Transient Heat Conduction

Lumped System Analysis

• In heat transfer analysis, some bodies are essentially
isothermal and can be treated as a “lump” system.
• An energy balance of an isothermal solid for the time
interval dt can be expressed as A s

h
SOLID BODY T∞
Heat Transfer into The increase in the m=mass

=
V=volume
the body energy of the body =density Q  hAs T  T t 
during dt during dt Ti=initial temperature
T=T(t)

hAs(T∞-T)dt=mcpdT (1)
• Noting that m=V and dT=d(T-T∞) since T∞ constant,
Eq. 1 can be rearranged as
d T  T  hAs
 dt (2)
T  T Vc p
• Integrating from time zero (at which T=Ti) to t gives
T (t )  T hAs
ln  t (3)
Ti  T Vc p
• Taking the exponential of both sides and rearranging
T (t )  T  bt hAs
e ; b (1/s) (4)
Ti  T Vc p
• b is a positive quantity whose dimension is (time) -1,
and is called the time constant.
There are several observations that can be made from this figure and
the relation above:
1. Equation 4 enables us to determine the temperature T(t) of a
body at time t, or alternatively, the time t required for the
temperature to reach a specified value T(t).
2. The temperature of a body approaches the ambient temperature
T exponentially.
3. The temperature of the body changes rapidly at the beginning,
but rather slowly later on.
4. A large value of b indicates that the body
approaches the ambient temperature in a
short time.
 Rate of Convection Heat Transfer

• The rate of convection heat transfer between the body

and the ambient can be determined from Newton’s
law of cooling
Q (t )  hAs T (t )  T  (W) (5)
• The total heat transfer between the body and the
ambient over the time interval 0 to t is simply the
change in the energy content of the body:
Q  mc p T (t )  T  (kJ) (6)
• The maximum heat transfer between the body and its
surroundings (when the body reaches T∞)
Qmax  mc p Ti  T  (kJ) (7)
 Criteria for Lumped System Analysis

• Assuming lumped system is not always appropriate,

the first step in establishing a criterion for the
applicability is to define a characteristic length
Lc  V As
• and a Biot number (Bi) as hLc
Bi 
k (8)
• It can also be expressed as
Lc
k Rcond Conduction resistance within the body
Bi   
1 Rconv Convection resistance at the surface of the body
h R
h
R
T∞ conv Ts cond Tin
• Lumped system analysis assumes a uniform
temperature distribution throughout the body, which is
true only when the thermal resistance of the body to
heat conduction is zero.
• The smaller the Bi number, the more accurate the
lumped system analysis.
• It is generally accepted that lumped system analysis is
applicable if

Bi  0.1
 Transient Heat Conduction in Large Plane Walls,
Long Cylinders, and Spheres with Spatial Effects

• In many transient heat transfer problems the Biot number

is larger than 0.1, and lumped system can not be assumed.
• In these cases the temperature within the body changes
appreciably from point to point as well as with time.
• It is constructive to first consider the variation of
temperature with time and position in one-dimensional
problems of rudimentary configurations such as a large
plane wall, a long cylinder,
and a sphere.
 A large Plane Wall

• A plane wall of thickness 2L.

• Initially at a uniform temperature of Ti.
• At time t=0, the wall is immersed in a
fluid at temperature T∞.
• Constant heat transfer coefficient h.
• The height and the width of the wall are large relative to
its thickness one-dimensional approximation is valid.
• Constant thermophysical properties.
• No heat generation.
• There is thermal symmetry about the midplane passing
through x=0.
 The Heat Conduction Equation

• One-dimensional transient heat conduction equation

problem (0≤ x ≤ L):
 2T 1 T
Differential equation: 2
 (9)
x  t
T  0, t 
 0
 x (10)
Boundary conditions: 
 k T  L, t   h T L, t  T 
    
x

Initial condition: T  x, 0   Ti (11)

 Non-dimensional Equation

• A dimensionless space variable

X=x/L
• A dimensionless temperature variable
(x, t)=[T(x,t)-T∞]/[Ti-T∞]
• The dimensionless time and h/k ratio will be obtained through the
analysis given below
• Introducing the dimensionless variable into Eq. 9
  L T  2 L2  2T  1 T
  ;  ; 
X   x / L  Ti  T x X 2 Ti  T x 2 t Ti  T t

• Substituting into Eqs. 9 and 10 and rearranging

 2 L2  2T   1, t  hL   0, t 
2
 2
;   1, t  ;  0 (12)
X  x t X k X
• Therefore, the dimensionless time is =t/L2, which is
called the Fourier number (Fo).
• hL/k is the Biot number (Bi).
• The one-dimensional transient heat conduction
problem in a plane wall can be expressed in non-
dimensional form as
 2 
Differential equation: 2
 (13)
X 
  0, 
 0
 X (14)
Boundary conditions: 
  1,    Bi 1,
 X  

Initial condition:   X , 0  1 (15)

 Exact Solution
• Several analytical and numerical techniques can be
used to solve Eq. 13-15.
• We will use the method of separation of variables.
• The dimensionless temperature function (X,) is
expressed as a product of a function of X only and a
function of  only as
  X ,   F  X  G   (16)
• Substituting Eq. 16 into Eq. 13 and dividing by the
product FG gives
1 d 2 F 1 dG
2
 (17)
F dX G d
• Since X and  can be varied independently, the
equality in Eq. 17 can hold for any value of X and 
only if Eq. 17 is equal to a constant.
• It must be a negative constant that we will indicate by
-2 since a positive constant will cause the function
G() to increase indefinitely with time.
• Setting Eq. 17 equal to -2 gives
d 2F 2 dG 2
2
  F  0 ;   F 0 (18)
dX d
• whose general solutions are
 F  C1 cos   X   C2 sin   X 
   2
(19)
G=C3e
   FG  C3e   2
C1 cos  X   C2 sin   X 
(20)
 A cos   X   B sin   X 
e   2

• where A=C1C3 and B=C2C3 are arbitrary constants.

• Note that we need to determine only A and B to
obtain the solution of the problem.
• Applying the boundary conditions in Eq. 14 gives
  0, 
 0  e    A sin 0  B cos 0   0
2

X
 B  0    Ae   2
cos   X 
 1, 
  Bi 1,    Ae   2
 sin    BiAe   2
cos 
X
  tan   Bi
• But tangent is a periodic function with a period of , and the equation
tan(=Bi has the root 1 between 0 and , the root 2 between  and
2, the root n between (n-1) and n, etc.
• To recognize that the transcendental equation tan(=Bi has an
infinite number of roots, it is expressed as
n tan n  Bi (21)
• Eq. 21 is called the characteristic equation or eigenfunction, and its
roots are called the characteristic values or eigenvalues.
• It follows that there are an infinite number of solutions of the form
  Ae cos   X 
2
 
, and the solution of this linear heat conduction
problem is a linear combination of them,

   Ane  n2
cos n X  (22)
n 1

• The constants An are determined from the initial condition, Eq. 15,
  X , 0   1  1   An cos  n X  (23)
n 1
• Multiply both sides of Eq. 23 by cos(mX), and
integrating from X=0 to X=1
X 1 X 1 

 cos  m X    cos  m X  An cos  n X 

X 0 X 0 n 1

• The right-hand side involves an infinite number of

integrals of the form X 1
 cos m X  cos n X  dX
X 0

• It can be shown that all of these integrals vanish except

when n=m, and the coefficient An becomes
X 1 X 1

 cos  n X  dX  An  cos 2 n X  dX

X 0 X 0

4sin n
 An  (24)
2n  sin  2n 
• Substituting Eq. 24 into Eq. 22 gives

4sin n
  e  n2
cos n X 
n 1 2n  sin  2n 

• Where n is obtained from Eq. 21.

• As demonstrated in Fig. 1, the
terms in the summation decline
rapidly as n and thus n increases.
• Solutions in other geometries such
as a long cylinder and a sphere can
be determined using the same
approach and are given in Table 4-1. Figure 1
 Summary of the Solutions for One-
Dimensional Transient Conduction

Table 1
 Approximate Analytical and Graphical Solutions

• The series solutions of Eq. 2 and in Table1 converge rapidly

with increasing time, and for >0.2, keeping the first term and
neglecting all the remaining terms in the series results in an
error under 2 percent.
• Thus for >0.2 the one-term approximation can be used

T ( x, t )  T
Plane wall:  wall   A1 e  12
cos  1 x / L  ,   0.2 (25)
Ti  T
T (r , t )  T
Cylinder:  cyl   A 1 e J 0  1r / r0  ,   0.2
 12
(26)
Ti  T
T (r , t )  T  12 sin  1r / r0 
Sphere:  sph   A1 e ,   0.2 (27)
Ti  T 1r / r0
• The constants A1 and 1 are functions of the Bi number
only, and their values are listed in Table 4–2 against the Bi
number for all three geometries.
• The function J0 is the zeroth-order Bessel function of the first
kind, whose value can be determined from Table below:
The solution at the center of a plane wall,
cylinder, and sphere:
T0  T  12
Center of plane wall (x=0):  0, wall   A1e (28)
Ti  T
T0  T
Center of cylinder (r=0):  0,cyl   A1 e  12
(29)
Ti  T
T0  T  12
Center of sphere (r=0):  sph   A1 e (30)
Ti  T