SOLUTION OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONVECTION-DIFFUSION PROBLEMS USING TETRAHEDRAL ELEMENTS AND FLOW-ORIENTED UPWIND INTERPOLATION FUNCTIONS

A numerical method for three-dimensional elliptic convection-diffusion problems is presented. The formulation is based on four-node tetrahedral elements and flow-oriented interpolation functions that respond appropriately to an element Peclet number and the direction of the element-average velocity vector. A control-Volume approach is used to derive the discretization equations. The method has been applied successfully to several test problems.