Chapter 5:

Transient Conduction
 The Lumped Capacitance Method
• A simple transient conduction problem is one for which a solid
experiences a sudden change in its thermal environment.
• A hot metal is initially at a uniform temperature Ti is submerged in a
liquid of lower temperature T∞ < Ti
• The essence of the lumped capacitance method is the assumption
that the temperature of the solid is spatially uniform at any instant
during the transient process.

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• The transient temperature response is determined by formulating an
overall energy balance on the entire solid.

Defining

• Separating variables and integrating from the initial condition, for

which t = 0 and T(0) = Ti

where

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• Evaluating the integrals:

This equation may be used to determine the time

required for the solid to reach some temperature T

This equation may be used

to compute the temperature
reached by the solid at some
time t
may be interpreted as a thermal time constant

Resistance to lumped thermal

convection heat transfer capacitance of the solid
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• Any increase in Rt or Ct will cause a solid to respond more slowly
to changes in its thermal environment.

• To determine the total energy transfer Q occurring up to some time t

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 Validity of the Lumped Capacitance
Method
• The lumped capacitance method is the simplest and most
convenient method that can be used to solve transient conduction
problem.
• Consider steady-state conduction through the plane wall of area A
• One surface is maintained at a temperature Ts,1
• The other surface is exposed to a fluid of
temperature T∞ < Ts,1
• The temperature of the intermediate
surface is Ts,2 where T∞ < Ts,2< Ts,1

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• Surface energy balance under steady-state conditions:

• Rearranging:

k is the solid thermal conductivity Biot number

• Biot number provides a measure of the temperature drop in the solid
relative to the temperature difference between the solid’s surface and
the fluid.
• If Bi << 1, the conduction resistance within the solid is much less
than the convection resistance across the fluid boundary layer,
hence, the assumption of a uniform temperature distribution within
the solid is reasonable if the Biot number is small.
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• Biot number has a great significance to transient conduction problems.
• A plane wall is initially at a uniform temperature Ti experiences
convection cooling when it is immersed in a fluid of T∞ < Ti
• For Bi << 1, the temperature gradients in the solid are small and the
assumption of a uniform temperature distribution, T(x, t) = T(t) is
reasonable.
• For Bi >> 1, the temperature difference across the solid is much larger
than that between the surface and the fluid.

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• The very first thing that one should do before using the lumped
capacitance method is calculate the Biot number!

• If the following condition is satisfied:

The error associated with using the lumped

capacitance method is small

• It is customary to define the characteristic length as the ratio of the

solid’s volume to surface area Lc = V/As

• Lc reduces to the half-thickness L for a plane wall of thickness 2L,

to ro /2 for a long cylinder, and to ro /3 for a sphere.

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• Revisiting the following equation:

• With Lc = V/As

Fourier number is
a dimensionless time

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 General Lumped Capacitance
Analysis
• A general situation: thermal conditions within a solid is influenced
simultaneously by convection, radiation, an applied surface heat
flux, and internal energy
generation.

• Applying the energy balance:

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• Radiation Only:
(no imposed heat flux, no heat generation and convection is
nonexistent)

• Separating variables and integrating:

• Evaluating both integrals and rearranging:

• For Tsur = 0, integration becomes easier and leads to:

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• Negligible Radiation:
Equation above reduces to a linear, first-order, nonhomogeneous
differential equation of the form:

• Defining:

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 Spatial Effects

• If Biot number (Bi) is NOT small, the temperature gradients within

the medium are no longer negligible => LCM can no longer be used.

• Transient conduction problems are described by the heat equation;

temperature depends on both time and the spatial coordinates.

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• Consider the plane wall shown below, only one spatial coordinate is
needed to describe the internal temperature distribution.
• With no internal generation, and constant thermal conductivity, the
heat diffusion equation reduces to:

• To solve for T(x, t), we need an initial condition and two boundary
conditions:

and

• For the equations above, it is evident that

the temperatures in the wall depend
on a number of physical parameters

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• Nondimensionalizing the governing equations:

• The heat diffusion equation becomes:

• The initial condition and boundary conditions become:

• In dimensionless form, the functional dependence becomes:

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 The Plane Wall with Convection - Exact Solution
• Plane wall of thickness 2L
• Conduction is assumed to occur exclusively in the x-direction
• The wall is initially at a uniform temperature, Ti, and is suddenly
immersed in a fluid T∞
• An exact solution to this problem is of the form:

• Valid for :
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 The Plane Wall with Convection – Approximate
Solution
• For , the infinite series solution can be approximated by:

Where
represents the midplane temperature

• The time dependence of the temperature

at any location within the wall is the same
as that of the midplane temperature!
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• The coefficients and can be evaluated and given in a tabular
form:

. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .

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 The Plane Wall with Convection – Total Energy
Transfer
• Applying the conservation of energy:
• The energy transferred from the wall
• The change in stored energy is

• It follows that: or,

• Defining
• The ratio of the total energy transferred from the wall over the time
interval t to the maximum possible transfer is:

• Using the approximate form of the temperature distribution:

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 Infinite Cylinder with Convection - Exact Solution
• The infinite cylinder is an idealization that permits the assumption of
one-dimensional conduction in the radial direction
• For a uniform initial temperature and convective boundary conditions
• In dimensionless form, the temperature is:

• Valid for :
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 Infinite Cylinder with Convection - Approximate
Solution
• For , the infinite series solution can be approximated by:

• represents the centerline temperature and is of the form

• The coefficients and can be

evaluated and given in a tabular form.

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 Sphere with Convection - Exact Solution
• Similarly, for the sphere, the dimensionless temperature is:

• Valid for :
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 Sphere with Convection - Approximate Solution
• For , the infinite series solution can be approximated by:

• represents the center temperature and is of the form

• The coefficients and can be

evaluated for a range of Biot numbers
and given in a tabular form.

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 Total Energy Transfer
• Infinite Cylinder:

• Sphere:

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 The Semi-Infinite Solid
• An important simple geometry for which analytical solutions may be
obtained is the semi-infinite solid.
• If a sudden change of conditions is imposed at this surface, transient,
one-dimensional conduction will occur.
• Heat diffusion equation:

• Initial condition:
• Boundary conditions:

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 The Semi-Infinite Solid

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• A similarity variable is defined as:

• The heat diffusion equation becomes:

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• Separating the variables and integrating:

Gaussian error
where: function

• The surface heat flux may be obtained by applying Fourier’s law

at x = 0:

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Analytical solution: Constant Surface Temperature

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 Analytical solution: Constant Surface Heat Flux

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Analytical solution: Constant Surface Temperature

complementary error function

erfc w = 1 – erf w

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 Thermal Penetration Depth
• A thermal penetration depth can be defined as the depth to which
significant temperature effects propagate within a medium.

• For example, defining as the x-location at which

(T – Ts)/(Ti – Ts) = 0.90,

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 Discretization of the Heat Equation: Explicit Method
• The heat diffusion equation (two-dimensional, transient conditions,
constant properties, and no internal generation):

• Using the central-difference approximations to the spatial derivatives:

• The integer p is introduced to discretize the problem in time:

• The finite-difference approximation to the time derivative is
expressed as:

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• In the explicit method of solution, temperature of any node at time
(p + 1) may be calculated from knowledge of temperatures at the
same and neighboring nodes for the previous ( p) time.
• This is known as s forward-difference approximation to the time
derivative.

• Solving for the nodal temperature at the new (p + 1) time and

assuming that , it follows that:

• Finite-difference form of the Fourier number:

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• An undesirable feature of the explicit method is that it is NOT
unconditionally stable.

• Stability criterion is determined by requiring that the coefficient

associated with the node of interest at the previous time is greater
than or equal to zero

• The stability criterion for a two-dimensional interior node is:

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• Application of the energy balance method: (Surface node with
convection and one-dimensional transient conduction.)
Explicit form

Biot number:

Stability criterion:

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 Discretization of the Heat Equation: Implicit Method
• The implicit form of a finite-difference equation may be derived by
approximating the time derivative in the same way derived earlier,
while evaluating all other temperatures at the new (p + 1) time.
(backward-difference approximation to the time derivative)

For

• New temperature of the (m, n) node depends on the new temperatures

of its adjoining nodes.
• To determine the unknown nodal temperatures at t + ∆t, the
corresponding nodal equations must be solved simultaneously
(Gauss–Seidel iteration or matrix inversion)
• The implicit formulation is unconditionally stable!!!
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• Application of the energy balance method: (Surface node with
convection and one-dimensional transient conduction.)
Implicit form

For the surface node

For any interior node

Biot number:

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