What is thermal conductivity? What factors affect it?
by 
toodly1975
ANSWERS: 4
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Thermal conductivity is a measure of how fast heat will travel through a substance. For instance, if you hold a metal rod in your hand and put the other end of the rod in a fire, how long will it take before the rod becomes so hot that you can't hold it any more? The time will be different for different substances. A steel rod will heat up quickly, while a glass rod will heat up slower. Thermal conductivity is measured in BTU's per inch per degree of temperature per second. (BTU = British Thermal Unit, a unit of energy). What factors affect it? As far as I know, the thermal conductivity of a given substance depends only on its current temperature. The rate of heat flow through an object is determined by its thermal conductivity, the temperature difference between the hot and cold ends, and any convection (heat carried away by wind, etc.) that may be present between the ends.
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Thermal conductivity is the a measure of the effiency of heat transfer through a piece of stuff. The atomic/molecular structure and the freedom of electrons in the stuff seem to correlate with thermal conductivity. It seems to work something like this: If all of the near-by atoms/molecules in the stuff are very tightly bound to each other, the energy of vibration transfers more quickly from one atom to the next (e.g. a metal crystal). If the chemical structure is less tightly bound the energy transfer takes longer. If electrons are free to jump around from atom to atom and molecule to molecule, it seems to speed the transfer of heat through the specimen. Off the top of my head, I can not think of a naturally good conductor of electricity that is not also a good conductor of heat.
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What is thermal conductivity? What factors affect it
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deterioration of the conductor high resistance age
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