Finite Element Method For

Thermal Engineering
03ME 7073

Fundamental Concepts

Boundary-Value Problems
Boundary-value problems are
those where conditions are not
known at a single point but
rather are given at different
values of the independent
variable.
Boundary
conditions
may
include values for the variable
or values for derivatives of the
variable.

Types of Boundary Conditions

Three types of spatial boundary conditions:
Dirichlet Condition
Neumann Condition
Mixed Boundary Condition
No. of Boundary conditions required is order of highest derivative appearing in each
independent variable
Note that boundary value problems as position-dependent and initial value
problems as time-dependent in most cases.
4

Solutions of Boundary Value Problems

Three Basic Groupings

Finite Difference Method

Variational Method
Weighted Residual Methods

Finite Difference Method

In these techniques, finite differences are
substituted for the derivatives in the original
equation, transforming a linear differential equation
into a set of simultaneous algebraic equations.
This method is useful for solving heat transfer and
fluid mechanics problems and works well for twodimensional regions with boundaries parallel to the
coordinate axes.

What are Finite Differences?

A finite difference is a mathematical expression of
the form f(x + b) f(x + a). If a finite difference is
divided by b a, one gets a difference quotient.
The approximation of derivatives by finite
differences plays a central role in finite difference
methods for the numerical solution of differential
equations, especially boundary value problems.
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Introduction to FDM

Variational method

Weighted Residual Methods

There are different MWR sub-methods, according to the choices for the Wis.

1.
2.
3.
4.

collocation method.
Sub-domain method.
Least Squares method.
Galerkin method.

Weighted Residual Methods

Integral Formulation of Numerical

Solutions