Finite Element Method (FEM)

Module Code:

Lecture on Multi Physics of FEM, 15 September 2019

By: Dr. Mesay Alemu Tolcha

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, JiT, Ethiopia.

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Application of the FEM to heat conduction

A variational principle are applied to analysis the heat

conduction with temperature and heat flux
Heat transfer in a composite wall

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Heat transfer in a composite wall

Solution
Heat flux at a point is given by Fourier’s law:
dT
q = −K (1)
dx
This can be approximately written for node 1 as
T1 − T2
q = −K1 (2)
L1
Similarly for node 2
T1 − T2 T2 − T3
q = −K1 = −K2 (3)
L1 L2
For node 3
T2 − T3
K2 = h(T3 − T2 ) (4)
L2

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Heat transfer in a composite wall...

Equations (2), (3) and (4) can be rearranged as,

k1 k1
T1 − T2 = q
L1 L1
 
k1 k1 k2 k2
− T1 + + T2 − T3 = 0
L1 L1 L2 L2
 
k2 k2
− T2 + + h T3 = hTa
L1 L2
This can be written in a more compact form as,
 K K1
   
L
1
− L 0  T 1   q 
 K1 1 K1 1K2
   
K2 
− L1 L1 + L2 − L2  T2 = 0
− KL22 K2

    
0 + h T hT
 
L2 3 a

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Heat transfer in a composite wall...

There are two methods of solving the above equation.

1. Direct Method.
• Matrix inversion method
• Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA)
• Gaussian elimination
2. Iterative Method
• Gauss-Seidel Iteration
• In the direct method, all elements of the coefficient matrix are
stored in the computer memory. This will make the computer
very slow and its memory will be full.
• Since large number of the off-diagonal elements of the
coefficient matrix are zero, storing these elements is useless.
• In the indirect method, only the non-zero elements on the
diagonal of the coefficient matrix are considered. The
drawback of this method time consuming iterations.
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Assignment % for Thermal Students

Pipe flow element

q3

Q 1 q3 3 Q
q4

q2
2
Figure 1: Pipe Flow Network

1 1
qi = (pi − pj ) and qj = (pj − pi )
R R
For Poiseuille flow R = 128Lµ
πD 4

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Assignment % for Manufacturing Engineering and Design Stu-
dents

FEA Beam Problem (Develop Force relation Displacement)

Q Uniform

L1 L2

Common Assignment %
Element Transformation
• Direct assembly of element equations is a bit tedious.
• Transformation of element equations in to global form and
then to assemble is more preferable.
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Common Assignment %

(e) (e)
The other consideration is relation of element forces, f1 and f2
(e) (e) (e)
with their global components, F1 , F2 , F3 (e) and F4 .

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Weight Residual Methods

Introduction

• The method of weighted residuals is an approximate way of

solving engineering problems by using trial functions.
• Integral formulation is made over the problem domain to
minimize error.

Illustration
d 2y
− 10x 2 − 5 = 0 = D(y (x), x) (5)
dx 2
where 0 ≤ x ≤ 1 with boundary conditions y (0) = y (1) = 0

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Weight Residual Methods...

Illustration ...

According to the weighted residual methods, an approximate

solution y ∗ (x) given by the following equation is assumed,
n
X
y ∗ (x) = ci Ni (x) (6)
i =1
where ci are constants to be determined and Ni (x) are shape
functions. When the trial function (6) is inserted in to the
differential equation (5), we get
D(y ∗ (x), x) 6= 0 = R(x) (7)
R(x) is called residual. The whole idea of the weighted residual
methods is minimizing the residual over the entire problem domain
by multiplying it with some weighting function.
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Weight Residual Methods...

Illustration ...
Minimization over the entire domain (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) for problem given
in equation (5) is achieved through,
Z1
wi (x)R(x)dx = 0 (8)
0
where wi (x) are n arbitrary weighting functions.
There are several weighted residual methods depending on
the way wi (x) are chosen.
The following are the most common ones.
• least squares method,
• Point collocation,
• Subdomain collocation, and
• Galerkin’s method. 11/14
Weight Residual Methods...

In Galerkin’s weighted residual method, the weighting functions are

chosen to be identical to the trial functions; that is,
wi (x) = Ni (x) (9)
Illustration ...
For problem given by equation (5), a trail function of the form
Ni (x) = x(x − 1) (10)
Satisfies the boundary conditions given. And the approximate
solution will have the form,
y ∗ (x) = c(x) = c1 x(x − 1) (11)
d2y ∗
and, dx 2
= 2c1

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Weighted Residual Methods....

Illustration ...
Then, the Galerkin weighted residual expression will be,
Z1 Z1
N1 (x)R(x)dx = x(x − 1)(2c1 − 10x 2 − 5)dx = 0 (12)
0 0

This integral gives us c1 = 4. The approximate solution becomes,

y ∗ (x) = 4x(x − 1) (13)

And the exact solution is,

5 5 10
y (x) = x 4 + x 2 − x (14)
6 2 3
The two solutions are shown in the next Figure.
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Weighted Residual Methods...

0.0 Galerkin
Exact

−0.2

−0.4

−0.6

−0.8

−1.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Figure 2: Comparison of Exact and One Trial Function Galerkin’s Method Solutions

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