Thermal propagation in solids due to surface laser pulsation and oscillation

Abstract Most studies of heat transfer pertaining to a planar medium subjected to time-varying and spatially-decaying laser incidence along with external surface cooling are based on the diffusion theory (parabolic heat conduction equation), an approximation that implies a non-physical infinite speed of energy transport. In this study, temperature distributions within one-dimensional plates subjected to the aforementioned heating and cooling conditions, but with thermal energy propagation at a finite speed, are presented. Incident energy that is partially absorbed at the external surface is transferred through the plate by conduction, while the remaining energy is convectively cooled to the environment. The present investigation will examine three different time characteristics of the incident heat sources which include a continuously operating, a pulsed and an oscillatory laser source. The temperature results were obtained by using a simple and concise finite-difference algorithm based on the Godunov scheme, a method developed for the solution of resulting characteristic equations that govern thermal wave propagations within the solid.