ELECTRIC HEATING

Introduction
Heat plays a major role in everyday life. All heating requirements in domestic purposes such as
cooking, room heater, immersion water heaters, and electric toasters and also in industrial purposes
such as welding, melting of metals, tempering, hardening, and drying can be met easily by electric
heating, over the other forms of conventional heating. Heat and electricity are interchangeable. Heat
also can be produced by passing the current through material to be heated. This is called electric
heating; there are various methods of heating a material but electric heating is considered far
superior compared to the heat produced by coal, oil, and natural gas.

Advantages of electric heating

The various advantages of electric heating over other the types of heating are:
(i) Economical
Electric heating equipment is cheaper; they do not require much skilled persons; therefore,
maintenance cost is less.
(ii) Cleanliness
Since dust and ash are eliminated in the electric heating, it keeps surroundings cleanly.
(iii) Pollution free
As there are no flue gases in the electric heating, atmosphere around is pollution free; no need of
providing space for their exit.
(iv) Ease of control
In this heating, temperature can be controlled and regulated accurately either manually or
automatically.
(v) Uniform heating
With electric heating, the substance can be heated uniformly, throughout whether it may be
conducting or non-conducting material.
(vi) High efficiency

In non-electric heating, only 40–60% of heat is utilized but in electric heating 75–100% of heat
can be successfully utilized. So, overall efficiency of electric heating is very high.
(vii) Automatic protection
Protection against over current and over heating can be provided by using fast control devices.
(viii) Heating of non-conducting materials
The heat developed in the non-conducting materials such as wood and porcelain is possible only
through the electric heating.
(ix) Better working conditions
No irritating noise is produced with electric heating and radiating losses are low.
(x) Less floor area
Due to the compactness of electric furnace, floor area required is less.
(xi) High temperature
High temperature can be obtained by the electric heating except the ability of the material to
withstand the heat.
(xii) Safety
The electric heating is quite safe.
Modes of transfer of heat
The transmission of the heat energy from one body to another because of the temperature
gradient takes place by any of the following methods:
1. conduction,
2. convection, or
3. radiation.

Conduction
In this mode, the heat transfers from one part of substance to another part without the movement
in the molecules of substance. The rate of the conduction of heat along the substance depends upon
the temperature gradient.

The amount of heat passed through a cubic body with two parallel faces with thickness ‘t’
meters, having the cross-sectional area of ‘A’ square meters and the temperature of its two
faces T1°C and T2°C, during ‘T’ hours is given by:

Where k is the coefficient of the thermal conductivity for the material and it is measured in MJ/m3/°C/hr.
Ex: Refractory heating, the heating of insulating materials, etc.

Convection
In this mode, the heat transfer takes place from one part to another part of substance or fluid due to
the actual motion of the molecules. The rate of conduction of heat depends mainly on the
difference in the fluid density at different temperatures.
Ex: Immersion water heater.
The amount of heat absorbed by the water from heater through convection depends mainly upon
the temperature of heating element and depends partly on the position of the heater.
Heat dissipation is given by the following expression.

Q = hA (T1 – T2),
where Q is the rate of heat transfer, h is the convective heat transfer coefficient, A is the surface area for heat
transfer and T1and T2 are the temperatures of heating element and fluid in °C, respectively.

Radiation

In this mode, the heat transfers from source to the substance to be heated without heating the
medium in between. It is dependent on surface.

Ex: Solar heaters.

The rate of heat dissipation through radiation is given by Stefan's- Boltzmann Equation which describes
the rate of transfer of radiant energy in a vacuum as

Where Q is the heat flux,

ε is the emissivity
σ is the Stephan Boltzmann Constant
For radiative transfer between two objects, the equation is as follows.

……………………………………..(4.1)

where Ta is the temperature of the source in kelvin, Tb is the temperature of the substance to be
heated in kelvin, and k is the radiant efficiency:

= 1, for single element

= 0.5–0.8, for several elements

ε = emissivity = 1, for black
body

= 0.9, for resistance heating element.

From Equation (4.1), the radiant heat is proportional to the difference of fourth power of the
temperature, so it is very efficient heating at high temperature.

Essential requirements of good heating element

The materials used for heating element should have the following properties:

o High-specific resistance
Material should have high-specific resistance so that small length of wire may be required
to provide given amount of heat.
o High-melting point
It should have high-melting point so that it can withstand for high temperature, a small increase
in temperature will not destroy the element.
o Low temperature coefficient of resistance
From Equation (4.1), the radiant heat is proportional to fourth powers of the
temperatures, it is very efficient heating at high temperature.
For accurate temperature control, the variation of resistance with the operating temperature
should be very low. This can be obtained only if the material has low temperature
coefficient of resistance
o Free from oxidation
The element material should not be oxidized when it is subjected to high temperatures; otherwise
the formation of oxidized layers will shorten its life.
o High-mechanical strength
The material should have high-mechanical strength and should withstand for
mechanical vibrations.
o Non-corrosive
The element should not corrode when exposed to atmosphere or any other chemical fumes.
o Economical
The cost of material should not be so high.

Material for heating elements

The selection of a material for heating element is depending upon the service conditions such as
maximum operating temperature and the amount of charge to be heated, but no single element will
not satisfy all the requirements of the heating elements. The materials normally used as heating
elements are either alloys of nickel–chromium, nickel–chromium–iron, nickel– chromium–
aluminum, or nickel–copper.
Nickel–chromium–iron alloy is cheaper when compared to simple nickel–chromium alloy.
The use of iron in the alloy reduces the cost of final product but, reduces the life of the alloy, as it
gets oxidized soon. We have different types of alloys for heating elements. The table below gives
the relevant properties of some of the commercial heating elements.

Table : Properties of some heating elements

The properties of some commercial heating element materials commonly employed for low and
medium temperatures up to 1,200°C are Ni–Cr and an alloy of Ni–Cr–Fe composition of these
alloys are given in the above table. For operating temperatures above 1,200°C, the heating
elements are made up of silicon carbide, molybdenum, tungsten, and graphite. (Ni–Cu alloy is
frequently used for heating elements operating at low temperatures. Its most important property is
that it has virtually zero resistance and temperature coefficient.)

Causes of failure of heating elements

Heating element may fail due to any one of the following reasons.

1. Formation of hot spots.

2. Oxidation of the element and intermittency of operation.
3. Embrittlement caused by gain growth.
4. Contamination and corrosion.

Formation of hotspots

Hotspots are the points on the heating element generally at a higher temperature than the main
body. The main reasons of the formation of hotspot in the heating element are the high rate of the
local oxidation causing reduction in the area of cross-section of the element leading to the increase
in the resistance at that spot. It gives rise to the damage of heating element due to the generation of
more heat at spot. Another reason is the shielding of element by supports, etc., which reduces the
local heat loss by radiation and hence the temperature of the shielded portion of the element will
increase. So that the minimum number of supports should be used without producing the distortion
of the element. The sagging and wrapping of the material arise due to the insufficient support for
the element (or) selection of wrong fuse material may lead to the uneven spacing of sections
thereby developing the hotspots on the element.

Oxidation and intermittency of operation

A continuous oxide layer is formed on the surface of the element at very high temperatures such
layer is so strong that it prevents further oxidation of the inner metal of the element. If the
element is used quite often, the oxide layer is subjected to thermal stresses; thus, the layer cracks
and flakes off, thereby exposing fresh metal to oxidation. Thus, the local oxidation of the metal
increases producing the hotspots.
Embrittlement causing grain growth
In general, most of the alloys containing iron tend to form large brittle grains at high
temperatures. When cold, the elements are very brittle and liable to rupture easily on the slightest
handling and jerks.
Contamination and corrosion
The heating elements may be subjected to dry corrosion produced by their contamination with
the gases of the controlled atmosphere prevailing in annealing furnaces.