Transient Heat

Conduction
Introduction:
A wall exposed to the sun has to first get heated before it conducts
heat into an air-conditioned room.
A vegetable taken out of a refrigerator and left in air gets heated up.
How long will it take for the material to reach room conditions?
A vegetable is placed in refrigerator. How long will it take for it to
cool down?
What is the load on the refrigerator at any instant?
Questions similar to these are answered in this chapter.
6.1.1. There are two distinguishable ways in which things may heat
up or cool down.
(i) The temperature within the body remains the same at all
locations at any one time but this value will vary continuously with
time (Fig. 6.1 (a)). This can be observed in heating up or cooling
down of materials with high conductivity, small size or low surface
convection. The temperature gradient within the body is nearly zero
all over the body or the temperature at any location and at any
instant is nearly the same. (
ii) The other type is when there is an observable and large
temperature variation within a body. This is illustrated in Fig. 6.1 (b).
In Fig. 6.1(a), the temperature is shown to vary with time, but within
the body the temperature is the same.
In Fig. 6.1(b) temperature is shown to vary not only with time but
also with location.

as a A small copper ball can be modeled

beef cannot. lumped system, but a roast
LUMPED PARAMETER MODEL
It is also known as lumped heat capacity system. This model is applicable
when a body with a known or specified temperature level is exposed
suddenly to surroundings at a different temperature
level and when the temperature level in the body
as a whole increases or decreases without any
Difference of temperature within the body. i.e.,
T = T(τ) only.
Heat is received from or given to the surroundings at
the surface and this causes a temperature change
instantly all through the body. The model is shown in
Fig. 6.2.
The body with surface area As, volume V, density ρ, specific heat c and
temperature T at the time instant zero is exposed suddenly to the
surroundings at T∞ with a convection coefficient h (may be radiation
coefficient hr). This causes the body temperature T to change to T + dT in the
time interval dτ. The relationship between dT and dτ can be established by
the application of the energy conservation principle.
Heat convected over the boundary = Change in internal energy
over a time period dτ during this time
If dT is the temperature change during the time period dτ then the
following relationship results: (As-Surface area)
h As (T – T∞) dτ = ρ c VdT ... (6.1)
This equation can be integrated to obtain the value of T at any time.
The integration is possible after introducing a new variable.
∞ T– T θ =

Separating the variables and integrating and using the initial conditions
that at τ = 0, θ = θ0 and denoting V/As = L, we get
This shows that the temperature decays or builds up exponentially
and the rate depends on the parameter (hAs/ρcV) as shown in Fig.
6.3 (a, b).
Definitions:
Many dimensionless parameters is defined
a- Biot number
Biot number is a number define the ratio of internal
resistance to external resistance.

Internal resistance: The internal resistance

proportion with , where:
Lc: is the characteristic length, which is equal to the
volume of the solid divided by its surface area.
k: Thermal conductivity of the solid.
External resistance: The external resistance
proportion to , where h is the convective heat
transfer coefficient at the boundary of the solid.

or

Taking unity constant of proportionality, we have:

 (2)

It has been found that, for simple geometric shapes

such as plates, cylinders or spheres, if Biot number is
less than 0.1, the error introduced by assuming the
temperature to be uniform throughout the solid body
at any given time is less than 5%
The characteristic length Lc in Biot number is
summarized in the following table:
 The physical significance of the Fourier number

• The Fourier number is a

measure of heat conducted
through a body relative to
heat stored.
• A large value of the Fourier
number indicates faster
propagation of heat
through a body.

Fourier number at time t

can be viewed as the ratio
of the rate of heat
conducted to the rate of
heat stored at that time.
The quantity (h As/ρ V c) can also be expressed as a product of two
dimensionless numbers by rearranging the terms as below, taking
As/V = 1/L an equivalent length

The Biot number has already been defined. It should be noted here
that L = V/As = Volume/Surface area. The value of L can be obtained
from the shape of the solid. The quantity (k/ρ c) has already been
defined as thermal diffusivity. ατ/L2 is defined as Fourier number.
This number signifies the heat penetration depth in time τ, with
respect to the body dimension.
Fourier number should be large for quick heating or cooling. Leaving
out the time, higher the value of thermal diffusivity or smaller the
body dimension, quicker will be the heating up or cooling down
For quick response as in the case of
thermal time constant probes for temperature measurements
the time constant should be small.
Energy Equation
Let us consider a solid body take of a
furnace and it is initially at a uniform
temperature of To, the body is left in air to
be cooled. Now it is required to determine
the temperature of the body and the heat
lost from it after a certain time. Applying
the heat balance of the body gives:
Rate of heat Rate loss of by
change of
=
convection from the body its internal energy
Let T is the temperature of the body at any time 
and T is the temperature of the surrounding fluid,
then:

Where  is density of the body and C its specific

heat
Let T is constant and T - T = , then:
 (5)
Where K is constant of integral, to be determined
from the initial condition
At  = 0, T = To ,  =  o ,
From Eq. (5) we get:
k=o
Then

(6)

We can write Eq. (6) in the form:

(7)
In some problems, the change of internal energy of
the body is important. During a time increment d,
the change in internal energy is given as following:
Eq. (6) could be re-written as:

or
and
Example
• A brick of 203 x 102 x 57 mm in dimension is being
burned in a kiln to 1100 oC and then allowed to cool
in a room with ambient air temperature of 30oC and
convection heat transfer coefficient of 5 W/m2.K. if
the brick has properties of ρ = 1920 kg/ m3, cp = 70
J/kg. K, and k = 0.9 W/m. K, determine the time
required to cool the brick to a temperature difference
of 5oC from the ambient air temperature.
Solution
Example (1): An aluminum cube of 5 cm side length
at a temperature of 200 C is left in air at 32 C to be
cold. The heat convection coefficient is 18 W/m2.K.
Determine the time required for the cube to reach 150
C, knowing that:  = 2700 kg/m3, C = 900 J/kg. C,
k = 200 W/m.K.

Ans: Lc = V/A = L3/6L2 = L/6 = 5/6

Bi = hLc/k = 0.075, Lumped analysis could be
applied.
 = ln(0.7) = - 0.35328

 = 39.744 sec
SEMI INFINITE SOLID
The differential equation applicable is the simplified general heat
conduction equation: in rectangular coordinates, (excluding heat
generation

There are three types of boundary conditions for which solutions

are available in a simple form. These are
(i) at time τ = 0, the surface temperature is changed and
maintained at a specified value,
(ii) at time τ = 0, the surface exposed to convection at T∞ and
(iii) at time τ = 0, the surface is exposed to a constant heat flux q.
1. Surface temperature suddenly changed and maintained:
The conditions can be stated as follows:

The analytical solution for this case is given by derivation available

in specialized texts on conduction

where, erf indicates “error function of” and the definition of

error function is generally available in mathematical texts
 The heat flow at the surface at any time is obtained using
Fourier’s equation –kA (d T/ dx).
The surface heat flux at time τ is

The total heat flow during a given period

can be obtained by integrating qs(τ) dτ
between the limits of 0 and τ

The heat flow at any section at a

specified time is given by
 x Erf.(x) x Erf.(x)
0 0 0.85 0.7707
0.02 0.0225 0.90 0.7970
0.04 0.0451 0.95 0.8270
0.06 0.0676 1.0 0.8427
0.08 0.0901 1.05 0.8614
0.10 0.1125 1.10 0.8802
0.12 0.1348 1.15 0.8952
0.14 0.1569 1.20 0.9103
0.16 0.1709 1.25 0.9221
0.18 0.2009 1.30 0.9340
0.20 0.2227 1.35 0.9431
0.22 0.2443 1.40 0.9523
0.24 0.2657 1.45 0.9592
0.26 0.2869 1.50 0.9661
0.28 0.3079 1.55 0.9712
0.30 0.3286 1.60 0.9763
0.32 0.3491 1.65 0.9800
0.34 0.3694 1.70 0.9838
0.36 0.3893 1.75 0.9864
0.38 0.4090 1.80 0.9891
0.40 0.4284 1.85 0.9909
0.42 0.4475 1.90 0.9928
0.44 0.4662 1.95 0.9940
0.46 0.4847 2.0 0.9953
0.48 0.5027 2.10 0.9953
0.50 0.5205 2.20 0.9967
0.55 0.5633 2.30 0.9981
0.60 0.6039 2.40 0.9987
0.65 0.6420 2.50 0.9993
0.70 0.6778 2.60 0.9995
0.75 0.7112 2.70 0.9998
0.80 0.7421 2.80 0.9999
Example :A thick concrete wall fairly large in size initially at 30°C
suddenly has its surface temperature increased to 600°C by an
intense fire which lasted for 25 minutes. The material will
disintegrate up to a depth where the temp. reaches 400°C.
Determine the thickness which may disintegrate. The thermal
diffusivity is 4.92 × 10–7 m2/s; k = 1.28 W/m K. Also determine the
total heat flow/m2 during the time.

Solution: As it is mentioned that it is a thick wall, without any

thickness dimension, semi infinite solid model is applicable. Also the
surface temperature is suddenly increased and maintained at 600°C.
2. The boundary condition more commonly met with is
convective boundary.
The initial and boundary conditions are:

The temperature at any location and

time is obtained as
As the equation is rather long, charts are available to calculate the
temperature ratio with parameters x/2 ατ , and h x/k. Such a chart
is shown in the following page. The heat flow can be found by
obtaining ∂T/∂x at any section.
For surface temp. T oτ these equations can be simplified as
Example : A concrete wall initially at 30°C is exposed to gases at
900°C with a convective heat transfer coefficient of 85 W/m2K.
The thermal diffusivity of the material is 4.92 × 10–7 m2/s.
The thermal conductivity of the material is 1.28 W/m K.
Determine the temperature of the surface and temperatures at
1 cm depth and also 5 cm depth after 1 hr. Also estimate the
heat flow at the surface at the instant.
Solution
The chart is plotted with
[(Txτ – T∞] /(Ti – T∞)] against x/2 ατ with (h x/k) as parameter.
For 1 cm depth, after one hour or 3600 seconds

Entering the x axis at 0.1188 and reading against the value of h x/k
= 0.664, the temperature ratio is obtained as 0.3.
3. The third initial and boundary condition set for semi infinite
solid is exposure to uniform heat flux, q W/m2
Example Sunlight falls on a concrete wall starting from 10 am and
the flux is 800 W/m2. The initial temperature was 30°C. Determine
the surface temperature and the temperature at a depth of 5 cm at
12 noon. Thermal diffusivity = 4.92 × 10–7 m2/s
and conductivity = 1.28 W/m K.
Solution: At the surface x = 0,
 (a) Midplane temperature

(Heisler and Transient temperature and heat transfer charts

initially at a L thickness 2 for a plane wall ofGrober charts)
subjected to convection from both uniform temperature Ti
onment at temperature T with a convection sides to an
coefficient of h.
(b) Temperature distribution
(c) Heat transfer
(a) Centerline temperature (from M. P. Heisler)
(b) Temperature distribution (from M. P. Heisler)
(c) Heat transfer (from H. Gröber et al.)
(a) Midpoint temperature (from M. P. Heisler)
(b) Temperature distribution (from M. P. Heisler)
(c) Heat transfer (from H. Gröber et al.)