A Partitioned Finite Difference Method for Heat Transfer with Moving Line and Plane Heat Sources

TL;DR

The paper introduces a new numerical method for simulating heat transfer with moving heat sources, improving accuracy in critical regions.

Contribution

A novel partitioned finite difference method is developed to handle singular heat sources in thermal simulations.

Findings

The hybrid method achieves second-order convergence for heat transfer simulations.

The approach accurately captures entropy production near moving heat sources.

Numerical examples validate the method's reliability for non-equilibrium thermal processes.

Abstract

This study proposes an efficient numerical scheme for simulating heat transfer governed by the diffusion equation with moving singular sources. The work addresses two-dimensional problems with line sources and three-dimensional problems with plane sources, which are prevalent in irreversible thermodynamic processes. Developed within a finite difference framework, the method employs a partitioned discretization strategy to accurately resolve the solution singularity near the heat source—a region critical for precise local entropy production analysis. In the immediate vicinity of the source, we analytically derive and incorporate the solution’s “jump” conditions to construct specialized finite difference approximations. Away from the source, standard second-order-accurate schemes are applied. This hybrid approach yields a globally second-order convergent spatial discretization. The resulting sparse system is efficient for large-scale simulation of dissipative systems. The accuracy and efficacy of the proposed method are demonstrated through numerical examples, providing a reliable tool for the detailed study of energy distribution in non-equilibrium thermal processes.

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