Thermal Analysis Workflow using MATLAB

Heat Transfer Problem with Temperature-Dependent Properties

 Steady-State Solution: Constant Thermal Conductivity
 Transient Solution: Constant Thermal Conductivity
 Steady State Solution: Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity
 Transient Solution: Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity
Heat Transfer Problem with Temperature-Dependent Properties
This example shows how to solve the heat equation with a temperature-dependent thermal
conductivity. The example shows an idealized thermal analysis of a rectangular block with a
rectangular cavity in the center.
The partial differential equation for transient conduction heat transfer is:
ρCp (∂T/∂t) −∇⋅(k∇T) = f
where T is the temperature, ρ is the material density, Cp is the specific heat, and k is the thermal
conductivity. f is the heat generated inside the body which is zero in this example.
Steady-State Solution: Constant Thermal Conductivity
Create a steady-state thermal model.
thermalmodelS = createpde("thermal","steadystate");
Create a 2-D geometry by drawing one rectangle the size of the block and a second rectangle the size
of the slot.
r1 = [3 4 -.5 .5 .5 -.5 -.8 -.8 .8 .8];
r2 = [3 4 -.05 .05 .05 -.05 -.4 -.4 .4 .4];
gdm = [r1; r2]';
Subtract the second rectangle from the first to create the block with a slot.
g = decsg(gdm,'R1-R2',['R1'; 'R2']');
Convert the decsg format into a geometry object. Include the geometry in the model.
geometryFromEdges(thermalmodelS,g);
Plot the geometry with edge labels displayed. The edge labels will be used below in the function for
defining boundary conditions.
figure
pdegplot(thermalmodelS,"EdgeLabels","on");
axis([-.9 .9 -.9 .9]);
title("Block Geometry With Edge Labels Displayed")
Set the temperature on the left edge to 100 degrees. On the right edge, there is a prescribed heat flux
out of the block. The top and bottom edges and the edges inside the cavity are all insulated, that is, no
heat is transferred across these edges.
thermalBC(thermalmodelS,"Edge",6,"Temperature",100);
thermalBC(thermalmodelS,"Edge",1,"HeatFlux",-10);
Specify the thermal conductivity of the material. First, consider the constant thermal conductivity, for
example, equal one. Later, consider a case where the thermal conductivity is a function of
temperature.
thermalProperties(thermalmodelS,"ThermalConductivity",1);
Create a mesh with elements no larger than 0.2.
generateMesh(thermalmodelS,"Hmax",0.2);
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodelS);
axis equal
title("Block With Finite Element Mesh Displayed")
Calculate the steady-state solution.
R = solve(thermalmodelS);
T = R.Temperature;
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodelS,"XYData",T,"Contour","on","ColorMap","hot");
axis equal
title("Temperature, Steady State Solution")
Transient Solution: Constant Thermal Conductivity
Create a transient thermal model and include the geometry.
thermalmodelT = createpde("thermal","transient");

r1 = [3 4 -.5 .5 .5 -.5 -.8 -.8 .8 .8];

r2 = [3 4 -.05 .05 .05 -.05 -.4 -.4 .4 .4];
gdm = [r1; r2]';
g = decsg(gdm,'R1-R2',['R1'; 'R2']');
geometryFromEdges(thermalmodelT,g);
Specify thermal conductivity, mass density, and specific heat of the material.
thermalProperties(thermalmodelT,"ThermalConductivity",1,...
"MassDensity",1,...
"SpecificHeat",1);
Define boundary conditions. In the transient cases, the temperature on the left edge is zero at time=0
and ramps to 100 degrees over .5 seconds. You can find the helper
function transientBCHeatedBlock under matlab/R20XXx/examples/pde/main.
thermalBC(thermalmodelT,"Edge",6,"Temperature",@transientBCHeatedBlock);
On the right edge, there is a prescribed heat flux out of the block.
thermalBC(thermalmodelT,"Edge",1,"HeatFlux",-10);
The top and bottom edges as well as the edges inside the cavity are all insulated, that is no heat is
transferred across these edges.
Create a mesh with elements no larger than 0.2.
msh = generateMesh(thermalmodelT,"Hmax",0.2);
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodelT);
axis equal
title("Block With Finite Element Mesh Displayed")

Calculate the transient solution. Perform a transient analysis from zero to five seconds. The toolbox
saves the solution every .1 seconds so that plots of the results as functions of time can be created.
tlist = 0:.1:5;
thermalIC(thermalmodelT,0);
R = solve(thermalmodelT,tlist);
T = R.Temperature;
Two plots are useful in understanding the results from this transient analysis. The first is a plot of the
temperature at the final time. The second is a plot of the temperature at a specific point in the block,
in this case near the center of the right edge, as a function of time. To identify a node near the center
of the right edge, it is convenient to define this short utility function.
getClosestNode = @(p,x,y) min((p(1,:) - x).^2 + (p(2,:) - y).^2);
Call this function to get a node near the center of the right edge.
[~,nid] = getClosestNode( msh.Nodes, .5, 0 );
The two plots are shown side-by-side in the figure below. The temperature distribution at this time is
very similar to that obtained from the steady-state solution above. At the right edge, for times less
than about one-half second, the temperature is less than zero. This is because heat is leaving the
block faster than it is arriving from the left edge. At times greater than about three seconds, the
temperature has essentially reached steady-state.
h = figure;
h.Position = [1 1 2 1].*h.Position;
subplot(1,2,1);
axis equal
pdeplot(thermalmodelT,"XYData",T(:,end),"Contour","on", ...
"ColorMap","hot");
axis equal
title("Temperature, Final Time, Transient Solution")
subplot(1,2,2);
axis equal
plot(tlist, T(nid,:));
grid on
title("Temperature at Right Edge as a Function of Time")
xlabel("Time, seconds")
ylabel("Temperature, degrees-Celsius")

Steady State Solution: Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity

It is not uncommon for material properties to be functions of the dependent variables. For example,
assume that the thermal conductivity is a simple linear function of temperature:
k = @(~,state) 0.3+0.003*state.u;
In this case, the variable u is the temperature. For this example, assume that the density and specific
heat are not functions of temperature.
thermalProperties(thermalmodelS,"ThermalConductivity",k);
Calculate the steady-state solution. Compared with the constant-conductivity case, the temperature
on the right-hand edge is lower. This is due to the lower conductivity in regions with lower
temperature.
R = solve(thermalmodelS);
T = R.Temperature;
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodelS,"XYData",T,"Contour","on","ColorMap","hot");
axis equal
title("Temperature, Steady State Solution")

Transient Solution: Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity

Now perform a transient analysis with the temperature-dependent conductivity.
thermalProperties(thermalmodelT,"ThermalConductivity",k,...
"MassDensity",1,...
"SpecificHeat",1);
Use the same timespan tlist = 0:.1:5 as for the linear case.
Get
thermalIC(thermalmodelT,0);
R = solve(thermalmodelT,tlist);
T = R.Temperature;
Plot the temperature at the final time step and the temperature at the right edge as a function of time.
The plot of temperature at the final time step is only slightly different from the comparable plot from
the linear analysis: temperature at the right edge is slightly lower than the linear case. The plot of
temperature as a function of time is considerably different from the linear case. Because of the lower
conductivity at lower temperatures, the heat takes longer to reach the right edge of the block. In the
linear case, the temperature is essentially constant at around three seconds but for this nonlinear case,
the temperature curve is just beginning to flatten at five seconds.
h = figure;
h.Position = [1 1 2 1].*h.Position;
subplot(1,2,1);
axis equal
pdeplot(thermalmodelT,"XYData",T(:,end),"Contour","on", ...
"ColorMap","hot");
axis equal
title("Temperature, Final Time, Transient Solution")
subplot(1,2,2);
axis equal
plot(tlist(1:size(T,2)), T(nid,:));
grid on
title("Temperature at Right Edge as a Function of Time (Nonlinear)")
xlabel("Time, seconds")
ylabel("Temperature, degrees-Celsius")
Heat Distribution in Circular Cylindrical Rod
 Steady-State Solution
 Transient Solution
Heat Distribution in Circular Cylindrical Rod
This example shows how to simplify a 3-D axisymmetric thermal problem to a 2-D problem using
the symmetry around the axis of rotation of the body.
This example analyzes heat transfer in a rod with a circular cross section. There is a heat source at
the bottom of the rod and a fixed temperature at the top. The outer surface of the rod exchanges heat
with the environment because of convection. In addition, the rod itself generates heat because of
radioactive decay. The goal is to find the temperature in the rod as a function of time.
The model geometry, material properties, and boundary conditions must all be symmetric about the
axis of rotation. The toolbox assumes that the axis of rotation is the vertical axis passing through r =
0.
Steady-State Solution
First, compute the steady-state solution. If the final time in the transient analysis is sufficiently large,
the transient solution at the final time must be close to the steady state solution. By comparing these
two results, you can check the accuracy of the transient analysis.
Create a steady-state thermal model for solving an axisymmetric problem.
thermalmodel = createpde("thermal","steadystate-axisymmetric");
The 2-D model is a rectangular strip whose x-dimension extends from the axis of symmetry to the
outer surface and y-dimension extends over the actual length of the rod (from -1.5 m to 1.5 m).
Create the geometry by specifying the coordinates of its four corners.
g = decsg([3 4 0 0 .2 .2 -1.5 1.5 1.5 -1.5]');
Include the geometry in the model.
geometryFromEdges(thermalmodel,g);
Plot the geometry with the edge labels.
figure
pdegplot(thermalmodel,"EdgeLabels","on")
axis equal
The rod is composed of a material with these thermal properties.
k = 40; % Thermal conductivity, W/(m*C)
rho = 7800; % Density, kg/m^3
cp = 500; % Specific heat, W*s/(kg*C)
q = 20000; % Heat source, W/m^3
For a steady-state analysis, specify the thermal conductivity of the material.
thermalProperties(thermalmodel,"ThermalConductivity",k);
Specify the internal heat source.
internalHeatSource(thermalmodel,q);
Define the boundary conditions. There is no heat transferred in the direction normal to the axis of
symmetry (edge 1). You do not need to change the default boundary condition for this edge. Edge 2
is kept at a constant temperature T = 100 °C.
thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",2,"Temperature",100);
Specify the convection boundary condition on the outer boundary (edge 3). The surrounding
temperature at the outer boundary is 100 °C, and the heat transfer coefficient is 50 W/(m⋅∘C).
thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",3,...
"ConvectionCoefficient",50,...
"AmbientTemperature",100);
The heat flux at the bottom of the rod (edge 4) is 5000 W/m2.
thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",4,"HeatFlux",5000);
Generate the mesh.
msh = generateMesh(thermalmodel);
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodel)
axis equal

Solve the model and plot the result.

result = solve(thermalmodel);
T = result.Temperature;
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodel,"XYData",T,"Contour","on")
axis equal
title("Steady-State Temperature")
Transient Solution
Switch the analysis type of the model to transient-axisymmetric.
thermalmodel.AnalysisType = "transient-axisymmetric";
Specify the thermal conductivity, mass density, and specific heat of the material.
thermalProperties(thermalmodel,"ThermalConductivity",k,...
"MassDensity",rho,...
"SpecificHeat",cp);
Specify that the Initial temperature in the rod is 0 °C.
thermalIC(thermalmodel,0);
Compute the transient solution for solution times from t = 0 to t = 50000 seconds.
tfinal = 50000;
tlist = 0:100:tfinal;
result = solve(thermalmodel,tlist);
Plot the temperature distribution at t = 50000 seconds.
T = result.Temperature;
figure
pdeplot(thermalmodel,"XYData",T(:,end),"Contour","on")
axis equal
title(sprintf(['Transient Temperature' ...
' at Final Time (%g seconds)'],tfinal))
Find the temperature at the bottom surface of the rod: first, at the center axis and then on the outer
surface.
Tcenter = interpolateTemperature(result,[0.0;-1.5],1:numel(tlist));
Touter = interpolateTemperature(result,[0.2;-1.5],1:numel(tlist));
Plot the temperature at the left end of the rod as a function of time. The outer surface of the rod is
exposed to the environment with a constant temperature of 100 °C. When the surface temperature of
the rod is less than 100 °C, the environment heats the rod. The outer surface is slightly warmer than
the inner axis. When the surface temperature is greater than 100 °C, the environment cools the rod.
The outer surface becomes cooler than the interior of the rod.
figure
plot(tlist,Tcenter)
hold on
plot(tlist,Touter,"--")
title("Temperature at the Bottom as a Function of Time")
xlabel("Time, s")
ylabel("Temperature, C")
grid on
legend("Center Axis","Outer Surface","Location","SouthEast")