Application of the Fourier method to the numerical solution of moving boundary problem in heat conduction

An algorithm for the solution of a nonlinear problem of phase boundary movement and evolution of temperature distribution due to the perturbation in the basal heat flux has been discussed. The reduction of the problem to a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the help of a Fourier series method leads to a stiff system. This stiffness is taken care of by the use of a modified Euler’s method. Various cases of basal heat flow variation have been considered to show the performance and stability of the technique for such a nonlinear system. The first case of step-wise function is taken to analyse the performance of the technique, and the study has been extended to other general cases of linear increase, periodic variation, and box and triangular function type variations in the heat flux. In the step-wise case the phase boundary attains a constant position rapidly if the supplied heat flux is sufficiently large. The effect of periodicity in the heat flow is clearly depicted in the phase boundary movement, where the phase boundary oscillates about the mean position at large times. The absence of any constant level in the case of linear increase in heat flux is due to a very large value of heat flux. In the cases of box car and triangular heat flux the boundary starts moving downward after the cessation of excess heat flux but does not immediately return to its original preperturbation state, instead approaches it at large times. This technique may be applied to more general cases of heat flow variation.