PROBLEM 5.

142
KNOWN: Conditions associated with heat generation in a rectangular fuel element with surface cooling. See Example 5.11. FIND: (a) The temperature distribution 1.5 s after the change in the operating power; compare results with those tabulated in the Example, and (b) Plot the temperature histories at the midplane, x = 0, and the surface, x = L, for 0 t 400 s; determine the new steady-state temperatures, and approximately how long it takes to reach this condition. Use the finite-element software FEHT as your solution tool. SCHEMATIC:
T(x, 0) = T1(x, q1) Too = 250oC h = 1100 W/m2-K Coolant x L = 10 mm

Fuel element q1 = 1x107 W/m3 q2 = 2x107 W/m3 = 5x10-6 m2/s k = 30 W/m-K

Symmetry adiabat

. .

ASSUMPTIONS: (1) One-dimensional conduction in the x-direction, (2) Uniform generation, (3) Constant properties. ANALYSIS: Using FEHT, an outline of the fuel element is drawn of thickness 10 mm in the xdirection and arbitrary length in the y-direction. The boundary conditions are specified as follows: on the y-planes and the x = 0 plane, treat as adiabatic; on the x = 10 mm plane, specify the convection option. Specify the material properties and the internal generation with q1 . In the Setup menu, click on Steady-state, and then Run to obtain the temperature distribution corresponding to the initial temperature distribution, Ti x, 0 T x, q1 , before the change in operating power to q 2 . Next, in the Setup menu, click on Transient; in the Specify | Internal Generation box, change the value to q 2 ; and in the Run command, click on Continue (not Calculate). (a) The temperature distribution 1.5 s after the change in operating power from the FEHT analysis and from the FDE analysis in the Example are tabulated below. x/L T(x/L, 1.5 s) FEHT (C) FDE (C) 0 360.1 360.08 0.2 359.4 359.41 0.4 357.4 357.41 0.6 0.8 1.0 343.2 343.27

354.1 349.3 354.07 349.37

The mesh spacing for the FEHT analysis was 0.5 mm and the time increment was 0.005 s. For the FDE analyses, the spatial and time increments were 2 mm and 0.3 s. The agreement between the results from the two numerical methods is within 0.1C. (b) Using the FEHT code, the temperature histories at the mid-plane (x = 0) and the surface (x = L) are plotted as a function of time. Continued

PROBLEM 5.142 (Cont.)

From the distribution, the steady-state condition (based upon 98% change) is approached in 215 s. The steady-state temperature distributions after the step change in power from the FEHT and FDE analysis in the Example are tabulated below. The agreement between the results from the two numerical methods is within 0.1C x/L T(x/L, ) FEHT (C) FDE (C) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

465.0 465.15

463.7 463.82

459.6 459.82

453.0 453.15

443.6 443.82

431.7 431.82

COMMENTS: (1) For background information on the Continue option, see the Run menu in the FEHT Help section. Using the Run/Calculate command, the steady-state temperature distribution was determined for the q1 operating power. Using the Run|Continue command (after re-setting the

generation to q 2 and clicking on Setup | Transient), this steady-state distribution automatically becomes the initial temperature distribution for the q 2 operating power. This feature allows for conveniently prescribing a non-uniform initial temperature distribution for a transient analysis (rather than specifying values on a node-by-node basis).
(2) Use the View | Tabular Output command to obtain nodal temperatures to the maximum number of significant figures resulting from the analysis.

(3) Can you validate the new steady-state nodal temperatures from part (b) (with q 2 , t ) by comparison against an analytical solution?