Chapter 5

TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Time dependent conduction
• Many heat transfer problems are time dependent

• Changes in operating conditions in a system cause temperature variation with

time, as well as location within a solid, until a new steady state (thermal
equilibrium) is obtained.

Our objective in this chapter is;

to develop procedures for determining the time dependence of the temperature

distribution within a solid during a transient process, as well as for determining
heat transfer between the solid and its surroundings.
Transient Conduction
-A heat transfer process for which the temperature varies with time, as well as location within a solid
-It is initiated whenever system experiences a change in operation condition (usually changing boundary
conditions) and proceeds until a new steady-state condition is achieved (i.e thermal equilibrium)

-It can be induced by change in:

Surface convection condition (h, T∞)
Surface radiation condition (hr, Ts)
A surface temperature or heat flux and/or
Internal energy generation

-Depending on the situation, various solution techniques are appropriate

The Lumped Capacitance Method
Exact Solutions
Finite-Difference Method.
THE LUMPED CAPACITANCE METHOD
A simple transient conduction problem is one for which a solid experiences a sudden change in its thermal environment

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.

This assumption implies that temperature gradients within the solid are negligible.

From Fourier’s law, heat conduction in the absence of a temperature gradient implies the existence of infinite thermal
conductivity.

Such a condition is clearly impossible. However, the condition is closely approximated if the resistance to conduction
within the solid is small compared with the resistance to heat transfer between the solid and its surroundings.
Consider a hot metal forging that is initially at a uniform temperature Ti and is
quenched by immersing it in a liquid of lower temperature T∞< Ti (Figure below).

Starting from an overall energy balance on the solid:

− E out = E st

dT
− hAs (T − T ) = Vc
dt
Temperature difference
𝜃 ≡ 𝑇 − 𝑇∞

If T∞ is constant

𝑑𝜃 𝑑𝑇
=
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

Separating variables and integrating from the initial condition:

t=0 and T(0)=Ti

where θ𝑖 ≡ 𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇∞
 time required for
the solid to reach
temperature T

Temperature
reached by the solid
at some time t

The difference between the solid and fluid temperaratures decays

exponentially to zero as t approaches infinity.
 𝜌𝑉𝑐
IF is described as thermal time constant t,
ℎ𝐴𝑠

Rt: thermal resistance to convection heat transfer

Ct: lumped thermal capacitance
Any increase in Rt or Ct will cause the solid to respond more slowly to changes in its thermal environment.
The total energy transfer Q occurring up to some time t,

ℎ𝐴𝑠
𝜃 = 𝜃𝑖 𝑒𝑥𝑝 − 𝑡
𝜌𝑉𝑐

𝑡
ℎ𝐴𝑠
𝑄 = ℎ𝐴𝑠 න 𝜃𝑖 𝑒𝑥𝑝 − 𝑡𝑑𝑡
0 𝜌𝑉𝑐

For quenching, Q is positive and the solid experiences a decrease in energy.

For heating (  0), in which case Q is negative and the internal energy of the solid increases.
Validity of the Lumped Capacitance Method (LCM)
In LCM the temperature in a solid is assumed to be uniform. To use this method first we have to develop a criterion to
decide under which conditions this method can be used with reasonable accuracy.

Under steady-state conditions, surface energy balance reduces to

The quantity (hL/k) appearing in equation is a dimensionless parameter. It is termed the Biot number. It is the ratio
of condcution resistance to convection resistance.
It plays a fundamental role in conduction problems that involve surface convection effects.
In particular,
if Bi ≪ 1, the resistance to conduction within the solid is much less than the resistance to convection across the fluid boundary
layer.
Hence, the assumption of a uniform temperature distribution within the solid is reasonable if the Biot number is small.

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.
Consider the plane wall which is initially at a uniform temperature Ti and experiences convection cooling when it is
immersed in a fluid of T ∞ < Ti.
The problem may be treated as one-dimensional in x, and the variation of temperature with position and time T(x,t)
is a strong function of Bi number;

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. Virtually all the temperature difference is between the solid and the
fluid, and the solid temperature remains nearly uniform as it decreases to T∞.

moderate to large values of the Biot number: however, the temperature gradients within the solid are
significant. Hence T = T(x, t).
Bi ≫ 1: the temperature difference across the solid is much larger than that between the surface and the
fluid.
LCM can be applied with reasonable accuracy if the following condition is satisfied;

Lc :characteristic length : the ratio of the solid’s volume to surface area Lc  V/As

Such a definition facilitates calculation of Lc for solids of complicated shape and 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.
 is termed the Fourier number

It is a dimensionless time,
 GENERAL LUMPED CAPACITANCE ANALYSIS

Transient conduction inside the solid can be initiated by convection, radiation, generation and surface heating

Solid Liquid

Case 2: Transient conduction initiated by all modes of heat transfer

Case 1: Conduction is initiated by convection.
And heat generation.
It is presumed that, initially (t = 0),
the temperature of the solid Ti differs from that of the fluid T∞ and the surroundings Tsurr
and
that both surface and volumetric heating (qs and 𝑞)ሶ are initiated.
The imposed heat flux qs» and the convection–radiation heat transfer occur at mutually exclusive portions of the surface,
As,h and As(c,r) respectively,
and convection–radiation transfer is presumed to be from the surface.
Moreover, although convection and radiation have been prescribed for the same surface, the surfaces may, in fact, differ
(As,h ≠r As,r ). Applying conservation of energy at any instant t,
Nonlinear, first-order, nonhomogeneous, ordinary differential equation that cannot be integrated to obtain
an exact solution. However, exact solutions may be obtained for simplified versions of the equation.

Radiation Only
If there is no imposed heat flux or generation and convection is either nonexistent (a vacuum) or negligible
relative to radiation, required time for solid to reach some temperature T

and
 Evaluating both integrals and rearranging, the time required to reach the temperature T becomes

for the limiting case of Tsur = 0 (radiation to deep space) yielding

If Radiation is negligible and h is independent of time

Although the equation may be solved by summing its homogeneous and particular solutions,
an alternative approach is to eliminate the nonhomogeneity by introducing the transformation

and
 Convection Only with Variable Convection Coefficient
In some cases, such as those involving free convection or boiling, the convection coefficient h varies with the temperature
difference between the object and the fluid.
 Spatial Effects

• If the Biot number is not small, temperature gradients within the medium are no longer negligible.
• Use of the lumped capacitance method would yield incorrect results, so alternative approaches must be
utilized.
For one dimensional heat transfer with no internal generation, for example in plane wall

Initial condition

Boundary conditions

reflects the symmetry requirement for the midplane of the wall;

 Temperature distribution within the wall should be

nondimensionalizing the governing equations

𝜃 = 𝑇 − 𝑇∞
and 𝜃𝑖 = 𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇∞ ( the maximum possible temperature difference)

0 ≤ 𝜃 ∗ ≤ 1.0

Dimensionless spatial coordinate

L: Half thickness of the wall

Dimensionless time;

The initial and boundary conditions;

where the Biot number is Bi = hL/k and

The Plane Wall with Convection

INITIAL STATE: The wall has uniform temperature.

GEOMETRY: The thickness is small relative to the width and height
PHENOMENON: Immersion of the wall in a fluid of T∞≠Ti
Convection conditions are same at x*1
RESULT: A symmetrical temperature distribution about the midplane (x*=0

Governing Equation Dimensionless form

 Exact Solution

The exact solution given is valid for any time, 0 ≤ Fo ≤∞.

Approximate Solution

For values of Fo>0.2 the infinite series solution can be approximated by the first term of the series, n = 1. Invoking this
approximation, the dimensionless form of the temperature distribution becomes

Equation (A)
 𝑇0 − 𝑇∞
𝜃0∗ ≡ Midplane (x*=0) temperature
𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇∞

An important implication of Equation A is that the time dependence of the temperature at any location within the
wall is the same as that of the midplane temperature.

Total Energy Transfer: Approximate Solution

The total energy that has left to the wall up to any time t
For the time interval bounded by the initial condition (t = 0) and any time t > 0

Eout=Q ( the energy transferred from the wall).

Ein=0 and ∆𝐸𝑠𝑡 = − 𝐸 𝑡 − 𝐸 0
 OR Integral is performed over the volume of the wall

to nondimensionalize this result by introducing the quantity

Q0 is the initial internal energy of the wall relative to fluid temperature. It is also the maximum amount of energy
transfer that could occur if the process were continued to time t = ∞.
By assuming constant properties the ratio of the total energy transferred from the wall over the time interval t to
the maximum possible transfer is
the approximate form of the temperature distribution for the plane wall,
Radial Systems with Convection

For an infinite cylinder or sphere of radius r0 (shown above), which is at an initial uniform temperature and
experiences a change in convective conditions, an exact series solution may be obtained for the time dependence of
the radial temperature distribution, and a one-term approximation may be used for some conditions. The infinite
cylinder is an idealization that permits the assumption of one-dimensional conduction in the radial direction. It is a
reasonable approximation for cylinders having L/ro ≤10.
Exact Solutions
For a uniform initial temperature and convective boundary conditions, the exact solutions applicable at any time
(Fo > 0), are as follows.
Infinite Cylinder In dimensionless form, the temperature is

where Bi = hro/k. The quantities J1 and J0 are Bessel functions of the first kind, and their
values are tabulated in Appendix B.4.
Sphere
Similarly, for the sphere

and

Approximate Solutions
Infinite Cylinder
Sphere
TOTAL ENERGY TRANSFER : APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS
Infinite Cylinder

Sphere