TEP4165 Computational Heat and Fluid Flow www.ivt.ntnu.

no/ept/fag/tep4165/
NTNU, Department of Energy and Process Engineering Prof. Bernhard Müller

Exercise 1
Derivation and exact solution of
heat conduction equation
Due by 2009-08-28

Objective:
to get familiar with the heat conduction equation and to train basic MATLAB programming.

Task:

1. Consider the energy equation in the following non-conservative form

Dp
+ γp∇ · u = (γ − 1)[(τ · ∇) · u + ∇ · (k∇T )] , (1)
Dt
where
Dp ∂p
= + (u · ∇)p
Dt ∂t
denotes the substantial derivative of p. Derive from (1) the 1D heat conduction equation

∂T ∂2T
= α 2 , (2)
∂t ∂x
where α is the thermal diffusivity. Clearly state all assumptions in the derivation.

2. Suppose an insulated rod initially has a temperature of T (x, 0) = 0o C, 0 < x < 1. At t = 0, hot
reservoirs are brought in contact with the two ends and keep them at the boundary conditions
T (0, t) = T (1, t) = 100o C, t ≥ 0.

a) Show that the exact solution of the 1D heat conduction equation (2) with these initial and
boundary conditions is given by

X
∞
4
o
T (x, t) = 100 C (1 − sin((2m − 1)πx) exp(−α(2m − 1)2 π 2 t)) , (3)
m=1
(2m − 1)π

where the sum is taken over all integers.

b) Write a MATLAB function with the input

• vector x, where xj ∈ [0, 1],
• time instant t, and
• thermal diffusivity α,

1
and the output
• vector Texact, where T exactj = T (xj , t).
2
Check your function for x = [0 : 100]∗0.01, α = 10−5 ms , t = 0s, 5000s, 10000s, 15000s, 20000s,
25000s. Plot the solutions in one plot. Please always indicate what the axes and curves in
your plots signify, i.e. use xlabel, ylabel, legend.