Semi-analytical method for solving nonlinear heat diffusion problems in spherical medium

A semi-analytical methodology, based on the finite integral transform technique, is proposed to solve the heat diffusion problem in a spherical medium subject to nonlinear boundary conditions due to radiation exchange at the interface according to the fourth power law. The method proceeds by treating the nonlinearity term in the boundary condition as a source in the differential equation and keeping other conditions unchanged. The results obtained from this semi-analytical solutions are compared with those obtained from a numerical solution developed using an explicit finite difference method, which showed very good agreement. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.