The Nodal Networks

The basic idea is to subdivide the area of interest into sub-volumes with the distance between adjacent nodes by Dx and Dy as shown. If the distance between points is small enough, the differential equation can be approximated locally by a set of finite difference equations. Each node now represents a small region where the nodal temperature is a measure of the average temperature of the region.

Example:

m,n

m,n+1

m,n-1

m+1, n

m-1,n

Dy

Dx

m-½,n

intermediate points

m+½,n

x=mDx, y=nDy

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