Thermal Circuits

In many cases heat flow can be analyzed using thermal 'circuits'. When using this approach heat transfer rate becomes current, temperature difference becomes voltage, and resistance is the material's resistance to the heat flow.

Thermal circuits are covered in chapter 3.

Resistance for conduction:

Where is heat transfer rate in the x direction, is the thermal conductivity coefficient, and is the cross-sectional area (see also Fourier's Law).

Resistance for convection:

Where is convection heat transfer coefficient and is the temperature of the fluid.