A General Integral Method for one dimensional ablation

Ablation of a semi infinite medium subject to a time varying heat flux at its surface is considered. It is shown that a general integral method can be formulated to describe the post ablation solution. This method does not involve any specific approximating profile as is the case with the standard integral methods. This method, which will be referred to as the General Integral Method, yields very good solutions for problems with power law type variation in surface heat flux and also for a case where the boundary condition, involving radiation to a background, is non linear. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.