ENERGY BALANCES IN CVFEM AND GFEM FORMULATIONS OF CONVECTION-TYPE PROBLEMS

A physical approach, based on energy balances at element and at node l evels, is utilized to derive both control volume and Galerkin finite e lement formulations of convection-type problems. This direct approach leads to the same systems of differential equations yielded by convent ional formulations, but allows us to demonstrate that there are no dif ferences in conservation properties between the two methods. Besides, we provide reliable physical interpretations for all the steps involve d in standard mathematical procedures of discretization.