Abstract:

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and is a subject included in all the scientific and technological degrees of the universities around the world. In most of the physics courses the heat transfer, and in particular heat conduction, is only introduced to the students. However, heat conduction is a fundamental process in nature and illustrates the physics of all diffusive processes. Therefore, students can take some additional insight in diffusive processes by the focusing on this topic. This focusing requires the preparation of new material not covered in standard university physics books.
In this paper, it is illustrated the steady-state process of heat conduction along a solid cylinder and the inverse heat conduction problem is introduced in order to determine the heat sources to present the student the direct and inverse heat conduction problem. In this way, the heat conduction may be alternatively presented in standard physics courses to gain a deeper knowledge in diffusive processes by the students.

Keywords:

Physics, heat conduction, direct and inverse problem.