Finite Differences Solution
• Usually a system of N algebraic equations in N unknown
nodal temperatures that need to be solved simultaneously.
• There are numerous systematic approaches available which
are broadly classified as
– direct methods
• Solve in a systematic manner following a
• series of well-defined steps
– iterative methods
• Start with an initial guess for the solution,
• and iterate until solution converges
• The direct methods usually require a large amount of
computer memory and computation time.
• The computer memory requirements for iterative methods
are minimal.
• However, the convergence of iterative methods to the
desired solution, however, may pose a problem.