Chapter 12

FEM for Heat Transfer Problems

12.1 Field problems

This chapter introduces the finite element method to solve steady-state heat transfer problems. Many of the materials in this chapter are from the textbook by Segerlind (1984). Heat transfer problems can be categorized generally under one of the many field problems. A field problem is a boundary value problem with the variables (degrees of freedom (DOFs)) described as a varying field in our simulation domain. The distinction here from earlier chapters is that the field is described in a domain comprising of a static mesh—a Eularian mesh. In the earlier chapters, the equations were formulated in a Lagragian mesh, whereby the nodes are displaced according to the calculated displacement ...

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