Heat Transfer-Wolfram Language Documentation

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Tech Notes
Heat Transfer
Introduction Appendix
Heat Equation Nomenclature
Boundary Conditions in Heat Transfer References
Introduction
This tutorial gives an introduction to modeling heat transfer. Governing equations and boundary
conditions that are relevant for performing heat transfer analysis are derived and explained.
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that is concerned with the movement of energy.
The driving force for heat transfer are temperature differences. The temperature differences come
about though different phenomena in the interior or on the boundary of the simulation domain and
can be categorized into thermal conduction, thermal convection and thermal radiation. Combining all
effects, the changes in a temperature field in a given region over time is then modeled with a heat
equation.
The modeling process results in a partial differential equation (PDE) that can be solved with NDSolve .
Furthermore, in this tutorial different types of heat sources are introduced along with as an overview
of how various real world thermal interactions can be modeled with the available thermal boundary
conditions.
The accuracy and the effectiveness of the heat transfer PDE model is validated in the separate
notebook entitled Heat Transfer Verification Tests.
Extended examples of heat transfer modeling can be found in the Model Collection.
Many of the animations of the simulation results shown in this notebook are generated with a call to
Rasterize . This is to reduce the disk space this notebook requires. The downside is that the visual
quality of the animations will not be as crisp as without it.
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To obtain high quality graphics remove or comment out the call to Rasterize .
https://reference.wolfram.com/language/PDEModels/tutorial/HeatTransfer/HeatTransfer.html 1/56
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The symbols and corresponding units used throughout this tutorial are summarized in the
Nomenclature section.
This notebook makes use of finite element method functionality for various aspects solution of the
PDE models.
Load the finite element package.

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Heat Equation
Introduction to Heat Equation

The heat equation (1), which is derived from the law of energy conservation, is used for modeling time
dependent heat flow within a thermally conductive medium:
The dependent variable in the heat equation is the temperature , which varies with time and
position . The partial differential equation (PDE) model describes how thermal energy is transported
over time in a medium with density and specific heat capacity . The specific
heat capacity is a material property that specifies the amount of heat energy that is needed to raise the
temperature of a substance with unit mass by one degree Kelvin.
Besides the time derivative part the PDE is made up of several components. First and foremost, there
is a diffusive term: with a thermal conductivity . The thermal conductivity
may very well depend on the temperature itself. This will then result in a nonlinear heat equation.
The second part is a convective term: with a flow velocity for modeling
internal heat convection. This term is only present if the medium allows for an internal flow. If the
simulation medium is a solid then this term is zero.
The term denotes a heat source within the domain, and is explained in the Source Types
section.
Heat Equation Derivation

To derive the heat equation start with energy conservation. Consider balancing the energy generated
within a unit volume domain with the energy flowing through the boundary of the domain.
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In the above graphics, is the mass density and is the internal energy per unit mass.
The total energy within the control volume is then equal to the product . The red circle in the
middle represents a heat source , which denotes thermal energy that is generated inside the domain
. The heat flux represents the net energy that exits through the boundaries.
The energy balance within the domain can then be described by the following equation:
That is, the change in the total energy is equal to the energy generated inside the domain
minus the net energy that exits the domain .
Here the energy flux can be divided into two parts: a convection term and a diffusion term
. The convection term denotes the energy transported by a possible flow inside the medium,
and is in proportional to a flow velocity :
If the heat transfer occurs in a solid medium, then, because a solid can not have an internal velocity
field by definition, the convection term is set to .
The diffusion term represents the energy flux resulting from the energy gradient, and is proportional
to its energy diffusivity :
For heat transfer modeling, the diffusion term (2) is often expressed in the form of the temperature
gradient instead, which is known as Fourier's law of heat conduction:
Here, the energy diffusivity is represented by the thermal conductivity , and the minus sign
indicates that the heat diffusion is in the direction of decreasing temperature.
Note that the diffusive component is always present, regardless of the medium.
The principal property of the diffusion term is smoothing, this is explained in the section: The
Smoothing Characteristic of the Diffusion Equation.
Inserting (3) and (4) into the energy balance equation (5) yields:
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or
Note that the above equations hold for both continuous and discontinuous density/velocity fields.
This is explained in more detail in the appendix Conservation Laws with Discontinuous PDE
coefficients.
Since we consider a domain with a unit volume , the total mass within the domain is then
equal to: . Therefore, the term: on the left hand side can be interpreted as a
mass conservation equation. Specifically, the time derivative term can be understood as the
accumulation (or loss) of mass in the domain over time, while the divergence term part denotes the
difference of the mass inflow versus outflow.
The rate of the mass inflow is equal to the rate of the mass outflow plus the accumulation/loss of mass
within the domain . When there is no internal mass generation/elimination, the term
sums up to zero and can be removed from the equation (6) leading to:
This leads to a restriction on the usage of the heat transfer model: Equation (7) and the resulting heat
transfer PDEs (8) and (9) can not be used when the mass in the medium changes.
Since the internal energy depends on the temperature: , equation (10) can be rewritten into
the following form using the chain rule:
Here, the term is also known as the specific heat capacity , which denotes the ratio of the energy
added to/removed from the domain to the resulting temperature change. With this definition
equation (11) simplifies to the heat equation:
PDE for heat transfer in a medium with flow.
The general heat equation describes the energy conservation within the domain , and can be used to
solve for the temperature field in a heat transfer model. Since it involves both a convective term and
a diffusive term, the equation (12) is also called the convection-diffusion equation.
Note that the preceding heat equation (13) is written in a non-conservative form. That is, the mass
density , the specific heat capacity and the velocity terms of the term are outside of
the gradient operator. One could imagine a convective term inside the divergence operator. However,
since both and might be space dependent, the general heat equation (14) cannot simply be
transformed into a conservative form. Top
In a solid medium, however, the internal velocity field is set to zero and the governing PDE
simplifies to a pure conductive heat equation:
PDE for heat transfer in a solid medium.
The heat equation may also be expressed in cylindrical and spherical coordinates. Please refer to the
appendix section "Special Cases of the Heat Equation" for detail explanation.
Heat Transfer Model Setup

Defining a function that represents the spatial terms of a heat transfer model in Cartesian coordinates
will make the setup of a heat equation more convenient.
The inputs needed for a heat transfer model are
the temperature variable

the spatial independent variables
a velocity field
the thermal conductivity
the density
the heat capacity
a heat source/sink
Set up a 1D static heat transfer model.

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Set up a 2D static heat transfer model.

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Set up a 1D time dependent heat transfer model.

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Note that this model definition uses inactive PDE operators. "Numerical Solution of Partial
Differential Equations" has several sections that explain the use of inactive operators.
Model Parameter Setup

The following model parameters are used for the examples in this notebook. These parameters define
the simulation domain , the simulation end time and thermal properties of a medium.
Set up model parameters for the domain and the simulation end time .
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To make use of specific material parameters in the equation we extract relevant data from the ThermodynamicData .
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In some examples, we will be using a smoothed step function to prescribe a time profile for a
transient parameter, for example the heat flux or the surface temperature . The smoothed step
function is defined as follows:
Here the minimum value and the maximum value the function can reach are denoted by and
. The location of the step is controlled by and the smoothed steepness is controlled by .
Define and visualize the smoothed step function .

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Basic Heat Transfer Example

The following 2D stationary example [15] demonstrates a typical workflow of heat transfer modeling.
The model domain of width and height of is a ceramic strip that is

embedded in a high-thermal-conductive material. The side boundaries of the strip are maintained at a
constant temperature . The top surface of the strip is losing heat via both thermal
convection and thermal radiation to the ambient environment at . The bottom boundary,
however, is assumed to be thermally insulated.
Our goal is to find the steady-state temperature distribution of the ceramic strip.
Set up a rectangular domain with a width of and a height of .

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The thermal conductivity , heat transfer coefficient , density , heat capacity and emissivity of
the ceramic trip are given by:
Define the model variables and parameters.

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Set up temperature surface boundary conditions at the left and right boundaries.
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Set up the convective boundary condition on the top surface. Top
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Set up the thermal radiation boundary condition on the top surface.

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A default thermally insulated boundary condition is implicitly applied on the remaining bottom
boundary.
Solve the heat transfer PDE model.

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Visualize the steady-state temperature distribution.

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In the steady-state, the minimum temperature is found on the top surface that is cooled by both
convection and radiation. The defined temperature at the side is the maximum temperature since heat
diffuses into the medium from the sides.
The setting of thermal boundary conditions will be explained in detail in a following section:
Boundary Conditions in Heat Transfer.
Source Types
The source term in the heat equation (16) is used to model internal heat generation ( ) or
absorption ( ) within the domain. Based on their shape heat sources are categorized as a
Volumetric Heat Source, Layer Heat Source and Point Heat Source.
It is important that the mesh conforms to the geometrical bounds of the source term , either by
explicitly generating the mesh for them or by making use of the MeshRefinementFunction . Top
Set up model variables and model parameters.

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Volumetric Heat Source

A volumetric heat source can be used to model an arbitrarily shaped heat source ( ) or heat
sink ( ) within the domain. The corresponding source strength denotes the rate of an internal
heating or cooling per unit volume.
The term volumetric heat source may be a bit misleading. This is best seen by looking at the unit of a
volumetric heat source that depends on the dimension of the system. In a 1D domain ( ), 2D
domain ( ) and in a 3D domain ( ) has a unit of , and ,
respectively. So the name comes from the 3D incarnation of the heat source but is used in other
dimensions as well.
In the following 2D example a rectangular heat source is introduced to heat up the domain. The
source strength is fixed at .
Define a 2D domain and a rectangular source region.

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For more involved shapes of a heat source, the function RegionMember can be used to specify the
source region .
Set up the heat source with a source strength with a RegionMember function.
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In this case, however, because the shape of the heat source is simple we can simply specify the formula
of the source region by making use of an If statement. This will lead to a more efficient time
integration. The reason the If statement is more efficient is that it can be automatically compiled while
the RegionMemberFunction can not be compiled.
Also, see this note about the set up of efficient PDE coefficients.
Find a simplified region member test for a rectangle with exact numbers.
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Set up a simplified heat source .

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The most accurate and efficient method to deal with heat sources is by element makers as then the
mesh will have a specific subregion for the heat source which will result in an accurate solution. More
information on markers and their generation in meshes can be found in the Element Mesh Generation
tutorial.
An example that uses element makers for the heat source set up is presented in the appendix section:
Modeling Heat Source by Element Markers.
Define the heat transfer PDE with a volumetric source term and an initial temperature field .
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Solve the PDE with NDSolveValue .

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Set up a legend bar and ContourPlot options for the temperature field plot.
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Make an animation of the solution using Plot and ListAnimate .

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See this note about improving the visual quality of the animation.
The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . With a volumetric heat source
placed in the domain, thermal energy is generated and gradually heats up the domain. The speed
of the heat transfer depends on the heat conductivity and the heat capacity of the material.
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Layer Heat Source
A layer heat source models a heat source ( ) or heat sink ( ) that is too thin to have a
thickness in the model geometry. A layer heat source can be made use of in 3D and in 2D domains. In
1D domains a layer heat source is the same dimension as the simulation domain, which would make it
a volumetric source. The corresponding source strength denotes the rate of the internal heating or
cooling per unit area.
Here is a Dirac delta function at the source location .
The Dirac delta function, however, poses a problem in numerical simulations as it can not be resolved
in the discretized spatial domain. This is because the Dirac delta function is singular at the source
location . A second problem is that the evaluation of coefficients always happens within mesh
elements, never at the edges. Hence, an approximation to the Dirac delta function is needed. The
process of approximating the Dirac delta function is called regularization.
There are various regularized delta functions available [17][18]. In this tutorial we choose:
where is the regularization parameter that controls the support of the regularized delta functions .
Typically should have a size comparable to the mesh spacing .
Set up the regularized delta functions centered on the source region.

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The units of a layer heat source depend on the dimension of the system, much like the volumetric
heat source. In a 3D domain ( ) the layered heat source is presented as a 2D surface, and thus
has a unit of . In 2D domain ( ), however, the geometry of a layer heat source renders
into a 1D line, and the unit of becomes . In 1D there is no layer heat source. In that case a
point heat source should be used instead.
In the following 2D example a layer heat source is added at to heat up the domain. The
source strength is fixed at .
Define a 2D domain and the source region at .

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To accommodate the layered heat source in the mesh, a boundary mesh with the line at is
generated.
Generate and visualize the mesh that contains the source region.
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More information on the mesh generation can be found in the Element Mesh Generation tutorial.
To utilize the regularized delta function , we choose the regularization parameter to be half of the
mesh spacing: .
Inspect the mesh spacing and set the regularization parameter .

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Set the layer heat source with the strength using the regularized delta function .
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Define the heat transfer PDE with a layer heat source and an initial temperature field .
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The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . With a layer heat source
placed at , the thermal energy is generated and propagates towards both sides of the domain.
The speed of the heat transfer depends on the heat conductivity and the heat capacity of the
material.
Note that a layered heat source is not limited to a linear surface in or a straight line in .
The following 2D example demonstrates a layer heat source with a curved source region.
Define a 2D domain and a curved source region.

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Generate meshes of boundary and the curved source region.

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Join the two meshes.

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Generate and visualize the mesh that contains the curved source region.
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More information on the mesh generation can be found in the Element Mesh Generation tutorial.
Set the layer heat source with a curved source region.

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With a curved layered heat source heading downward, most of the heat is transported toward the
lower half of the domain.
Point Heat Source

A point heat source can be used to model an internal heat source ( ) or heat sink ( ) that
is considered to have no spatial extension. A point heat source can be made use of in 3D and in 2D
domains. In 1D domains, a point heat source is corresponds to a boundary condition. The
corresponding source strength denotes the rate of the internal heating or cooling at the source
point in unit power.
Since the point heat source has no spatial extension in all directions, the Dirac delta function should
be applied on each dimension (i.e. ) of the modeling domain :
Set up the regularized delta functions centered at the source point .

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In the following 2D example a point heat source is added at to heat up the

domain. The source strength is fixed at .
Generate the mesh that contains the source point .

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Set the point heat source with the strength using the regularized delta function .
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Define the heat transfer PDE with a point heat source and an initial temperature field .
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The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . With a point heat source
placed in the domain, thermal energy is generated and spreads out in all directions. The speed of the
heat transfer depends on the heat conductivity and the heat capacity of the material.
Anisotropic and Orthotropic Heat Transfer

In the previous sections we assumed that heated medium is isotropic, that is, the rate of heat transfer
is independent of its direction given the same the temperature gradient . In reality, however, a
medium may be anisotropic. This means that heat diffuses in different directions at a different rate.
The diffusion term (19) is then rewritten as:
or
where is the thermal conductivity tensor. and are called the

principal conductivity coefficients and off-diagonal conductivity coefficients, respectively.
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Based on Onsager's [20] principle of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes, the off-diagonal
conductivity must obey the reciprocity relation [21]:
Orthotropic heat transfer is a special case of anisotropic heat transfer. Here, the thermal conductivity
of a material is symmetric along the principal directions , and . This means values along the
principal direction are non-zero but unequal to each other. The off-diagonal conductivity coefficients
are zero. This behaviour can be seen, for example, in fiber composite materials. Then the thermal
conductivity tensor becomes:
As an example, consider a 2D composite material with layered-like structure:
This case is an orthotropic case where the heat transfer is more efficient horizontally. The thermal
conductivity tensor can then be described by:
Set the thermal conductivity tensor of the orthotropic material.

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Set a heat source.

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Visualize the heat transfer in an orthotropic material.
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Unlike the example shown in the previous section, in the case the heat transfer is faster in the
horizontal direction, resulting in a higher temperature zone within .
Nonlinear Heat Transfer

In the previous sections we assumed that the PDE coefficients namely, the density , the heat capacity
and the thermal conductivity are independent of the temperature field . In reality,
however, these parameters might change significantly with temperature, especially for pure metals.
As an example, consider a 1D heat transfer model with an initial temperature field at and a
temperature-dependent thermal conductivity :
Equation (22) is a nonlinear heat transfer model since the conductivity coefficient in the PDE model
now depends on the temperature itself.
Set up the model variables.

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Set up a nonlinear conductivity coefficient.

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To heat up the domain, a constant heat flux is applied on the left hand boundary.
Set up a heat flux boundary condition at the left end with NeumannValue . Top
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Set the non-linear heat transfer PDE with a temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and an initial temperature
field .
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Solve the nonlinear PDE using NDSolveValue .

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To understand the effects of the nonlinearity compare to a linear heat transfer PDE.
Set up linear heat transfer PDE with a constant thermal conductivity .

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Solve the linear heat transfer PDE.

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Make an animation of the solutions using Plot and ListAnimate .

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The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . With a constant heat flux
applied on the left side, thermal energy is then transferred across the boundary and heats
up the domain.
For the non-linear model, as the temperature increases the thermal conductivity will
increase correspondingly, which further speeds up the heat transfer and results in a flatter
temperature field.
Heat Transfer with Events

A common topic in heat transfer modeling is to simulate dynamic or pulsed thermal loads. That is,Top
a
heat flux that turns on and off under different conditions. In such cases we can make use of
WhenEvent to construct and efficiently solve the heat transfer model.
Consider a 1D room model where heat continuously flows out of the room at both sides. A heater is
placed in the domain to warm up the room, but will only turn on when the temperature at the center
drops below the threshold temperature . To prevent overheating the
heater will turn off when is above .
Set up the model variables.

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To model the conditional heating of the heater, we apply a volumetric heat source using
WhenEvent . The heat source is switched on and off when the central temperature
reaches or .
Define a conditional heat source using WhenEvent with a given source strength of .
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To model the cooling of the room, a constant cooling flux is applied on both ends of the
domain.
Set up a heat flux boundary condition at both ends with NeumannValue .

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Next, we define the heat transfer PDE with the conditional heat source . Since the heater is off at
the beginning, the initial value of the heat source is set at .
Set the heat transfer PDE with the conditional heat source .
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Set up the PDE with an initial room temperature .

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To solve this heat transfer PDE we specify as a discrete variable, which means it only changes at
discrete times during the temporal integration by NDSolve .
Solve the heat transfer PDE with the conditional heat source .
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The simulation begins with an uniform temperature at . With a constant cooling flux
applied on both sides, heat continuously flows out of the domain and brings down the room
temperature. The heat source is then turned on and off when the central temperature
reaches or , resulting in an oscillating temperature field.
While it would also be possible to make use of an If statement to model the dynamic or pulsed heat
source, the use of WhenEvent has the distinct advantage that NDSolve has special mechanisms built in
to detect the events during the time integration. This mechanism may not be available when modeling
the pulsed heat source with an If or similar statement.
Details about modeling heat pulses are presented in the appendix section: Possible Issues and
Workarounds for Modeling Heat Pulses.
Heat Transfer in Porous Media

Porous media are multiphase objects with a solid skeleton portion and a porous region that is filled
with a fluid. Due to its special thermal and mechanical properties, porous materials have been widely
used in many industrial applications such as vibration suppression, heat insulation and sound
absorption.
To model heat transfer within a porous medium, one approach, called a direct approach, is to build a
coupled PDE with two heat equations with material coefficients suitable for each phase. One equation
describes the temperature field in the solid region and the other equation models the temperature
in the fluid region:
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Here, the subscript denotes the parameters of the solid phase and parameters of the fluid phase.
The two equations are coupled by the volume fraction of each phase, and the heat exchange between
two phases are accounted for explicitly by an additional heat source/sink term on the right hand
side.
However, to make use of this approach it is required to reproduce the entire pore structure of the
domain. Due to the geometric complexity of the microscopic porous structure, a fine finite element
mesh may be required to resolve the geometry accurately and thus leads to a significant computational
cost to solve the model can be expected.
An alternate approach is to model pores on a macroscopic scale. In this case, the heat transfer model
uses an average temperature field to describe the entire porous structure of both phases. To do so
volume-averaged effective thermal properties are used, and the model can be expressed by a single
heat equation:
Here is the effective volumetric heat capacity and is the effective heat conductivity, which
are computed based on the volume fraction and the properties of each phase.
Assuming the porous medium to be fully saturated, the volume fraction of both phases can be related
by: . Then the equation (23) becomes:
Note that the fluid's volume fraction is also known as the porosity of the medium. For the sake of
simplicity, we will omit its subscript in the following section.
As an example, consider a 2D heat transfer model of a porous medium. A fluid flow is passing through
the domain with a width of and a height of , and a constant heat flux is applied on the
left surface to heat up the domain. To understand the effects of the porosity on the heat transfer, the
model will be solved with three different porosity values of , and (purely fluidic
medium).
Set up density , heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the solid and fluid phases.
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Compute the effective conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of the porous medium.
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Equation (24) has an effective volumetric heat capacity in front of the time derivative and at the same
time uses material parameters for the fluidic phase. To accommodate for that, the equation is
generated in part with HeatTransferPDEComponent and an additional time derivative term. For that,
the model variables include time asa dependent variable but not the time variable itself. The time
derivative with it's effective volumetric heat capacity will be added manually.
Set up the model variable.

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Set up the model parameters and a flow moving to the right.

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Construct the heat transfer PDE for a porous medium with an initial temperature field .
To heat up the domain, a constant heat flux into the domain is applied on the left
surface at .
Set up a heat flux boundary condition at the left end with NeumannValue .
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Construct the heat transfer PDE for a porous medium with an initial temperature field and a right going
flow .
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Repetitively solve the PDE at the porosity , and with ParametricNDSolveValue .

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Visualize the temperature field of the porous domain with the porosity .
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Note that the temperature field is symmetric in the direction.
To study the effects of the porosity on the heat transfer, we can compare the temperature evolution
along the axis at three different porosity values of , and (purely fluidic medium).
Inspect the temperature distribution along at , and .

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Since the heat capacity value in the solid phase is smaller than in the fluid phase: , the
medium with a larger amount of solid (i.e. lower porosity ) will be more susceptible to the
temperature change. This can be verified by computing the effective volumetric heat capacity
at , and .
Compare the effective volumetric heat capacity at different porosity .

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Note that the effective heat capacity is the smallest for for .
Heat Transfer Model with Mixed Dimensions

The following section demonstrates how to model heat transfer phenomena defined in different
spatial dimensions. As an example, consider a 2D ceramic strip with a uniform initial temperature of
. At the left surface the ceramic is cooled down by attaching to a thin pad with a cooling flux
through it. The cooling flux is proportional to the temperature difference between the
pad and the ceramic with a heat transfer coefficient .
A constant heat flux is applied on the top of the ceramic. The right and bottom
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surfaces of the ceramic are assumed to be thermally insulated.
To solve for the temperature field of the ceramic, a first idea might be to build a single 2D
system and model the cooling pad as a heat flux boundary condition. In this example, however, the
cooling flux depends not only on but also on the pad temperature . In order to
determine the value of the pad temperature it is necessary to also model the heat transfer in the
thin cooling pad.
Assuming that the cooling pad to be much thinner than the width of the ceramic, the temperature
variation of the pad in the direction can be neglected. The cooling pad can thus be modeled as a 1D
region while the ceramic strip is modeled as a 2D region. In other words a mixed dimensional model
can be used.
For simplicity the heat transfer coefficient and the thermal conductivity , density and heat
capacity for both the ceramic strip and the pad are set to one.
The temperature field within the ceramic strip is described by a 2D heat equation:
Set up a 2D heat transfer model to describe the temperature of the ceramic strip.
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The pad is described by the 1D domain along the axis , which coincides with the left surface of
the ceramic strip. A 1D heat equation can be used to model the pad temperature along the 1D pad
region as:
However, to solve a coupled PDE system, NDSolve requires all the dependent variables to have the
same spatial dimensionality. For this reason, we have to introduce a "fictitious dimension" for theTop
pad
temperature in the direction, yielding:
That is, we will be solving the pad temperature not only in the 1D pad region, but also the entire 2D
domain of the ceramic strip. However, since is just a fictitious dimension for the pad there is no
physical meaning to a value within the ceramic region , which means the resulting pad
temperature field will only be valid along the 1D pad region on the axis .
Set up a heat transfer model for the pad with a fictitious dimension in the direction.
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Next we need to consider the heat exchange between the cooling pad and the ceramic strip. From the
perspective of the ceramic, heat is lost through the left ceramic boundary to the pad, and can be
modeled with a heat flux boundary condition.
Set up a heat flux boundary condition on the left surface of the ceramic with a cooling heat flux .
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Set up the heat transfer coefficient.

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Set up the same boundary condition with a heat transfer value.

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From the perspective of the cooling pad, heat is gained from the ceramic strip over the entire pad
domain. This can be modeled by a heat source term in the equation (25).
Due to the law of energy balance, the heat source of the pad should have the same magnitude but
an opposite sign from the cooling flux of the ceramic.
Set up a heat source to model the heat gain of the pad.

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A constant heating flux is applied on the upper surface of the ceramic.
Set up a constant heat flux on the upper ceramic boundary.

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Set up the initial temperature of the ceramic strip and the cooling pad .
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Solve the coupled heat transfer PDE model.

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Visualize the temperature field of the ceramic strip and the cooling pad.
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Out[169]=
Next, we inspect the pad temperature within the 1D pad region and compare it to the
ceramic temperature on the left ceramic surface. A custom function, TwoAxisPlot, is defined and
applied to rescale the temperature range in the plot for better visualization.
Inspect the pad temperature and the ceramic temperature along at .

In[170]:=
Out[171]=
Since the heat gain of the pad depends on the ceramic temperature , the pad temperature follows
a similar pattern with along the left ceramic surface . Top
Inspect the temperature field of the ceramic along the cross section .
In[172]:=
Out[174]=
Introducing a fictitious dimension in the coupled PDE system enables solving a mixed dimensional
model involving a 1D and a 2D heat equation. This technique is known as the "Fictitious Domain
Method", and can also be applied to other dimensions (1, 2 or 3D) in a similar manner.
Heat Transfer with Phase Change

A phase change in thermodynamics denotes the phenomenon where materials transit from one state
(solid, liquid, gas, plasma) to another, which only occurs at certain temperature and pressure and
when sufficient energy is added or removed from the system. The energy associated with the phase
change, which is known as the latent heat , is used to alter the molecular structure instead of creating
a temperature change of the material.
As an example, consider the following 1D model that describes the ice-to-water phase change along a
bar of ice. The rod has an initial temperature of , and a constant heat flux
is applied at the left end to melt the rod. At the right end the rod is assumed to be thermally insulated.
In the heat transfer model, instead of simulating the phase transition exactly at the phase change
temperature , we assume that the transition occurs in a temperature interval: to
. The material phase during the transition is then described by a smoothed step function ,
which denotes the ratio of the original phase to the new phase within the material.
Define the smooth step function to describe the material phase.

In[175]:=
Top
Out[177]=
Within the temperature interval: , the equivalent density and conductivity are given by:
Specify the density and thermal conductivity for ice and water.
In[178]:=
Define the equivalent density and thermal conductivity .

In[182]:=
The equivalent specific heat capacity , however, should include an extra term to account for
the latent heat required for the phase transition. Here denotes the distribution of the latent heat
during the phase change, and is approximated by a regularized delta function around the phase
change temperature :
Specify the latent heat of fusion and the distribution of latent heat .
In[185]:=
Top
Out[187]=
Note that the integral of equals to the latent heat required for the phase change:
Check the equality of and the latent heat .

In[188]:=
Out[188]=
The equivalent heat capacity is then given by:
Define the equivalent heat capacity .

In[189]:=
Set up the initial temperature of the rod.

In[192]:=
Set up a heat flux boundary condition at the left end with a constant heat flux .
In[194]:=
Out[194]=
A default thermally insulated boundary condition is implicitly applied at the right end of the rod.

In[195]:=
To better understand the effects of the latent heat on the phase change, we will compare the above
result with a solution that neglects the latent heat.
Top
Define the equivalent heat capacity that neglects the latent heat of fusion.
In[197]:=
Set up and solve the heat transfer PDE that ignores the latent heat.
In[198]:=

In[200]:=
Out[202]=
Heat Transfer with Model Order Reduction

Some times one want to re-run the same heat transfer simulation with different initial data. In this
case model order reduction can be of help. The idea behind model order reduction is make use of the
discretization of the PDE and find a similar discretization that can be time integrated much more
efficiently. In order to perform a model order reduction, access to the discretization NDSolve makes is
necessary. This is currently not possible on the NDSolve level but requires a bit of programing and is
explained in the section Model Order Reduction of Transient PDEs with Stationary Coefficients and
Stationary Boundary Conditions in the Finite Element Programming tutorial.
Boundary Conditions in Heat Transfer

The most common boundary conditions in heat transfer modeling can be modeled with
DirichletCondition , NeumannValue and PeriodicBoundaryCondition , and can be categorized in the
following four types:
Dirichlet type boundary conditions. This type of boundary condition specifies the temperature at the
boundary, and can be modeled with DirichletCondition .
Neumann type boundary conditions. This type of boundary condition specifies the heat flux at the
boundary, and can be modeled with NeumannValue . Top
Robin type boundary conditions. This type of boundary condition specifies the relation between the
temperature and its normal derivatives at the boundary, and can modeled with a NeumannValue
since Robin type boundary conditions are technically generalized Neumann boundary conditions.
Periodic boundary conditions. This type of boundary condition specifies the temperature at one part
of the boundary to be the same at another part, and can be modeled with PeriodicBoundaryCondition .
Under these four types, the following boundary conditions are introduced:
Dirichlet Type
Temperature Surface Boundary Conditions
Neumann Type
Heat Flux Boundary Conditions
Neumann Zero Type (default setup when no boundary conditions are given)
Thermally Insulated Boundary Conditions
Symmetry Boundary Conditions
Outflow Boundary Conditions
Robin Type
Convective Boundary Conditions
Thermal Radiation Boundary Conditions
Periodic Type
Periodic Boundary Conditions
The following section describes several physical boundaries commonly encountered in heat transfer
and how they can be modeled with the use of DirichletCondition , NeumannValue and
PeriodicBoundaryCondition . For this purpose, the boundary condition being currently discussed is
always on the left hand side of the simulation domain. In some examples, additional boundary
conditions are specified on the right hand side to better demonstrate the behaviour of the boundary
condition on the left hand side.
Surface Temperature Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a surface temperature boundary condition is to set a specific temperature on some part
of the boundary.
Formulation
With a specified temperature on the boundary , the temperature surface condition is given
by:
A temperature surface boundary for the dependent variable modeled with DirichletCondition .
Top
In[203]:=
Out[203]=
Derivation
We speak of a temperature boundary condition when the surface temperature is prescribed on a
boundary. The surface temperature can either be a constant or time-dependent value, and is set
with a DirichletCondition in the heat transfer PDE model.
To model, for example, a heating wall that sends thermal energy into the domain, a transient surface
temperature can be set up at the left end. Note that a Neumann zero condition is implicitly
applied at the right end as a thermal insulated boundary.
Here a smoothed step function is used to described the profile of the surface temperature from
to . The parameters and are arbitrarily chosen to simulate the heating
process.
Specify the surface temperature profile with a smoothed step function.

In[204]:=
In[208]:=
Out[209]=
Set up variables and parameters.

In[210]:=
Set up the temperature boundary condition with DirichletCondition .

In[212]:=
Set up the PDE with an undisturbed initial temperature field: . Top
In[213]:=

In[214]:=

In[215]:=
Out[217]=
The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . As the surface temperature
increases at the left boundary, the excess thermal energy is then transfered to the right and brings up
the temperature throughout the domain. The speed of the heat transfer depends on the heat
conductivity and the heat capacity of the material.
Heat Flux Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a heat flux boundary condition is to model the amount of thermal energy flowing into
or out of some part of the boundary.
Formulation
With a prescribed heat flux on the boundary , the heat flux boundary condition is given by:
A heat flux boundary for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .
In[218]:=
Out[219]=
Derivation
A boundary where the heat flux normal to the boundary is specified and not equal to zero is
called a heat flux boundary:
By convention a negative sign is added in front of to indicate that the heat flux is specified
opposite to the outward normal . Therefore, a positive value of denotes the inward heat flux where Top
the thermal energy enters the domain, and a negative denotes an outward flux.
Fourier's law of thermal conduction (26) relates the heat flux with the temperature gradient :
Inserting (27) into (28), the heat flux boundary condition can be written as:
Note that the unit of heat flux depends on the dimension of the boundary. In 1D ( ), 2D ( )
and 3D domain ( ), has a unit of , and , respectively.
In the following example a transient heat flux is applied on the left boundary when to
heat up the domain.
Set up the variables and the parameters.

In[220]:=
The profile of the heat flux is defined as:
Set up the heat flux boundary at the left end with NeumannValue .
In[222]:=
Out[223]=
Set up the PDE with an undisturbed initial temperature field: .

In[224]:=

In[225]:=

In[226]:=
Top
Out[228]=
With the heat flux applied on the left boundary, thermal energy flows across the boundary and
gradually heats up the domain. The heat flux is turned off at time . The uneven temperature
field is then smoothed out over time by the internal heat transfer.
Note that the value of the heat flux is related to the temperature gradient by Fourier's law:
. That is, the heat flux directly controls the temperature gradient normal to the
boundary.
Thermally Insulated Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a thermally insulated boundary condition is to model a boundary where there is no
heat flux across it.
Formulation
A thermally insulated boundary condition is given by:
A thermally insulated boundary for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .
In[229]:=
Out[229]=
If on some part of the boundary no boundary condition is set, an implicit Neumann zero boundary
condition is used.
Derivation
A thermally insulated condition denotes a boundary where there is no heat flux across it:
Inserting (29) into the heat flux boundary condition (30), then the thermally insulated boundary
condition can be written as:
In the following example an insulated boundary is placed on the left hand boundary, and a constant
heat flux is added on the right end to serve as a heat source.
Set up variables and parameters. Top
In[230]:=
To model a thermally insulated boundary condition the NeumannValue is set to at the left end.
In[232]:=
Out[232]=
If no boundary condition is specified on any part of the boundary then by default a Neumann zero
boundary condition is implicitly used. This implies that the thermally insulated boundary is the
default boundary condition used if no boundary condition is specified at a given boundary.
Set up a constant heat flux on the right boundary.

In[233]:=
Out[233]=

In[234]:=

In[235]:=

In[236]:=
Out[238]=
With a constant heat flux enforced on the right boundary, the temperature gradually increases within
the domain. On the insulated boundary at the left end, however, the temperature gradient remains
at zero at all times.
Since the temperature gradient is related to the heat flux by Fourier's law: , a zero
temperature gradient implies a zero heat flux on the boundary (i.e. thermal insulated boundary).
Symmetry Boundary Condition

Purpose Top
A symmetry boundary condition is used when the computational domain, and the expected
temperature field, have mirror symmetry along an axis of the simulation domain.
Formulation
The symmetry boundary condition is given by:
A symmetry boundary for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .

In[239]:=
Out[239]=
If on some part of the boundary no boundary condition is set an implicit Neumann zero boundary
condition is used.
Derivation
A symmetry boundary condition is used to reduce the extent of the computational domain to a
symmetric sub-domain of the full physical model geometry. This allows for a faster solution process
with a lower memory requirement.
Consider the case of solving the temperature field of a 1D system from to . If the
temperature pattern is expected to have a mirror symmetry along , we can efficiently construct
the simulation domain with only the left half of the system. Then a symmetry boundary condition
should be applied at .
Due to the symmetry, the temperature gradient at the symmetry boundary will remain at zero at all
time, which implies a zero heat flux across the boundary. Therefore, a symmetry boundary condition
is equivalent to a thermally insulated boundary condition.
Outflow Boundary Condition

Purpose
Top
If the heat transfer occurs in a fluid medium where the flow velocity , then an outflow boundary
condition is used to model an outlet where heat is transferred out of the domain by fluid flow.
Formulation
When modeling heat transfer in a fluid medium, the outflow boundary condition at the outlet is
given by:
An outflow boundary for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .

In[240]:=
Out[240]=
If on some part of the boundary no boundary condition is set an implicit Neumann zero boundary
condition is used.
Derivation
When modeling heat transfer with a fluid flow, the diffusion heat flux is set to zero at the
flow outlet boundary. This condition means that the temperature field of the flow outside the domain
is assumed to have no impact on the flow inside the modeling domain .
The outflow boundary condition can only be applied on fully-developed flows. That is, at the flow
outlet the velocity profile is unchanging in the flow direction.
In a case where there is recirculation through the outlet boundary, which often happens for turbulent
flow, the reentering flow will affect the temperature field of the flow inside the domain and break the
zero diffusion flux assumption. In this situation the outflow boundary condition is no longer
applicable.
Since the outflow boundary condition is essentially a Neumann zero condition, it will be implicitly
applied if no boundary condition is specified at a given boundary.
Convective Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a convective boundary condition is to model thermal energy transferred across a
boundary induced by a flow adjacent to the same part of the boundary.
Formulation
Given the profile of an external temperature and a heat transfer coefficient on the boundary
, the convective boundary condition is given by:
A convective boundary for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .

In[241]:=
Out[241]=
Top
Derivation
With the existence of a fluid flowing adjacent to the boundary surface, part of the thermal energy will
be transferred across the boundary through the movement of fluid particles, which is known as
convective heating or cooling.
In 1701, Newton found that the rate of convective heat transfer between two media is proportional to
their temperature difference. The convective heat flux is therefore defined as:
Here denotes the temperature of the external fluid, and in units of is the
convective heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer coefficient is determined experimentally and
depends on material properties like density , the thermal diffusivity and the flow situation of the
external fluid such as viscosity and Rayleigh number .
The approximate range of the convection heat transfer coefficients are presented in following table:
Several empirical based formulas are also built [31,32] to estimate the heat transfer coefficient in
different situations.
Inserting (33) into the heat flux boundary condition (34), the convective boundary condition can be
written as:
In the following example a constant external flow at is applied on the left boundary
to heat up the domain of an initial temperature field at . The convection heat transfer
through the boundary is modeled by the convective boundary condition with a given heat transfer
coefficient .
Set up the convective boundary condition with NeumannValue .

In[242]:=
Out[242]=

In[243]:=

In[244]:=

Top
In[245]:=
Out[247]=
With the external flow flowing left of the left boundary, excess thermal energy is transferred across the
boundary into the domain. Since the convective heat flux is proportional to the temperature difference
across the boundary: , the temperature gradient at
the left boundary will gradually decrease as the temperature at the boundary approaches the
external temperature .
Thermal Radiation Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a thermal radiation boundary condition is to model heating or cooling through
radiation on some part of the boundary.
Formulation
Given an ambient temperature , the surface emissivity and the Stefan-Boltzmann constant
on the boundary , the thermal radiation boundary condition can be written as:
A thermal radiation boundary condition for the dependent variable modeled with NeumannValue .
In[248]:=
Out[248]=
Derivation
All bodies with a temperature above the absolute zero (i.e. ) will
constantly emit thermal energy through electromagnetic radiation. The amount of radiation depends
on both body temperature and surface condition. For a perfect thermal radiator, a black body, the
Stefan-Boltzmann law states that the emitting heat flux is proportional to the fourth power of the
body's absolute temperature:
where is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
In practice, however, the actually emitted heat flux is less than that of the black body radiation by a
fraction known as the "surface emissivity". The value of the emissivity is and depends onTop
factors such as physical properties and surface condition of the radiative body.
The Stefan-Boltzmann law can be rewritten as:
Based on (35) we can formulate a radiation boundary condition by inspecting the net radiative heat
flux across a boundary:
The emitted, outgoing radiative flux from a boundary depends on its surface temperature and
the emissivity by:
At the same time, a boundary will absorb the radiation coming from the environment. This absorbed,
incoming radiative flux is given by:
Here is the ambient temperature and is the emissivity of the environment. Note that an extra
term , the surface absorptivity factor, is multiplied on the right hand side to account for the
absorptivity of the boundary. This term denotes the ratio of the actual absorbed radiative flux to the
total arriving flux.
Therefore, the net radiative heat flux across the boundary is given by:
To satisfy the thermodynamic equilibrium, for an arbitrary body the absorptivity should be equal to
its emissivity . This is known as the Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation [36].
The equation (37) is then simplified to:
Assuming that the ambient surroundings behaves as a black body with the emissivity , the
equation can be further simplified as:
Inserting (38) into the heat flux boundary condition (39), then the radiative boundary condition is
given by:
or
Note that the above derivation is performed based on the absolute temperature. That means the
temperature terms in (40) have the unit of Kelvin . Top
To apply a radiation boundary condition in Celsius , an unit conversion should be done in (41) :
Here denotes the temperature of absolute zero.
As an example consider the ambient temperature of and a surface emissivity at

the left hand boundary. The net radiative heat flux across the boundary is modeled by the radiation
boundary condition.

In[13]:=
Set up the thermal radiation boundary condition in the unit of Celsius .

In[15]:=
Out[15]=

In[16]:=

In[17]:=

In[254]:=
Out[256]=
Due to the lower ambient temperature on the left end, the net radiative heat flux flows out of the
system from the left hand boundary, which gradually cools down the domain.
Similar to the convective boundary condition, the temperature gradient on the left boundary
depends on the temperature difference across the boundary, and can be calculated by Fourier's law:
.
Inspect the temperature gradient on the left hand boundary at .

Top
In[27]:=
Out[27]=
The temperature gradient on the left end is shown to be .
Periodic Boundary Condition

Purpose
The purpose of a periodic boundary condition is to map the temperature from one part of a boundary
to another in order to model periodicity of the domain.
Formulation
Given a function that maps the temperature from the periodic boundary to the targeted
boundary , the periodic boundary condition can be written as:
A periodic boundary condition for the dependent variable modeled with PeriodicBoundaryCondition .
In[258]:=
Derivation
A periodic boundary condition is applied to compute heat transfer in spatially periodic domains.
Given a targeted boundary , the temperature on a periodic boundary can be mapped to
the temperature on the targeted surface by a prescribed function . The boundary
condition is set by the PeriodicBoundaryCondition in the heat transfer PDE model.
As an example a ring heater is modeled where a thin film is inserted to serve as a heat source. It is
possible to perform the simulation with a 1D domain by using the periodic boundary condition.
The ring heater is converted into a 1D model with the length which is the perimeter of the
ring. To simulate the heating process the temperature of the heating film is specified at the left
boundary. At the right hand boundary a periodic boundary condition is applied to map the
boundary temperature to the target boundary .
Set up the PeriodicBoundaryCondition at the right end with the mapping function . Top
In[260]:=
Here a smoothed step function is used to prescribe a temperature profile on the heating film. The
parameters and are chosen arbitrarily to fit the parameters of heat transfer model.
Set up the variables and the parameters.

In[263]:=
Specify the temperature profile of the heating film at the left end.
In[265]:=
In[270]:=
Out[270]=

In[271]:=

In[272]:=

In[273]:=
Out[275]=
The simulation begins with an undisturbed domain where . During the heating process, the
temperature on the periodic boundary has been mapped to the left hand boundary while the
temperature of the heating film increases. The thermal energy is then transferred from both ends
and gradually heats up the domain.
Top
As an alternative, in this example, the PeriodicBoundaryCondition could be replaced by using the

DirichletCondition from the left boundary also at the right boundary.
Alternative setup to replace the periodic boundary condition.

In[276]:=
It is also worth noting that if the left hand side had been any other boundary condition, the
PeriodicBoundaryCondition would have projected that to the right. In other words, the
PeriodicBoundaryCondition projects whatever boundary condition it finds where the mapping function
points to, to the target that is specified as the predicate.
Appendix
Special Cases of the Heat Equation

Stationary case
If the temperature field is at steady state, the transient term in (42) vanishes and the heat equation
simplifies to:
Heat Equation in Cylindrical Coordinates

When modeling a heat transfer problem, sometimes it is not convenient to describe the model in
Cartesian coordinates . In such cases, the heat equation may also be expressed using a
cylindrical or spherical coordinate system.
A graphics showing cylindrical coordinates:
In the cylindrical coordinate system , and denote the radial, azimuthal and vertical directions,
respectively. In terms of the Cartesian coordinates , the cylindrical coordinates are defined by:
or
Top
By inserting the coordinate relations (43) into (44), the heat equation can be expressed in cylindrical
coordinates as:
If the heat transfer within a model is rotationally symmetric about the axis, the resulting
temperature field will be invariant in the direction. The equation (45) then simplifies to:
In that case, a 3D heat transfer problem can be modeled in a 2D domain by making use of this
symmetric property. This type of model is known as an axisymmetric model.
HeatTransferPDEComponent can generate the axisymmetric form of the heat transfer equation (46) by
specifying the parameter “RegionSymmetry” and setting it to “Axisymmetric”.
In[8]:=
Out[8]=
Examples that make use of the cylindrical coordinate system with a 2D axisymmetric model can be
found in the separate Heat Transfer Verification Tests notebook: one time independent 2D example
and one time dependent 2D example. Several other examples can be found on the
HeatTransferPDEComponent reference page.
Heat Equation in Spherical Coordinates

A graphics showing spherical coordinates:
In the spherical coordinate system , and denote the radial, azimuthal and polar directions,
respectively. In terms of the Cartesian coordinates: , the spherical coordinates are defined by:
Top
or
By inserting the coordinate relations (47) into (48), the heat equation can be expressed in the
spherical coordinate system as:
The Smoothing Characteristic of the Diffusion Equation

The basic behaviour of a diffusion equation is smoothing. To see the effect set up initial conditions
that are discontinuous at .
In[277]:=
In[278]:=
Out[278]=
The PDE for the temperature field is given by:

In[279]:=
In[280]:=

In[281]:=
Visualize the initial conditions and the smoothed out solution.

In[282]:=
Out[282]=
Top
In a short time the sharp tip of the discontinuous initial condition at x=1/2 has been smoothed out.
This smoothing effect is a major characteristic of the diffusion equation and therefore also of the heat
equation.
Modeling Heat Sources using Element Markers

The most accurate and efficient method to deal with heat sources is by making use of element markers
as then the mesh will have a specific subregion for the heat source which will result in an accurate
solution. Element marker and their use in meshes is explained in detail in the section Element Marker
in the Element Mesh Generation tutorial.
In the following 2D example we introduce a rectangular heat source to heat up the domain.
Create and visualize a boundary element mesh with an internal boundary separating the heat source from the
remaining domain.
In[285]:=
Out[288]=
Next we specify region markers with the "RegionMarker" option for ToElementMesh . To do so a
coordinate within the heat source should be given, as well as an integer marker. Optionally, an
additional maximum cell measure can be specified to refine the source region.
Create and visualize an element mesh with internal markers.

In[289]:=
Top
Out[290]=
An alternative to generate the mesh is to make use of the Boolean region functions and specify the no
region holes should be inserted. The same region marker process from above is used.
Specify a region.
In[291]:=
Set up the mesh.

In[292]:=
Out[293]=

In[294]:=
Set the source strength .

In[296]:=
Set up a heat source with the element marker.

In[297]:= Top
Define the heat transfer PDE with a volumetric source term and an initial temperature field .
In[298]:=

In[299]:=
In[300]:=

In[303]:=
Out[307]=
This result agrees with the one that didn't make use of element makers, which is shown in the section:
Volumetric Heat Source. For complicated geometries the use of region element markers will be easier
to set up and compute the solution more efficiently.
Conservation Laws with Discontinuous PDE coefficients

To explain why the heat transfer PDE holds for discontinuous density/velocity field, we start with the
mass conservation:
Assume that the density and the flow velocity are discontinuous at the interface ℐ: Top
Since there is no mass creation or destruction on the interface ℐ, the mass flux should still be the same
on both sides of ℐ:
That is, the mass flux should be continuous throughout the domain. We can then apply the
divergence theorem [49] on the equation (50) leading to:
Since the domain is completely arbitrary, we can discard the integral and yield the mass
conservation equation in the differential form:
That means the mass conservation equation (51) also holds true for the domain with discontinuous
density/velocity field.
The heat equation is essentially an energy conservation equation, and can be derived in a similar way
by substituting the density in (52) with the internal energy . Therefore, the heat transfer model
presented in the tutorial can be applied on both continuous and discontinuous density/velocity fields.
Possible Issues and Workarounds for Modeling Heat Pulses

In the section: Heat Transfer with Events, we mentioned that it is possible to use an If statement to
model heat pulses with time-dependent heat transfer model. However, when pulse durations become
very small, the default time-stepping algorithm of NDSolve may fail to detect the prescribed heat
pulse.
In the following section we will demonstrate the issue with an example, followed by two workarounds
for modeling heat pulses.
Consider a 1D time-dependent heat transfer model with periodic heat pulses applied in the middle
part of the domain. During the time span there are a total of five pulses with a duration of
.
Set the periodic heat pulses using an If statement.
Top
In[308]:=
Out[311]=
Define the 1D domain .

In[312]:=
To model the cooling of the domain, the temperature at both ends are fixed at .
Set up a temperature surface boundary condition at both ends of the domain.

In[313]:=
Define an area in the domain in which to activate the heat pulse in.
In[314]:=
For the demonstration purpose the thermal conductivity , the density and the heat capacity are
set to one.
Solve the time-dependent heat transfer PDE with periodic heat pulses .
In[315]:=
Inspect the temperature field.

In[316]:=
Out[318]=
Note that without using options, NDSolve missed the last two heat pulses at and .
Top
Next we present two possible workarounds to deal with this issue.
Method 1 - Reduce MaxStepFraction

The first method is to specify a smaller time step for the time integration process by NDSolve . The
option "MaxStepFraction" allows user to set the maximum fraction of the total time range to cover in a
single step.
Solve the PDE and make sure that NDSolve uses at least 100 steps for the time integration.
In[319]:=

In[320]:=
Out[322]=
With a smaller time step NDSolve successfully captured all five heat pulses between .
Method 2 - Using WhenEvent

Another, better, approach is to use WhenEvent to specify the heat pulses. The use of WhenEvent has
the distinct advantage that NDSolve has special mechanisms built in to detect the pulses during the
time integration. This mechanism may not be available when modeling heat pulses with an If or
similar statement.
More details about the usage of WhenEvent and its event detection method can be found here.
Set the periodic heat pulses using WhenEvent .

In[323]:=
Solve the time-dependent heat transfer PDE with periodic heat pulses .
In[325]:=
In this approach the heat pulses is treated as a discrete variable by NDSolve , that is, it only
changes at discrete times during the time integration. Note also, that time integration step size
reduction is not necessary to obtain a solution.

Top
In[326]:=
Out[328]=
With the usage of WhenEvent , NDSolve successfully captured all five heat pulses between .
Nomenclature
References Top
1. Bilbao, Stefan and Hamilton, Brian. Directional Source Modeling In Wave-Based Room Acoustics
Simulation. IEEE, 2017.
2. Peskin, Charles. The Immersed Boundary Method. Cambridge University, 2002.
3. Churchill, Stuart W. and Chu, Humbert H.S. Correlating equations for laminar and turbulent free
convection from a vertical plate. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 18 (11): 1323–1329, 1975.
4. Sukhatme, S.P. A Textbook on Heat Transfer (Fourth ed.). Universities Press. pp.257–258, 2005.
5. Riedl, M. Optical Design Fundamentals for Infrared Systems (Second ed.). SPIE Press, Bellingham, WA,
2001.
6. Holman, J. P. Heat Transfer Tenth Edition, McGraw-Hill. pp. 111, Example 3-10 (2008).
7. Weisstein, Eric W. Divergence Theorem, MathWorld-A Wolfram Web Resource.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DivergenceTheorem.html.
8. Onsager, L. Physical Review. 37, 405–426, (1931); 38, 2265–2279, (1931).
9. Casimir, H. B. G. Reviews of Modern Physics. 17, 343–350, (1945).
10. Hahn, D. W. and Özişik, M. N. Heat Conduction, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, ch.15 (2012).
Related Tech Notes

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Heat Transfer Model Collection
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1/3/24, 1:32 PM Heat Transfer—Wolfram Language Documentation

Wolfram Language & System Search

PDE MODELS MONOGRAPH

Load the finite element package.

Introduction to Heat Equation

Heat Equation Derivation

PDE for heat transfer in a medium with flow.

PDE for heat transfer in a solid medium.

Heat Transfer Model Setup

The inputs needed for a heat transfer model are

the temperature variable

Set up a 1D static heat transfer model.

Set up a 2D static heat transfer model.

Set up a 1D time dependent heat transfer model.

Model Parameter Setup

Define and visualize the smoothed step function .

Basic Heat Transfer Example

The model domain of width and height of is a ceramic strip that is

Set up a rectangular domain with a width of and a height of .

Define the model variables and parameters.

Set up the convective boundary condition on the top surface. Top

Set up the thermal radiation boundary condition on the top surface.

Solve the heat transfer PDE model.

Visualize the steady-state temperature distribution.

Set up model variables and model parameters.

Volumetric Heat Source

Define a 2D domain and a rectangular source region.

Set up a simplified heat source .

Solve the PDE with NDSolveValue .

Make an animation of the solution using Plot and ListAnimate .

Here is a Dirac delta function at the source location .

Set up the regularized delta functions centered on the source region.

Define a 2D domain and the source region at .

Inspect the mesh spacing and set the regularization parameter .

Solve the PDE with NDSolveValue .

Make an animation of the solution using Plot and ListAnimate .

Define a 2D domain and a curved source region.

Generate meshes of boundary and the curved source region.

Join the two meshes.

Set the layer heat source with a curved source region.

Solve the PDE with NDSolveValue .

Make an animation of the solution using Plot and ListAnimate .

Point Heat Source

Set up the regularized delta functions centered at the source point .

In the following 2D example a point heat source is added at to heat up the

Generate the mesh that contains the source point .

Solve the PDE with NDSolveValue .

Anisotropic and Orthotropic Heat Transfer

where is the thermal conductivity tensor. and are called the

As an example, consider a 2D composite material with layered-like structure:

Set the thermal conductivity tensor of the orthotropic material.

Set a heat source.

Solve the heat transfer PDE model.

Visualize the heat transfer in an orthotropic material.

Nonlinear Heat Transfer

Set up the model variables.

Set up a nonlinear conductivity coefficient.

Solve the nonlinear PDE using NDSolveValue .