Fourier’s law of heat conduction states that the rate of heat transfer through a material is proportional to the negative gradient of the temperature and the area through which the heat flows.
Mathematically, it is expressed as:
where:
q is the heat flux (heat transfer per unit area per unit time),
k is the thermal conductivity of the material,
∇T is the temperature gradient.
In simpler terms, Fourier’s law indicates that heat flows from regions of higher temperature to regions of lower temperature and the rate of heat transfer increases with a steeper temperature gradient and higher thermal conductivity of the material