Talk:Thermal mass

message: Where's the equation relating thermal mass to temperature and heat transfer rate? Mollwollfumble (talk) 06:35, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: To those in the know, the equation is obvious from the units. For those not in the know, I've added the equation, based on the one in specific heat capacity. (Although, note that thermal mass relates temperature and heat transfer, not heat transfer rate - you may be looking for something like Newton's law of cooling, which is related to thermal conductivity.) ― Darekun (talk)  13:46, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

message: Since there hasn't been any discussion on the merge in the months since it was tagged, and Thermal flywheel effect was simply a mention of thermal mass or specific heat capacity as applied to buildings (which this article is already mostly about), I performed the merge. Most of the information there either duplicated information here or was added, but this list of relative specific heat capacities is only partially duplicated:
Materials, higher to lower "flywheel effect"
#Packed Earth
#Brick
#Water
#Hardwood lumber or timbers
#Softwood & construction lumber
#Steel
#Insulation
#Air
#Aluminum
― Darekun (talk)  13:46, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Thermal flywheel effect merge

message: I object to the phrases "providing 'inertia' against temperature fluctuations", "the thermal flywheel effect" and "thermal mass".  Since the energy is indeed stored in the mass of these materials it is tempting to call it thermal mass.  But when we think of mass, we also think of inertia, a property which does not exist in the thermal domain.  There is no such thing as a thermal flywheel.  By this I mean that in a thermal system, in order for heat to flow there must be a temperature difference.  But as soon as that difference is removed, the flow stops.  The flow has no inertia.  As we know, energy can be stored in physical systems in either potential or kinetic form.  In the mechanical domain, Kinetic energy is what is stored in a flywheel or a moving mass and potential energy is what is stored in a spring.  The kinetic energy is determined by the speed of the flywheel or the mass.  The potential energy is determined by the force in the spring.  When the force is removed from a mass, the mass keeps going.  In the thermal domain, there is only potential energy storage, the amount of energy stored being determined by the temperature of the substance it is stored in.  Thus it acts more like a spring than a mass or flywheel.  Or like a capacitor in the electrical domain than an inductor.  Thus I feel that "thermal mass" and "thermal flywheel" are misleading terms that we should endeavor to eliminate.  The better term is "thermal capacitance".  Unfortunately these misleading terms are in wide usage, so perhaps we should at least explain the misnomer and point out that they are potential energy storage effects not kinetic energy storage effects as implied by "mass", "inertia" and "flywheel". 
JDHeinzmann (talk) 14:51, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: Thermal "flywheel, mass, and inertia" are misnomers

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