The output can include temperature, incident heating, and values of time or temperature varying quantities. In order to develop a thermal network and apply numerical techniques to its solution, it is necessary to subdivide the thermal system into a number of finite subvolumes called nodes. The thermal properties of each node are considered to be concentrated at the central nodal point of each subvolume. The temperature, T, assigned to a node represents the average mass temperature of the subvolume. The capacitance, C, assigned to a node is computed from the thermophysical properties of the subvolume material evaluated at the temperature of the node.
Capacitance is assumed to be concentrated at the nodal center of the subvolume.
In a homogeneous material, the temperature at a point other than the nodal point may be approximated by interpolation between adjacent nodal points where the temperatures are known. Conductors are the thermal math modeling network elements, which are used to represent the heat flow paths through which energy is transferred from one node to another node.