PROBLEM 5.

128
KNOWN: Thick slab of copper, initially at a uniform temperature, is suddenly exposed to a constant net radiant flux at one surface. See Example 5.12. FIND: (a) The nodal temperatures at nodes 00 and 04 at t = 120 s; that is, T00(0, 120 s) and T04(0.15 m, 120 s); compare results with those given by the exact solution in Comment 1; will a time increment of 0.12 s provide more accurate results?; and, (b) Plot the temperature histories for x = 0, 150 and 600 mm, and explain key features of your results. Use the IHT Tools | Finite-Difference Equations | OneDimensional | Transient conduction model builder to obtain the implicit form of the FDEs for the interior nodes. Use space and time increments of 37.5 mm and 1.2 s, respectively, for a 17-node network. For the surface node 00, use the FDE derived in Section 2 of the Example. SCHEMATIC:

q = 3x105 W/m2 o
00 01 02 14 15 16

x = 37.5 mm t = 1.2 s T(x, 0) = Ti = 20oC k = 401 W/m-K = 117x10-6 m2/s

ASSUMPTIONS: (1) One-dimensional conduction in the x-direction, (2) Slab of thickness 600 mm approximates a semi-infinite medium, and (3) Constant properties. ANALYSIS: The IHT model builder provides the implicit-method FDEs for the interior nodes, 01 15. The +x boundary condition for the node-16 control volume is assumed adiabatic. The FDE for the surface node 00 exposed to the net radiant flux was derived in the Example analysis. Selected portions of the IHT code used to obtain the following results are shown in the Comments. (a) The 00 and 04 nodal temperatures for t = 120 s are tabulated below using a time increment of t = 1.2 s and 0.12 s, and compared with the results given from the exact analytical solution, Eq. 5.62. Node 00 04 FDE results (C) t = 1.2 s 119.3 45.09 t = 0.12 s 119.4 45.10 Analytical result (C) Eq. 5.59 120.0 45.4

The numerical FDE-based results with the different time increments agree quite closely with one another. At the surface, the numerical results are nearly 1C less than the result from the exact analytical solution. This difference represents an error of -1% ( -1 C / (120 20 ) C x 100). At the x = 150 mm location, the difference is about -0.4 C, representing an error of 1.5%. For this situation, the smaller time increment (0.12 s) did not provide improved accuracy. To improve the accuracy of the numerical model, it would be necessary to reduce the space increment, in addition to using the smaller time increment. (b) The temperature histories for x = 0, 150 and 600 mm (nodes 00, 04, and 16) for the range 0 t 150 s are as follows.

Continued

PROBLEM 5.128 (Cont.)

Tem perature his tories for Nodes 00, 04, and 16 120

Temperature, T(x,t)

80

40

0 0 50 Tim e, t (s) T00 = T(0, t) T04 = T(150 m m , t) T00 = T(600 m m , t) 100 150

As expected, the surface temperature, T00 = T(0,t), increases markedly at early times. As thermal penetration increases with increasing time, the temperature at the location x = 150 mm, T04 = T(150 mm, t), begins to increase after about 20 s. Note, however, the temperature at the location x = 600 mm, T16 = T(600 mm, t), does not change significantly within the 150 s duration of the applied surface heat flux. Our assumption of treating the +x boundary of the node 16 control volume as adiabatic is justified. A copper plate of 600-mm thickness is a good approximation to a semi-infinite medium at times less than 150 s. COMMENTS: Selected portions of the IHT code with the nodal equations to obtain the temperature distribution are shown below. Note how the FDE for node 00 is written in terms of an energy balance using the der (T,t) function. The FDE for node 16 assumes that the east boundary is adiabatic.

// Finite-difference equation, node 00; from Examples solution derivation; implicit method q''o + k * (T01 - T00) / deltax = rho * (deltax / 2) *cp * der (T00,t) // Finite-difference equations, interior nodes 01-15; from Tools /* Node 01: interior node; e and w labeled 02 and 00. */ rho*cp*der(T01,t) = fd_1d_int(T01,T02,T00,k,qdot,deltax) rho*cp*der(T02,t) = fd_1d_int(T02,T03,T01,k,qdot,deltax) .. .. rho*cp*der(T14,t) = fd_1d_int(T14,T15,T13,k,qdot,deltax) rho*cp*der(T15,t) = fd_1d_int(T15,T16,T14,k,qdot,deltax) // Finite-difference equation node 16; from Tools, adiabatic surface /* Node 16: surface node (e-orientation); transient conditions; w labeled 15. */ rho * cp * der(T16,t) = fd_1d_sur_e(T16,T15,k,qdot,deltax,Tinf16,h16,q''a16) q''a16 = 0 // Applied heat flux, W/m^2; zero flux shown Tinf16 = 20 // Arbitrary value h16 = 1e-8 // Causes boundary to behave as adiabatic