2016 EP26004 LIU

Advanced Heat Transfer

ANALYSIS OF STEADY HEAT CONDUCTION USING THE FINITE ELEMENT

METHOD (FEM)

ABSTRACT Where: =q x , q y , q z
out =q x+dx , q y+dy , q z+dz
The approximate solution of the steady heat
conduction problem obtained by the finite element
method is presented in this work. g=dxdydz
T
st = c p dxdydz
t
INTRODUCTION
T
Several different approaches or techniques can be used q x +q y + q zq x+ dxq y +dy q z+ dz+ dxdydz = c p dxdydz
to solve heat conductions problems. The nite element t
method is an approximate method of solution, which
has been developed during the last years due to the Using the Taylor series expansion (
introduction of fast and high-performance computers. q
The advantages of the finite element method, as q x+dx =q x + x dx and the Fouriers law (
x
compared to other numerical approaches, are
T
numerous. The method is adaptable to any geometry q x =k dydz along the x, y, z axis we
and material properties. Complex bodies composed of x
many different anisotropic materials are easily finally have the general form of heat diffusion
represented. Temperature or heat flux boundary equation:
conditions may be specified at any point within the
finite element system. Mathematically, any desired T T T T
degree of accuracy may be obtained in fact the method
converges to the exact solution as the number of
k ( ) ( ) ( )
+ k +
x x y y z z
k + = c p
t
elements is increased. In addition, for the steady-state
condition the finite element approach generates heat
flow equilibrium equations which produce a
symmetric, positive-definite matrix which may be
placed in a band form and solved with a minimum of
computer storage and time. Taking advantage of the
special characteristics of the matrices we can also treat
the transient problem but we are not going to do that in
this repor.

HEAT CONDUCTION PROBLEM (CARTESIAN

COORDINATE)

Consider a differential control volume dxdydz.

Making an energy balance we obtain:

out + g= st

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At any point in the medium the net rate of energy Dirichlet boundary condition: T(x,t) = Tw(x,t)
transfer by conduction into a unit volume (the heat where Tw is a known function;
diffusion term) plus the volumetric rate of thermal Cauchy boundary condition:
energy generation (the source term) must equal the T T ( x ,t )
rate of changing of thermal energy stored within the
volume (the changes in the amount of the internal T )
k ( x , t )=h
thermal energy ) n
Now that we have derived the PDE of heat conduction
to solve the problem we need two boundary conditions FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
(B.C).
There are three different types of B.C :
Neumann boundary condition:
T
q w (x , t)=k (x ,t )
n
where q w is the given heat ux out of the
body;
Basic steps of the finite-element method (FEM): Given
1. Establish strong formulation R
f : R , g : g R , h: h R , find T :
Partial differential equation

{
2. Establish weak formulation q i=f
Multiply with arbitrary field and integrate over such that: T =g g
element
q i n i=h h
3. Discretize over space
Mesh generation
4. Select shape and weight functions The functions g and h are the prescribed boundary
Galerkin method temperature and heat flux.
5. Compute element stiffness matrix The first equation inside the parenthesis is a
Local and global system generalized Poisson equation, the second is a Dirichlet
6. Assemble global system stiffness matrix boundary condition and the last one is a Neumann
7. Apply nodal boundary conditions boundary condition.
Temperature/flux/forces/forced displacements The weak formulation of the problem goes as follows:
8. Solve global system of equations Given
Solve for nodal values of the primary variables f : R , g : g R , h: h R , find T Z such that w W :
(displacements/temperature)
w, i q i d = wf d + wh d
9. Compute temperature/stresses/strains etc. within
the elements
Using nodal values and shape functions. Z denote the trial solution space and W the
variation space.
APPLICATION OF FEM TO A HEAT
CONDUCTION PROBLEM Let Z h and W h be the finite dimensional
approximations to Z and W. We assume that all
Let qi denote the heat flux vector, let T be the members of W h admits the representation:
temperature and let f be the heat supply per unit h h h
volume. Assume the heat flux vector is defined in T =v + g
h h h
terms of the temperature gradient by the generalized Where v W and
g results in satisfaction
Fourier law (in the case of the steady condition): of the boundary condition T =g on g
qi =k ij T ij , k ij =k ji The Galerkin formulation is as follows.
'
where the conductivities, k s , are given functions Given
ij
of x. f , g , h find T h=v h + gh Z h such that wh W h
A formal statement of the strong form of the :
h h h
boundary-value problem is as follows: w , h a(w , g )
h h h
a ( w , v )= ( w , f ) +

The domain is now discretized into elements

domain e , as it shows in the following picture.

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2016 EP26004 LIU
nel
F= F , F ={F P }
e e e

e=1

where
NA


K ePQ =
e
N A , N B gB
A typical member of Z
h
is assumed to have the the a
F P= N A fd + N A h d
e
form:
w h ( x ) = N a ( x ) c a P= ID (A), Q= ID (B)
Where N a is the shape function associated with
The elements stiffness k e and element force vector
node number A and c a is a constant.
Likewise : f e may be deduced from these equations:
v h ( x )= N a (x ) d a
Where d a is the unknown at node A ( in this case k e =[ k eab ] , f e = {f ea } ,1 a , b n en
the temperature). N A T
gh ( x ) = N a g a g a=g(x )

g
h
has been defined to be the nodal interpolat of N A , N B e =
g by way of the shape functions, consequently it k eab=a
will be just an approximations of g . Additional nen
e e e
sources of error are the use of the approximations f a= N a fd + N a h d k ab gb
f hhh placeof f h and domain b=1

approximations in which element boundaries do not

exactly coincide with . Where nen is the number of elements nodes and
g =g (x eb) if g is prescribed at node number b
e
Substituting we finally obtain: b
N a , h a (N a , N b) g b and equals to zero otherwise.
The global arrays K and F may be formed from the
a ( N a , N b ) d b =( N a , f ) + element arrays k e f e . The element nodal data is
stored in the element nodes array (IEN) which relates
To define the global stiffness matrix and force vector
local node numbers to global nodes number. The
we need to specify the global order of the equations.
relationship between global node numbers and global
For this purpose we introduce the destination array (ID
equation numbers as well as nodal boundary condition
array) which assigns to node A the corresponding
information is stored in the ID array. In practice, the
global equation number.
IEN and ID arrays are set up from input data.
The matrix equivalent of the previous equation is
given as follows:
EXAMPLE OF MATLAB CODE
Kd=F
K=[ K PQ ] , d={d Q } , F={ F p } ,1 P , Q neq To solve a heat conduction problem on a rectangular
K PQ =a ( N A , N B ) , P=ID ( A ) ,Q=ID(B) domain it can be used the matlab code we can find at
the end of this report.
N A , h a(N A , N B ) g B
F P = ( N A , f )+ NOMENCLATURE
We can break up the global array in to the sums of = density;
elements contributions: c p = heat capacity;
nel h = convective heat transfer co,efficient
K= K , K =[ K PQ ]
e e e
k= thermal conductivity;
e=1 K= global stiffness matrix;
F= force vector.

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REFERENCE
Advanced Heat transfer slide, doctor Zhenyu
Liu ,Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Finite element solution of transient heat
conduction, Mile R. Vujic ic School of
Engineering, Materials Research Centre,
University of Swansea, Swansea.
Application of the finite element method to
heat conduction analysis, Edward L.
W.iLSON and Robert E. Nickell Department
of Civi~ Engineering, University of
California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Finite Element Methods and Their
Applications, Chen, Zhangxin, Springer;
2005 edition (July 26, 2005).
Finite Element Methods for Engineering
Sciences: Theoretical Approach and Problem
Solving Techniques, Joel Chaskalovic ,
Springer; 2009 edition (November 17, 2008)