ABSTRACT
This chapter provides nite element fundamentals and applications to steady and transient diffusion processes. Finite element methods have been developed to a high level of re nement in structural mechanics. The chapter discusses the Galerkin nite element method that is applied to the steady diffusion equation. The matrix equations are stated in global and element form. Condensation reduces the overall size and cost of solving the system matrices. Considerable exibility is possible in the location, shape and dimensions of the nite elements that may be employed to discretize a given domain. The Galerkin method has been discussed in detail because of the widespread use of this approach in thermal problems, particularly in uidow and convective transport. These include different variational methods of approximation in which a solution is sought in the form of a linear combination of interpolation functions and parameters that are determined by an approximate solution which satis es the governing integral statement.
