Course 12 | Core
Heat Transfer
Analyze conduction, convection, radiation, fins, transients, boiling, condensation, and heat exchangers.
Course snapshot
- Purpose
- Heat Transfer explains how fast heat moves and what temperatures a design will actually reach.
- Prerequisites
- Next in the guided sequence
- Used in Career Directions
How to study this course
- Identify the heat transfer mode
- Define thermal resistance or governing relation
- Apply boundary conditions
- Estimate heat rate or temperature
- Check limiting behavior
How this course is designed
Original course map
This course uses an original MechCompass module order using heat-transfer concepts, modeling assumptions, and evidence tasks. Suggested references are optional and listed separately.
Engineering bridge
Each module names the engineering decision it serves: cooling, insulation, thermal protection, transient response, or exchanger sizing. The order follows the modeling move from conduction to convection, phase change, exchangers, and radiation.
Models before formulas
The habit is the same throughout: identify the dominant mode, draw a resistance network or boundary-layer picture, then reach for a correlation. Numbers come last, after the model is clear.
The 10 modules
01 | Module
Introduction: The Three Modes
Conduction, convection, and radiation, and the energy balance that ties them together.
02 | Module
Steady Conduction and Thermal Resistance
Fourier's law, the resistance network, and the overall heat-transfer coefficient U.
03 | Module
Fins and Extended Surfaces
Why fins work, the fin equation, fin efficiency, and when adding fin stops helping.
04 | Module
Transient Conduction
Lumped capacitance, the Biot number, and one-term solutions for heating and cooling.
05 | Module
Convection and Boundary Layers
The convection coefficient, boundary layers, and the Reynolds, Prandtl, and Nusselt trio.
06 | Module
Forced Convection
Correlations for flow inside pipes and over surfaces, from laminar to turbulent.
07 | Module
Natural Convection
Buoyancy-driven flow, the Rayleigh number, and free-convection correlations.
08 | Module
Boiling and Condensation
The boiling curve, the huge coefficients of phase change, and film condensation.
09 | Module
Heat Exchangers
The LMTD and effectiveness-NTU methods for sizing and rating exchangers.
10 | Module
Thermal Radiation
Blackbody emission, emissivity, view factors, and exchange between surfaces.