Chapter 4

Transient conduction
(Material presented in this chapter are based on those in Chapter 5, Funda-
mentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, Fifth Edition by Incropera and DeWitt)
In the earlier chapters, conduction under steady-state conditions were
considered in various geometries. However, in reality, several heat transfer
problems operate under unsteady-state or transient conditions. For instance,
if the temperature at certain location in the system, which is under a steady-
state, suddenly changes, then the temperature at each and every point in the
system will also change until a new steady-state is reached.
In this chapter, several methods to characterize this unsteady-state con-
duction process will be developed. If the gradients inside the solid can be
neglected, then a simple approach called lumped capacitance method can
be used. If the gradients cannot be neglected, then the full partial dieren-
tial equation in time and space will have to be solved to obtain the transient
temperature prole.
4.1 The lumped capacitance method
Consider the case of a solid that suddenly experiences a change in its thermal
environment. For instance, a solid ball (Fig. 4.1) whose temperature at time,
t = 0 is T = T
i
and surface area A
s
when dropped into a pool of liquid
maintained at a temperature T = T

< T
i
, then the solid ball will start
loosing heat to the surrounding liquid. Temperature of the solid will decrease
for time t0 and asymptotically reach T

when the solid reaches an equilibrium

47
48 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Figure 4.1: Cooling of a solid ball.
with the surrounding liquid. Heat transfer from solid to liquid at the solid-
liquid interface will occur by convection. Assume negligible heat transfer by
radiation and heat generation. Assume that the solid is spatially uniform at
any instant, that is thermal conductivity .(A detailed analysis of the
validity of this assumption will be dealt with in a later section.)
The energy balance for this system is given by
hA
s
(T T

) = V c
dT
dt
(4.1)
where, h is the heat transfer coecient, A
s
the surface area of heat transfer,
V the volume of the solid, density of the solid, and c specic heat capacity
of the solid.
The solution of Eq. (4.1) subject to boundary condition T
i
can be ob-
tained by making the substitution = T T

. The solution is given by

i
=
T T

T
i
T

= exp
_

_
hA
s
V c
_
t
_
(4.2)
As t , 0 T T

. By inspection of Eq. (4.2), thermal time

constant can be identied as

t
=
_
1
hA
s
_
V c = R
t
C
t
(4.3)
where, the R
t
is the resistance to convective heat transfer and C
t
is the
lumped thermal capacitance. Lumped thermal capacitance provides an esti-
mate of the capacity of the solid to store heat.
4.1. THE LUMPED CAPACITANCE METHOD 49
The thermal time constant,
t
provides a means to characterize the speed
with which the system would reach a steady-state, that is, T

. Figure (4.2)
shows the qualitative transient proles for increasing
t
. When the
t
is
larger, the decay to the steady-state is slower, that is the system takes much
longer time to decay. Larger
t
can be obtained by either increasing R
t
or C
t
or both. Such a behavior is similar to the voltage decay that occurs when a
capacitor is discharged through a resistor in an electrical RC circuit.
Figure 4.2: Eect of thermal time constant,
t
on the transient temperature
prole.
4.1.1 Total energy transfer, Q
The total energy transfer Q up to a certain time t is given by
Q =
t
_
0
qdt = hA
s
t
_
0
dt = V C
t
_
1 exp
_

t
__
(4.4)
The total energy transfer is equal to the change in the internal energy of
the solid, that is, Q = E
int
.
50 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
4.1.2 Validity of the lumped capacitance model
Lumped capacitance model, though very simple method to use, is not valid
under all conditions due to the assumptions made in deriving the model.
Therefore, it is important to develop a suitable criterion that denes the
validity of the model.
Steady-state conditions
Consider the steady-state conduction through the plane wall of area A (Fig.
4.3). (Note that the criterion developed under steady-state conditions can
be easily extended to transient cases.) Assume that one end of the plane
wall is maintained at T
s,1
and the other end is exposed to cold uid with
temperature T

< T
s,1
. The temperature of this surface must be certain
intermediate temperature such that T

< T
s,2
< T
s,1
. Under steady-state
Figure 4.3: Eect of Biot number of the steady-state prole.
conditions, surface energy balance would give
kA
L
(T
s,1
T
s,2
) = hA(T
s,2
T

) (4.5)
4.1. THE LUMPED CAPACITANCE METHOD 51
Eq. (4.5) can be re-written as
T
s,1
T
s,2
T
s,2
T

=
hAL
kA
=
hL
k
= Bi =
L
kA
1
hA
=
R
cond
R
conv
(4.6)
Biot number Bi provides a measure of temperature drop in the solid
relative to the temperature dierence between the surface and the uid. Bi
also provides a method to characterize the relative resistance to heat transfer
oered by conduction and convection. It can inferred from Eq. (4.6) that 1.
When Bi 1, then no resistance to conduction. The temperature prole will
be at. 2. When Bi 1, then no resistance to convection. The temperature
prole will not be at.
Transient conditions
Consider the plane wall at initial temperature T
i
(Fig. 4.4a) that is sud-
denly dipped into a cold uid at temperature T

< T
i
. The plane wall will
loose heat to the surrounding uid and the speed of the heat loss and the
corresponding prole will depend on the Biot number. When Bi 1, then
Figure 4.4: Eect of Biot Number on the transient temperature prole.
conduction resistance is smaller than convection resistance and the tempera-
ture dierence across solid is smaller than the gradient between surface and
cold uid (Fig. 4.4b). When Bi = 1, the convection resistance is equal to
the conduction resistance and the slope inside the solid and that between the
surface and uid are almost same (Fig. 4.4c). When Bi 1, the gradients
across the solid is larger than the gradient between the surface and the cold
uid (Fig. 4.4c).
52 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Region of validity of the lumped capacitance method
As a rule of thumb, Bi =
hLc
k
< 0.1, then the lumped capacitance method is
good, that the error associated with this method is small. (Note that L
c
=
V
As
is the characteristic length scale of the system.)
The exponent in the expression for

i
(Eq. 4.2) is
hA
s
t
V c
=
ht
cL
c
=
hL
c
k
k
c
t
L
2
=
hL
c
k
t
L
2
c
= Bi Fo (4.7)
where Fo, the Fourier number is the dimensionless time scaled with thermal
diusion time. Fo characterizes the actual transient time that the system
takes to reach a certain temperature. Eq. (4.2) can now be re-written as

i
=
T T

T
i
T

= exp(Bi Fo) (4.8)

4.2 General lumped capacitance analysis
In the earlier section, the resistances due to conduction and convection were
considered important in characterizing the transient heat transfer process.
There are other processes such as radiation, heat generation that may oer
certain resistance to heat transfer.
Consider the case of a solid separated from a large surroundings by a gas
or vacuum (Fig. 4.5). In this case, in addition to conduction and convection,
radiation also plays a role. Other cases may be generation of the thermal
energy internally, surface heating etc. General lumped capacitance method
can be used to analyze transient heat conduction in a system that includes
resistances due to these factors.
Energy conservation leads to the following model equation
q

s
A
s,h
+

E
g
(q

conv
+ q

rad
)A
s,(c,r)
= V C
dT
dt
(4.9)
where q

s
, q

conv
, q

rad
are the surface heating ux, convective heat ux and
radiative heat ux, respectively, and

E
g
the heat generation rate.
Using Newtons law of cooling (Eq. 1.25) and Stefans law of radiation,
q

rad
= (T
4
T
4
sur
) where is the emissivity, Stefans constant, Eq. (4.9)
can be re-written as
q

s
A
s,h
+

E
g
(h(T T

) + (T
4
T
4
sur
))A
s,(c,r)
= V C
dT
dt
(4.10)
4.2. GENERAL LUMPED CAPACITANCE ANALYSIS 53
Figure 4.5: Control surface for general lumped capacitance method.
4.2.1 Special case: Only radiation
Consider the case in which radiation is the only mode of heat transfer from
the solid to the surroundings. Under these conditions, Eq. 4.10 will reduce
to
V C
dT
dt
= A
s,r
(T
4
T
4
sur
) (4.11)
subject to initial condition that the solid is at T = T
i
at time, t = 0.
Integration of Eq. (4.11) to a certain time t at which temperature of the
solid is at T leads to
A
s,r

V c
t =
1
T
4
sur

i
dT
(1 +
2
)(1 )(1 + )
(4.12)
where, =

sur
and
i
=

i
sur
. Evaluating the integrals in Eq. (4.12) leads to
the following expression for the time for the solid to reach a certain temper-
ature:
t =
V c
4A
s,r
T
3
sur
__
ln
_
1 +
1
_
ln
_
1 +
i
1
i
__
+ 2
_
tan
1
tan
1

i
_
_
(4.13)
54 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
If T
sur
= 0, then the time taken by the solid to reach a certain temperature
is given by
t =
V c
3A
s,r

_
1
T
3

1
T
3
i
_
(4.14)
4.2.2 Special case: No radiation
In the case where the radiation is absent, Eq.(4.10) reduces to
q

s
A
s,h
+

E
g
h(T T

)A
s,c
= V C
dT
dt
(4.15)
Assuming b =
q

s
A
s,h
+

Eg
V c
, = T T

, and a =
hAs,c
V c
, the model equation
(Eq. 4.15) reduces to
d
dt
+ a b = 0 (4.16)
subject to the initial condition that at t = 0, =
i
.
Solving Eq. (4.16) by setting

=
b
a
, the transient temperature as a
function of time is given by
T T

T
i
T

= exp(at) +
b/a
T
i
T

[1 exp(at)] (4.17)
Eq. (4.17) shows that when t , T T

=
b
a
.
4.3 Spatial eects
In the transient analysis considered so far, the spatial eects were ignored.
The validity of this assumption is given by the appropriate Bi number dene
in Eq. (4.6). There are several situations where this assumption is not valid,
the spatial eects become important and must be considered.
4.3.1 Innite plane wall
Consider an innite plane wall with thickness 2L at an initial uniform tem-
perature of T(x, 0) = T
i
(Fig. 4.6) placed in a uid of temperature T

< T
i
and heat transfer coecient h.
4.3. SPATIAL EFFECTS 55
Figure 4.6: Spatial eects: Innite plane wall
Assuming no heat generation in the plane wall, the spatio-temporal dy-
namics of the temperature in the plane wall is given by

2
T
x
2
=
1

T
t
(4.18)
If the x-dimension starts at the center of the wall, then the boundary condi-
tions corresponding to Eq. (4.18) are
T
x
|
x=0
= 0; k
T
x
|
x=L
= h[T(L, t) T

] (4.19)
and the initial condition is T(x, 0) = T
i
.
Introducing the non-dimensional quantities =
TT
infty
T
i
T
, =
x
L
, Fo =
t
L
2
,
Bi =
hL
k
into Eqs (4.18) & (4.19) leads to

2
=

Fo
(4.20)
subject to the initial condition (, 0) = 1, and boundary conditions

|
=0
=
0,

|
=1
= Bi(1, Fo).
The exact solution of the Eq. (4.20) is
=

n=1
C
n
exp(
2
n
Fo) cos(
n
) (4.21)
56 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Table 4.1: Positive roots of the transcendental characteristic equation (Eq.
4.23) for dierent Bi
Bi
1

2

3

4
0 0 3.416 6.2832 9.4248
0.01 0.0998 3.1448 6.2848 9.4258
0.1 0.3111 3.1731 6.2991 9.4354
where,
C
n
=
4 sin
n
2
n
+ sin(2
n
)
(4.22)
and
n
are the positive roots of the transcendental equation

n
tan
n
Bi = 0 (4.23)
First few solutions of Eq. (4.23) is in Table (4.1)
Eq. (4.21) in an innite series that provides the spatio-temporal temper-
ature prole in the innite plane wall.
Approximate solution
When Fo > 0.2, the innite series in Eq. (4.21) can be approximated to
C
1
exp(
2
1
Fo) cos(
1
) (4.24)
Note that when = 0, =
0
=
T
0
T
T
i
T
, that is the mid-point temperature.
Therefore,

0
C
1
exp(
2
1
Fo) (4.25)
Using Eq. (4.25) to replace C
1
, Eq. (4.24) can be re-written as
=
0
cos(
1
) (t) =
0
(t) cos(
1
) (4.26)
Inspection of Eq. (4.26) suggest that the time dependence of temperature
anywhere inside the wall is same as that at the mid-point.
Total energy transfer at any time t
In several design applications, it is important to know the total energy that
has been transferred from (or to) the wall up to a specic t during the tran-
sient process.
4.3. SPATIAL EFFECTS 57
The energy transferred by the plane wall to the surrounding cold uid is
Q =
_
c [T(x, t) T
i
] dV
CV (T
i
T

)
V
_
(1 )dV (4.27)
Maximum energy that can be transferred by the plane wall is the total energy
when t , which is
Q
0
= CV (T
i
T

) (4.28)
Using Eq. (4.28) into Eq. (4.27) leads to the following expression for the
total energy
Q
Q
0
=
1
V
_
(1 )dV (4.29)
When =
0
cos(
n
), that is for Fo > 0.2,
Q
Q
0
= 1
sin
n

0
(4.30)
where,

0
is the center temperature determined from Eq. (4.25).
4.3.2 Innite cylinder
The methodology followed for the plane wall geometry applies to the cylin-
der as well, typically when the aspect ratio is geq10. The spatio-temporal
temperature prole is given by
=

n=1
C
n
exp(
2
n
Fo)J
0
(
n
) (4.31)
where, =
r
R
, Fo =
t
R
2
, the constant C
n
is given by
C
n
=
2

2
J
1
(
n
)
J
2
0
(
n
) + J
2
1
(
n
)
(4.32)
and
n
are the positive roots of the transcendental equation

n
J
1
(
n
)
J
0
(
n
)
Bi = 0 (4.33)
58 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Total energy transfer at any time t
The total energy transfer is given by
Q
Q
0
= 1
3

1
J
1
(
1
) (4.34)
where,

0
is the center temperature.
4.3.3 Sphere
The spatio-temporal temperature prole in a sphere is given by
=

n=1
C
n
exp(
2
n
Fo)
1

sin(
n
) (4.35)
where, =
r
R
, Fo =
t
R
2
, the constant C
n
is given by
C
n
=
4 [sin(
n
)
n
cos(
n
)]
2
2
sin(2
n
)
(4.36)
and
n
are the positive roots of the transcendental equation
1
n
cot
n
Bi = 0 (4.37)
Total energy transfer at any time t
The total energy transfer is given by
Q
Q
0
= 1
2

3
1
[sin(
1
)
1
cos(
1
)] (4.38)
where,

0
is the center temperature.
4.3.4 Semi-innite solid
Consider a semi-innite solid with the temperature at the wall at one end T
s
(Fig. 4.7a), that is constant temperature condition. Assume the other end
of the solid to extend all the way to innity and the initial condition to be
T(x, 0) = T
i
. The model equation for this system is
4.3. SPATIAL EFFECTS 59
Figure 4.7: Transient conduction in semi-innite solid.

2
T
x
2
=
1

T
t
(4.39)
subject to the boundary conditions T(0, t) = T
s
and T(x ) = T
i
.
The model equation (Eq. 4.39) can be solved by following a similarity
approach. Introducing the non-dimensional variable =
x

4t
into Eq. (4.39),
reduces the model equation into
d
2
T
d
2
= 2
dT
d
(4.40)
subject to the boundary conditions T( = 0) = T
s
, T( ) = T
i
. The
solution of the model (Eq. 4.40) is
T T
s
T
i
T
s
=
2

_
0
exp(u
2
)du = erf() (4.41)
where, u is a dummy variable, erf() is the error function. The surface heat
ux can be obtained by applying Fouriers law at x = 0 and is given by
q

s
=
k(T
s
T
i
)

t
(4.42)
60 CHAPTER 4. TRANSIENT CONDUCTION
Table 4.2: Temperature prole in semi-innite wall for dierent boundary
conditions. (Note that erfc(w) = 1 erf(w)
BC type Solution
T(0, t) = T
s
T(x,t)Ts
T
i
Ts
= erf
_
x
2

t
_
k
T
x
|
x=0
= q

0
T(x, t) T
i
=
2q

0
(t/)
1/2
k
exp
_

x
2
4t
_

0
x
k
erfc
_
x
2

t
_
k
T
x
|
x=0
= h[T

T(0, t)]
T(x,t)T
i
TT
i
=
erfc
_
x
2

t
_
exp
_
hx
k
+
h
2

t
k
2
_
erfc
_
x
2

t
+
h

t
k
_
Fig. (4.7b) shows the transient temperature prole.
Similar solution procedure can be used to nd the spatio-temporal tem-
perature prole for other boundary conditions. These are presented in Table
(4.2).
Temperature proles for increasing time for dierent boundary conditions
are presented in Fig. (4.8).
Figure 4.8: Temperature prole for increasing times for (A) constant ux
boundary condition and (B) convection boundary condition.