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.

The conduction equation

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

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

node is equal to 335.15K.

Average of temperature along the bar should be same with average of temperature at

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 =

(+1
2 + 1
)
+
()2

The notation i is for element and n is for time.

this equation is attached at Appendix.

The entire MATLAB code of formulation based on

For formulation, the bar was dissected into 10 pieces with

even length of dx=0.1 m.

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.

Energy equation was activated to

solve heat transfer at the system.

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

means the length between two adjacent nods is 0.01 m.

The number of grid in transverse direction is

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.

The selected materials and their

Thermal properties of the materials was obtained

from material database installed in FLUENT.

Table 1. Thermal Properties of the Selected Materials

Material

Aluminum (Al)

Gold (Au)

Copper (Cu)

Thermal Conductivity

202.4 W/mK

297.73 W/mK

387.6 W/mK

Density

2719 kg/m3

19320 kg/m3

8978 kg/m3

Cp

871 J/kgK

129.81 J/kgK

381 J/kgK

Thermal Diffusivity

8.546e-05 m2/s

1.19e-04 m2/s

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

MATLAB (Explicit) (10pcs)

FLUENT (Implicit) (100pcs)

Aluminum

4776 s

4863 s

Gold

3430 s

3520 s

Copper

3612 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