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cation time with fins is marginal.
Whereas for Bi = 50 the gain in

solidification time is about three to fourfold for the four-fin configuration over no-fin configuration. The addition of fins has different advantages for different Biot numbers. For lower Biot
numbers though there is not much gain in the solidification time,
the fin is very useful in achieving a uniform surface heat flux with
time. For a higher Biot number, the gain in solidification time is
high but the surface heat flux, though not uniform, is higher for fin
configuration. Hence, depending on the application, a suitable Biot
number is to be selected.
Figure 6 shows the combined effect of Stefan and Biot numbers
on the surface heat flux and volume fraction. Two different values
of h and (Tm - r) are so chosen to yield the same value of the
product, Ste X Bi to study the effect of Biot and Stefan numbers.
The product so selected is useful to study the combined variation
of h and (Tm - 7*) on the process keeping the rest of the variables
in the product as constants. The initial surface heat flux [h X (T,,
- T)] is the same for both the cases due to the fact that Tm and
T,, are the same at the beginning of solidification (the phasechange material is in liquid-saturated condition). Since all the other
physical and geometric properties are kept constant, the total
quantity of heat extracted is also the same for both cases. It is seen
that the variation of surface heat flux is more uniform throughout
the process for a lower Biot number and higher Stefan number.
This shows that the selection of combination of Stefan and Biot
numbers plays an important role in the design of the latent heat
thermal storage unit.
For a given tube radius, any increase in wb0 and w/0 results in
higher values of the boundary wall thickness and the fin width,
respectively. It was numerically observed that the curves for wbB =
0.01 and
w
bo ~~ 0.05 are very close indicating that there is not
much gain in the solidification rate with increase in the boundary
wall thickness above wm = 0.01. Hence, it is not required to
increase the boundary wall thickness beyond a minimum value
required for mechanical stability. However, it was observed that
there is a moderate variation in the solidification rate with increasing w{0. Beyond a value of w/0 of about 0.01 to 0.02, the increase
in fin effect is not proportionate to the increase in volume of the fin
material. The above set of values of wM and w/0 would be appropriate for most of the applications.
5 Conclusion
Among the various fin configurations, the present configuration
gives maximum benefit of the fin to the phase-change material
farther away from the convectively cooled surface. It is necessary
to include the effect of circumferential heat flow through the tube
wall for higher values of Biot numbers in order to correctly predict
the heat transfer behavior. For lower Biot numbers, addition of fins
makes the surface heat flux more uniform, whereas for higher Biot
number the addition of fins will improve the magnitude of the
surface heat flux and appreciably reduce the time for solidification.
For a given quantity of heat to be extracted, a combination of lower
Biot number and higher Stefan number (within the practical range)
is recommended for the uniform extraction of heat. The present
heat transfer studies will be very useful for the design of latent heat
thermal storage units.
Acknowledgment
OF HEAT TRANSFER, Vol. 65, pp. 771-778.
Padmanabhan, P, V., and Krishnamurthy, M. V., 1986a, "Outward phase change in

a cylindrical annulus with axial fins on the inner tube," Int. J. Heal Mass Transfer,
Vol. 29, No. 12, pp. 1855-1868.
Padmanabhan, P. V., and Krishnamurthy, M V., 1986b, "Outward phase change in
a cylindrical annulus with circumferential fins," Proc. 8th International Heat Transfer
Conference, San Francisco, CA, pp. 1773-1779.
Shamsundar, N., and Sparrow, E. M , 1975, "Analysis of Multidimensional Conduction Phase Change via the Enthalpy Model," ASME JOURNAL OF FIEAT TRANSFER,
Vol. 97, pp. 333-340.
Smith, R. N and Koch, J. D 1982, "Numerical Solution for freezing adjacent to
a finned surface," Proceedings of Seventh International Heat Transfer Conference, U.
Grigull, et al., eds., Munchen, Germany, pp. 69-74.
Sparrow, E. M., et al., 1981, "Freezing on a finned tube for either conduction
controlled or natural convection controlled heat transfer," Int. J. Heat. Mass. Transfer,
Vol. 24, pp. 273-284.
Velraj, R et al., 1997, "Experimental Analysis and Numerical Modeling of Inward
Solidification on a Finned Vertical Tube for a Latent Heat Storage Unit," Solar
Energy, Vol. 60, No. 5, pp. 281-290.
Voller, V. R., 1990, "Fast implicit Finite-Difference Method for the Analysis of
Phase Change Problems," Numerical Heat Transfer, Part-B, Vol. 17, pp. 155-169.
Heat Conduction From Spheroids

R. S. Alassar1
Introduction
The solution of the problem of heat conduction from a sphere is
available in the literature (Ha and Yavuzkurt, 1993). The sphere,
however, is a special case of the generalized spheroidal geometries. These spheroids are of two types, namely oblate and prolate.
The analytical solutions of the problem of conduction heat transfer
from oblate and prolate spheroids are obtained here. Two special
cases can be obtained from the general solutions, namely the
sphere and the flat circular disk. The present work has relevance in,
for example, heat transfer in stationary packed beds. The results
can be of use to a wide range of applications where Biot and
Rayleigh numbers are small and fluid heat conduction dominates
the thermal resistance. Such conditions can be found at small
length scales.
Solution
Consider a hot spheroid (oblate or prolate) of major and minor
axes 2a and 2b, respectively. The spheroid is at temperature Ts,
which is hotter than the fluid around it whose temperature is 7" as
shown in Fig. 1 (Alassar, 1997). When the fluid surrounding the
spheroid is stagnant, heat is transferred only by conduction. Using
the oblate spheroidal coordinates (Arfken, 1970), the steady heat
conduction process is governed by the following equation:
1
This work was initiated with an experimental study at Solar

Institut Juelich (SIJ), Fachhochschule Aachen, Juelich, Germany.
The authors are thankful to Prof. K. Schwarzer and his colleagues
at SIJ for their cooperation and assistance.
References
Date, A. W., 1991, "A strong enthalpy formulation for the Stefan problem," Int.
J. Heat Mass Transfer, Vol. 34, No. 9, pp. 2231-2235.
Griffin, F. P., and Smith, R. N., 1980, "Approximate solution for freezing adjacent
to an extended surfaces," Proc. Joint ASME/AIChE National Heat Transfer Conference, Orlando, FL, pp. 1-13.
Journal of Heat Transfer
Lacorix, M., 1993, "Study of the heat transfer behavior of a latent heat thermal
energy storage unit with a finned tube," Int. J. Heat. Mass. Transfer, Vol. 36, No. 8,
pp. 2083-2092.
London, A. L., and Seban, R. A., 1943, "Rate of Ice Formation," ASME JOURNAL
cosh 5
cosh |
l
sin
5
T)
Br)
sin 17
dr)
= 0 (1)
and the corresponding equation (in prolate spheroidal coordinates)

for prolate spheroid is
1
Department of Mathematical Sciences, KFUPM Box No. 1620, Dhahran
31261, Saudi Arabia.
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF
HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received by the Heat Transfer Division, May 4, 1998;
revision received, Dec. 16, 1998. Keywords: Conduction, Heat Transfer, Nusselt
Number, Speroids. Associate Technical Editor: P. Ayyaswamy.
Copyright 1999 by ASME
MAY 1999, Vol. 121 / 497
Downloaded 13 Jul 2008 to 212.26.1.29. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
n=o
Axis of symmetry f j ,
TI=constant
N
r| = 7i
Axis of symmetry (_ f,
x\ = constant
1
Fig. 2
Local Nusselt number (oblate)
shown that the local Nusselt number associated with conduction

from an oblate spheroid is given by
r\ = n
NU(V) = -
Fig. 1 The oblate and prolate spheroids
1
sinh , d
sinh
5(p
a?.
sin T) 3TJ
dip
sin TJ
(2 tan ' eio TT) ,/sinh2 + cos2 -q
(7)
In the limit * , the oblate spheroid becomes a sphere. One

can show that
lim NU(V) = 2
= 0
(8)
(2)
which is, as expected, independent of TJ. On the other hand, when

where <p = (T T)/(TS T) is the dimensionless temperature. 0 > 0, the oblate spheroid becomes a flat circular disk. The
The boundary conditions to be satisfied are the scaled thermal following result for the local Nusselt number in the case of a
conditions on the surface of the spheroid defined by = = circular disk can be obtained,
tanh''(b/a) and the far-field conditions. These can be expressed as
?=1
ep - 0
at
as
^=f,
-> oo.
(3)
70 i
(4)
The local amount of heat transferred from the spheroid is
) =K f da>\
(5)
<* -/;UL
where K is the thermal conductivity of the fluid. The quantity /, is
a scale factor of the relevant coordinate system and is given by /[
= c'Vsinh 2 + cos2^r) in case of an oblate spheroid and by lx =
c'Vsinh 2 + sin21) for a prolate spheroid with c' being the focal
distance.
The local Nusselt number (N) is defined as
2aq{j})
N(v)
(6)
The steady amount of heat transferred by conduction can be

obtained by solving Eqs. (1) and (2) and then using the solutions
in Eqs. (5) and (6). The solutions of Eqs. (1) and (2) can be
obtained by geometrically observing that the dimensiopless temperature <p is independent of TJ; a mathematical proof is also
possible which results in a direct integration of the equations Fig. 3 Local Nusselt number (prolate). Curves from top to bottom are for
subject to the boundary conditions (3) and (4). It can be easily Wa = 0 . 1 , 0 . 2 , . . . , 1.0.
498 / Vol. 121, MAY 1999
Transactions of the ASME
lim Nu = 2
(11)
lim N = ~.
(12)
2.6
and
2.5
2.4
Nu
The result obtained in Eq. (11) is identical to that obtained from

the analysis of heat transfer from a sphere. By similar analysis, one
can show that the local Nusselt number associated with conduction
heat transfer from a prolate spheroid is given by
2.3
2 coth
2.2
JV.(Tl) =
In
2.0
"1
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
lim W(TJ) = 2,
(14)
and when * 0, the prolate spheroid becomes a thin needle and

the Nusselt number is unbounded.
The averaged Nusselt number for prolate spheroid takes the
following form:
(9)
Trlcos TJI
4 cosh
Averaging the Nusselt number over the surface of the oblate

spheroid gives the averaged Nusselt number, N, as
N
cosh [2 tan" 1 es - IT]
e+
1/sinh2 + sin2 TJ
1.0
Fig. 4 Averaged Nusselt number (oblate)
lim JV(T)) =
In the limit , the prolate spheroid also approaches a

sphere. The following limiting case is analogous to the one given
in Eq. (8),
b/a
{o-0
(13)
,(- _
1 + sinh tanh In I coth
'"
sinh In
)]
{$ + i J t l + coth f cosh f tan '(csch(15)
B
and once more

lim Nu = 2.
(10)
(16)
One can also show that

Graphical representations of the local Nusselt number for
oblate and prolate spheroids for different axis ratios, including
the limiting cases, are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. The
averaged Nusselt number for oblate and prolate spheroids is
shown in Figs. 4 and 5. An interesting feature of Fig. 4 is that
the heat transfer rate reaches a maximum value at b/a ** 0.132.
This phenomenon may be explained by observing that the local
Nusselt number, Fig. 2, increases with the decrease of b/a near
T; = 90. The opposite is true near TJ = 0 and T/ = 180. Since the
averaged Nusselt number is related to the area under the local
Nusselt number curve, these two opposing trends compete to
build the maximum value of the averaged Nusselt number at
b/a 0.132.
30
Nu
20
Acknowledgment
The author wishes to acknowledge the support of King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals.
10 -
References
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
b/a
Fig. 5 Averaged Nusselt number (prolate)
Journal of Heat Transfer
1.0
Alassar, R. S., 1997, "Unsteady Hydrodynamic Forces on Spheroidal Bodies,"

Ph.D. thesis, KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Arflcen, G., 1970, Mathematical Methods for Physicists, Academic Press, London.
Ha, M. Y., and Yavuzkurt, S., 1993, "A Theoretical Investigation of Acoustic
Enhancement of Heat and Mass Transfer1. Pure Oscillating Flow," Int. J. Heat
Mass Transfer, Vol. 36, No. 8, pp. 2183-2192.
MAY 1999, Vol. 121 / 499

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cation time with fins is marginal.

Whereas for Bi = 50 the gain in

OF HEAT TRANSFER, Vol. 65, pp. 771-778.

Padmanabhan, P, V., and Krishnamurthy, M. V., 1986a, "Outward phase change in

Heat Conduction From Spheroids

This work was initiated with an experimental study at Solar

Journal of Heat Transfer

and the corresponding equation (in prolate spheroidal coordinates)

Copyright 1999 by ASME

MAY 1999, Vol. 121 / 497

Local Nusselt number (oblate)

shown that the local Nusselt number associated with conduction

Fig. 1 The oblate and prolate spheroids

(2 tan ' eio TT) ,/sinh2 + cos2 -q

In the limit * , the oblate spheroid becomes a sphere. One

which is, as expected, independent of TJ. On the other hand, when

The local amount of heat transferred from the spheroid is

The steady amount of heat transferred by conduction can be

Transactions of the ASME

The result obtained in Eq. (11) is identical to that obtained from

and when * 0, the prolate spheroid becomes a thin needle and

Averaging the Nusselt number over the surface of the oblate

Fig. 4 Averaged Nusselt number (oblate)

In the limit , the prolate spheroid also approaches a

1 + sinh tanh In I coth

and once more

One can also show that

Journal of Heat Transfer

Alassar, R. S., 1997, "Unsteady Hydrodynamic Forces on Spheroidal Bodies,"

MAY 1999, Vol. 121 / 499

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