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Unit conversion for temperature

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mageldai

Mechanical
May 2, 2015
6
Hello,

I may have a stupid question but I'm not really sure what to use for a thermal stress analysis.
For the geometry is used mm and now I wanted to use Celsius for the thermal options. But the specific heat e.g. is given in Joule/Kelvin. Does that mean I also have to use Kelvin for the temperature or can I just use Celsius like planned?

Thanks in advance.

mageldai
 
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The units for Cp are J/Kg K. The transient heat flow is determined by the difference in temperature over the difference in time. As K is just degrees C + 273 then a difference in temperature would mean there would be no difference in heat flow whether you used K or degrees C. Generally you use degrees C though as material properties are usually related to temperature in degrees C. Also, if you use radiation then absolute zero would be relative to whether you used K or degrees C. If you're just running a steady state analysis then the question is irrelevant.

 
Sooo...is this your complicated version of saying I can use Celsius (and therefore the unit for specific heat and conductivity is irrelevant)?!
Either way thank you.
 
Sorry, I was trying to explain the reasons for choosing either degrees C or kelvin from first principles.
Use degrees C.

 
I apologize if this is a completely 'wrong' question, I am not doing thermal analysis at all. If Cp is in J/kg/K, is it compatible with the dimensions being in mm (J has length unit in it)?
 
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