MATLAB: Defining a geometry to apply Heat flux – PDEPE Toolbox

heat transferpdepe toolbox

Hi everyone,
I am making a heat transfer model that shows the impact of laser beam on a small, spherical particle using PDEPE in Matlab. Diameter of the particle is around 60 um, while the laser spot radius is 250 um.
I have created a model after reading the Matlab's example (https://www.mathworks.com/help/pde/ug/heat-conduction-in-multidomain-geometry-with-nonuniform-heat-flux.html).
thermalBC(thermalmodel,'Face',1,'HeatFlux',11713803.81)
If I define the heat flux as above, PDEPE model will assume that the heat flux is apply to all spots around the sphere. However, in my case, the heat flux only apply to half of the sphere – as the laser beam only shine through one side of the particle. How can I define the laser impact area, in order to define the area that the heat flux apply to?
Thank you everyone.

Best Answer

Exactly as in the example you pointed to, in which you will find:
thermalBC(thermalmodel,'Face',4,'HeatFlux',@externalHeatFlux,'Vectorized','on');
if you look at the externalHeatFlux, it applies heat flux only to certain region based on the value of phi. Modify this function to suite your needs.
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