TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

DETERMINATION OF THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
OF WASTE MATERIAL
(PLASTICS)
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY 2
ME 11L

SUBMITTED BY:
Alega, Ulysses Jr. H.
Bicaldo, Mark Zedrick L.
Engaño, Moises A.
Sabida, Ricalyn B.

SUBMITTED TO:
Engr. Manuel E. Europeo

March 10, 2014
INTRODUCTION

Heat conduction (or thermal conduction) is the transfer of internal energy by microscopic diffusion and collisions of particles or quasi-particles within a body due to a temperature gradient. The microscopically diffusing and colliding objects include molecules, electrons, atoms, and phonons. They transfer disorganized microscopic kinetic and potential energy, which are jointly known as internal energy. Conduction can only take place within an object or material, or between two objects that are in direct or indirect contact with each other. Conduction takes place in all forms of ponderable, such as solids, liquids, gases and plasmas.
Whether by conduction or by thermal radiation, heat spontaneously flows from a hotter to a colder body. In the absence of external drivers, temperature differences decay over time, and the bodies approach thermal equilibrium.

In conduction, the heat flow is within and through the body itself. In contrast, in heat transfer by thermal radiation, the transfer is often between bodies, which can be spatially separate. Also possible is transfer of heat by a combination of conduction and thermal radiation. In convection, internal energy is carried between bodies by a material carrier. In solids, conduction is mediated by the combination of vibrations and collisions of molecules, of propagation and collisions of phonons, and of diffusion and collisions of free electrons. In gases and liquids, conduction is due to the collisions and diffusion