1.

Problem Description
Solve the unsteady 1-D heat conduction equation using the finite difference method Specify the material and thermal conductivity Solve the heat conduction equation Plot the temperature distribution with respect to time

Fig. 1. Problem Description

2. Governing Equation
The governing equation of this problem is 1D conduction equation in transient state. is partial differential equation of t of time and x,y,z of length as below. 2 T 2 T 2 T 1 + + + = x 2 y 2 z 2 In this case, since = 0, and only x-direction will be considered, the governing equation reduces to 2 T 1 = x 2 The conduction equation

3. Solution Method
The problem was solved with MATLAB code and the result also verified with commercial CFD code, FLUENT ver. 6.3. I assumed achievement of linear temperature distribution occur when average of temperature at each Average of temperature along the bar should be same with average of temperature at

node is equal to 335.15K.

both ends, which is 335.65K.

1) MATLAB code
To solve this problem, I used explicit method to calculate temperature distribution of the rod. By

discretizing 1D conduction equation for explicit method, the finite difference of temperature was obtained as below. 2 T 1 = x 2
1 (+1 ) +1 2 + 1 = ()2 (+1 2 + 1 ) + ()2

+1 =

The notation i is for element and n is for time. this equation is attached at Appendix. even length of dx=0.1 m.

The entire MATLAB code of formulation based on

For formulation, the bar was dissected into 10 pieces with

2) FLUENT
To solve this problem, 2 dimensional problem solver of FLUENT ver. 6.3.26 was used. The solver is pressure based, unsteady solver with 1st order implicit formulation. solve heat transfer at the system. Energy equation was activated to

4. Boundary Condition
1) Grid Generation for CFD (FLUENT)

Fig. 2. Grid Generated

Fig.2. is the grid generated and it was generated in Gambit. shape. The length is 1, height is 0.1 m.

The grid was generated in 2D, square

The number of grid in longitudinal direction is 100, which The number of grid in transverse direction is

means the length between two adjacent nods is 0.01 m.

10 to make same length with grid in longitudinal direction.

2) Boundary Condition
To make 1D conduction condition, it was assumed that there is no heat flux to the y-direction. At the

left side of the bar, where x=-0.5m, temperature was set to 298.15K and at the opposite side of the bar, where x=0.5m, temperature was set to 373.15K.

Time step length was set to 0.1s for both method.

3) Material Properties
I selected three different materials to examine the effect of thermal conductivity to the time elapsed to achieve linear temperature distribution along longitudinal direction. own thermal conductivity are tabulated in Table. 1. from material database installed in FLUENT.
Table 1. Thermal Properties of the Selected Materials

The selected materials and their

Thermal properties of the materials was obtained

Material Thermal Conductivity Density Cp Thermal Diffusivity

Aluminum (Al) 202.4 W/mK 2719 kg/m3 871 J/kgK 8.546e-05 m2/s

Gold (Au) 297.73 W/mK 19320 kg/m3 129.81 J/kgK 1.19e-04 m2/s

Copper (Cu) 387.6 W/mK 8978 kg/m3 381 J/kgK 1.13e-04 m2/s

5. Result
1) MATLAB with Explicit Solution Method
a) Aluminum Elapsed Time: 4776 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time

b) Gold Elapsed Time:3430 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time

c) Copper Elapsed Time:3612 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time

2) FLUENT with Implicit Solver

a) Aluminum Elapsed Time: 4863 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time (Visualized)

b) Gold Elapsed Time: 3520 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time (Visualized)

c) Copper Elapsed Time: 3713 s Temperature Distribution along x-Direction and Change along Time (Visualized)

3) Discussion
In this project, I derived the governing equation of one-dimensional heat transfer phenomenon of different metallic materials Aluminum, Gold, Copper and solved it with two different method and tools; finite difference method with explicit solution method and commercial CFD code, FLUENT with implicit solver. As shown in 5.1 and 5.2, the elapsed time to achieve proper average

temperature, which is set to 335.15 K (-0.5K error with theoretical value), was almost similar. The elapsed time for each case was tabulated in Table. 2. There was approximately 100 seconds of difference in every case, which was considered mainly because of the different length of a section 10 pcs for MATLAB, 100 pcs for FLUENT and difference of solution method. In overall, the elapsed time were similar in same material, and quite different along with material property, heat diffusivity .

Material\Solver Aluminum Gold Copper

MATLAB (Explicit) (10pcs) 4776 s 3430 s 3612 s

FLUENT (Implicit) (100pcs) 4863 s 3520 s 3713 s

Appendix
MATLAB Explicit Solution Method Source Code
clear %Generating Grid n=input('Insert number of grid... '); dx=1/n; x=linspace(0,1,n+1); %Material Property a=input('Insert thermal diffusivity of the material... '); %Setting Time Step and Initializing dt=input('Insert time step size... '); j=0; % # of iteration Temp=298.15*ones(1,n+1); Temp(n+1)=373.15; T0=Temp; %Formulation goes until avg of temperature of each point is equal to=335K while mean(Temp(j+1,:))<335 j=j+1 for i=2:n Temp(j+1,i)=(a)*(dt)/(dx)^2*(Temp(j,i+1)-2*Temp(j,i)+Temp(j,i-1))+Temp(j,i); Temp(j+1,1)=298.15; Temp(j+1,n+1)=373.15; end end Elaptime=j*dt