Thermal conduction

Thermal conduction is the diffusion of thermal energy within one material or between materials in contact. The higher temperature object has molecules with more kinetic energy; collisions between molecules distributes this kinetic energy until an object has the same kinetic energy throughout. Thermal conductivity, represented by, is a property that relates the rate of heat loss per unit area to its rate of change of temperature. It accounts for any property that could change the way a material conducts heat. Heat spontaneously flows along a temperature gradient. For example, heat is conducted from the hotplate of an electric stove to the bottom of a saucepan in contact with it. In the absence of an opposing external driving energy source within a body or between bodies, temperature differences decay over time, and thermal equilibrium is approached.
Every process involving heat transfer takes place by one of three methods:

Conduction: heat transfer by physical contact. Heat transferred between the electric burner of a stove and the bottom of a pan is transferred by conduction.
Convection: heat transfer by the macroscopic movement of a fluid. Examples: a forced-air furnace and in weather systems.
Radiation: heat transfer by microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, or other electromagnetic radiation. An obvious example is the warming of the Earth by the Sun. A less obvious example is thermal radiation from the human body.

A hotter region experiences greater molecular agitation. When a hotter object touches a cooler surface, the molecules from the hot object bump the molecules of the cooler surface, transferring kinetic energy, heating the colder object. Mathematically, thermal conduction works via diffusion. As temperature difference goes up, the distance traveled gets shorter, or the area goes up, thermal conduction increases:
where

is the thermal conduction or power,
is the thermal conductivity of the material,
is the cross-sectional area of the object,
is the difference in temperature from one side to the other,
is the distance over which the heat is transferred.

Conduction is the main mode of heat transfer for solid materials because the strong inter-molecular forces allow the vibrations of particles to be easily transmitted, in comparison to liquids and gases. Liquids have weaker inter-molecular forces and more space between the particles, which makes the vibrations of particles harder to transmit. Gases have even more space, and therefore infrequent particle collisions. This makes liquids and gases poor conductors of heat.
Thermal contact conductance is heat conduction between solid bodies in contact. A temperature drop is often observed at the interface between the two surfaces. This phenomenon is a result of a thermal contact resistance between the contacting surfaces. Interfacial thermal resistance is an interface's resistance to thermal flow. This resistance differs from contact resistance, as it exists even at atomically perfect interfaces. Understanding the thermal resistance at the interface between two materials is of primary significance in the study of thermal properties. Interfaces often contribute significantly to the observed properties of the materials.
Inter-molecular energy transfer could be primarily by elastic impact, as in fluids, or by free-electron diffusion, as in metals, or phonon vibration, as in insulators. In insulators, the heat flux is carried almost entirely by phonon vibrations.
Metals are typically good conductors. This is due to the way that metals bond chemically: metallic bonds have free-moving electrons that transfer thermal energy rapidly. The electron fluid of a conductive metallic solid conducts heat flux through the solid. Phonon flux is present, but carries less energy. Electrons conduct electric current through conductive solids, and the thermal and electrical conductivities of most metals have about the same ratio. A good electrical conductor, such as copper, conducts heat well. Thermoelectricity is caused by the interaction of heat flux and electric current. Heat conduction within a solid is directly analogous to diffusion of particles within a fluid, absent fluid currents.
In gases, heat transfer occurs through collisions of gas molecules. Without convection, which relates to a fluid or gas phase, thermal conduction through a gas phase is dependent on the composition and pressure of this phase, and in particular, the mean free path of gas molecules relative to the size of the gas gap, as given by the Knudsen number.
To quantify the ease with which a particular medium conducts, engineers measure thermal conductivity, also known as the conductivity constant or conduction coefficient, k. In thermal conductivity, k is defined as "the quantity of heat, Q, transmitted in time through a thickness, in a direction normal to a surface of area, due to a temperature difference ". Thermal conductivity is a material property that is primarily dependent on the medium's phase, temperature, density, and molecular bonding. Thermal effusivity is derived from conductivity, which is a measure of its ability to exchange thermal energy with its surroundings.

Types

Steady-state conduction

Steady-state conduction is the form of conduction that happens when the temperature difference driving the conduction are constant, so that, the spatial distribution of temperatures in the conducting object does not change any further. Thus, all partial derivatives of temperature concerning space may either be zero or have nonzero values, but all derivatives of temperature at any point concerning time are uniformly zero. In steady-state conduction, the amount of heat entering any region of an object is equal to the amount of heat coming out.
For example, a bar may be cold at one end and hot at the other, but after a state of steady-state conduction is reached, the spatial gradient of temperatures along the bar does not change any further, as time proceeds. Instead, the temperature remains constant at any given cross-section of the rod normal to the direction of heat transfer, and this temperature varies linearly in space in the case where there is no heat generation in the rod.
In steady-state conduction, all the laws of direct current electrical conduction can be applied to "heat currents". In such cases, it is possible to take "thermal resistances" as the analog to electrical resistances. In such cases, temperature plays the role of voltage, and heat transferred per unit time is the analog of electric current. Steady-state systems can be modeled by networks of such thermal resistances in series and parallel, in exact analogy to electrical networks of resistors. See purely resistive thermal circuits for an example of such a network.

Transient conduction

During any period in which temperatures changes in time at any place within an object, the mode of thermal energy flow is termed transient conduction. Another term is "non-steady-state" conduction, referring to the time-dependence of temperature fields in an object. Non-steady-state situations appear after an imposed change in temperature at a boundary of an object. They may also occur with temperature changes inside an object, as a result of a new source or sink of heat suddenly introduced within an object, causing temperatures near the source or sink to change in time.
When a new perturbation of temperature of this type happens, temperatures within the system change in time toward a new equilibrium with the new conditions, provided that these do not change. After equilibrium, heat flow into the system once again equals the heat flow out, and temperatures at each point inside the system no longer change. Once this happens, transient conduction is ended, although steady-state conduction may continue if heat flow continues.
If changes in external temperatures or internal heat generation changes are too rapid for the equilibrium of temperatures in space to take place, then the system never reaches a state of unchanging temperature distribution in time, and the system remains in a transient state.
An example of a new source of heat "turning on" within an object, causing transient conduction, is an engine starting in an automobile. In this case, the transient thermal conduction phase for the entire machine is over, and the steady-state phase appears, as soon as the engine reaches steady-state operating temperature. In this state of steady-state equilibrium, temperatures vary greatly from the engine cylinders to other parts of the automobile, but at no point in space within the automobile does temperature increase or decrease. After establishing this state, the transient conduction phase of heat transfer is over.
New external conditions also cause this process: for example, the copper bar in the example steady-state conduction experiences transient conduction as soon as one end is subjected to a different temperature from the other. Over time, the field of temperatures inside the bar reaches a new steady-state, in which a constant temperature gradient along the bar is finally set up, and this gradient then stays constant in time. Typically, such a new steady-state gradient is approached exponentially with time after a new temperature-or-heat source or sink, has been introduced. When a "transient conduction" phase is over, heat flow may continue at high power, so long as temperatures do not change.
An example of transient conduction that does not end with steady-state conduction, but rather no conduction, occurs when a hot copper ball is dropped into oil at a low temperature. Here, the temperature field within the object begins to change as a function of time, as the heat is removed from the metal, and the interest lies in analyzing this spatial change of temperature within the object over time until all gradients disappear entirely. Mathematically, this condition is also approached exponentially; in theory, it takes infinite time, but in practice, it is over, for all intents and purposes, in a much shorter period. At the end of this process with no heat sink but the internal parts of the ball, there is no steady-state heat conduction to reach. Such a state never occurs in this situation, but rather the end of the process is when there is no heat conduction at all.
The analysis of non-steady-state conduction systems is more complex than that of steady-state systems. If the conducting body has a simple shape, then exact analytical mathematical expressions and solutions may be possible. However, most often, because of complicated shapes with varying thermal conductivities within the shape often the application of approximate theories is required, and/or numerical analysis by computer. One popular graphical method involves the use of Heisler Charts.
Occasionally, transient conduction problems may be considerably simplified if regions of the object being heated or cooled can be identified, for which thermal conductivity is very much greater than that for heat paths leading into the region. In this case, the region with high conductivity can often be treated in the lumped capacitance model, as a "lump" of material with a simple thermal capacitance consisting of its aggregate heat capacity. Such regions warm or cool, but show no significant temperature variation across their extent, during the process. This is due to their far higher conductance. During transient conduction, therefore, the temperature across their conductive regions changes uniformly in space, and as a simple exponential in time. An example of such systems is those that follow Newton's law of cooling during transient cooling. The equivalent thermal circuit consists of a simple capacitor in series with a resistor. In such cases, the remainder of the system with a high thermal resistance plays the role of the resistor in the circuit.