The Finite Element Method in Heat Transfer Analysis

The authors have succeeded in writing a book on numerical treatment of heat transfer which is appropriate for industrial engineering purposes as well as for engineering students. There are four main reasons for this success. Of course there are very powerful software packages on this subject, but without the fundamental knowledge of the theoretical background it does not really make sense to use these programs. It is the modelling and the interpretation of the results that is important, and this can only be achieved by a thorough knowledge of the underlying theory. This is reason number one: the book contains the necessary theory of the basic physics as well as the finite element formulation. Reason number two is the completeness of the treatment of heat transfer problems. Heat transfer in solids, conductive heat transfer (Lagrangian description) and heat transfer in fluids, convective heat transfer (Eulerian description) are treated both for steady state and for transient processes. A detailed discussion on various time-stepping methods and on numerical stability helps the engineer to choose and to judge a suitable method for his application. Nonlinear effects (temperature-dependent thermal conductivity) and phase-change problems are taken into account in a way that shows the long years experience of the authors in these fields. In particular, the problems concerned with phase change as a singular front moves through a continuum are explained in detail, thus giving the analyst a good insight into these phenomena. Reason number three is the large number of examples, simple enough to be treated manually but nicely chosen to show different effects in different fields of analysis. Of course such examples are also highly useful as benchmarks when using a new or unknown code. Finally, reason number four stems from the real engineering problems treated in this book. For improving productivity, it is absolutely necessary to stick to the philosophy of predictive engineering, thus creating virtual products by means of digital mock-up, and again this is only possible with a fundamental knowledge of the basic theory of a phenomenon. In this sense the book is indeed a valuable resource. I will definitely recommend this book to my students.