2/6/2017

1 D Unsteady State
Conduction
BITS Pilani Pratik N Sheth
Pilani Campus Department of Chemical Engineering

Contents

• Introduction
• Lumped Heat Capacity System
• Governing equation for infinite and semi infinite systems

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Introduction

• If a solid body is suddenly subjected to a change in

environment, some time must elapse before an
equilibrium temperature condition will prevail in the body.
• In the transient heating or cooling process that takes
place in the interim period before equilibrium is
established,
• the analysis must be modified to take into account the change in internal energy
of the body with time, and
• the boundary conditions must be adjusted to match the physical situation that is
apparent in the unsteady-state heat-transfer problem.

• Unsteady-state heat-transfer analysis is obviously of

significant practical interest because of
• the large number of heating and cooling processes that must be calculated in
industrial applications.

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Lumped Heat Capacity

• Analysis in which systems are considered uniform in

temperature.
• Such systems are obviously idealized because a temperature gradient must exist
in a material if heat is to be conducted into or out of the material.

• Smaller the physical size of the body, the more realistic

the assumption of uniform temperature throughout.
• If a hot steel ball were immersed in a cool pan of water,
the lumped-heat-capacity method of analysis might be
used if we could justify an assumption of uniform ball
temperature during the cooling process.

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Lumped Heat Capacity

• Clearly, the temperature distribution in the ball

• would depend on the thermal conductivity of the ball material and the heat-
transfer conditions from the surface of the ball to the surrounding fluid (i.e., the
surface-convection heat transfer coefficient).

• We should obtain a reasonably uniform temperature

distribution in the ball
• if the resistance to heat transfer by conduction were small compared with the
convection resistance at the surface,
• so that the major temperature gradient would occur through the fluid layer at the
surface.
• The lumped-heat-capacity analysis, then, is one that assumes that the internal
resistance of the body is negligible in comparison with the external
resistance.

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Lumped Heat Capacity

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Lumped Heat Capacity

• The thermal capacity of the system is “charged” initially

at the potential T0 by closing the switch S.
• Then, when the switch is opened, the energy stored in
the thermal capacitance is dissipated through the
resistance 1/hA.

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Applicability of Lumped
Capacity Analysis
• Such an analysis may be expected to yield reasonable
estimates within about 5 percent when the following
condition is met

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Applicability of Lumped
Capacity Analysis

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Governing Equation for infinite

system
• Consider the infinite plate of thickness 2L.
• Initially the plate is at a uniform temperature Ti, and at time zero the surfaces are
suddenly lowered to T =T1. The differential equation is

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Governing Equation for infinite

system

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Governing Equation for infinite

system

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Governing Equation for Semi

infinite system
• Consider the Semi infinite solid.
• Initially the plate is at a uniform temperature Ti, and at time zero the surface is
suddenly lowered to T0. The differential equation is

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Governing Equation for Semi

infinite system

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Constant Heat flux

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Convection Boundary
Conditions
• In most practical situations the transient heat-conduction
problem is connected with a convection boundary
condition at the surface of the solid.

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Solution for Other geometries

• Solutions have been worked out for other geometries.

• The most important cases are those dealing with (1) plates whose thickness is
small in relation to the other dimensions, (2) cylinders where the diameter is
small compared to the length, and (3) spheres. Results of analyses for these
geometries have been presented in graphical form by Heisler

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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Thanks

Dr Pratik N Sheth, Dept of Chemical Engg, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

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