NUMERICAL METHODS IN HEAT CONDUCTION
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5-1 WHY NUMERICAL METHODS?
In Chapter 2, we solved various heat
conduction problems in various
geometries in a systematic but highly
mathematical manner by
(1) deriving the governing differential
equation by performing an energy
balance on a differential volume
element,
(2) expressing the boundary conditions
in the proper mathematical form, and
(3) solving the differential equation and
applying the boundary conditions to
determine the integration constants.
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1 Limitations
Analytical solution methods are limited to
highly simplified problems in simple
geometries.
The geometry must be such that its entire
surface can be described mathematically
in a coordinate system by setting the
variables equal to constants.
That is, it must fit into a coordinate system
perfectly with nothing sticking out or in.
Even in simple geometries, heat transfer
problems cannot be solved analytically if
the thermal conditions are not sufficiently
simple.
Analytical solutions are limited to problems
that are simple or can be simplified with
reasonable approximations.
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finite difference
form of the first
derivative
Taylor series expansion of the function f
about the point x,
The smaller the x, the smaller
the error, and thus the more
accurate the approximation.
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Consider steady one-dimensional heat conduction in a plane wall of thickness L
with heat generation.
Finite difference representation
of the second derivative at a
general internal node m.
no heat generation
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Finite difference formulation for steady two-
dimensional heat conduction in a region with
heat generation and constant thermal
conductivity in rectangular coordinates
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5-3 ONE-DIMENSIONAL STEADY HEAT
CONDUCTION
In this section we develop the finite difference
formulation of heat conduction in a plane wall
using the energy balance approach and
discuss how to solve the resulting equations.
The energy balance method is based on
subdividing the medium into a sufficient
number of volume elements and then
applying an energy balance on each element.
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This equation is applicable to each of the
M - 1 interior nodes, and its application
gives M - 1 equations for the determination
of temperatures at M + 1 nodes.
The two additional equations needed to
solve for the M + 1 unknown nodal
temperatures are obtained by applying the
energy balance on the two elements at the
boundaries (unless, of course, the
boundary temperatures are specified).
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Boundary Conditions
Boundary conditions most commonly
encountered in practice are the specified
temperature, specified heat flux, convection,
and radiation boundary conditions, and here
we develop the finite difference formulations
for them for the case of steady one-
dimensional heat conduction in a plane wall of
thickness L as an example.
The node number at the left surface at x = 0 is
0, and at the right surface at x = L it is M. Note
that the width of the volume element for either
boundary node is x/2.
Specified temperature boundary condition
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When other boundary conditions such as the specified heat flux, convection,
radiation, or combined convection and radiation conditions are specified at a
boundary, the finite difference equation for the node at that boundary is obtained
by writing an energy balance on the volume element at that boundary.
The finite difference form of various
boundary conditions at the left boundary:
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Treating Insulated Boundary Nodes as Interior Nodes:
The Mirror Image Concept
The mirror image approach can also be
used for problems that possess thermal
symmetry by replacing the plane of
symmetry by a mirror.
Alternately, we can replace the plane of
symmetry by insulation and consider
only half of the medium in the solution.
The solution in the other half of the
medium is simply the mirror image of the
solution obtained.
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EXAMPLE
Node 1
Node 2
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Exact solution:
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The finite difference formulation of
steady heat conduction problems
usually results in a system of N
algebraic equations in N unknown
nodal temperatures that need to be
solved simultaneously.
There are numerous systematic
approaches available in the literature,
and they are broadly classified as
direct and iterative methods.
The direct methods are based on a
fixed number of well-defined steps that
result in the solution in a systematic
manner.
The iterative methods are based on an
initial guess for the solution that is
refined by iteration until a specified
convergence criterion is satisfied.
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One of the simplest iterative methods is the Gauss-Seidel iteration.
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5-4 TWO-DIMENSIONAL STEADY HEAT
CONDUCTION
Sometimes we need to consider heat transfer
in other directions as well when the variation
of temperature in other directions is
significant.
We consider the numerical formulation and
solution of two-dimensional steady heat
conduction in rectangular coordinates using
the finite difference method.
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For square mesh:
no heat
generation
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Boundary Nodes
The region is partitioned between the
nodes by forming volume elements
around the nodes, and an energy
balance is written for each boundary
node.
An energy balance on a volume
element is
We assume, for convenience in
formulation, all heat transfer to be into the
volume element from all surfaces except
for specified heat flux, whose direction is
already specified.
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EXAMPLE
Node 1
Node 2
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Node 3
Node 4
Node 5
Node 6
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Nodes 7, 8
Node 9
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Irregular Boundaries
Many geometries encountered in practice
such as turbine blades or engine blocks do
not have simple shapes, and it is difficult to
fill such geometries having irregular
boundaries with simple volume elements.
A practical way of dealing with such
geometries is to replace the irregular
geometry by a series of simple volume
elements.
This simple approach is often satisfactory
for practical purposes, especially when the
nodes are closely spaced near the
boundary.
More sophisticated approaches are
available for handling irregular boundaries,
and they are commonly incorporated into
the commercial software packages.
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5-5 TRANSIENT HEAT CONDUCTION
The finite difference solution of transient problems
requires discretization in time in addition to
discretization in space.
This is done by selecting a suitable time step t
and solving for the unknown nodal temperatures
repeatedly for each t until the solution at the
desired time is obtained.
In transient problems, the superscript i is used as
the index or counter of time steps, with i = 0
corresponding to the specified initial condition.
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Explicit method: If temperatures at the previous
time step i is used.
Implicit method: If temperatures at the new time
step i + 1 is used.
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Transient Heat Conduction in a Plane Wall
mesh Fourier number
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No heat generation and = 0.5
The temperature of an interior node at
the new time step is simply the average
of the temperatures of its neighboring
nodes at the previous time step.
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Stability Criterion for Explicit Method: Limitation on t
The explicit method is easy to use, but it suffers from
an undesirable feature that severely restricts its utility:
the explicit method is not unconditionally stable, and
the largest permissible value of the time step t is
limited by the stability criterion.
If the time step t is not sufficiently small, the
solutions obtained by the explicit method may
oscillate wildly and diverge from the actual solution.
To avoid such divergent oscillations in nodal
temperatures, the value of t must be maintained
below a certain upper limit established by the
stability criterion.
Example
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The implicit method is
unconditionally stable, and thus we
can use any time step we please
with that method (of course, the
smaller the time step, the better the
accuracy of the solution).
The disadvantage of the implicit
method is that it results in a set of
equations that must be solved
simultaneously for each time step.
Both methods are used in practice.
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EXAMPLE
Explicit finite difference formulation
Node 1
Node 2
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Implicit finite difference formulation
Node 1
Node 2
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Two-Dimensional Transient Heat Conduction
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Explicit
formulation
Stability criterion
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EXAMPLE
Node 1
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Node 2
Node 3
Node 4
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Node 5
Node 6
Nodes 7, 8
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Node 9
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