Discrete thermal element modelling of heat conduction in particle systems: Basic formulations - Yuntian Feng (Journal of Computational Physics, 2008)
This work proposes a novel numerical methodology for the effective modelling of heat conduction in systems comprising a large number of circular particles. Each particle is treated as an individual element. The element thermal conductivity matrix can be very effectively evaluated. This new element shares the same form and properties with its conventional thermal finite element counterpart. The whole solution procedure can follow exactly the same steps as those involved in the finite element analysis, but without discretization errors involved. In addition, thermal resistance phenomena between the contact zones can be readily incorporated into the current modelling framework.