Inclusion of unsteady heat conduction in regular bodies subject to uniform surface heat flux in a heat transfer course

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the analysis of unsteady heat conduction in regular bodies (large plane wall, long cylinder, and sphere) with constant initial temperature, prescribed surface heat flux and thermal properties of the solid that are invariant with temperature. Surprisingly, this important topic is absent in textbooks on heat transfer. The exact evaluation of the dimensionless surface temperatures varying with the dimensionless time in the regular bodies over the entire dimensionless time domain [Formula: see text] is carried out with a symbolic algebra code. Thereafter, regression analysis is applied to the data gathered for the dimensionless surface temperatures varying with the dimensionless time of the regular bodies inside the dimensionless “small time” time sub-domains [Formula: see text]. The dimensionless threshold time [Formula: see text] is a decisive parameter that establishes the borderline between the “small time” sub-domain [Formula: see text] and the “large time” sub-domain [Formula: see text] comprising the entire dimensionless time domain [Formula: see text]. Based on regression analysis, compact asymptotes are constructed for the dimensionless surface temperatures varying with the dimensionless time inside the dimensionless “small time” sub-domain [Formula: see text]. At the end, agreements with the dimensionless exact, analytical surface temperature distributions (the baseline solutions) valid for the dimensionless time sub-domain [Formula: see text]. are considered of excellent quality.