Heat Transfer Applications

Before dealing with the application of the Boundary Element Method (BEM) to heat transfer problems we shall summarize the basic theory of heat conduction. It is known from experience that heat flows from the hotter parts of a body to the cooler. The mechanisms responsible for this phenomena are conduction, radiation and convection. Since we are concerned in this paper exclusively with solid bodies, convection only intervenes through boundary conditions in solid-fluid interfaces. Radiation is usually negligible, except eventually when setting up boundary conditions.