Robert L. Berger

In the thermal detection of rapid biochemical reactions it is necessary to correct the temperature data for transient heat conduction losses in a cylindrical calorimeter. To handle the complexities arising from varying thermal-relaxation times of concentric insulating layers, a computer program was developed which gives the temperature distribution of the system as a function of radius and time. This distribution is corrected at each step by a subroutine which calculates the instantaneous chemical state of the reaction, as well as the heat produced by this reaction. The program is based on a direct statement of Fourier's law of heat conduction and the chemical rate equation to provide a “bookkeeping law” to follow the reactants and the flow of heat packets, in such a way that the computer continually stores the heat distribution. A computer analysis method is here regarded as one in which the physical laws of a process are used explicitly in the program. Usually this results in bypassing much of the mathematical procedures conventionally used.