Boundary conditions in a heat equation
Hi... I've been set this question as homework, and I'm really struggling with it - I'd really appreciate any pointers that anyone could give me - I'm NOT asking for the answer, but instead would appreciate any methodological hints.
It's about a bar adjusting to ambient temperature.
The equation is:
with boundary conditions:
 = T_0)
 - \kappa y(\pi,t)=-\kappa T_0)
is just a constant, but using the substitution
, I've gotten:
![\frac{\partial v}{\partial t} =\kappa \frac{\partial^2 v}{\partial x^2}, t > 0, x \in[0, \pi]](http://latex.codecogs.com/png.latex?\frac{\partial v}{\partial t} =\kappa \frac{\partial^2 v}{\partial x^2}, t > 0, x \in[0, \pi] )
with boundary conditions:
(first part of the Dirichlet conditions)
 = \kappa v(\pi,t))
I'm also going to make the ansatz that
, implying:

I'm aware that there are obviously differing cases of
to deal with (positive, negative, and zero), but I'm stuck when dealing with the boundary conditions - I'm assuming I have to somehow show that the Dirichlet conditions hold for each case (or that it is trivial), but I can't see how to use
to show that
for each case of
.
Does anybody have any ideas? I just can't see how to use this information to solve the equations - without proper boundary conditions, I can't solve anything at all, and I've been at this for a few hours now.