Temperature dependent heat source - self heating problem

[matt_s]

I am trying to model some self-heating problems related to exothermic thermal decomposition of a chemical stored in a drum. The decomposition rate and hence the heat generated at each point in the drum depends on the local temperature. I plan to model how the ambient temperature around the drum changes the temperature distribution and to look for critical temperatures where thermal runaway might occur.

I am struggling to know where to start and wondered if anyone can point me at some suitable examples. From reading other posts on heat source problems I guess one way to achieve this is to calculate the heat source term after each iteration. However, how do I make this vary spatially?

Alternatively is the easiest way to solve a modified version of the heat equation with a temperature dependent heat source term and coefficient to control the magnitude of this heat effect. Any tips for going about this?

Thanks

[raback]

Hi

Having a temperature dependent heat source is basic bread and butter of Elmer. Either use a dependence table, MATC expression or user defined function. The documentation should have examples of each. MATC is flexible while UDF is faster. I suggest you search for MATC in the forum and SolverManual.

-Peter