On Heat Transfer Analysis for a Sphere of Combustible Material of Variable Thermal Conductivity

• Main Authors: Lebelo, R.S., Mahlobo, R.K., Adesanya, S.O., Muthuvalu, M.S.
• Format: Article
• Published: Institute of Physics Publishing 2017
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85038419418&doi=10.1088%2f1757-899X%2f269%2f1%2f012062&partnerID=40&md5=b745f20d0382e882dcba8be8de85b5c3; http://eprints.utp.edu.my/19895/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

This article considers an exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a stockpile of reactive material with a thermal conductivity that is temperature dependent. The study is modeled in a spherical domain whose carbon-containing material reacts spontaneously with the oxygen trapped within the system. The combustion process results with a complicated process that is nonlinear in nature, and the energy equation used to govern the problem is tackled numerically with the semi-implicit finite difference method (FDM). The results are depicted graphically and discussed to give a theoretical understanding of the heat transfer analysis during combustion. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.