Question

“All of the coolant is at a uniform temperature, Tc”, is this statement correct according to the assumptions for the Unsteady-state energy balance?

(a) True

(b) False

I got this question in a national level competition.

My question comes from Solving Unsteady topic in division Unsteady – State Material and Energy Balances of Bioprocess Engineering

Answer 1

(b) False

In unsteady-state energy balances, the assumption that all of the coolant is at a uniform temperature, TcT_cTc​, is generally not correct. In real systems, there may be temperature gradients within the coolant as it absorbs heat. However, for simplicity and in some theoretical models, a uniform temperature assumption may be used, but this is not a typical assumption in all unsteady-state energy balance problems.