Time plays an important role in heat transfer. Any heat transfer phenomenon takes some time to reach a steady state. 
During this heat transfer process, the temperature of the body is either increasing or decreasing with time. In other words, the temperature is time-dependent. For example, the temperature of a metal rod heated at one end slowly increases with time due to conduction, and its effect is felt on the other end of the rod as well. A study of such transient conduction problems not only helps us understand the overall conduction timescales (time required to achieve a steady-state temperature) but also provides insights into the total energy stored by the body. Any change in the imposed thermal conditions of the body, such as the addition of a heat source or sink or change in the boundary condition, will cause the system to undergo a transient approach for establishing a different steady-state solution.
This SimCafe Course was developed by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran, Swanson Director of Engineering Simulation at Cornell University, in partnership with Ansys. It was last modified by Sebastien Lachance-Barrett. It serves as an e-learning resource to integrate industry-standard simulation tools into courses and provides a resource for supplementary learning outside the classroom. In this course we show how to simulate and analyze the transient heat conduction of a system under realistic boundary conditions using Ansys Transient Thermal.
For more ways to learn, check out the Cornell edX course, A Hands-on Introduction to Engineering Simulations at ansys.com/cornell.
Cornell University also offers a Fluid Dynamics Simulations Using Ansys online certificate authored by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran. Learn more here: https://ecornell.cornell.edu/fluiddynamics.
