The Finite Element Approach for Solution of Transient Heat Transfer in a Sphere

ABSTRACT THE finite-element method is used for solution of a time dependent heat transfer problem in a sphere. The element equations for spherical coordinates are de-rived from the basic fundamentals. These equations are used to solve a sample problem of cooling a freshly har-vested apple and the numerical solution is compared with the analytical solution. This technique has great po-tential for applications in the processing of products (chemical/biological) which have wide material property variations and whose shape may be approximated by a sphere.