EVALUATION OF FINITE-ELEMENT FORMULATIONS FOR TRANSIENT CONDUCTION FORCED-CONVECTION ANALYSIS

Abstract
Finite-element formulations for transient conduction forced-convection thermal analysis are studied. The advantages and disadvantages of conventional versus upwind convective finite elements and lumped versus consistent capacitance formulations are evaluated. A procedure for elimination of zero-capacitance nodes is presented. finite-element and finite-difference calculated temperatures are compared with analytical solutions for three fluid convection problems and two practical combined conduction forced-convection applications. The examples show the finite-element method to be fully competitive with the finite-difference method. The finite-element method has superior accuracy, but the finite-difference method maintains an edge In efficiency

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