Transient isogeometric heat conduction analysis of stationary fluid in a container

Abstract

This article is devoted to the numerical simulation of transient heat conduction problems in fluids. A numerical formulation depending on isogeometric analysis-based GeoPDE's toolbox is employed to establish the viability of isogeometric analysis as a tool for analysing heat conduction problems. An experimental analysis is conducted on a physical model of a container for checking the change in temperature with time. Then the isogeometric analysis is used for the development of a numerical model and evaluation of unknown field variable, that is, temperature and its dependent properties. The validation of the proposed model is done by comparing it with an experimental analysis and calculating the coefficient of correlation between the two models. As a result, +0.99 value of correlation coefficient is devious out, which presents a positive relationship between the two. Based on the validated results, the proposed model is employed for the evaluation of thermophysical properties for different fluids like liquid water and ethylene glycol–water mixture. The evaluated properties of ethylene glycol–water solution are compared with existing literature values. A root mean square error is compared between evaluated and literature property values for various concentrations. The deduced values are in the range of 2.3%–8.4% for density and 0.26%–4.6% for viscosity. It is found that isogeometric analysis can be effectively applied in heat conduction problems using GeoPDE.