Interface integral BEM for solving multi-medium heat conduction problems

In this paper, a new and simple boundary element method, called interface integral boundary element method (IIBEM), is presented for solving heat conduction problems consisting of multiple media. In the method, the boundary integral equation is derived by a degeneration technique from domain integrals involved in varying heat conductivity problems into interface integrals in multi-medium problems. The main feature of the presented technique is that only a single boundary integral equation is used to solve heat conduction problems with different material properties. The effect of nonhomogeneity between adjacent materials is embodied in the interface integrals including the material property difference between the two adjacent materials. Comparing with conventional multi-domain boundary integral equation techniques, the presented method is more efficient in computational time, data preparing, and program coding. Numerical examples are given to verify the correctness of the presented technique.