Comparison of Optimum Finite Element Method vs. Differential Quadrature Method in Two-dimensional Heat Transfer Problem

Abstract

Among various numerical solution techniques, finite element method (FEM) and differential quadrature method (DQM) are two important of those. Usually elements are sub-divided uniformly in FEM (conventional FEM, CFEM) to obtain temperature distribution behavior in a fin or plate. Hence, extra computational complexity is needed to obtain a fair solution with required accuracy. In this paper, non-uniform sub-elements are considered for FEM (optimum FEM, OFEM) solution to reduce the computational complexity. Then this OFEM is applied for the solution of two-dimensional heat transfer problem in a rectangular thin fin. The obtained results are compared with CFEM and optimum DQM (ODQM, with non-uniform mesh generation). It is found that the OFEM exhibit more accurate results than CFEM and ODQM showing its potentiality