MECH3750 Engineering Analysis II

Assignment 1: Pin-fin heat transfer

A pin fin is a slender cylinder attached to a surface in order to increase the heat transfer
effectiveness of the surface. The figure shows a single pin fin, of length L, extending from
the surface in the x-direction. The surface is at x = 0 and has temperature Ta , while
the free-end of the pin is at x = L and has temperature Tb . The surrounding ambient
temperature is Ts .

Figure 1: Pin fin extending from a surface.

Heat flows along the pin and is transferred to the surrounds via convection and radiation.
Assuming steady state and that the pin is thin enough that a single temperature value is
an adequate description of the temperature across the pin thickness, the distribution of
temperature along the pin, T (x), can be calculated from the solution of the equation

d2 T
hP
 P  4
4
T

(T

T
)

s
s = 0 ,
dx2
kA
kA

0xL

with the boundary conditions T (x = 0) = Ta and T (x = L) = Tb . The pin is cylindrical

in cross section with diameter D = 5.0 mm and length L = 10 cm. The parameters
completing the description of the problem are:
P is the perimeter of the pin cross-section
A is the cross-sectional area of the pin
1

 h = 40 W/m2 /K is the convective heat transfer coefficient

 = 0.4 is the radiative emissivity of the surface of the fin
k = 240 W/m/K is the thermal conductivity of the pin material
= 5.67 108 W/(m2 K4 ) is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant
Ta = 200o C and Tb = Ts = 20o C. Be careful with the radiation heat transfer component where the temperatures as assumed to be in Kelvin.
This is a boundary-value problem and various methods to solve this type of problem will
be discussed in lectures by Sam H.
For this assignment, the general strategy to calculate the temperature distribution along
the pin is to formulate the system of ODEs describing the initial-value problem for T and
dT /dx as functions of x and then guess the missing initial value for dT /dx so that you
can integrate the equations from x = 0 to x = L. Of course, you will have guessed the
correct value of dT /dx such that the temperature you compute at x = L happens to be
Tb . This is called the shooting method.
For the following tasks, you are to submit an individual report by the due date shown
on BlackBoard. The report should include your code, together with some narrative, so
that the marker can easily follow your thinking. The marking criteria will be on how
completely and neatly you do the following tasks.
Task 0: Formulate the system of first-order ODEs for the initial value problem and
encode them as a Python function that accepts a state vector and returns the derivative
of that state vector, as per your MECH2700 work.
Task 1: Build your own ODE integrator for integrating a system of first-order ODEs
with the classic 4th-order Runge-Kutta method and exercise it on your system of ODEs
from Task 0. Use an initial guess of dT /dx = -1000 K/m.
Task 2: Build your own function solver using Ridders method, as described in lectures,
and test it for some simple examples.
Task 3: Put the code components from previous tasks together and use them to determine
the correct value of dT /dx at x = 0. Plot the resulting temperature distribution along
the pin.