PDE Toolbox thermalProperties() function handles

Is it possible to define the thermal characteristics (ThermalConductivity, MassDensity and SpecificHeat) of a 3D geometry as functions that depend on the position within the geometry?

Answer 1

[Alan Weiss]

Yes, you can. Sorry, the documentation is not yet explicit.

Define a function f = myfun(region,state) and pass @myfun as the value. For examples that are not in the heat flow setting, but in the general setting, see the ways of specifying nonconstant coefficients for general coefficients such as for the f coefficient.

Alan Weiss

MATLAB mathematical toolbox documentation

[David Naviaux]

Thank you! I am new to thermal analysis, but as I understand it, the thermal analysis will be performed on a tetrahedral mesh of the geometry. Is there a way that I can create the mesh so that no tetrahedron is split across a vertical boundary of differing thermal characteristics (I realize that if the mesh is tight enough, it may not be a significant issue, but just want to save analysis time)?

[Alan Weiss]

The only way to assure yourself of that is to make a geometry that has internal boundaries along the regions that differ. But that can be hard to arrange.

Alan Weiss

MATLAB mathematical toolbox documentation