Heat interaction between different objects with pdetoolbox

Hello to everyone,

I have two different thermalmodel described with two different 3D geometries, for instance a cube and a sphere. My goal is to make the two objects interact each other in term of thermal exchange. I want to assign a certain temperature to the sphere, put it really close to the (cold) cube and see the heat propagation and exchange. Is it possible to achieve this result with the pdetoolbox? In substance I want two different objects to interact each other.

Thanks in advance,

Antonio.

Answer 1

[SOUMNATH PAUL]

Hi,

It is possible to simulate heat exchange between two objects using the PDE Toolbox since the PDE Toolbox allows you to solve partial differential equation in a 3D geometry. Here is a list of steps that you need to kindly implement:

1. Start with defining the 3D geometries for both the cube and the sphere using "geometryFromMesh" function, here's a page that you can follow to know more about this function https://in.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/pde.pdemodel.geometryfrommesh.html
2. The next step is to combine the two geometries into a single geometry representation using the same "geometryFromMesh" function, kindly make sure they are positioned close to each other to allow adequate heat exchange.
3. Then create a thermal model for heat transfer using "createpde", follow the "create thermal model" section of the mentioned link to create your model: https://in.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/createpde.html#bupc1by-thermalmodel
4. Assign the combined geometry to the thermal model and define the thermal conductivity, mass density, and specific heat of the materials for each object.
5. Set initial conditions and boundary conditions, Kindly set the initial temperature of the sphere to be higher than that of the cube to simulate the heat transfer from the sphere to the cube.
6. Create a mesh for the combined geometry using "generateMesh" function. Follow this page to know more about the function https://in.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/generate-mesh.html
7. The last step is to solve the transient heat transfer problem using the "solvepde" function for a range of time values and then visualize the temperature distribution and heat flux of the geometries.

Hope it helps!!

Regards,

Soumnath

[Kirtana]

Hi Soumnath,

Lets say that one of the objects is laser-heated (modeled by a Gaussian heat equation). If the laser acts on the first object but it is transparent, how would you account for a transparent material?