Consider a body of arbitrary shape of mass m, volume V, surface area As,
density , and specific heat Cp initially at a uniform temperature Ti (Fig. 4–2).
At time t 0, the body is placed into a medium at temperature T, and heat
transfer takes place between the body and its environment, with a heat transfer
coefficient h. For the sake of discussion, we will assume that T Ti, but
the analysis is equally valid for the opposite case. We assume lumped system
analysis to be applicable, so that the temperature remains uniform within the
body at all times and changes with time only, T T(t).