[Antst]

I would be very grateful for advice on how to solve a heat conduction problem that isn't so straightforward.

There's a chemical reaction that happens above a certain temperature. I would like to figure out approximately how long a solid material can stay above that temperature when:

1. The material is initially at a uniform temperature (I can deal with this) and
2. There are initially areas of hot and cold in the material (like vertical stripes on a T-shirt). This is the part I'm having a lot of trouble with. I'd like them to cool.

I am not an engineer, but know the basics. I would be very grateful if someone would point me to any software/downloadable code that might be useful for solving my problem. So far I have searched extensively on the Matlab file exchange board, but don't see anything that seems relevant. I would be willing to get access to some other commercial software and figure out how to use it. Thank you.