CVG 5175

Numerical Methods for

Geotechnical Engineers

CVG 5175

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 CVG 5175

THERMAL ANALYSIS IN
GEOMECHANICS
● Allows to determine temperature distribution
within a body
– Temperature changes in a body cause expansion
or contraction. As a result, settlement or heave
occurs.
– Phase change may take place if the conditions are
suitable.
– Temperature change can cause fluid flow.
– Temperature change may cause changes in
thermal properties of materials
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● Examples

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Independent Variable
● In stress-strain problems the independent
variable used to develop FE models was:
–

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Independent Variable
● In stress-strain problems the independent
variable used to develop FE models was:
–

● In seepage problems the independent variable

was:
–

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Independent Variable
● In stress-strain problems the independent
variable used to develop FE models was:
–

● In seepage problems the independent variable

was:
–

● In heat transfer problems the independent

variable will be:
–

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Mechanisms of heat
transfer
● Conduction
● Convection
● Radiation

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Heat Transfer
● Conduction
– The flow of heat through solids and liquids by
vibration and collision of molecules and free
electrons
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Heat Transfer
● Convection
– Flow of heat resulting from currents within a fluid
(liquid or gas)
– A heated fluid mass becomes less dense and
displaces the volumes of colder fluid
– Natural Convection happens as a result of the
heating process
– Forced Convection happens where the fluid is
moved using for example a pump to circulate the
fluid
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Heat Transfer
● Radiation
– Heat transfer by electromagnetic waves or
photons
– Does not require a propagating medium
– The energy transferred by radiation moves at the
speed of light
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Heat transfer problems

● Typically grouped into two categories:
– Steady state heat flow problems
– Transient heat flow problems
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Conduction
● Most commonly encountered in geotechnical
problems
● Steady state condition in 1D expressed as
Fourier's law:

∂T q= heat flux is the amount of energy that

flows through a unit area per unit time
q=−k
∂x
k= coefficient of thermal conductivity

T= temperature

x= distance
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Conduction
● Fourier's law:
– in a more general form expressed as:
⃗q =−k ∇ T The negative sign indicates
that the heat flows in the
direction from high
temperature to low
Units: temperature.
(heat flux) W/m2
(coef. of heat conductivity) W/(m °C)

(temperature gradient) °C/m

(In terms of classical mechanics, one watt is the

rate at which work is done when an object's
velocity is held constant at one meter per second
against constant opposing force of one Newton.)
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Conduction
● Thermal conductivity, k, is often treated as a
constant, though this is not always true
● Thermal conductivity of a material generally
varies with temperature
– the variation can be small over a significant range
of temperatures for some common materials
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Conduction
● In non-uniform materials
– k varies with spatial location
● In anisotropic materials
– the thermal conductivity typically varies with
orientation; in this case k is represented by a
second-order tensor
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Governing equations
● Consider a 1D elemental volume

Egenerated
Ein Eout
ΔU

E i n= Energy entering the volume

E i n + E generated = ΔU + E out E generated = Energy generated within the

volume
ΔU = Change in energy stored within
the volume
E out = Energy exiting the volume
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy per unit of time
can be expressed as a change as a change in
flux over a unit of the domain length.
∂Q ∂q (in 1D)
=
∂t ∂x

∂Q ∂ qx ∂ qy ∂ qz (in 3D)
= + +
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z
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Conduction
● Thermal capacity is the amount of energy
transferred to an object for a given
temperature increment:
Q
c=
ΔT
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Conduction
● Thermal capacity is the amount of energy
transferred to an object for a given
temperature increment:
Q
c=
ΔT

● More generally it can be expressed as:

∂Q
c=
∂T
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:
∂T ∂q
c =
∂t ∂ x
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:
2
∂T ∂ T
c =k 2
∂t ∂x
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:
2
∂T k ∂ T
=
∂ t c ∂ x2
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:
2
∂T ∂ T
=α 2 (α is the thermal diffusivity coefficien)
∂t ∂x
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:
∂T ∂(α∂T )
= 2 (for non-uniform materials)
∂t ∂ x
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Conduction
● The change in thermal energy can therefore
be expressed as a change in temperature:

∂ Q=c ∂ T

● And the heat conduction equation can be

expressed as:

∂ T ∂ (αx ∂ T ) ∂ (α y ∂ T ) ∂ ( αz ∂ T ) (in 3D)

= 2
∂t ∂ x ∂y
2
∂z
2
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Conduction
● This is known as Fourier's Law and has the
same form as Darcy's Law
● Numerical solution by FDM would be
formulated exactly like we did for fluid flow
problems.
● Typical boundary conditions would be fixed
flux, or controlled temperature.
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Thermal Capacity
● Capacity to store heat composed of two parts
– volumetric heat capacity either frozen or unfrozen
– the latent heat associated with the phase change
λ= capacity for heat storage
∂ wu
λ=c+ L c= volumetric heat capacity
∂T
L= Latent heat of water

w u = Total volumetric water content

T = Temperature
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Steady State
● At steady state, flux entering and leaving the
volume is equal at all times

∂ −k ∂ T + ∂ −k ∂ T +Q=0
∂x( x ) (
∂x ∂y y
∂y )
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Convective Heat Transfer

● TEMP/W can integrate with SEEP/W (or
AIR/W) to account for convective transfer that
due to flowing water.
● TEMP/W requires water and air content and
the velocities of water and air at every Gauss
point at every time step
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Convective Heat Transfer

● Heat transfer per unit surface through
convection first described by Newton:
Newton's Law of Cooling
● q=h A dT q= heat transferred per unit time,(W)
convective heat transfer coefficient of
h=
the process (W/m2K or W/m2 °C)
A= heat transfer area of the surface (m²)
temperature difference between the
dT =
surface and the bulk fluid (K or °C)
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Convective Heat Transfer

● Governing equations used in Temp/W
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Thermal Radiation
● Heat transfer through radiation is given by:
4 Where
q= E σ A[( ΔT ) ]
q = heat transferred by radiation

E = emissivity of the system

σ = constant of Stephan-Boltzmann (5.6697 × 10-8 W/m2 K4)

A = area involved in the heat transfer by radiation

(ΔT)4 = difference of temperature between two systems to

the fourth or higher power
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Thermal Radiation
● The emissivity of a body (or surface) equals its
absorptivity
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Example 1
● A long foundation room is partially buried
beneath the ground. Find the heat flux if the
average soil temperature is assumed to be
8°C, and the room temperature is 20°C. The
wall is 30 cm thick.
MJ MJ
c soil =2.2 c concrete =2.1
m³ K m³ K

W W
K soil =1.4 K concrete =0.8
mK mK
3 3
ρ soil =1600 kg / m ρconcrete =2400 kg /m
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Fick's Law
● Fick's first law relates the diffusive flux to
concentration of solute under steady state.
● It assumes that the flux goes from regions of
high concentration to regions of low
concentrations
∂φ
J =−D J = diffusive flux
∂x D = diffusion coefficient
ϕ = concentration
x = position
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Fick's Law
● Diffusion causes concentrations to change
with time, yielding Fick's second law:
∂φ ∂ J
=
∂t ∂ x
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Fick's Law
● Diffusion causes concentrations to change
with time, yielding Fick's second law:
∂φ ∂ J
=
∂t ∂ x

2
∂φ ∂ φ
=D 2 (in 1 D)
∂t ∂x
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Fick's Law
● Diffusion causes concentrations to change
with time, yielding Fick's second law:
∂φ ∂ J
=
∂t ∂ x

2 2 2
∂φ
∂t
=D 2(
∂ φ∂ φ∂ φ
2
∂x ∂ y ∂z 2
= D ∇
2
)
φ=D Δ φ (in 3 D)

Where Δ=∇² = the Laplacian

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Similar Laws
● All the following phenomena will be solved by
numerically similar schemes.
– Darcy's Law (hydraulic flow)
– Fourier's Law (heat transport)
– Fick's Law (solute transport)
– Ohm's Law (charge transport)