Digital simulation of transient heat conduction with polynomial variable thermal conductivity and specific heat Original Research Article

The transient thermal responses observed in a slab, the thermal conductivity and specific heat of which showed polynomial temperature dependence, were simulated digitally by means of the network method. A general network model for this process is proposed regardless of the polynomial degree, which includes initial and boundary conditions. With this network model and using the electrical circuit simulation program PSPICE, time-dependent temperature and heat flow profiles at any location can be obtained, This approach allows us to solve this conduction problem at a moderate cost in computer time, without the necessity of considering numerical and programming aspects. The results are compared with those obtained by other methods for a particular case.