You are on page 1of 5

PROBLEM 5.

130
KNOWN: Dimensions and properties of a steel-reinforced concrete pillar. Initial, ambient and
surroundings temperatures. Values of convection heat transfer coefficient and contact resistance.
FIND: (a) Temperature of the exposed concrete surface and the center of the steel plate at t = 10,000
s without contact resistance, maximum and minimum concrete and steel temperatures for 0 t
10,000 s, (b) same as (a) but with contact resistance, (c) critical times associated with maximum steel
temperatures, value of the maximum steel temperature, for cases with and without thermal contact
resistance, after the fire is extinguished.
SCHEMATIC:
ASSUMPTIONS: (1) One-dimensional conduction, (2) Constant properties.
ANALYSIS: We begin by writing energy balances on each of the 11 control volumes, taking
advantage of the symmetry of the problem,
Node 1:
( )
1
1 1
1 1
1 2 1
1
( )
( )( )
2
p p
p p
p c
c c r
T T
k T T x
c h h T T
t x

+
+ +
+

A
= + +
A A
where
( )
2
1 2 1
sur sur 1 1
p p
r
h T T T T co
+ + | |
(
= + +
|

\ .
and T
sur
= T

.
Nodes 2 7:
( )
1
1 1 1 1
1 1
( ) ( )
p p
p p p p
i i
c c i i i i
c c
T T
k T T k T T
c x
t x x

+
+ + + +
+


A = +
A A A
Node 8:
( )
1
1 1 1 1
8 8
7 9 8 8
tot
( ) ( )
"
p p
p p p p
c
c c
T T
T T k T T
c x
t R x

+
+ + + +


A = +
A A
where
"
tot ,
/ 2 / 2
"
t c
c s
x x
R R
k k
A A
= + +
Node 9:
( )
1
1 1 1 1
9 9
8 9 10 9
tot
( ) ( )
"
p p
p p p p
s
s s
T T
T T k T T
c x
t R x

+
+ + + +


A = +
A A
Continued

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Ax = 10 mm
T

= 900C
h = 40 W/m
2
K
T
sur =
900C
c = 0.90
Concrete Steel
k = 1.4 W/mK k = 55 W/mK
= 2300 kg/m
3
= 7850 kg/m
3
c = 880 J/kgK c = 450 J/kgK
c = 0.90
R
t,c


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Ax = 10 mm
T

= 900C
h = 40 W/m
2
K
T
sur =
900C
c = 0.90
Concrete Steel
k = 1.4 W/mK k = 55 W/mK
= 2300 kg/m
3
= 7850 kg/m
3
c = 880 J/kgK c = 450 J/kgK
c = 0.90
R
t,c

PROBLEM 5.130 (Cont.)


Node 10:
( )
1
1 1 1 1
10 10
9 10 11 10
( ) ( )
p p
p p p p
s s
s s
T T
k T T k T T
c x
t x x

+
+ + + +


A = +
A A A
Node 11:
( )
1
1 1
11 11
10 11
( )
2
p p
p p
s
s s
T T
k T T x
c
t x

+
+ +

A
=
A A
IHT is used to solve the equations; the IHT code is included in the Comments. Note that the
expression (T
i
p+1
T
i
p
)/At in the preceding equations is expressed as der(T
i
, t) in the IHT code.
(a) Solving the finite difference equations without the contact resistance results in the following values
at t = 10,000 s.
T
1
= 1155 K = 882C, T
11
= 867 K = 594C <
Due to the high thermal conductivity of the steel, the steel is of nearly uniform temperature, with local
values varying to within one degree Celsius at any time. There is a large temperature difference
between the minimum and maximum concrete temperatures.
(b) Including the contact resistance value of R
t,c
= 0.20 m
2
K/W yields, at t = 10,000 s,
T
1
= 1162 K = 889C, T
11
= 504 K = 231C <
Continued
Min. & Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Max. concrete temp.
Min. concrete temp.
Min. & max.
steel temp.
Min. & Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Max. concrete temp.
Min. concrete temp.
Min. & max.
steel temp.
PROBLEM 5.130 (Cont.)
Again, due to the high thermal conductivity of the steel, the steel is isothermal to within one degree
Celsius at any time. There is a large temperature difference between the minimum and maximum
concrete temperatures. The temperature difference across the contact resistance is significant resulting
in much lower steel temperatures than in part (a).
(c) Using the nodal temperatures at t = 10,000s as initial values, the simulation is repeated with T

=
T
sur
= 300K, yielding the following results without and with the thermal contact resistance,
respectively. The critical times are t
crit,wo
= 11,100s with T
steel, max, w
= 890.6K = 617.5C and t
crit,w
=
16,000s with T
steel, max, w
= 578.7K = 305.7C with the contact resistance. <
Without contact resistance With contact resistance
Continued
Min. &Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Max. concrete temp.
Min. concrete temp.
Min. & max.
steel temp.
Min. &Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Max. concrete temp.
Min. concrete temp.
Min. & max.
steel temp.
Min. & Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Concrete surface
Concrete interior
Steel
Min. & Max. Concrete &Steel Temperatures
10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Concrete surface
Concrete interior
Steel
Concrete &Steel Temperatures
10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Concrete surface
Concrete interior
Steel
Concrete &Steel Temperatures
10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
t (s)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
T
(
K
)
Concrete surface
Concrete interior
Steel
PROBLEM 5.130 (Cont.)
COMMENTS: (1) The IHT code for parts (a) and (b) is shown below.
//Convection and radiation parameters
hc = 40 //W/m^2K
eps = 0.90
sigma=5.67e-8 //W/m^2K^4
//Geometrical parmeters
deltax = 0.010
//Ambient and surroundings temperature
Tinf = 900 + 273 //K
//Concrete properties
kc = 1.4 //W/mK
rhoc = 2300 //kg/m^3
cpc = 880 //J/kgK
//Steel properties
ks = 55 //W/mK
rhos = 7850 //kg/m^3
cps = 450 //J/kgK
//Contact resistance
R''cont = 0.2 //m^2K/W
//Nodal Equations
//Node 1
rhoc*cpc*(deltax/2)*der(T1,t) = h*(Tinf - T1)+(kc/deltax)*(T2 - T1)
h = hc + sigma*eps*(T1 + Tinf)*(T1^2 + Tinf^2)
//Node 2
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T2,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T1 - T2) + (kc/deltax)*(T3 - T2)
//Node 3
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T3,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T2 - T3) + (kc/deltax)*(T4 - T3)
//Node 4
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T4,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T3 - T4) + (kc/deltax)*(T5 - T4)
//Node 5
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T5,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T4 - T5) + (kc/deltax)*(T6 - T5)
//Node 6
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T6,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T5 - T6) + (kc/deltax)*(T7 - T6)
//Node 7
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T7,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T6 - T7) + (kc/deltax)*(T8 - T7)
Continued
PROBLEM 5.130 (Cont.)
//Node 8
rhoc*cpc*deltax*der(T8,t) = (kc/deltax)*(T7 - T8) + (T9 - T8)/Rtot
Rtot = deltax/2/kc + deltax/2/ks + R''cont
//Node 9
rhos*cps*deltax*der(T9,t) = (T8 - T9)/Rtot + (ks/deltax)*(T10 - T9)
//Node 10
rhos*cps*deltax*der(T10,t) = (ks/deltax)*(T9 - T10) + (ks/deltax)*(T11 - T10)
//Node 11
rhos*cps*(deltax/2)*der(T11,t) =(ks/deltax)*(T10 - T11)
(2). The influence of the thermal contact resistance is significant in terms of both the maximum steel
temperatures, as well as the critical time at which the maximum steel temperatures occur. (3) With or
without the contact resistance, the maximum steel temperatures occur well after the fire is
extinguished, as warm temperatures stored within the concrete slowly propagate into the steel plate.
Firefighters need to be very cautious entering the building after the fire is extinguished, since
structural failure may occur many hours after the fire is extinguished. (3) The minimum concrete
temperature is actually equal to the maximum steel temperature in part (a). The difference between the
two quantities, evident in the plot, would decrease as the spatial resolution of the simulation is
increased. (5) Nodal temperatures (K) at t = 10,000 s are as follows.
Node 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Without Contact Resistance
1155 1108 1063 1019 979 941 908 879 867.4 867.0 866.9
With Contact Resistance
1162 1133 1105 1078 1052 1028 1007 987 503.9 503.7 503.6

You might also like