Introduction to Conventional Finite Volume Methods

for Thermal Problems Within Nonhomogeneous Media

For Students From

First Year of Mechatronics Master Program

Department of Engineering and Computer Science
Ashesi University (Ghana)
by
A. Njifenjou

ENSPY – University of Yaounde 1, Yaounde (Cameroon)

and
ENSTMO – University of Ebolowa, at Kribi (Cameroon)

2023, November 06 -17

 Outline of the Talk

• Motivations for Interests in Finite Volume Methods (FVM)

• Model Problem in Dimension d=1; 2; 3.

• FVM for One-dimensional models

• FVM for Two-dimensional models

• Concluding Remarks
 Why are Finite Volume Methods interesting for Engineers ?
The Finite Volume Methods meet the following physical properties:

 Respect of Principle of Conservation (mass, heat, momentum, ...) over grid-blocks;

 Respect of Transmission Conditions (Flux and Temperature/Pressure/Concentration/etc... Continuiy)

across grid-block interfaces;

 Respect of the Discrete Maximum Principle;

 Flexibility face to Complex Physics (Multiphase and Multicomponent Flows, ...);

 Satisfactory Treatment of Anisotropic Flows over Non-Structured Grids;

 Easy to Implement.
. Conventional Finite Volume Analysis of a Flow Model
• where Ω is a bounded open subset of with a regular boundary .

: Assume that :

Therefore the system (1)-(2) possesses a unique weak solution

in the sense that:

and
 III. Main Steps of a Finite Volume Method
• Step 1: Define a Partition (in some sense, called also Triangulation) on a
polygonal domain made up of non empty convex polygonal subdomains
generically denoted by and satisfying the following conditions :

(3) ; (4)

(5)
TERMINOLOGIES :
1) One may decide To approximate the exact solution of the system (1)-(2) inside the

subdomains by computing the , where is a

given point from the interior of : This approach is named .

In this framework the elements are called .

2) By contrast one can decide to approximate at the . This approach

is named Its implementation requires the introduction
of a second mesh called the dual of the primary mesh . The elements of the
dual mesh are called .
• Step 2 :
 Write the balance equation in every control-volume in terms of Flux across
its boundary after integration of that balance equation in the control-volumes
and
 Impose the Transmission condition for the Temperature and the Flux at
interior nodes for 1D, edges for 2D and faces for 3D.

• Step 3 :
Find out a consistent approximation of the Fluxes that meets the Transmission
Conditions.

• Step 4:
Insert those Flux Approximations in the balance equation. By neglecting the
Truncation Errors one derives the Finite Volume Formulation of the continuous
problem.
 . Finite Volume Method for 1-D Flow Problems

• Case of a Steady State Pure Diffusion (in Nonhomogeneous Media)

Setting of the Problem: To find a function defined in s.t.

with the following boundary conditions:

Execution of the main Steps listed above:
Step 1: Defining the control-volumes over the spatial domain
 Introducing the velocity as auxiliary unknown (in a two-field reformulation
within control-volumes) together with Transmission Conditions
Balance Equations in Control-Volumes in terms of Flux :
Step 3: Locally Conservative Flux Approximations
 Case of a Steady State Diffusion-Convection (in Nonhomogeneous Media)

Setting of the Problem: Find a function defined in such that

where Is a given real constant (physically standing for the velocity of some hot fluid flowing in the medium.

For convenience reasons let us position in the family of discrete unknowns as follows :
We already know from the finite volume discretization (see previous section) of the pure
diffusion term that

Concerning the convection term we use the following well known approximation formula:

called UPWIND or UPSTREAM FORMULA used for the first time by Petroleum Reservoir Engineers
Summing side by side the Equs (2.51) and (2.52) leads to the following FV Scheme (without Essential Boundary Condition):

If Then :

If Then :
The challenge now is to formulate the FV discrete equation associated with the node where is prescribed an
Essential Boundary Condition, For the sake of clarty of the presentation we assume that :

We start with integrating the Balance Equation in the so-called Degenerate Control-Volume ,
Then we obtain what follows

The first term of the LHS of the previous equality is known as the flux is imposed at the node while the second
term can be approximated following the technique exposed in the previous section. Therefore we get
SUMMARY : The Finite Volume discretization of the system (2.48)-(2.50) yields what follows.
. Finite Volume Method for time dependent 1-D Flow
Problems
Setting of the Problem: Given , , , ,, and find a function

defined in such that :

with the following boundary and initial conditions:

Main Assumption :

The thermal conductivity λ(x) is a piece-wise constant function

Step 1 : Time and space discretization

. Time discretization

For sake of simplicity let us set:

. Space discretization
Step 2 : Time-space Finite Volume Discretization
Integrating the two sides of Equ (1) in leads to what follows :

There are as many possibilities to approximate the integral terms in the previous equality as quadrature
formulas. For the sake of simplicity of the presentation let us consider the following quadrature
formulas.

In both of these approximations the truncation error is of first order in .

Setting that:

the balanace equation can be approximated as follows thanks to scheme :

Of course in the preceding approximation the truncation error is of first order in . Before calling
out the operationalty of Conventional Finite Volumes for spatial discretization of the semi-discretized balance equation
(10) let us set the following assumption:

Remark 1:
Integrating the two sides of (10) in leads to what follows :

where we have set (for convenience reasons)

Thanks to Taylor’s theorem and accounting with Lagrange truncation errors we are led to what follows :
 The previous approximate fluxes should meet the continuity condition at the mesh interface points. So they should
satisfy the following equation:

Moreover the temperature continuity at the mesh interface points should be honoured i.e.

For accounting with the Transmission Condition (17) is equivalent to simply set

In vertue of the preceding definition the equation (10) can be seen as an algebraic equation with only unknown
 After elementary algebraic operations we obtain that

Utilizing the RHS of the preceding equality for re-writting equations (14) and (15) leads to
. Finite Volume Method for 2-D Steady State Flow Problems

Setting of the Problem: Given , , and find a function

defined in such that :

with the following boundary conditions: