Prepared by: Ahmed A.

Maaroof 1
Ahmed.Maaroof@koyauniversity.org
Faculty of engineering
Chemical engineering Dept.
2020-2021
▪ The Heisler charts (transient charts) may be used to obtain the
temperature distribution in the infinite plate of thickness 2L,
in the long cylinder, or in the sphere.
▪ When a wall whose height and depth dimensions are not large
compared with the thickness or a cylinder whose length is not
large compared with its diameter is encountered, additional
space coordinates are necessary to specify the temperature, the
charts no longer apply, and we are forced to seek another
method of solution.
▪ Fortunately, it is possible to combine the solutions for the one-
dimensional systems in a very straightforward way to obtain
solutions for the multidimensional problems.
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▪ It is clear that the infinite rectangular bar can be formed from two infinite
plates of thickness 2L1 and 2L2, respectively.
▪ The differential equation governing this situation would be

▪ and to use the separation-of-variables method to effect a solution, we should

assume a product solution of the form
▪ It can be shown that the dimensionless temperature distribution may be
expressed as a product of the solutions for two plate problems of thickness
2L1 and 2L2, respectively:

where Ti is the initial temperature of the bar and

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T∞ is the environment temperature.
▪ For two infinite plates the respective differential equations would be

▪ and the product solutions assumed would be

▪ the solution for a three-dimensional block may be expressed as a product

of three infinite-plate solutions for plates having the thickness of the three
sides of the block.
▪ Similarly, a solution for a cylinder of finite length could be expressed as a
product of solutions of the infinite cylinder and an infinite plate having a
thickness equal to the length of the cylinder.
▪ Combinations could also be made with the infinite-cylinder and infinite-
plate solutions to obtain temperature distributions in semi-infinite bars and
cylinders.
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▪ Langston has shown that it is possible to superimpose the heat-loss solutions
for one dimensional bodies, as shown in Figures 4-14, 4-15, and 4-16, to obtain
the heat for a multidimensional body.
▪ The results of this analysis for intersection of two bodies is

▪ where the subscripts refer to the two intersecting bodies.

▪ For a multidimensional body formed by intersection of three one-dimensional

systems, the heat loss is given by

▪ If the heat loss is desired after a given time, the calculation is straightforward.

▪ On the other hand, if the time to achieve a certain heat loss is the desired
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quantity, a trial-and-error or iterative procedure must be employed.
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▪ The transient charts (Heisler Charts) are very useful for calculating
temperatures in certain regular-shaped solids under transient heat-
flow conditions.
▪ Unfortunately, many geometric shapes of practical interest do not fall
into these categories; in addition, one is frequently faced with
problems in which the boundary conditions vary with time.
▪ These transient boundary conditions as well as the geometric shape of
the body can be such that a mathematical solution is not possible.
▪ In these cases, the problems are best handled by a numerical
technique with computers.
▪ For ease in discussion we limit the analysis to two-dimensional
systems
▪ An extension to three dimensions can then be made very easily. 13
▪ we can view each volume element as a node that is connected by thermal
resistances to its adjoining neighbors.
▪ For steady-state conditions the net energy transfer into the node is zero, while
for the unsteady-state problems of interest in this lecture the net energy
transfer into the node must be evidenced as an increase in internal energy of
the element.
▪ Each volume element behaves like a small “lumped capacity,” and the
interaction of all the elements determines the behavior of the solid during a
transient process.
▪ If the internal energy of a node i can be expressed in terms of specific heat
and temperature, then its rate of change with time is approximated by

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▪ the general resistance-capacity formulation for the energy balance on a
node is

▪ The resistance and volume elements for a variety of geometries and

boundary conditions were given in Tables 3-3 (lecture 7)
▪ Physical systems where the internal energy E involves phase changes
can also be accommodated in the above formulation but are beyond the
scope of our discussion.
▪ The central point is that use of the concepts of thermal resistance and
capacitance enables us to write the forward-difference equation for all
nodes and boundary conditions in the single compact form of Equation
above
▪ The setup for a numerical solution then becomes a much more
organized process that can be adapted quickly to the computational
methods at hand. 15
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▪ The above equation is developed by using the forward-difference
p+1
concept to produce an explicit relation for each 𝑇𝑖

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▪ Suppose we have a complicated numerical problem to solve with a
variety of boundary conditions, perhaps nonuniform values of the
space increments, etc.
▪ Once we have all the nodal resistances and capacities formulated, we
then have the task of choosing the time increment τ to use for the
calculation.
▪ To ensure stability we must keep τ equal to or less than a value
obtained from the most restrictive nodal relation like Equation below

▪ Solving for τ gives

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The Equation below

is very useful in establishing the maximum allowable time increment, it

may involve problems of round-off errors in computer solutions when
small thermal resistances are employed.
p+1
The difficulty may be alleviated by expressing 𝑇𝑖 in the
following form for calculation purposes:

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