Thermal Modelling

Hi,

I am trying to get a thermal model of air, say, in some air container as it is pressurized and de-pressurized. I know that I have to use the ODE solver to solve for the heat transfer by convection (for air) and conduction (through walls of container) for the modelling. Now, I am planning to conduct FEA for the same, and just to clarify, the temperature function would be from the heat transfer equation right? Also, if I had a code for a particular type of element of FEA, what would I have to be careful about when modelling for my case? I am confused, as in, I am not clear in the entirety of what I am supposed to do.

I am new to FEA, so please do give any suggestions/pointers you may have.

Thank you.

Answer 1

[Benjamin Schwabe]

Hi,

the thermal conductivity equation is a partial differential equation which you might transfer into a (stiff) system of ODEs. So, you should not use ode45, as it is an explicit method.

How to approach this: - If you have the PDE toolbox or COMSOL use them. - If not, discretize the "space" dimensions and the spacial differentials. This provides the ODE system (you hav a system time-dependent solutions). Solve this ODE with e.g. ode23.

Hope that helps, Benjamin

[Bharath Kantharaj]

Hi Benjamin, thank you for your reply!

I will eventually end up making my own toolbox (my supervisor says we needn't use any toolbox), but I don't understand what you mean by discretizing the space dims - could you please point me in the right direction?

And I am regarding the container temp to be uniform, so it would be an ODE to a first appox.

Any other suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you!