Coarse Radiation Patches for Element-Based Thermal Analysis 2003-01-2664

We introduce a radiation mesh patching technology which greatly reduces the number of radiative transfer terms within the solution of an element-based thermal model while at the same time preserving the fine-mesh resolution for non-radiative terms. The patch generation algorithm identifies clusters of radiating elements and agglomerates them into patches. The radiosity method is exploited by coupling a single radiosity node to all the elements within one patch. Empirical studies have shown that the resulting simplifications of the solution matrix can reduce solution time by up to 90%. Because the fine-mesh resolution of the non-radiative terms is preserved, the solutions generated with use of the patching algorithm are still often very accurate. The technology also permits solution of huge thermal models which were previously unsolvable due to hardware and operating system limitations.