Unsteady State Heat Conduction in a Bounded Solid How Does a Solid Sphere Cool ?

We examined the cooling a sphere of radius R. Initially the sphere is at a uniform temperature T0 . It is cooled by convection to an air stream at temperature Ta. How long does it take to cool to Ta? The answer is and was simple ..... an infinitely long time. In a sense because it is the answer equivalent to the solution of the Archimedean Paradox. If I walk half the distance to a wall, how many steps will I have to take to reach the wall ? The answer is an infinite number! However, if I get within a millimeter of the wall, for intents and purposes, I am there. So if the temperature is within 1 % of the final temperature, it will have reached the final temperature. What temperature am I taking about.....the center line temperature, the surface temperature, the average temperature ??? We will choose the average temperature, . The first model we looked at should be valid for small Biot numbers

T Ta hA = e C Vt = e 3Bix T0 Ta
p

Fo

To get this form we had to recognize that for spheres, A/V = 3/R. If = 0.01, then 3 Bi xFo = ln (0.01), so that xFo = 1.535/Bi At large Biot numbers, the suitable model was

sph = 0.608 e 9.87x

Lecture 8 ChE 333

Fo

Now for this case the value of xFo it takes to reach = 0.01 is xF o = 0.415 A plot of the response is shown below
Time for a temperature drop of 99%
100

10 XFo 1 0.1 0.01 0.1 1 Bi 10 100

Some Dimensional Arguments

At large Biot numbers, the dimensionless time is constant, that is, xFo = 0.415, but

x Fo = t R2
so that for two spheres one of size R1 and another R2, the ratio of the cooling times is

t1 R2 = t2 R1

Lecture 8 ChE 333

Heat Transfer in a Semi-Infinite region

The questions we have posed thus far and the solutions have been really only applicable for Long times. That is, when the temperature field in the sphere, for example, has developed to the center of the sphere. But what happens at Short times? Consider a large planar solid whose extent (y-direction) is very large. What is the temperature history of the slab if it is suddenly brought into contact with a fluid at temperature Ta? The transient conduction equation is

T = 2T t y 2 at t = 0, T = T0 at y = 0 , T = Ta as y , T = T0
Lets make the problem dimensionless. The temperature can be expressed as

=
so that the problem reposed is

T Ta T0 Ta

= 2 t y 2 = 1 at t = 0 = 0 at y = 0 = 1 as y

Lecture 8 ChE 333

Solution
Let = f((y,t)) where = cymtn , then we can introduce that into the differential equation.

= d = d = d cny mt n 1 t d t d t d = d = d = d cmy m 1 t n y d y d y d
2 2 = d + d 2 y 2 d y 2 d 2 y 2

2 = d cm m 1 y m 2t n + d 2 c 2m 2y 2m2 t 2n y 2 d d 2
putting these derivatives into an equation we get

d cny mt n 1 = d cmy m 1 t n + d cm m 1 y m 2t n + d 2 c 2 d d d d 2 m 2y 2m 2 t 2n
We can divide by cymtn so that we obtain

d nt 1 = d my 1 + d m m 1 y 2 + d 2 cm 2y 2 d d d d 2 d nt 1 my 1 m m 1 y 2 = d 2 cm 2y 2 d d 2

Grouping we obtain a more compact form

Note that things simplify if we pick m = 1. A bit of exercise will show that the appropriate choice for is

=
Lecture 8 ChE 333

y 4t

Solution of the Differential Equation

The equation becomes and ordinary differential equation

d + d 2 = 0 2 d d 2
The boundary conditions are

= 1 for = 0 for = 0
The solution we have seen is related to an error function defined as

erf (x) = 1

e t dt
0

This solution affords us the opportunity to talk of an effective penetration depth, T , that is, the distance at which the dimensionless temperature goes from 0 to 0.99. The solution for is = erf(), so that for the penetration depth

= 0.99 = erf
It follows that

T 4t

T = 2 4t
This means that if T is less than the thickness of the slab, it behaves as a semi-infinite region.

Lecture 8 ChE 333

Heat Conduction with a Convective Boundary Condition

The boundary condition at the cooling surface can have a major effect on the process. The problem in this instance is posed as

T = 2T t y 2 at t = 0, T = T0 at y = 0 , k s T = h T Ta y as y , T = T0
The problem can again be solved using combination of variables and the same transformation as above to yield

= erf

y 4t

+ exp y + t erfc

y + t 4t

hy h 2t where y = and t = ks ks

Lecture 8 ChE 333

Surface temperature of a Cooling Sheet

Polyethylene is extruded and coated onto an insulated substrate, moving at 20 cm/sec. The molten polymer is coated at a uniform temperature T0 of 400F. Cooling is achieved by blowing air at a temperature Ta of 80F. Earlier heat transfer studies determined that the heat transfer coefficient, h, is 0.08 cal/cm-sec-F. The coating thickness B is 0.1 cm. At what point downstream does the surface temperature, T(0) fall to 144 F ?

Data
T0 = 400F Ta = 80F h = 3.35 kW/m2 -K ks = 0.33 W/m-K B = 0.1 cm. = 1.3 10-7 m2 /sec

The Biot number can be estimated as:

hB = 3350 0.001 = 10.15 Bi = ks 0.33

The dimensionless surface temperature ratiois

s =

T 0 Ta = 144 80 = 0.2 T0 Ta 400 80

The Gurney-Lurie Chart 11.4c yields for Bi 10, the ratio of the surface temperature to the mid-plane temperature

= 0.15 we can calculate the mid-plane temperature 0 1 , 0 from the relation for s which is s = 1 0 = 0.2 1
However, since This gives a midplane-temperature of 1 0 = 0.2/0.15 > 1........Nonsense Whats wrong ??? We did a lot of things wrong.
Lecture 8 ChE 333 7

First of all the solution we used involved only 1 term of an infinite series...

1 = A 1e

2 1

x Fo

sin 1 = 0sin 1 1

We also get into trouble if we use such an equation for a short time solution. Therefore avoid the charts for small xFo and large Biot numbers. The short time solution we presented in the last lecture had the form.

= erf

y 4t

+ exp y + t erfc

y + t 4t

hB y and t = hB 2 t where y = ks B k s B2
Now for this case, y = 0 and we can use figure 11.3.2. We can determine that the value of t at which = 0.2. We observe that t1/2 = 2.65 and consequently t = 7.65 Recall that Cp = k/ = 2.5 MJ/m2 -K. This leads to

hB 2 t = 7.65 = h 2t t = k s B2 ks
We calculate that the time passed is t = 0.52 seconds and since d = Vt, the distance is d = (20 cm/s) 0.52 sec = 10.4 cm.

Lecture 8 ChE 333

An alternative method We can use the complete Fourier expansion, not just one term.

n =1

4 sin n cos n e x 2 n+ sin 2 n

2 n

Fo

ntan n = Bi
The first set of eigenvalues are

n
1 2 3

ln
1.429 4.306 7.228

If we calculate the first three terms of the Fourier expansion, we obtain

(1) = 0.178 e 2.04x + 0.155e 18.5x

Fo

Fo

For = 0.2, by trial and error, we obtain xFo = 0.608. If we calculate the time, we get 0.52 sec. The same as the short time solution. This allows us a measure of short time. as for a slab

t 1 or x 1 Fo 16 B2

Lecture 8 ChE 333