Heat Conduction in Plates by Finite Strip Method

The finite strip method which has been used in recent years in elastic analysis has been extended to include two-dimensional heat conduction. The method may be called a semianalytic technique and by its use of orthogonal functions in the form of a series reduces the two-dimensional problem to a pseudo-one-dimensional one. The efficiency and accuracy of the method, when applicable, has been found to be superior to the comparable finite element method. The use of the finite strip method, especially in problems of localized heating, e.g., welding and stress relief operations, has been explained with examples. The extension of the strip method to some specially oriented nonrectangular regions has been described using practical examples.