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This document outlines a practical exercise to solve the heat equation using finite differences, focusing on the temperature evolution in a cooling dyke. It includes specific tasks such as deriving initial and boundary conditions, writing a Matlab code for simulation, and analyzing temperature distribution over time. The document emphasizes the importance of providing answers and plots without including code in the final submission.

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Anglo-Saxon NO.1
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3 views2 pages

practical5_assessed

This document outlines a practical exercise to solve the heat equation using finite differences, focusing on the temperature evolution in a cooling dyke. It includes specific tasks such as deriving initial and boundary conditions, writing a Matlab code for simulation, and analyzing temperature distribution over time. The document emphasizes the importance of providing answers and plots without including code in the final submission.

Uploaded by

Anglo-Saxon NO.1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Solving the heat equation with finite di↵erences

The goal of this practical is to write your first piece of code to solve a geophysically relevant
case of the heat equation using finite di↵erences.

What is required: Answer all the questions, and produce a document containing your an-
swers and the plots as requested. DO NOT COPY YOUR CODE into the final document, but
attach all your .m files with your submission.

NOTE: Questions 1, 2, 3 and 7 do not require any coding!

1
Here we would like to compute the evolution of temperature across a cooling dyke as a
function of time. The governing equation for the temperature T is

@T @2T
=↵ 2, (1)
@t @x
where t is the time, ↵ is the thermal di↵usivity of the rock, and x is the distance across the dyke
(x = 0 at the center).
We assume the following initial condition:

T (x, t = 0) = T0 + (Td T0 ) ⇥ exp x2 /(2w2 ) , (2)

where w is the width of the dyke and Td its peak center temperature. The boundary conditions
are a constant temperature far from the dyke T (x = L, t) = T0 (where L w), and zero flux
at the center of the dyke @T /@x = 0 at x = 0.

Question 1. What will the solution T (x, t) look like? Use an annotated sketch of the solution
for temperature T as a function of position x at t = 0, and a few additionnal time steps. [10%]

Question 2. Discretise the space coordinate x and the time t, and write a finite di↵erence
numerical scheme for Equation 1 and its boundary conditions. [10%]

Question 3. How do you choose the time and space steps ? Justify. [15%]

Question 4. Write a Matlab code that solves the problem for t = 0 to tfinal = 100 days, using
the following parameter values: [15%]
↵ = 1 mm2 /s
L = 20 m
T0 = 0 C
Td = 1000 C
w = 20 cm.

Question 5. Plot the evolution of temperature as a function of space and time. (try a range
of Matlab functions, like pcolor, contour, or use regular plot commands, and produce one or
two clear figures. Think about the (ink)/(information) ratio !). [15%]

Question 6. Write a Matlab code to extract and plot the maximum temperature reached at
every point x throughout cooling. [10%]

Question 7. At which position x10% is the temperature perturbation less than 0.1Td ? Does
that depend on Td ? [10%]

Question 8. Repeat the calculation and the plot of question 5 for a range of w and ↵. How
does the position x10% scales wth w and ↵? [Hint: this is where nondimensional quantities can
be useful!] [15%]

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