COMSOL as an Aid in the Teaching (Learning) of Heat Transfer

R. López[1], J. Morales*[1], M. Vaca[1], A. Lizardi[1], H. Terres[1], G. Bautista[1], A. Lara[1]
[1]Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Tlalpan, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Published in 2012

Several undergraduate programs include the “Heat transfer” subject and, in our experience, it is hard for the students to grasp the concepts that are presented in the course. With this in mind, we designed and constructed an apparatus for the experimentation of heat transfer in a short bar. It was observed, that the time required to perform the experiment was so long, that the didactic aim was lost in time-consuming activities, such as the setting of the instrumentation, the data registration, etc. The simulation using Comsol was set for a short bar in an enclosure, to fix the boundary conditions required. The results are presented in graphic format. The time taken to run the program is considerable smaller as compared to the physical experiment.