An Algorithm to Accelerate Simulations of Simultaneous Heat and Gas Transfer in Gas-Filled Foams

Abstract

This paper proposes an algorithm to accelerate simulations of si multaneous heat and gas transfer in gas-filled insulating foams, based on an analy sis of the different transfer processes. This algorithm combines explicit finite dif ference and over-relaxation schemes: the time step of a simulation is determined by diffusion of gases, which is calculated by the explicit difference scheme; and the over-relaxation scheme is used to handle heat conduction. Calculation ex amples using a model presented separately [1] show that the results calculated by the fast algorithm agree well with those calculated by the single explicit finite dif ference scheme. In general, the simulations using the proposed algorithm are much faster than those using a single explicit finite difference scheme. The time step is increased more than 300 and 270 times for the two examples studied.