MODELING OF HEAT-CONDUCTION IN ELLIPTIC CROSS-SECTION - I - DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF THE MODEL

A finite difference procedure for heat conduction in elliptical cylind ers using heat flow lines was developed. This method reduces the ellip tical heat transfer problem from 3 to 2-dimensional for finite length, and from 2 to 1-dimensional for infinite length. Temperature predicti ons were very close to experimental results. Conditions in which ellip tical cross section can be approximated by circular cross-section were determined. For this, an equal cross-sectional area, and an equal sur face area-to-volume ratio of the elliptical and circular cross section s were considered. The equal circular cross-sectional area approach cl osely predicted the center temperature only at low ellipse eccentricit ies (e<0.7). Equal surface area-to-volume ratio approach resulted in g ood predictions even at high eccentricities (e less than or equal to 0 .9). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.