A displacement finite element modelling for convection-diffusion problems

Abstract

The development of a displacement finite element formulation and its application to convective transport problems is presented. The formulation is based on the introduction of a generalized quantity defined as transport displacement. The governing equation is expressed in terms of this quantity and by using generalized coordinates a variational form of the governing equation is obtained. This equation may be solved by any numerical method, though it is of particular interest for application of the finite element method. Two finite element models are derived for the solution of convection-diffusion boundary value problems. The performance of the two element models is discussed and numerical results are given for different cases of convection and diffusion with two types of boundary conditions. The numerical results obtained show not only the efficiency of the numerical models in handling pure convection, pure diffusion and mixed convection-diffusion problems, but also good stability and accuracy. The applications of the developed numerical models are not limited to diffusion-convection problems but can also be applied to other types of problems such as mass transfer, hydrodynamics and wave propagation.