Explain like I'm five "Thermal Conductivity and Specific Heat Capacity"

[Jim (aka HuskyBundudo)]

I always start having problems with heat into my late game, and I think I'm Using bad materials to exchange heat with the environment, but I dont understand the difference between the Thermal Conductivity and Specific Heat Capacity of the materials that i'm using.

[Angpaur]

Imagine heating up a material as a flow of water into a bottle. Size of the bottle means heat capacity and mass of the material, size of mouth is heat conductivity. Filling the whole bottle means increasing material temperature by 1C.

If bottle is big in size but has a small mouth it will take long time to fill it because for one it has big size and second problem is that you can pour water by a low rate only, as mouth is small.

If bottle is very small and has a large mouth this means water can flow inside quickly and also will fill the bottle quickly, because it is small in size and also you can pour water faster through that big mouth. This means that materials with low heat capacity are thermally reactive and absorbs or give heat away quickly. If this goes along with high heat conductivity then you get even faster heat transfers.

[Reaperrazor]

Thermal Conductivity is a materials ability to receive or give heat. Low conductivity means it doesnt receive OR give heat away easy (great insulators) like Abyssalite, and the opposite rings true (great conductors such as refined copper).

Im guessing here but Specific Heat Capacity is the amount of heat energy needed to raise 1kg of said material 1 degree. So higher it is the more energy it takes to raise it likewise to lower it needs to give it more to go down 1 degree. In general, gas is very quick to heat/cool since it has low SHC while Solids take a whole lot longer.

If you want something to Insulate- Low TR and High SHC (keeps heat transfer and build up sloooooow ), Coolants should have high SHC and TR (want to be able to move ALOT of heat fast), while a Radiator would have Low SHC and High TR (typically when a small area if heating up too fast and you wanna disperse it)

[fiziologus]

Originally posted by Reaperrazor:

Thermal Conductivity is a materials ability to receive or give heat. Low conductivity means it doesnt receive OR give heat away easy (great insulators) like Abyssalite, and the opposite rings true (great conductors such as refined copper).

Im guessing here but Specific Heat Capacity is the amount of heat energy needed to raise 1kg of said material 1 degree. So higher it is the more energy it takes to raise it likewise to lower it needs to give it more to go down 1 degree. In general, gas is very quick to heat/cool since it has low SHC while Solids take a whole lot longer.

If you want something to Insulate- Low TR and High SHC (keeps heat transfer and build up sloooooow ), Coolants should have high SHC and TR (want to be able to move ALOT of heat fast), while a Radiator would have Low SHC and High TR (typically when a small area if heating up too fast and you wanna disperse it)

More simple.

Thermal Conductivity – heat tranfer speed per each degree.

in common case:
heat_transfer_speed = .lower_conductivity * (temp_hot_thing - temp_cool_thing)

Heat Capacity – how much heat content each degree in some mass material (1g, 1 kg, 1lb etc).

heat = conductivity * amount_degres * mass
For cooling need delete it heat, for heating – add.

[fluxtorrent]

Like you were five? "OMG, where are your parents! I'm not looking after you!"

[Prometheus]

The thing to note is that heat energy and temperature are not the same thing. You could have 10 heat energy in Element A and 1 heat energy in Element B but B has a higher temperature because of SHC. Reaperrazor explained it fully and should be understandable with this fact in mind.

As for what materials you'd want to use for what.

Igneous Rock is the commonly available insulation material. Use it for all your general insulation needs. Ceramic is a more advanced insulator. It can be difficult to make large amounts of it because of the heat involved though. Extreme late game you can make Insulation from space materials and abyssalite. Its the absolute best insulator but very expensive to make.

Conductivity pretty much every refined metal is highly conductive. Diamond is also good for tempshift plates. Conductive materials are easy.

Hydrogen is the go to for gaseous coolant. Better conductivity than other gasses and a bit more SHC.

For liquids the primary concerns are freeze and boil temperatures. Early game pwater serves well as it can get to -25c before freezing. Oil and Petrol (petrol is slightly better) are more commonly used because they freeze lower and boil higher than most liquids while still having decent conductivity.

[fiziologus]

Insulation from space materials and abyssalite.

Abyssalite buildable again?

[Empath demon]

Originally posted by fiziologus:

Insulation from space materials and abyssalite.

Abyssalite buildable again?

Only when you mix it with space materials; Until then it's still useless.