Finite-difference methods

• Finite-difference methods (FDM) are numerical methods for

solving differential equations by approximating them with difference
equations, in which finite differences approximate the derivatives.
FDMs are thus discretization methods.
• Today, FDMs are the dominant approach to numerical solutions
of partial differential equations
Navier-Stokes Equation in transformed plane
• Navier-Stokes equation consists of the complete set of equations such
as mass, momentum and energy equations.
• Writing the conservation equation, in the non-dimensional form in the
Cartesian frame we get

• Where the state vector and non-dimensional flux terms are given in
terms of density, total internal energy, pressure and velocity
components in Cartesian frame.
Where k is the coefficient of thermal conductivity.
From Navier-Stokes equation in transformed plane, we know

Eq 1

One can define the following convective and viscous fluxes in short-hand
notations by
• Equation 1 can be written in short notation by

• The explicit integration for the (i,j,k)- th cell is not directly performed in
earlier equation.
• Gauss’s divergence theorem is used where the volume integral of fluxes
is transformed to a surface integral of efflux through the control surface
by

• Where the control volume has control surfaces of total area

• Similar transformation can be done on viscous flux terms. Therefore one

solve the equation as

Eq. 2
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
• The finite element method (FEM), is a numerical method for solving
problems of engineering and mathematical physics. Typical problem areas of
interest include structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, mass transport,
and electromagnetic potential. The analytical solution of these problems
generally require the solution to boundary value problems for partial
differential equations. The finite element method formulation of the
problem results in a system of algebraic equations. The method yields
approximate values of the unknowns at discrete number of points over the
domain.
• To solve the problem, it subdivides a large problem into smaller, simpler
parts that are called finite elements. The simple equations that model these
finite elements are then assembled into a larger system of equations that
models the entire problem. FEM then uses variational methods from
the calculus of variations to approximate a solution by minimizing an
associated error function.