Solving Partial Differential Equations, What software should i use??

[ElMorris]

Hi everybody.

I'm dealing with a heat conduction problem right now. I've found an analytical solution to it using variable separation and all that stuff. But, there's many constants and too few information for boundary and initial conditions.

Because all this, i wanna compare my results with something handy, and i think it's a good idea to support my work with a partial differential equation solver package.

Anyone knows what package should i use? Matlab? Mathematica? Other?

Thanx.

 

[electricpete]

Um. Matlab is pretty good for numerical solutions, particularly if they are matrix-based.

If you are looking for a steady state solution of a heat problem, it can be solved by Poisson's equation: del^2 T = something. I have solved a 2-d problem using Poisson's equation del^2 A = something for vector magnetic potential in matlab and it was a piece of cake to code in brute force manner by successive relaxation technique with iterations. Can probably provide the code if you are interested.

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[electricpete]

Without knowing the details of your problem, I should back up to mention it may be much more complex than I described. For example if you intend to model heat transfer by computational fluid dynamics, you can throw my comments out the window in terms of solution method.

Still all in all a lot of people are happy with matlab for a wide variety of numerical problems if you are coding the solution from the ground up. Of course depending on the comlexity of the problem, sometimes it's worthwhile to seek out special-purpose software so you don't have to build the algorithms from the ground up.

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[GregLocock]

I think there is a plug-in for excel that solves 2d problems, in xlxtrfun

If not it is pretty easy to knock one up using circular refrences.

Matlab will do it fine as well

After all, we used to have to sketch the bloody things.

Cheers

Greg Locock

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