Differentiate among conduction, radiation, & convection mode of heat transfer, by definitions.

 

Heat flows across temperature differences. There are three modes of heat transfer: conduction, radiation, and convection. Conduction and radiation are fundamental physical mechanisms, while convection is really conduction as affected by fluid flow.

Conduction    is an exchange of energy by direct interaction between molecules of a substance containing temperature differences. It occurs in gases, liquids, or solids and has a strong basis in the molecular kinetic theory of physics.

Radiation   is a transfer of thermal energy in the form of electromagnetic waves emitted by atomic and subatomic agitation at the surface of a body. Like all electromagnetic waves (light, X-rays, microwaves), thermal radiation travels at the speed of light, passing most easily through a vacuum or a nearly "transparent" gas such as oxygen or nitrogen. Liquids, "participating" gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor, and glasses transmit only a portion of incident radiation.

      Most other solids are essentially opaque to radiation. The analysis of thermal radiation has a         strong theoretical basis in physics, beginning with the work of Maxwell and of Planck.

Convection    may be described as conduction in a fluid as enhanced by the motion of the fluid. It may not be a truly independent mode, but convection is the most heavily studied problem in heat transfer: More than three-quarters of all published heat transfer papers deal with convection. This is because convection is a difficult subject, being strongly influenced by geometry, turbulence, and fluid properties.