We now know enough about simulating the heat flow problem and enough
about arrays in C to sketch the implementation of a program that can
simulate heat flow. You will be fleshing out this program as your
homework for this lesson.
Our program will conduct the simulation by dividing the rod, which is
assumed to have a length of 2, into up to 20 segments. It will:
- Prompt the user for the initial conditions: the temperatures
of the two heat sources, the initial temperature of the rod, the
number of segments into which the rod should be divided, the
number of time units to simulate, and the value of the constant C.
- Print out a histogram showing the initial temperature of each
segment.
- For each of the time units in the simulation,
- Calculate and record the temperature of each segment after one
more time unit has passed.
- Print out a histogram showing the new temperature of each
segment.
When the program finishes running, then, we will have a record of how
the temperature of the rod varies with time.
Eric N. Eide
Hamlet Project
Department of Computer Science
University of Utah