temperatureanalysisandfiniteelement-UniversityFaculty.docVIP

Finite Element Modeling of Non-Viscous Incompressible Fluid Flow and Convective Temperature Flow W. Liu1, A.Y. Shehata2, S. Ali3 1Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B7 2Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9 3Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9 Abstract Finite Element Method (FEM) is considered very powerful and efficient in solving partial differential equations. Exact solution of some engineering applications, such as fluid flow analysis, is a challenging task. However, FEM can be used to model these problems and give solution near to exact by using stream function approach. In this study, FEM is employed to analyze a non-viscous incompressible fluid flow inside a pipe and then solve for the heat flow transfer through the same pipe. The fluid flow is expressed by partial differential equation (Poisson’s equation). While, heat transfer is analyzed using the energy equation. The domain is discretized using 560 elements and that corresponds to a total number of nodes 616. A four-node isoparametric quadrilateral element is used to model the domain. The stiffness bandwidth is assured by using bandwidth reduction programs. A previously developed Matlab codes are used to perform the analysis. Results showed that both fluid flow and temperature flow are influenced significantly with changing entrance velocity. Also, there is an apparent effect on the temperature flow fields due the presence of an energy source in the middle of the domain. Keywords: Finite Element Method (FEM), heat transfer, Convection, Conduction, Stream Function, Energy Function, Fluid Flow, Non-viscous flow, incompressible flow. Introduction Finite element method techniques are widely used in problems that require solution of partial differential equations. In this method of an