Biot Number

The Biot number (Bi) is a dimensionless number used in heat transfer calculations. It is named after the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774–1862), and gives a simple index of the ratio of the heat transfer resistances inside of and at the surface of a body. This ratio determines whether or not the temperatures inside a body will vary significantly in space, while the body heats or cools over time, from a thermal gradient applied to its surface. In general, problems involving small Biot numbers (much smaller than 1) are thermally simple, due to uniform temperature fields inside the body. Biot numbers much larger than 1 signal more difficult problems due to non-uniformity of temperature fields within the object.

The Biot number has a variety of applications, including transient heat transfer and use in extended surface heat transfer calculations.