Lumped Cooling Transient

Compute time constant, current temperature, and cooling curve from thermal capacitance and hA for transient checks.

visual calculatorHeat Transfer

Read the flow shape before trusting the number.

This page turns a CFD setup into regime, scale, and dominant-effect cues. Adjust the calculator below and compare the moving graphic with the computed result.

input scale

model

check

transient heat transferlumped capacitancecoolingBiot

formula

KaTeX rendered

\begin{aligned}\text{T(t) = T\_inf + (T\_i - T\_inf) exp(-t/tau)}\\[0.35em]\text{tau = rho c\_p V/(h A)}\end{aligned}

ASCII source

T(t) = T_inf + (T_i - T_inf) exp(-t/tau), tau = rho c_p V/(h A)

rho (kg/m3)cp (J/kg/K)volume (m3)surface area (m2)h (W/m2/K)initial T (K)ambient T (K)time (s)

tau (s)

1080.000

T(t) (K)

344.235

Q(t) (W)

221.559

rho cp V (J/K)

4860.000

L_c = V/A (m)

0.01111

Check Biot separately. Lumped cooling is reliable when internal conduction is fast relative to surface convection.

transient heat transfer lumped capacitance cooling Biot