Computation of heat conduction in materials with random variable thermophysical properties

A method for the direct computation of mean values and variances of the temperature in conduction‐heated objects with random variable thermophysical properties is presented. This method is based on a Taylor expansion of the finite element formulation of the heat conduction equation and offers a powerful alternative to the computationally expensive Monte Carlo method. Both steady‐state and transient problems are considered. Some example problems are solved and the results discussed. The simulations indicate that the variability of the thermophysical properties may cause a considerable variability of the temperature within the heated object. This may have important consequences on the design of heating operations in food process engineering.