Abstract
A generalized thermal boundary condition is derived for the hyperbolic heat conduction equation to include all thermal effects of a thin layer, whether solid-skin or fluid film, moving or stationary, in perfect or imperfect thermal contact with an adjacent domain. The thin layer thermal effects include, among others, thermal capacity of the layer, thermal diffusion, enthalpy flow, viscous dissipation within the layer and convective losses from the layer. Six different kinds of thermal boundary conditions can be obtained as special cases of the generalized boundary condition. The importance of the generalized boundary condition is demonstrated comprehensively in an example. The effects of different geometrical and thermophysical properties on the validity of the generalized thermal boundary condition are investigated.