Past exam of the year 2 of the earth sciences (geology) course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / Paper 1 / 10 / d / Solution

Write $U(x,\tau )=T(x,t_f+\tau )$ after removal, with $\tau \ge 0$. Neglecting heat loss to air means thermal insulation, rather than an end to internal thermal conduction. The evolution and conditions areHere $T(x,t_f)$ is the nonuniform bath-cooled profile derived in part (c). At the switching instant it need not have zero endpoint derivatives: the sudden replacement of Dirichlet boundary conditions by Neumann boundary conditions can produce another initial-boundary corner incompatibility. The insulated heat equation nevertheless recovers the given profile and satisfies its new boundary conditions for $\tau >0$.