Mathematical Modeling and Numeriacal Methods for Simulation of the Heat Conduction in Liquid Helium / Modelagem Matemática e Métodos Numéricos para Simulação da Condução do Calor no Hélio Líquido

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The element helium, found mainly in natural gas reserves, condenses at temperature of 4.2K, and is the unique known substance that remains in liquid to absolute zero. In the liquid phase, the helium presents still another phase change in 2.19K, where passes of common liquid to superfluous liquid, with almost zero viscosity. These properties give the helium important applications. One of the major applications is as a coolant in superconductors, such as in the particle accelerator LHC, which is being built in the French border with Switzerland, in magnetic resonance devices, artificial satellites, etc.. In this paper, we present two mathematical models for heat transfer in liquid helium. The first model, considering only macroscopic movements, is derived based on constitutive laws of Fourier and Gorter-Mellink. The second model, based on techniques of Fremond, includes microscopic movements and can be seen as a regularization of the first model. Both models are governed by highly nonlinear differential equations resulting from the nonlinearity of the law of Gorter-Mellink and change of phase. Both models can be considered special cases of the Stefan problem in two phases, with phase one of the heat flux is governed by non-linear equation of the problem known as p-Laplacian, with p = 4/3. We also presented techniques to efficiently solve the problem of p-Laplacian, both for large values of p, p>>2, and for values of p close to 1, which are major numerical challenges. Are proposed two simple iterative methods, one based on the method of quasi-Newton, with the relaxation term and the other by the Helmholtz decomposition, creating a system of equations whose matrices are constant, which reduces significantly the computational cost. Numerical experiments are conducted to test the efficiency of numerical models proposed and the algorithms developed for solving systems of nonlinear algebraic equations arising from approximations by finite elements. Are also presented results of studies of convergence, showing rates of optimal or near optimal convergence, comparable to that of interpolates. For the problem with phase change, due to the discontinuity of the gradient of temperature on the interface separating the two phases of liquid helium, the rate of convergence is not optimal. Using adaptive mesh, it is also great rates to the problem with change of phase. Using experimental data found in literature, for the parameters of thermal conductivity, density and specific heat, temperature dependent, are also presented for validation testing of the model and examples of possible applications. In tests for validating the model, compared to the numerical solution of the mathematical model with experimental results for the temperature found in literature.

ASSUNTO(S)

computabilidade e modelos de computacao numerical simulation métodos dos elementos finitos simulação numérica p-laplacian phase change nonlinear theories hélio líquido finite element method teorias não-lineares 4. p-laplaciano liquid helium

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