Heating and Cooling a Cylinder

Heating and Cooling a Cylinder is a program that computes the radial temperature distribution within a long cylinder as it is heated and cooled by a surrounding fluid. 

The cylinder is broken into shells and the temperature of each shell is computed using a finite difference approximation to the radial heat equation in cylindrical coordinates.

The cylinder heats and cools by exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding fluid by convection and this energy exchange is proportional to the difference between the cylinder's surface temperature Ts and the temperature of the fluid Tf.  Inside the cylinder the thermal energy is transported by diffusion.   The temperature inside is uniform if thermal energy transfer within the cylinder is faster than thermal energy transfer at the surface.


Heating and Cooling a Cylinder  shows how a temperature gradient appears if the heat transfer coefficient or the transfer coefficient are large.

The Heating and Cooling a Cylinder model allows users to select copper, aluminum, and iron material properties and to set the cylinder's radius and its heat transfer coefficient to observe these effects.

Requirements:

· Java 1.5 or later