FINITE-ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF COUPLED CONDUCTION AND CONVECTION IN REFRIGERATED TRANSPORT

As an alternative to the continuous analysis of coupled velocity and t emperature fields, the average fluid velocities and the convective hea t transfer coefficients are estimated first by standard engineering pr ocedures. Afterwards, these values are specified as part of the input data in a finite element code that calculates the detailed temperature distributions in the solid and the bulk temperature variations in the fluid. In the examples, the finite element formulation is validated b y comparison with a typical benchmark solution, and the capabilities o f the finite element method are demonstrated by the analysis of couple d conduction and convection problems in refrigerated transport.