AN EFFICIENT BOUNDARY MESHFREE COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH FOR 3-D MULTI-DOMAIN TRANSIENT THERMAL ANALYSIS WITH VARIABLE THERMAL SOURCES IN NON-HOMOGENEOUS MEDIA

Solutions of 3-D multi-domain transient thermal analysis with variable thermal sources in non-homogeneous media are separated into homogeneous and special solutions by an efficient boundary meshfree computational approach, namely virtual boundary meshfree Galerkin method. Homogeneous solutions are expressed by the virtual boundary element method. The virtual source functions of homogeneous solutions and the unknowable coefficients of special solutions can be formed by the radial basis function interpolation. Considering the control equation, the boundary and continuous conditions, and using the Galerkin method, the discrete formula for 3-D multi-domain transient thermal analysis with variable thermal sources in non-homogeneous media can be obtained. This discrete equation has symmetry. Meanwhile, in order to illustrate the steps of implementation more clearly, the final detailed implementation process is given. The numerical results of two calculation examples are obtained and compared to other methods and exact solutions. The proposed method’s stability and exactness are validated for 3-D multi-domain transient thermal analysis with variable thermal sources in non-homogeneous media. © 2023 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia