Separability of PDE

The analytical modelling of heat and mass transfer phenomena relies on the analytical solutions to partial differential equations, which are used to describe the conservation of mass, chemical species, momentum and energy and their transfer mechanisms, as it will be shown in Part II of this book. Analytical methods for this kind of problems are widely used (see [1]) and among the several available techniques to solve Partial Differential Equations (PDE), separation of variable is generally the most valuable one since it may yield solutions in a form that is easily implementable for routine calculations. Separability of a PDE depends on the chosen coordinate system and this chapter is devoted to analyse conditions and methods for PDE separation.