AN OPERATOR-SPLITTING ALGORITHM FOR THREE-DIMEN-SIONAL CONVECTION-DIFFUSION PROBLEMS

An operator-splitting algorithm for the three-dimensional convection-diffusion equa-tion is presented.The flow region is discretized into tetrahedronal elements which are fixed in time.The transport equation is split into two successive initial value problems:a pure convection problemand a pure diffusion problem.For the pure convection problem,solutions are found by the method ofcharacteristiCS.The solution algorithm involves tracing the characteristic lines backwards in time froma vertex of an element to an interior point.A cubic polynomial is used to interpolate the concentrationand its derivatives within each element.For the diffusion problem,an explicit finite element algorithmis employed.Numerical examples are given which agree well with the analytical solutions.

AN OPERATOR-SPLITTING ALGORITHM FOR THREE-DIMEN-SIONAL CONVECTION-DIFFUSION PROBLEMS

An operator-splitting algorithm for the three-dimensional convection-diffusion equa- tion is presented.The flow region is discretized into tetrahedronal elements which are fixed in time. The transport equation is split into two successive initial value problems:a pure convection problem and a pure diffusion problem.For the pure convection problem,solutions are found by the method of characteristiCS.The solution algorithm involves tracing the characteristic lines backwards in time from a vertex of an element to an interior point.A cubic polynomial is used to interpolate the concentration and its derivatives within each element.For the diffusion problem,an explicit finite element algorithm is employed.Numerical examples are given which agree well with the analytical solutions.