Numerical predictions of two-dimensional conduction, convection, and radiation heat transfer. II. Validation

This paper presents several test problems that were used to validate the fo rmulation and implementation of a CVFEM for combined-mode heat transfer in participating media. The objective here is to demonstrate that the proposed CVFEM can be used to solve combined modes of heat transfer in media that e mit, absorb, and scatter radiant energy in regularly- and irregularly-shape d geometries. The paper first assesses briefly the CVFEM for the solution o f convection-diffusion problems, then attention is focused on radiative hea t transfer problems. Finally, several combined mode problems are investigat ed. Results show that the proposed method adequately solves the governing e quations (energy and RTE): as the solutions compare favorably with those ob tained with other acknowledged methods or with analytical solutions, when a vailable. The proposed CVFEM could, however, be improved to broaden its sco pe of application and enhance its numerical efficiency. In a near future, t he method will be combined with a code already established for fluid flow c alculations. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.