of a simple-harmonic wave of any period in any substance changing only the scale on which they are drawn. The dotted boundary curves have the equation 0==, and show the rate of diminution of the amplitude of the temperature oscillation with depth in the metal.

The wave-length in fig. 4 is o-6o in., at which depth the amplitude of the variation is reduced to less than one five-hundredth part (e-'r) of that at the surface, so that for all See also:

practical purposes the oscillation may be neglected beyond one wave-length At See also:half a wave-length the amplitude is only Ord of that at the surface. The wave-length in any case is 2r/m. The diffusivitcan be deduced from observations at different depths x' and x'', by observing the ratio of the amplitudes, which is e ''''w-'''') for a simple-harmonic wave. The values obtained in this way for waves having a period of one second and a wave-length of half an inch agreed very well with those obtained in the same cast-iron by Angstrom's method (see below), with waves having a period of i See also:hour and a length of 30 in. This agreement was a very satisfactory test of the accuracy of the fundamental law of conduction, as the gradients and periods varied so widely in the two cases. 15. Annual Variation.—A similar method has frequently been i4r rummy OUrMen M•x III wlL^01- 'AN t[N0.d_,-_~.~ ~- MUM TE0 P. SVM~CE .'~•-i- ~~... --- - - - 411:A lam..

End of Article: CONDUCTION OF HEAT

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