Mass and heat transfer study in solids of revolution via numerical simulations using finite volume method and generalized coordinates for the Cauchy boundary condition

This paper proposes a numerical solution for the diffusion equation with convective boundary condition applied to solids obtained through the revolution of arbitrary bi-dimensional geometries, using generalized coordinates. The diffusion equation was discretized using the finite volume method, with a fully implicit formulation. The solution exploits symmetry conditions and that decreases the computational effort demanded, in comparison to the traditional use of three-dimensional grids. The proposed solution was used to describe diffusion processes which have a well-known solution. There was a good agreement among the results obtained through the proposed solution and the correspondent analytical solutions, as well as the experimental data.