Example 2: Basic 2-D Conduction with Free Convection

Consider the square shown in Fig. 1. The top

face, top-right corner and right face are
exposed to air at 22.22C. The bottom face is
maintained at 75C while the left face is
maintained at 100C. Use the nodal equations
and the finite difference method to calculate
the temperatures at nodes 1-4. The thermal
conductivity of the material is assumed to be
constant at 1 W/m C. When calculating the
Biot numbers for each node use spacing
between nodes of 0.1 m.
The free convection coefficients are as
follows:
htop face = 10 W/m2 C
hcorner at node 2 = 7 W/m2 C
hright face = 5 W/m2 C

Example 2 Solution:
The nodal equations for nodes 1- 4 are as follows:
Node 1:

Node 2:

Figure 1: Example 2

Node 3:

Node 4:

Combining the equations in matrix notation we have

By solving

we have