This study analyzes the heat transfer in human eyes following implantation of retinal prostheses using an axisymmetric formulation of the Finite Volume Method. The model used consisted of a vertex centered unstructured grid finite volume method in an edge-based data structure and an explicit time integration. The results of the finite volume thermal analysis in ocular tissues were determined in the presence of two types of retinal implants: subretinal and epiretinal. For the subretinal device, the maximum temperature reached in the retina was 36.78°C (309.78 K) and the irreversible thermal damage occurred at 200 days. In the case of the epiretinal implant, the maximum temperature reached at the retinal/chip interface was 36.92°C (309.92 K) and the irreversible thermal damage occurred at 180 days. Our results indicate that tin spite of its higher dissipation power, the epiretinal implant produces thermal damages similar to that caused by the subretinal implant. The computational tool which was developed was able to effectively calculate temperature profiles and thermal damage values to retinal implants and is also capable to calculate temperature profile in any other geometry of interest, for example with other types s of external thermal source like laser beans.

Numerical simulation of realistic compressible flows is very important and requires accurate and flexible tridimensional formulations, which should furthermore be robust and efficient. In this work we describe the development of a computational tool for numerical simulation of inviscid compressible 3-D fluid flow problems. This tool uses as the main building block an edge-based Galerkin FEM (Finite Element Method) together with a MUSCL (Monotonic Upstream-centered Schemes for Conservations Laws) approach to get a higher-order scheme with LED (Local Extremum Diminishing) property. The code is particularly developed for the simulation of supersonic and hypersonic flow regimes and several important (sometimes unavoidable) numerical procedures incorporated to increase its robustness are described. Some aspects related to the adoption of an edge-based data structure and other implementation issues are also described. Finally, some numerical model problems are analyzed and compared with results found in the literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the developed tool.

In this article, we make use of a stabilized Finite Element method to solve the complete set of Navier-Stokes equations. The methodology adopted is such that it allows for the use of different sets of variables, particularly the so called conservative and pressure variables. A space-time formulation using a simple augmented SUPG stabilizing term is proposed for the particular case of pressure variables. Comparison with data published in the available literature is done and a reasonably good agreement is obtained.

In this work, a finite volume formulation developed for two-dimensional models is extended to deal with axisymmetric models of heat conduction applications. This formulation uses a vertex centered finite volume method and it was implemented using an edge-based data structure. The time and domain discretization using triangular meshes is described in details, including the treatment of boundary conditions, source terms, and domains with multiple materials. The proposed formulation is validated and proves to be effective and flexible through the solution of simple model problems.

In this paper a flexible finite element computational tool developed to investigate fluid-structure interaction applications in two dimensions is described. We consider problems which can be modelled as a viscous incompressible fluid flow and a rigid body-spring system interacting nonlinearly with each other. The coupling is dealt with the use of an interface approach, in which each physics involved is solved with different schemes and the required information is transferred through the interface of both systems. This approach is, at least in principle, very flexible and computationally efficient as the best available scheme can be adopted to solve each physics. Here, a stabilized FEM considering the "ALE" (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) formulation with Crank-Nicholson time-integration is employed for the fluid-dynamics analysis, and the Newmark Method is used for the structural dynamics. Several important tools were incorporated into our system including different possibilities for the mesh movement algorithm, the computational domain decomposition into regions with and without mesh deformation, and the remeshing strategy (either global or local) to keep the necessary mesh quality. As application we present a study of the forced lock-in phenomena and a preliminary investigation on the suppression (or at least the reduction) of the vortex induced vibrations (VIV) on a solid circular cylinder using an idealization of a periodic acoustic excitation.

In recent years, there has been a significant level of research on the application of unstructured mesh methods to the simulation of a variety of engineering and scientific problems. Great progress has been achieved in such area and one of the most successful methodologies consists on the use of the Finite Volume Method (FVM). The unstructured FV formulation is very flexible to deal with any kind of control volume and therefore any kind of unstructured meshes, which are particularly important when complex geometries or automatic mesh adaptation are required. In this article, an unstructured finite volume vertex centered formulation, which was implemented using an edge-based data structure, is deduced and detailed for the solution of heat conduction problems. The numerical formulation is initially described considering a tri-dimensional model and latter particularized for bi-dimensional applications using triangular meshes. The presented procedure is very flexible and efficient to solve potential problems. It can also be extended to deal with a broader class of applications, such as models involving convection-diffusion-reaction terms, after considering the appropriate discretization of the convection-type term. In order to demonstrate the potentiality of the method, some model problems are investigated and the results are validated using analytical or other well-established numerical solutions.