Thermodynamics? number crunching thermal conductivity

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 2K views
fastline
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
I am working on some basic calcs for heat transfer from polyethylene pipe. My numbers are not working out right so I need a little refresher.

The PE pipe would have a TC of about .46 W/(m.*C). to get to BTU/(hr.ft.*F), I mult by .5779 to get .266.

Assuming 10sf of PE pipe, and let's say a dT of 10*F, how do I arrive at my BTU/hr? Wall thickness of piping is .120" but I am told that does not matter. IIRC, the unit is actualy per sf PER ft so I might actually divide by my thickness which gets me closer at around 2.22 BTU/hr/sf*F of pipe?
 
on Phys.org
fastline said:
I am working on some basic calcs for heat transfer from polyethylene pipe. My numbers are not working out right so I need a little refresher.

The PE pipe would have a TC of about .46 W/(m.*C). to get to BTU/(hr.ft.*F), I mult by .5779 to get .266.

Assuming 10sf of PE pipe, and let's say a dT of 10*F, how do I arrive at my BTU/hr? Wall thickness of piping is .120" but I am told that does not matter. IIRC, the unit is actualy per sf PER ft so I might actually divide by my thickness which gets me closer at around 2.22 BTU/hr/sf*F of pipe?

The formula for the heat load Q (BTU/hr) is:
[tex]Q=\frac{k}{d}ΔTA[/tex]
where d is the wall thickness.
 
I guess I am second guessing the units here. Would you mind applying the math to my above figures? Would this indeed be

k=.266
d=.120

k/d = 2.22BTU?