An OV-IEFG-FEM Technique for Coupled Fluid Dynamics-Heat Transfer Analysis in Problems with Concentrated Heat Sources

Abstract

A three-level Overset Improved Element-Free Galerkin–Finite Element Method (Ov-IEFGFEM) is presented for the thermo-fluid dynamic modelling of transient heat transfer problems with moving heat sources. The global domain is discretized using a coarse Finite Element mesh. Superimposed on this mesh, a set of IEFG nodes moves along with the heat source. Within this region, a subregion of IEFG nodes simultaneously solve the thermal and fluid-dynamic problems within the molten zone. Fluid-dynamic information is transferred from the inner subregion to the surrounding thermal IEFG region, which in turn exchanges thermal data with the background FEM mesh. The proposed coupling strategy allows for the efficient and accurate resolution of localized thermal and fluiddynamic effects induced by moving energy sources.