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Thermal Modelling

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Bharath Kantharaj
Bharath Kantharaj on 11 Jun 2012
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.

Answers (1)

Benjamin Schwabe
Benjamin Schwabe on 11 Jun 2012
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
  1 Comment
Bharath Kantharaj
Bharath Kantharaj on 13 Jun 2012
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!

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