Heat Transfer for Students: An Iphone and Ipad App for Chemical Engineering Enthusiasts

The educational literature indicates students learn best by doing. This was the case a generation or two ago when this research was being conducted, but is also true now as students get their information through Facebook and twitter. Since students tend to want to use their smartphones in class, why not direct their use to help them learn? In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of a heat conduction app which allows students (or grandmothers) to visualize the solution of unsteady-state heat conduction. Most students are afraid of the mathematical solution to this problem, and either get stuck in the details of the solution and never really understanding the result. The app, titled “Heat Transfer for Students,” allows them to easily see the temperature profile in the object as a function of time for heating or cooling, as well as the impact of the system parameters such as the thermal conductivity, heat capacity, density, length, and heat transfer coefficient on the result.