Solução do problema de mudança de fase através do método dos elementos finitos

Abstract

Heat transfer processes with phase change are of great interest in several areas of science, engineering and industrial applications. In some of these applications, such as in solidification processes, the occurrence of cracks and void formation caused by a reduction in the ability of the material to resist mechanical loadings are generally observed, and it is of great importance to predict these behaviors so that they can be circumvented. One of the ways to study these phenomena and their applications is through the use of mathematical models and executing of computer simulations. Thus, this work studied and compared different numerical formulations of the finite element method for the heat transfer problems with phase change considering only conduction as the main mechanism of heat transfer. In the methodology used, the solidification or melting processes were treated by means of numerical methods based on fixed meshs. Several numerical experiments were performed to analyze the suitability of the methods studied and proposed in this work and the results were satisfactory.