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

As an alternative to the continuous analysis of coupled velocity and temperature fields, the average fluid velocities and the convective heat transfer coefficients are estimated first by standard engineering procedures. 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 by comparison with a typical benchmark solution, and the capabilities of the finite element method are demonstrated by the analysis of coupled conduction and convection problems in refrigerated transport.