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Finite Element Method in Thermal Engineering

By Prof. Subhankar Sen   |   IIT-ISM Dhanbad
Learners enrolled: 485   |  Exam registration: 35
ABOUT THE COURSE:

1. At present such a specialized course is taught at very few institutes. This course emphasises on illustrating the usefulness of FEM as a highly accurate discretization method for handling heat transfer/fluid dynamics problems.

2. This course aims at providing a simple approach for element level assembly and implementation of boundary conditions, that is more handy for implementation in computer coding.

3. Post this course, the students will be familiar with contrasting implementation issues of FEM in solid mechanics vis a vis fluid mechanics.

4. The students will be able to generate the global matrix equation system via manual calculations as well as solve it for heat conduction/convection-diffusion problems. The students will also be able to compare FEM solutions with corresponding FDM solutions.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: UG, PG, Ph.D. students and industry personnel

PREREQUISITES: Undergraduate students of IIT(ISM) Dhanbad have attended this course. Thus, basic calculus and linear algebra are adequate for understanding the associated numerics.

As such, prior exposure to finite element based courses is not required for attending this course

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: This is an interdisciplinary course which will benefit industry personnel having background in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Computing, etc.

Leading companies like COMSOL, GE, etc are expected to value this online course.
Summary
Course Status : Ongoing
Course Type : Elective
Language for course content : English
Duration : 12 weeks
Category :
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computational Thermo Fluids
  • Computational Engineering
  • Energy Systems
Credit Points : 3
Level : Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date : 19 Jan 2026
End Date : 10 Apr 2026
Enrollment Ends : 02 Feb 2026
Exam Registration Ends : 20 Feb 2026
Exam Date : 19 Apr 2026 IST
NCrF Level   : 4.5 — 8.0

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.


Page Visits



Course layout

Week 1:  Introduction to tensors, linear dependence and independence of vectors, strong form of a differential equation, primary and secondary variables in a continuum problem, concept of variational methods, illustration of Rayleigh-Ritz, least squares, collocation, Galerkin and Petrov-Galerkin methods, limitations of variational methods, development of finite element method from the basic variational method

Week 2: The Green-Gauss theorem, weak form of a differential equation, the functional, weight and shape functions, displacements or degrees-of-freedom, types of boundary conditions, domain discretization and generation of nodes, elements, structured and unstructured meshes, bar element, triangular and quadrilateral elements, Pascal’s triangle, element connectivity and assembly using IEN (Identification of Element Nodes), ID (Identification) and LM (Location Matrix) arrays

Week 3: The concepts of local and global coordinates, Galerkin finite-element method, comparison of finite element solutions of one-dimensional elliptic partial differential equations of heat conduction with solutions using alternate methods, such as, finite difference and finite volume

Week 4: Isoparametric elements, natural coordinates, coordinate transformation, numerical integration, computation of element level matrices and vectors through local coordinates and by Gauss quadrature for one and two-dimensional elliptic partial differential equations of heat conduction

Week 5: Implementation of essential, natural and convective boundary conditions for elliptic partial equations of heat conduction in one- and two-dimensions, assembly of element level matrices and vectors and generation of the global/assembled matrix equation system of linear algebraic equations, properties of the assembled matrix equation system,

Week 6: Basic matrix equation solvers for symmetric and asymmetric linear matrix equation systems, solution of the matrix equation system, concepts of preconditioners and matrix-free methods

Week 7: FEM discretization of parabolic partial differential equations of heat conduction corresponding to unsteady equations, the trapezoidal rule: implicit and explicit formulations

Week 8: Introduction to convective transport, the linear convection-diffusion equation, Galerkin formulation of the one-dimensional convection-diffusion equation using linear and quadratic elements, asymmetry in convection-diffusion matrix versus symmetry in conduction (diffusion) matrix, difference in banded structure of the coefficient matrix of convection-diffusion and diffusion matrices, solution of the convection-diffusion matrix equation system

Week 9: Limitations of Galerkin method for flow problems, illustration of odd-even decoupling of solutions in one-dimension for high Peclet number, the need for stabilization of the weak form of flow equations, the streamline-upwind Petrov Galerkin (SUPG) stabilization, Petrov-Galerkin formulation for one-dimensional convection-diffusion equation using linear bar elements

Week 10: Introduction of multiple degrees-of-freedom problems, i.e. the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations of motion, surface traction vector, stress-divergence form of N-S equations, coupled versus segregated formulation of Navier￾Stokes equations, Q1Q0 and Q1Q1 bilinear quadrilateral elements or staggered and collocated arrangements of primitive variables, connectivity and assembly of element level equations for multiple degrees-of-freedom problems

Week 11: Coupled Galerkin formulation of steady Navier-Stokes equations in two-dimensions using Q1Q0 elements

Week 12: Coupled Petrov-Galerkin formulation of steady Navier-Stokes equations in two-dimensions using Q1Q1 elements

Books and references

1. An introduction to the finite element method, J. N. Reddy, McGraw-Hill, 2020, 4th Indian Edition.
2. The finite element method: linear static and dynamic finite element analysis, T. J. R. Hughes, Dover Publications, 2000.
3. Finite element method for flow problems, J. Donea and A. Huerta, 2003, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
4. Fundamentals of the finite element method for heat and fluid flow, R. W. Lewis, P. Nithiarasu and K. N. Seetharamu, 2004, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
5. Finite element procedures, K. J. Bathe, 2014

Instructor bio

Prof. Subhankar Sen

IIT-ISM Dhanbad
Dr. Subhankar Sen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad with about twelve years of teaching and research experiences. He obtained his Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University in 1999. After a brief stint in industry, he pursued Masters in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Guwahati during 2001-2003. Subsequently, he obtained Doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2010. Since his exposure to finite element method during Ph.D., he is engaged in finite element based computational research in bluff body aerodynamics and fluid-structure interactions. Dr. Sen taught the Finite element method course for the first time as a sole Instructor to the M.Tech. and Ph.D. students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Agartala during the first semester of 2012-2013 session. The theme of this course was finite element method in thermofluids. During July 3-7, 2017, he organized a short term course titled CFD analysis of heat transfer and fluid flow problems using FEM and FVM at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. He prepared and distributed (to the short course participants) a 44 page booklet illustrating finite element theory and numerical examples on heat transfer and convection-diffusion problems. During the 2018-2019 Monsoon semester, he taught the Finite element method course at IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, IIIF Kolkata and IIIF Delhi on sharing. During 2022-2023 Winter semester, he introduced the specialized elective course Finite element method in thermal engineering and taught it twice as sole Instructor (sessions 2022-2023 and 2023-2024) to the students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad. Details of his teaching of Finite element method at NIT Agartala

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.
The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exams: April 19, 2026 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.
Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of the total 12 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of NPTEL and IIT-ISM Dhanbad. It will be e-verifiable at nptel.ac.in/noc.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- NPTEL team
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