Analysis of Thermal Isotropy of Parallelepiped Shape of Bronze Samples for Mechanical Engineering Applications

Objective: The need to find out whether the specimens are ‘thermally thin’ or not is the basis for applying the law of conservation of energy or the Fourier differential equation of heat conduction in finding the time dependence of the specimen temperature. The aim of this study is to find out the thermal field distribution in a parallelepiped shaped bronze specimen and to verify the Bio number. Methods: A number of external variables make it difficult to maintain a monotonic change in sample temperature during the ‘heating’ stage. These factors led to the use of the cooling method to study tiny samples with low inertia of the thermal process. We used the cooling method to experimentally verify the isotropy of the thermal field in the sample and to study the kinetics of cooling relative to the sample axes over a wide range of temperatures. Results: It was found out that in natural air cooling the main mechanisms are conductive, convective and radiative heat transfer. The contribution of thermal radiation to the cooling process is noticeable at high temperatures. It was found that the typical cooling time increases with sequential radiative, conductive and convective heat transfer. By extending the temperature study area to, for the first time, we were able to observe each component of the heat transfer process independently. The values of the typical cooling time on all axes correspond to the experimental error bounds. It was found that the temperature value of the sample is independent of the coordinates and depends only on time. In this case, the law of conservation of energy can be used to explain the dependence of body temperature on cooling time. Conclusion: It is shown that the sample under study is ‘thermally thin’, i.e. the thermal field is constant in all directions. In this situation, the thermal balance equation should be applied rather than the Fourier differential equation of heat conduction, since the temperature gradient inside the body is practically zero. The results obtained are of great importance for the study of cooling processes of metallic products in thermal power engineering, heat engineering and thermophysics.