THE FINITE ELEMENT MODELS OF THIN-WALLED BRANCHED STRUCTURES IN HEAT TRANSFER PROBLEMS

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of analysis of the transient temperature field in the plate junction zone of a thin-walled branched structure of an anisotropic material. In the junction zone of the plates of such structures, great temperature oscillations take place, which have an influence on the analysis of the stress-strain state of the structure. The junction zone of the plates was modelled by a connective finite element with a quadrangular base. The thermal conductivity matrix of the connective finite element was obtained in the case of an anisotropic material. The coordinate transformation and temperature value transformation formulae were derived, which allowed composing a grid of the finite elements of the examined object both with the corner and middle side nodes of the connective finite element. This allows a more efficient modelling of joining a few plates with different normals to a horizontal surface. The derived formulae were checked by the solution of a problem of the temperature field of a cooled plate.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.18.2.1562