Steady-State 1D Conduction through a Composite Wall
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The purpose of this Demonstration is to illustrate the relationship between heat transfer and thermal conductivity 
of a material by applying Fourier's law, 
, to plot the temperature 
versus the position 
through the depth of a multilayer wall. You can vary the total heat surface heat flux 
conducted through the multilayer wall and the surface temperature at the far left side of the wall, 
. The wall has a constant cross-sectional area 
in square meters in the 
direction. You can select different materials and their thicknesses for five layers of the wall, denoting 
as the thermal conductivity of layer 
. Given this information, it is possible to determine the temperature profile through the wall, showing the interior temperature at each location.
Contributed by: Sara McCaslin and Fredericka Brown (August 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
Snapshots
Details
If 
is the thermal conductivity of layer 
in W/m K and 
is the thickness of layer 
in m, 
.
This Demonstration can investigate the following questions:
If you use a negative value for heat flow, do you expect the temperature on the far side of the wall to be warmer or cooler than 
?
Can you verify that steel or copper does not work well as an insulating material?
Do insulating materials have a steep slope on the temperature versus position plot?
What materials make good insulators?
What materials make good conductors?
By changing 
, flow rate 
, and material types/thicknesses you can find the answers to these questions.
For more information on conduction through a multilayer isothermal wall, see Engineer's Edge.
Reference
[1] D. Pitts and L. E. Sissom, Schaum's Outline of Heat Transfer, New York: McGraw Hill, 1998.
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