Cooling of a Sphere in Contact with a Well-Stirred Fluid
A homogeneous solid sphere of radius R, initially a t a uniform temperature T1 T 1 , is suddenly immersed at time t=0 t = 0 in a volume Vf V f of well-stirred fluid of temperature T0 T 0 in an insulated tank. It is desired to find the thermal diffusivity αx=ksρsC^ps α x = k s ρ s C ^ p s of the solid by observing the change of the fluid temperature Tf T f with time. We use the following dimensionless variables
Dimensionless solid temperature:
Θs(ξ,τ)=T1−TsT1−T0(1) (1) Θ s ( ξ , τ ) = T 1 − T s T 1 − T 0
Dimensionless fluid temperature:
Θs(ξ,τ)=T1−TsT1−T0(2) (2) Θ s ( ξ , τ ) = T 1 − T s T 1 − T 0
Dimensionless radial coordinate:
ξ=rR(3) (3) ξ = r R
Dimensionless time:
τ=αstR2(4) (4) τ = α s t R 2
Solution:
For the solid sphere,
Heat transfer equation
∂Θs∂τ=1ξ2∂∂ξ(ξ2∂Θs∂ξ)(5) (5) ∂ Θ s ∂ τ = 1 ξ 2 ∂ ∂ ξ ( ξ 2 ∂ Θ s ∂ ξ )
Initial condition
At τ=0 τ = 0 , Θs=0 Θ s = 0 (6) (6)
Boundary condition
At ξ=1 ξ = 1 , Θs=Θf Θ s = Θ f (7) (7)
At ξ=0 ξ = 0 , Θs=Finite Θ s = F i n i t e (8) (8)
For the fluid,
dΘfdτ=−3B∂Θs∂ξ∣∣∣ξ=1(9) (9) d Θ f d τ = − 3 B ∂ Θ s ∂ ξ | ξ = 1
in which
B=ρfC^pfVfρsC^psVs B = ρ f C ^ p f V f ρ s C ^ p s V s