Abstract
Authors propose a three-dimensional thermal analysis method applying a finite element method with two-order tetrahedral isoparametric elements to calculate the static temperature distribution of terminal section of sheathed heater and ascertain that the method enables the static temperature distribution of the terminal section of sheathed heater to be calculated with a high degree of accuracy according to the measurements made for a long cylindric sheathed heater.
In the thermal analysis methods, the analysis region is made as little as possible to save memory for calculating and to shorten calculating time, a method dividing the region into two-order tetrahedral isoparametric elements is proposed and one example of dividing the region into the elements by which the static temperature distribution is calculated precisely is shown.
Also the least analysis region to enable both temperature distributions of terminal and heating section of sheathed heater to be calculated precisely is given.
It has been obtained by using the thermal analysis method that the static temperature of terminal section varies in the direction of the length of heater and the temperature distribution of the cross-section of heater is almost equal.
