WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Heat Diffusion in a Semi-Infinite Region

​
time
0.5
boundary condition
constant temperature
constant heat flux
convection
This Demonstration shows solutions for the one-dimensional heat diffusion equation
(
∂
t
T=α
∂
x,x
T)
in a semi-infinite region. Starting from a uniform initial temperature,
T
0
, and using normalized parameters (
k=α=1)
, the dimensionless temperature distribution is animated in time for the three classical boundary conditions at
x=0
, namely: constant surface temperature,
T=
T
s
; constant surface heat flux,
-k
∂T
∂x
=
q
s
; and convective exchange with a fluid at
T
∞
,
-k
∂T
∂x
=h(
T
∞
-T)
. For the convection case, temperature distributions for a relatively high, medium, and low value of the heat transfer coefficient
h
are displayed. A high
h
(red curve) gives results close to the constant surface temperature case, while a low
h
value (blue curve) gives results similar to the constant heat flux case. In all cases the thermal affected zone is of the order of
4
αt
.