A generalized solution for a two-dimensional (2D) transient heat conduction problem with a partial-heating boundary condition in rectangular coordinates is developed. The solution accommodates three kinds of boundary conditions: prescribed temperature, prescribed heat flux and convective. Also, the possibility of combining prescribed heat flux and convective heating/cooling on the same boundary is addressed. The means of dealing with these conditions involves adjusting the convection coefficient. Large convective coefficients such as 1010 effectively produce a prescribed-temperature boundary condition and small ones such as 10−10 produce an insulated boundary condition. This paper also presents three different methods to develop the computationally difficult steady-state component of the solution, as separation of variables (SOV) can be less efficient at the heated surface and another method (non-SOV) is more efficient there. Then, the use of the complementary transient part of the solution at early times is presented as a unique way to compute the steady-state solution. The solution method builds upon previous work done in generating analytical solutions in 2D problems with partial heating. But the generalized solution proposed here contains the possibility of hundreds or even thousands of individual solutions. An indexed numbering system is used in order to highlight these individual solutions. Heating along a variable length on the nonhomogeneous boundary is featured as part of the geometry and examples of the solution output are included in the results.
A dimensionless analysis of radial heat conduction with variable external convection boundary conditions
