RECENT ADVANCES TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL-PULSE (VIP) EXPLICIT TIME INTEGRAL METHODOLOGY FOR GENERAL MULTIDIMENSIONAL THERMAL-ANALYSIS

Recent advances and progress towards the development of an effective V irtual-Pulse (VIP) explicit time integral methodology of computation f or applicability to general multidimensional non-linear transient ther mal analysis of structures and materials is overviewed. The computatio nal methodology is derived from new and different perspectives and the theoretical basis as well as the practical applicability to multidime nsional thermal analysis situations are detailed. The VIP methodology inherits improved accuracy and superior stability characteristics in c omparison to the traditional approaches customarily employed by therma l analysts. With the notion of providing techniques for high-speed com puting environments and parallel architectures, the present approach i s developed for such computations and also ideally suited for personal workstation computing environments. Results of the numerical test mod els for multidimensional problems validate the overall concepts for ge neral applicability to thermal analysis situations.