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Virginia Tech

Approximations and Object-Oriented Implementation for a Parabolic Partial Differential Equation

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This work is a numerical study of the 2-D heat equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions over a polygonal domain. The motivation for this study is a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor in which a substrate is heated while being exposed to a gas containing precursor molecules. The interaction between the gas and the substrate results in the deposition of a compound thin film on the substrate. Two different numerical approximations are implemented to produce numerical solutions describing the conduction of thermal energy in the reactor. The first method used is a Crank-Nicholson finite difference technique which tranforms the 2-D heat equation into an algebraic system of equations. For the second method, a semi-discrete method is used which transforms the partial differential equation into a system of ordinary differential equations. The goal of this work is to investigate the influence of boundary conditions, domain geometry, and initial condition on thermal conduction throughout the reactor. Once insight is gained with respect to the aforementioned conditions, optimal design and control can be investigated. This work represents a first step in our long term goal of developing optimal design and control of such CVD systems. This work has been funded through Partnerships in Research Excellence and Transition (PRET) grant number F49620-96-1-0329.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mathematics
Department dc:contributor.department
Mathematics
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1999

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Camphouse, Russell C.
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Burns, John A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Borggaard, Jeffrey T.
  • Herdman, Terry L.
  • Cliff, Eugene M.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-020199-095313
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/31104

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Camphouse, Russell C.. Approximations and Object-Oriented Implementation for a Parabolic Partial Differential Equation. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31104