[Physics] How to determine the temperture inside a pipe knowing the temperature outside

heat conductionthermodynamics

I would like to know if there is a way to determine using calculation the inner wall temperature of a pipe which has a steady flow of water through it knowing the temperature measured on the surface of the pipe (outside)?

As the measurement takes place on a very small points, one can consider there will not have any variation of the temperature on the length of the pipe at this point. Moreover if we consider the pipe to be perfectly cylindrical it will not have vairation of the temperature by rotation on the pipe. Therefore, in steady state, the heat equation boils down to :

$$\frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\left(r\frac{\partial T}{\partial r}\right)=0 \tag 1$$

Which give a solution as, $$T(r)=C_1 \ln (r) + C_2 \tag 2$$

Now I am only having a few difficulties to apply the rights limit conditions. If I say, at the limits $T(r_0) = T_0$ (wall temperature of the pipe inside the pipe) and $T(r_1) = T_1$ (wall temperature of the pipe outside the pipe) then it gives the solution of $T(r)$ as a function of $T_0, T_1, r_0$ and $r_1$. But here the point is that $T_0$ is the temperature I want to determine…

I would like to know the difference of temperature so that I can determine $Q$ the power lost as, $$Q = \frac{T_1 – T_0}{2 \pi \lambda L}$$ and I have absolutely no possibility to measure the temperature inside directly.

I think there is probably something wrong on my way to approach the problem, but I haven't found anything concluant on the web to do such a thing.

I am stuck there and I need some help..

Best Answer

The equation you've been trying to derive is $$\dot{Q}=2\pi k\frac{(T_1-T_0)}{\ln{(r_0/r_1)}}$$where $\dot{Q}$ is the rate of heat loss per unit length of pipe and k is the thermal conductivity of the pipe. Note that there are two unknowns ($\dot{Q}$ and $T_1$) but only one equation. To provide closure on this, as @Gert has indicated, you need to characterize the rate of heat loss from the pipe to the surrounding air in the room: $$\dot{Q}=2\pi r_0 h(T_0-T_{surr})$$where h is the convective heat transfer coefficient on the outside of the pipe. You can then get both $\dot{Q}$ and $T_1$ by combining these equations (using an estimate of h).

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