Can substances conduct heat without heating up?

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SUMMARY

The discussion confirms that no known substances can conduct heat without experiencing a temperature change themselves. It explains that when heat is transferred from a hotter reservoir to a cooler one through materials, the interface temperature will always change due to the properties of thermal conductivity. Specifically, if one material conducts heat better than another, the interface temperature will adjust to balance the heat transfer rates between the two materials. This principle applies strictly to series conduction scenarios.

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  • Basic grasp of series conduction in materials
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DuckAmuck
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Just wondering if there are substances (even just theoretical ones) able to conduct heat without heating up itself. How does that operate? What properties are different from that of ordinary substances?
 
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You mean that if you had a reservoir at T1 (say 350K), another one at T2 (say 400K), and a conduit at T3 (say 300K), you could transfer heat from the second reservoir to the first without changing T3? The answer is no.
 
Say heat conducts from body at 100 degrees through material A to interface at 50 degrees, further flowing through material B to extremity at 0 degrees. If you observe that during transfer, the interface at 50 degrees is heating up, it means that it wants to reduce transfer through material A and increase through material B, so that rates through A and B are equal. Similarly, if 50 degrees begins to cool down, it means material A is a poorer conductor than material B, hence it has to adjust itself so that differential through material B is reduced and differential through material A rises, to compensate for poorer conductivity, so that transfer rates are balanced. It works this way only in series conduction.
 

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