Abstract

One of the basic goals in engineering is to formulate models which will provide a means for analytically predicting observed phenomenon. For some time, the partial differential equations describing the steady state and transient conduction of heat within a solid have been available. However, the straight forward use of these equations is often restricted due to the surface geometry of the solid. If the surface geometry is at all irregular, exact solutions will in general not exist. In that case, a solution is sought by some approximate numerical technique. The two techniques most often used are the finite difference method and the finite element method. The finite difference method is fairly simple to understand, but is difficult to apply to a problem with irregular boundaries. On the other hand, it is not a trivial matter to completely understand the finite element method, although it can handle irregular boundaries with greater ease than the finite difference method. To bridge the gap between these two methods, a third method is developed in this work which has the simplicity of the finite difference method, and can handle irregular boundaries with the ease of the finite element method.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Mechanical Engineering

Rights

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