CFD vs FEA for thermal problems 1

[Tunalover]

Can anyone provide insight into which method is most accurate for heat transfer problems with forced- or free-convection mixed with conduction and radiation?
TIA!



Tunalover

 

[MintJulep]

CFD is FEA.

 

[ko99]

FEA breaks the solid into finite elements, it's great for structural simulations. Thermally, it can handle conduction very well, and in some cases radiation, but it does not calculate solid-to-fluid heat transfer (ie, natural or forced convection). If convection is involved, the FEA user is required to guess the heat transfer coefficient!

CFD is far better for most thermal analysis because it breaks the entire solution space, including the fluid, into elements, then it solves the Navier-Stokes equations (conservation of mass, energy, and momentum) until the elements satisfy the laws. It predicts conduction, radiation, AND convection, a critical advantage over FEA.

ko (

http://www.ecooling.biz)

 

[Tunalover]

MintJulep-
I apologize. I should have said "FDM (Finite Difference Method) instead of CFD.



Tunalover

 

[ko99]

My understanding is CFD codes typically use either finite difference or finite volume methods. I don't understand all the tradeoffs (I'm a user not a coder). You might want to try

http://www.cfd-online.com

or

http://www.cfdreview.com

ko (

http://www.ecooling.biz)

 

[elogesh]

Hi,

As mentioned by Ko99,CFD codes typically use either finite difference or finite volume methods.

FDM, FEM and FVM are the discritization techniques to convert partial differential equations (Conservation of mass, momnetum and energy) into numerical form.

FEM is not preferred much, because they are not efficient compared to FDM,FVM.

Ansys-Flotran based on FEM. Not preferred much.

Ansys-CFX and Fluent - Based on FVM.

FVM is better compared to FDM and FEM for CFD as per the computational ecomonics concerned.

Regards,
E.Logesh

 

[mtaffish]

hey tuna lover

If you want an easy programs for your specific problem whcih doesnt require programming than i would suggest a programs called FLUENT , its a cfd software which is very user friendly
there is also a tutorial on your subject

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/fluent/plate/index.htm

 

[thermcool]

A version of fluent called "ICEPACK" is generally used for the heat transfer application.