Heat transfer between two innite dierent solids

Sushil Kumar
September 23, 2010
1 Problem denition
The given problem is that there is an innite slab that is partitioned into two equal parts, one part is
made of Titanium (Ti), while the other part is made of Boron that intersect at x = 0 in a control volume
scenario. Initially, the system is under atmospheric pressure, and the two innite solids are at the same
initial temperature. Suddenly, there is sharp increase in pressure from 1atm to 1000 atm (1Kbar). Since this
is a control volume problem, with constant density, the only way for the system to accommodate to its new
conditions is to increase the temperature of the slab. At the interface between titanium and boron, nd the
heat transfer distribution using the one dimensional heat equation under constant volume scenario.
2 Issues with the problem
The given problem seems to depict an impossible scenario. First of all, it is impossible to raise the pressure
of a solid material. Secondly, the one dimensional heat transfer equation, also known as the one dimensional
diusion equation, deals with constant pressure scenario rather than a constant volume scenario. Finally, if
the pressure is raised to 1000 atm, how is it being maintained at that pressure?
3 New formulation of the problem
The basics of the problem seems to be guring out how the heat transfer occurs at the interface of two innite
solids, which are made of dierent materials and are at dierent temperature. The system is assumed to be
under constant pressure.
4 Problem solution
The one dimensional heat transfer equation is given by the following formula
d
2
dr
2
T =
1

d
dt
T (1)
Where,
=
k
c
p
(2)
The boundary conditions for this problem are:
T (0, t) = T
s
andT (x , t) = T
i
(3)
The initial condition for this problem is:
T (x, 0) = T
i
(4)
1
Now, in order to solve this problem, we must look at the two innite solids separately, so we can nd out
the temperature at the contact interface, T
s
. Also, the initial temperature for each innite solid is not the
same.
Lets take the titanium solid. We know that the heat transfer at the interface between the two solids
should be the same. Thus, if the temperature of the titanium solid is higher, then we can assume that there
is a heat sink at its contact interface. If the temperature of the titanium solid is lower, then we can assume
that there is a heat source at its contact interface. Similarly, if the temperature of the boron solid is higher,
then we can assume that there is a heat sink at its contact interface.
If we set the heat ux of the two solids equal to each other, we get the following equation:
q
s,Ti
= q
s,B

K
Ti
(T
s
T
Ti,i
)

A
t
=
k
B
(T
s
T
B,i
)

B
t

T
Ti,i
T
s
T
s
T
B,i
=

(kc
p
)
B
(kc
p
)
Ti
(5)
Where
Ti
and
B
are the thermal diusivity of the respective materials, which is equal to:
=
k
c
p
(6)
Thus, the temperature at the contact surface between the two solids is given by the following formula:
T
s
=

(kc
p
)
Ti
T
Ti,i
+

(kc
p
)
B
T
B,i

(kc
p
)
Ti
+

(kc
p
)
B
(7)
Now that we have this temperature, we can go ahead and solve the dierential equation. But, before we
do that we need to change the PDE into an ODE by introducing a similarity variable , which is equal to:
=
x

4t
(8)
Thus, the new transformed one dimensional heat equation is:
d
2
d
2
T = 2
d
d
T (9)
With the following modied boundary and initial conditions:
T (0) = T
s
T ( ) = T
i
(10)
After analytically solving it, we have the following solution:
T (x, t) T
i
T
s
T
i
= erfc

x
2

(11)
Where,
erfc () = 1
2

0
e
u
2
du (12)
Thus, for each of the innite solid, we have to solve the above equation for various points along x.
2