Adaptive nodeless variable finite element method for convectively-cooled solid

An adaptive nodeless variable finite element method for analysis of convectively-cooled solid is presented. The method solves two-dimensional heat transfer in solid coupling with one-dimensional heat transfer of fluid flow in channel. The nodeless variable finite element concept is introduced to increase the solution accuracy without adding the actual nodes. An adaptive finite element technique is incorporated to further improve the overall analysis solution accuracy. Several examples are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed method by comparing the predicted solution with the exact solution and/or the solution from solving the full Navier-Stokes equations.