486 IVa. Heat Transfer: Conduction
x
y
z
x
x
T
i
x
T
i
T
i
T
S
h , T
f
x
T
x
T
T
T
i
T
S
T
i
T
i
T
f
ttt
∞
∞
∞
∞
∞
∞
s
q
′′
Figure IVa.9.1. Imposition of various boundary conditions at the surface of a semi-infinite
solid
The solution requires two boundary conditions and one initial condition. The
initial condition is the uniform temperature of the solid before the imposition of
any instantaneous change at its surface, T(x,0) = T
i
. One boundary condition deals
with the heat transfer mechanism at the surface and the other deals with the fact
that, far away from the surface, the temperature remains at its initial value,
i
TtT =∞ ),( . The heat transfer mechanism at the surface is either in the form of
imposition of an instantaneous temperature, or instantaneous exposure to either a
heat flux or a convection boundary. We will use these three types of boundary
conditions in three Cases A, B, and C as discussed below. For now, we try to find
a solution to the 1-D form of Equation IVa.2.3. Among the several methods to
solve this equation, one deals with the integral technique where a profile for tem-
perature distribution is assumed. The coefficients are then found by setting the to-
tal rate of heat transfer equal to the rate of heat transfer at the surface. Another
method is to use the Laplace transform. The approach discussed here uses the
transformation of variables method.
Our goal is to find a single variable such as s = f(x, t) so that we can express
temperature only in terms of s rather than both x and t. We choose the function
f(x, t) as s = x/g(t). At x = 0 and any t, variable s also becomes zero and at t = 0
and any x, variable s also becomes infinity. The latter constraint would represent
the entire solid and will be used as an initial condition. Therefore, the goal is now
to find the unknown function g(t). Keeping this goal in mind, we will try to ex-
press temperature in Equation IVa.2.3 in terms of s. To do this, we need to find
out the partial derivative of temperature with respect to x and t. The first deriva-
tive is found as:
s
T
tgx
s
s
T
x
T
∂
∂
=
∂
∂
∂
∂
=
∂
∂
)(
1
and the second derivative as:
2
2
22
2
2
2
)(
1
][
)(
1
]
)(
1
[
x
T
tg
x
s
s
T
tgs
T
tgx
x
T
∂
∂
=
∂
∂
∂
∂
=
∂
∂
∂
∂
=
∂
∂
IVa.9.1