Proccedings of the ISSSD 2012

ISBN 978-607-00-6167-7

Heat Transfer Monitoring in Solids By Means of Finite

Element Analysis Software
J. Hernndez Wong*, V. Suarez, J. Guarachi, A. Caldern, A. G. Jurez, J. B. Rojas-Trigos and E. Marn
Instituto Politcnico Nacional, CICATA Unidad Legaria, Mxico D.F., C. P. 11500, Mxico.

Abstract: We study the radial heat transfer in a homogeneous and isotropic substance with a heat linear source in its axial
axis. For this, we used hot wire photothermal technique in order to obtain the temperature distribution as a function of radial
distance and time exposure. Also, the solution of the transient heat transport equation for this problem was obtained with
appropriate boundary conditions, by means of finite element technique. The comparison of the experimental and simulated
results shows a good agree, which demonstrate the utility of this methodology in the investigation of the thermal response of
substances, in the radial configuration.

Keywords: Heat Transfer; Hot Wire; Finite element.

* E-mail corresponding author: hjoel@tetraa.com.mx , hjoel@lycos.com
Telephone: +52-(55)-57 29 60 00

1. Introduction

In this work, the Comsol Multiphysics software is use to

determinate the numerical solution of a transient temperature
distribution in a sample measured by the hot wire technique
configuration.

Heat transfer is the area which describes the energy

transport between material bodies due to a difference in
temperature, and its development and applications are of
fundamental importance in many branches of engineering
since provides economical and efficient solutions for critical
problems encountered in many engineering items of equipment. Among the parameters that determine the thermal
behavior of a material, the thermal conductivity is especially
important because it represents the ability of a material to
transfer heat, and it is one of the physical quantities whose
measurement is very difficult and it requires high precision
in the determination of the parameters involved in its calculations [1, 2].
The hot wire technique is an absolute, non-steady state and
direct method which is considered an effective and accurate
procedure to determining the thermal conductivity of a variety of materials, including ceramics, fluids, food and
polymers [3-6]. However, this technique is based in a conventional mathematical model which is an approximation of
the physical reality in the experimental setup because the
complexity of the mathematical problem has been an obstacle to obtain a more realistic theoretical model [7, 8]. Fortunately, nowadays the development of the advanced numerical methods and computing systems allow the application of high level software for obtain an approximate solution to a complex mathematical problem with a boundary
conditions congruent with the physical reality. In particular,
Comsol Multiphysics is a powerful Finite Element (FEM)
Partial Differential Equation (PDE) solution engine [9]
useful to obtain a numerical solution in complex problems.

2. Experimental
The hot wire technique is based in a needle with a heater
and temperature sensor inside. A rectangular linear power
density is passed through the heater and the temperature of
the probe is monitored over a specific period of time. An
analysis of the transient temperature response is used to
investigate the thermal response of the sample.
In the conventional mathematical model the hot wire is
assumed to be an ideal infinitely thin and long heat source
which is immersed in an infinite surrounding material. By
means of the solution of the heat conduction equation, in
cylindrical coordinates, it can be obtained the temperature
distribution divided in two stages [7]:
The heating stage: t 0, th

Ths (t , r )

Q0 r 2

Ei
4k 4t

(1)

The cooling stage: t th ,

Tcs (t , r )

30

r2
Q0
r2

Ei
Ei
4k
4

t
4

(
t

t
)

(2)

Proccedings of the ISSSD 2012

ISBN 978-607-00-6167-7

Here, r is the radial distance from the lineal source, k is the

thermal conductivity, is the thermal diffusivity, Q0 is the
linear heat source, th is the heating time, and Ei is the exponential integral [10]. By means of the fitting the expression
of Ths (heating stage) or Tcs (cooling stage) to the experimental data, it can be obtained the thermal parameters of the
sample. The black curve in Figure 1 shows the graph of Ths,
and, Tcs of the theoretical model, in function of t for r = a
(fixed). The radius of the needle probe is a = 0.6 mm.

For r = a, the heat flux is represented by a rectangular, or

boxcar function, Figure 2:
1 ; 0 t 30s

Q(t )
0 ; elswere

(5)

3. Simulation Process
It was apply Comsol Multiphysics software with the
purpose to solve the heat transport equations for the configuration of hot wire technique with boundary conditions
corresponding to the physical reality.
In the software Graphic user interface (GUI), it was built a
2D hollow cylinder of radius a and b, which represent the
sample-probe arrangement. The hollow cylinder gives certain advantages in the numerical calculation process, one of
these advantages is to reduce complexity in the model and
the other is to simplify the boundary regions, see Figure 1.

Figure 2. Rectangular function.

For r = b, the boundary condition is given by

T (r b, t ) Tamb ,

(6)

where Tamb = 294.15 K. And, initial conditions take the values:

Tini 294.15K ,

(7)

t 0

4. Results and Discussion

The material used in the simulation set up was the glycerine (CAS 56-81-5). In table 1 is described the thermophysical properties of glycerine.

Figure 1. 2D Geometry.

Once the geometry is defined, the physical process that

takes place in the experiment is defined in the heat transfer
module of the Comsol software. The heat transfer module
use the heat diffusion equation (HDE), given by:

C p

T
C putransT kT Q Wp
t

Table 1. Thermophysical properties of glycerin

Property

k
c

(3)

T
kT
t

Unit
kg/m3
W/mK
J/kg-K

The time vector it was intoduced for the transient

response, in the close interval [0,60s], with increments of
0.1 seconds.

In the simulation setup, only the Laplacian term and the

time dependent contribution are needed, therefore the HDE
is reduced to:

C p

Magnitude
1261
0.285
2470

The resultant surface, with a rainbow representation, gives

the radial heat distribution in the sample, Figure 3.

(4)

The boundary conditions and initial values proposed are

given as follow:

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Proccedings of the ISSSD 2012

ISBN 978-607-00-6167-7

Figure 6. Differential Temperature between the theoretical

and simulated results.

Figure 3. Temperature Field evolution in time

Neumann Boundary condition.

Figure 4 shows the temperature distribution in time at

different radial distance, the first curve (Blue curve) represent the one needle hot wire experiment and has a good
correlation with the conventional mathematical model.
In the other hand, the figure 4 shows the heat diffusion in
the entire sample and it is observing that with the increment
of radial distance, the amplitude decay drastically.

In this form, the use of numerical simulation software to

obtain the solutions of the PDE involved in this problem, is
an important tool for investigate the heat transfer in substances that can be used like complement in the application
of the hot wire technique.

5. Conclusion
It was obtained that the finite element simulation result
has a similar shape with that obtained by the conventional
theoretical model; however, there is a significant difference
between them that can be important to have in account in the
use of this results in the analysis of the experimental data. In
addition, the final element simulation analysis provides a
substantial advantage in this problem, being able to vary the
different parameters of the experiment, such as the radial
distance, the heat flux, the initial temperature, among others,
and thereby optimize the results.

Figure 4. Temperature vs time at different radial distance.

Figure 5 show the theoretical (red curve) and the simulated (black curve) results for the temperature difference
versus time. It is observed a difference between these results, which is better appreciated in Figure 6, where the
differences between the curves are represented.

Acknowledgments.
The authors would like to thank to Consejo Nacional de
Ciencia y Tecnologa (CONACyT) of Mxico, Secretaria de
Investigacin y Posgrado (SIP) from Instituto Politcnico
Nacional of Mxico, for its support to this work.
___________________________________________

References.

Figure 5. Comparison of conventional method and

Comsol Simulation.

32

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Terry M. Tritt, THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY, THEORY

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[2]

Roland W. Lewis, Perumal, FUNDAMENTALS OF THE

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Nithiarasu, Kankanhally N. Seetharamu, Wiley (2008).

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W. N. dos Santos. (2003). J. Eur. Ceram Soc. 23: 745-755.

Proccedings of the ISSSD 2012

ISBN 978-607-00-6167-7

[5]

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