A seminumerical approach for heat diffusion in heterogeneous media: One extension of the analytical quadrupole method

The analytical thermal quadrupole method is suitable for the modeling of multidimensional transient heat diffusion in homogeneous media, especially when applied to multilayered media. Here, we propose a new approach in order to extend the quadrupole frame to heterogeneous media. A seminumerical general solution is proposed for transient heat transfer in finite or semi-infinite media in both axial and radial coordinate systems, when the variation of thermal properties is one-dimensional. The presentation of the method is explained with a 2-D two-layer slab case. Some application examples are then presented from this basic case. The analytical expressions allow deep insight about the physical phenomenon.