modelingpdefipyfvm

Heat equation units in FiPy


Question

Am I correct in using volumetric properties when simulating the heat diffusion equation with FiPy?

Context

I am solving the transient heat diffusion equation with an explicit source term.

heat diffusion PDE

Where:

I represent this in FiPy as follows:

eq = TransientTerm(C) == DiffusionTerm(k) + source

Research


Solution

  • If the units are consistent between terms, then FiPy doesn't care.

    Yes, in [examples.diffusion.mesh1D](https://pages.nist.gov/fipy/en/latest/generated/examples.diffusion.mesh1D.html#module-examples.diffusion.mesh1D), Cp is specific heat capacity and rho is mass density.