Problem Specification — Lesson 1

This is a design-problem simulation. We have a platinum micrometer bridge deposited onto a silicon wafer (with a silicon dioxide insulation layer) submersed in a pool of stagnant water.

The small platinum bridge will have electricity passing through it, generating 4 Watts of heat uniformly across it. We need to determine how long we can keep the electricity active before the hottest portion of the platinum becomes 570 K.

Notice that this bridge has two planes of symmetry, thus we need only model 1/4 of the body! This is something we need to take advantage of to ease the computationally intensive project.