Heat Transfer Engineering and Design
Engineering Metals and Materials
Thermal Conductivity, Heat Transfer Review

Metals in general have high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, and high density. Typically they are malleable and ductile, deforming under stress without cleaving. In terms of optical properties, metals are shiny and lustrous. Sheets of metal beyond a few micrometres in thickness appear opaque, but gold leaf transmits green light.

Although most metals have higher densities than most nonmetals, there is wide variation in their densities, Lithium being the least dense solid element and osmium the densest. The alkali and alkaline earth metals in groups I A and II A are referred to as the light metals because they have low density, low hardness, and low melting points. The high density of most metals is due to the tightly packed crystal lattice of the metallic structure. The strength of metallic bonds for different metals reaches a maximum around the center of the transition metal series, as those elements have large amounts of delocalized electrons in tight binding type metallic bonds. However, other factors (such as atomic radius, nuclear charge, number of bonds orbitals, overlap of orbital energies and crystal form) are involved as well.

See conversion formulae at bottom:

Material	Thermal Conductivity Btu / (hr-ft-F)	Density (lbs/in3)	Specific Heat (Btu/lb/F)	Melting Point (F)	Latent Heat of Fusion (Btu/lb)	Thermal Expansion (in/in/F x 10-6)
Aluminum	136	0.098	0.24	1220	169	13.1
Antimony	120	-	-	-	-	-
Brass (Yellow)	69.33	0.306	0.096	1724	-	11.2
Cadmium	-	-	-	-	-	-
Copper	231	0.322	0.095	1976	91.1	9.8
Gold	183	0.698	0.032	1945	29	7.9
Incoloy 800	-	0.29	0.13	2500	-	7.9
Inconel 600	-	0.304	0.126	2500	-	5.8
Iron, Cast	46.33	0.26	0.12	2150	-	6
Lead, solid	20.39	0.41	0.032	621	11.3	16.4
Lead, Liquid	-	0.387	0.037	-	-	-
Magnesium	-	0.063	0.27	1202	160	14
Molybdenum	-	0.369	0.071	4750	126	2.9
Monel 400	-	0.319	0.11	2400	-	6.4
Nickel	52.4	0.321	0.12	2642	133	5.8
Nichrome (80% NI-20% Cr)	-	0.302	0.11	2550	-	7.3
Platinum	41.36	0.775	0.035	3225	49	4.9
Silver	247.87	0.379	0.057	1760	38	10.8
Solder (50% Pb-50% Sn)	-	0.323	0.051	361	17	13.1
Steel, mild	26.0 - 37.5	0.284	0.122	2570	-	6.7
Steel, Stainless 304	8.09	0.286	0.120	2550	-	9.6
Steel, Stainless 430	8.11	0.275	0.110	2650	-	6
Tantalum	-	0.6	0.035	5425	-	3.6
Tin, solid	38.48	0.263	0.065	450	26.1	13
Tin, Liquid	-	0.253	0.052	-	-	-
Titanium 99.0%	12.65	0.164	0.13	3035	-	4.7
Tungsten	100.53	0.697	0.04	6170	79	2.5
Type metal (85% Pb-15% Sb)	-	0.387	0.04	500	14+-	-
Zinc	67.023	0.258	0.096	786	43.3	22.1
Zirconium	145	0.234	0.067	3350	108	3.2

 

Copy Text to clipboard

Click for Suggested Citation