Dr.

Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture

CHAPTER 4: TRANSIENT HEAT CONDUCTION

1-Introduction
There are many heat transfer problems that are time dependent, i.e. unsteady, or transient. Transient
problems typically arise when the boundary conditions are change with time. The temperature at each
point in the system will also begin to change. The changes will continue to occur until a steady-state
temperature distribution is reached.

2-The Lumped Capacitance Method

Consider a solid that is initially at a uniform temperature Ti. At time t = 0, the body is immersed in a
liquid of lower temperature T < Ti.

Due to convection heat transfer at the solid-liquid interface, the temperature of the solid will decrease
for time t > 0 until it eventually reaches T.
It is assumed that the temperature of the solid is spatially uniform at any instant during the transient
process, i.e. no temperature gradient in the solid. This assumption is called the lumped capacitance
assumption.
The transient temperature response is determined by formulating an overall energy balance on the
solid.
 E out  E st
or
dT
 h A s T  T    V c
dt
Introducing the temperature difference:
  T  T
And recognizing that ( d  dT ) if T is constant, it follows that:
dt dt
Vc d
 
hAs dt

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture
Separating variables and integrating from the initial condition, for which t = 0 and T(0)=Ti, we then
obtain:

Vc  d t

hAs i 
   dt
i 0
Where:  i  Ti  T
Evaluating the integrals, it follows that:
Vc i
ln t
hAs 
Or

 T  T   h As  
  exp    t 
i T i  T    V c  
.
The foregoing results indicate that the difference between the solid and fluid temperatures decay
exponentially to zero as t approaches infinity. This behavior is shown in figure below:

The total energy transfer Q to some time t is obtained by applying the Newton’s law of cooling as
follows:

t t
Q  0
q dt  h A s   dt
0

  h As 
  V c  i 1  exp   t 
  V c 

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture
Notes:
Vc
1- The quantity ( ) has a time unit so it is called thermal time constant:
hAs
 V c 
 t   

 h As 
 T  T  t 
   exp  
i T i  T  t 
2- The exponent in temperature distribution equation may be expressed as:
h As t
 Bi  Fo
V c
Where:
t
Fo  is the Fourier number and Lc is the characteristic length defined as the ratio of the
L2c
solid’s volume to surface area, Lc = V/As.

h. Lc
Bi  is the Biot number.
k

So the temperature distribution equation may be expressed as:

 T  T
  exp  Bi  Fo 
i T i  T
3-Validity of the Lumped Capacitance Method
The lumped capacitance method is the simplest method that can be used to solve heating and cooling
problems. However, it is applicable only when the resistance to conduction within the body is small
compared to the resistance to convection between the body and its surroundings.
The Biot number, Bi, is a dimensionless parameter which expresses the ratio of conduction resistance
within a solid to convection resistance on the surface. It is, therefore, a criterion to measure the validity of
the lumped capacitance assumption.
The ratio of conduction to convection thermal resistances is:

Rt ,cond L kA hL
   Bi
Rt ,conv 1 hA k

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture

The lumped capacitance method is valid when the following condition is satisfied:
h Lc
Bi   0.1
k

The figure below show the effect of Biot number on the transient temperature distribution.

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture
Solved Problems
Example-1- A load of fruit at a temperature of 25°C is to be cooled down in a room at a constant
air temperature of l°C. (a) How long the fruit will require to cool down to 2°C when the surface
heat transfer coefficient is 5.81 W /m2. K?
(b) What is the temperature of the fruit peas after a lapse of 10 min from the start of cooling?
(c) What air temperature must be used if the fruit were to be cooled down to 5°C in 30 min?
The fruit are supposed to have a sphere shape with average diameter of 8 mm. Their density is
750 kg/m3 and specific heat 3.35 kJ/kg K.

Solution:
We have for a lumped heat-capacity system:

Since the diameter of the peas is only 8 mm, we can neglect any temperature variation within the fruit.

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture
Example-2- A steel tube of length 20 cm with internal and external diameters of 10 and 12 cm is
quenched from 500 to 300 oC in a large reservoir of water at 10°C. Below l00oC the heat transfer
coefficient is 1.5 kW/m2 K. Above l00 oC, the heat transfer coefficient is 0.5 kW/m2 K. The density
of steel is 7800 kg/m3 and the specific heat is 0.47 kJ/kg K. Neglecting internal thermal resistance of
the steel tube, determine the quenching time.
Solution:

Example-3-Steel ball bearings (k = 50 W/m.K. α=1.3* 10-5 m2/s) having a diameter of 40 mm are
heated to a temperature of 650°C and then quenched in a tank of oil at 55°C. If the heat transfer
coefficient between the ball bearings and oil is 300 W/m2 K. determine:
(a) the duration of time the bearings must remain in oil to reach a temperature of 200°C.
(b) the total amount of heat removed from each bearing during this time.
(c) the instantaneous heat transfer rate from the bearings when they are first immersed in oil and
when they reach 200°C.
Solution: To determine whether the bearings have negligible resistance, we first check the magnitude of
the Biot number.

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Dr.Safaa Hameed Faisal Heat Transfer Lecture

Example-4-An average human body modeled as a 30 cm diameter, 170 cm long cylinder. its
properties may be taken as those of water at room temperature: densityp = 1000 kg/m3, cp = 4180
J/kg K and k = 0.608 W/m K. A person is found dead at 5 am in a room the temperature of which is
20°C. The temperature of the body is measured to be 25oC when found, and the heat transfer
coefficient is estimated to be 8 W/m2 K. Assuming the body temperature of a living man is 37°C,
estimate the time of death of the above person.
Solution:
Characteristic length:

The person died about 12.5 h before the body was found, and thus the time of death is 4.30 pm.