EXPERIMENTAL-NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE FOR TEMPERATURE DETERMINATION IN HEAT-CONDUCTING MATERIALS

Two computer programs, a constant element BEM program and a linear element BEM program, are presented for heat conduction applications. The first utilizes a constant element, assuming a constant temperature over the length of each element. The second assumes a linear temperature variation between element nodes. The measured temperatures from an experiment carried out on an aluminium square plate 12 in. long and 1/4 in. thick are used as an input to the computer programs. The constant-element program calculated the temperatures of the two interior points to within an average error of 0.31 percent with a standard deviation of 0.19 percent when compared to the measured temperatures. The linear element BEM program showed an average error of 0.34 percent with a standard deviation of 0.13 percent. (O.G.)