Approach to steady state in the heat equation and the hyperbolic heat transfer equation

Abstract: We investigate the spherically symmetric 1D ablation problem. We show that the parabolic heat equation fails to describe the approach to steady state in infinite space. The hyperbolic equation shows an approach to steady state with a time constant given by the thermal relaxation time. However the infinite geometry is rather unphysical and gives rise to a so-called zero mode. Therefore we also consider the finite problem with a large boundary at constant temperature. Then both equations show approach to steady state, but only the hyperbolic equation seems to be physically correct for small times.