Chapter 68: Collection and Primitives Radiation

Collection and Primitives

68 Radiation


Summary 1242

Introduction 1243

Modeling Details 1243

Solution Highlights 1243

Results 1250

Modeling Tips 1251

Input File(s) 1252

Video 1252
1242 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

Summary
Title Chapter 68: Collection and Primitives Radiation
Features: • Enclosure Radiation
• Primitive modeling
• Small facet, Collection (Super Element), and Primitive radiation
Geometry & Boundary Radiation insulated
Conditions Space T = -273.15 oC upper side

Plate: 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 1 mm

Normal Flux Sphere: 1 m dia, t = 1 mm
1000 W/m2 Distance from Sphere center
Inner Side to plate = 1 m

Radiation insulated
Inner side

Material properties K = 0.001 W/m/oC, Emissivity,  = 1.0, Absorptivity,  = 1.0

Analysis characteristics Solution 400 / RC Network solver. Steady and transient thermal analysis.
Element type 4-node shell element CQUAD4
FE results Temperatures
104.8 104.6 104.3

Small Facets Collection (Super Element) Primitives

(1113 sec) (6 sec) (3 sec)
 CHAPTER 68 1243
Collection and Primitives Radiation

Introduction
This problem demonstrates three enclosure radiation loads of SOL 400 RC Network Solver: Small Facets, Collection
(Super Element), and Primitives. Three methods will be used to solve the same model - small facet method, super
element method and primitive method. You can compare the speed and accuracy among the three methods.

Modeling Details
This model consists of a hemi-sphere and a plate. They are all primitive surfaces. The hemi-sphere and plate radiate
to each other, the other sides are radiation insulated. A heat flux 1000 W/ m² is applied to the inner side of the hemi-
sphere. A black coating is applied on the surface of both hemi-sphere and plate. An extremely low conductivity
material and extremely thin 2-D shell property are used to show the “pour” radiation effect.

Radiation insulated
Space T = -273.15 oC upper side

12x12 mesh

Normal Flux Plate: 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 1 mm

Sphere: 1 m dia, t = 1 mm
1000 W/m2
Distance from Sphere center
Inner Side to plate = 1 m
AxB mesh = 1x1
Radiation insulated K= 0.001 W/m/oC
Inner side Cp = 1 J/Kg/oC
ρ = 1 Kg/m3
Emissivity = 1
Absorptivity = 1

Figure 68-1 Model Geometry and Materials

Solution Highlights
Enclosure Radiation has three options: Small Facets, Collection (Super Element), and Primitives. The small facets
method is the traditional way of FEM modelers to calculate radiation view factors. The collection and primitives are
the unique methods for speeding up radiation calculation in RC Network Solver. All the facets in the application region
will be treated as one radiation node. This makes the radiation analysis much faster and more efficient. The primitive
method also utilizes “true geometric shapes” for radiation analysis. A special algorithm is developed to match the
radiation results back to the finer conduction mesh. More details on collection and primitives can be referenced in
MSC Sinda for Patran user's guide.
RC Network Solver uses VIEWEX entry to simulate the enclosure radiation loads. RADC entry is used to represent the
MLI or Coating materials. These two entries are introduced in Chapter 66: Satellite in Orbit. The SET3 and RADCOL
cards are used to represent the collection (Super Element). The SET3 and PRIMx cards are used to represent the
primitives.
CHBDYE 9346 8735 1 2 2
CHBDYE 9347 8736 1 2 2
1244 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

$!
SET3 2 ELEM 9043 9044 9045 9046 9047 9048+
+ 9049 9050 9051 9052 9053 9054 9055 9056+
...
$! Radiation Collection
RADCOL 3 2 2 2
...
CHBDYE 9746 930 1 3 2
CHBDYE 9747 931 1 3 2
$!
SET3 4 ELEM 9348 9349 9350 9351 9352 9353+
+ 9354 9355 9356 9357 9358 9359 9360 9361+
...
$! Primitive Shape
$!----------------------------------------------------------------------------!$
PRIM1 2 3 2 3
-0.75 -0.75 1. 0.75 -0.75 1.
-0.75 0.75 1. 1 1
 CHAPTER 68 1245
Collection and Primitives Radiation

RADCOL Radiation Collective Entity

Specifies a collection of boundary elements to be used as a single face in the radiation calculation. This will decrease
computation time at the small cost of accuracy. Computational savings and accuracy are dependent on the coarseness
of the collection versus the constituents. View factors of the collection are redistributed across the elements for
calculation of the radiative energy transfer.

Format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
RADCOL RADCOLID 701 2 1.0

Example
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
RADCOL 101 5 6 2 3 7

Field Contents Type Default

RADCOLID Radiation Collection identification number. I0 Required
IVIEWF A VIEW entry identification number for the front face. I  0 0
IVIEWB A VIEW entry identification number for the back face. I  0 0
RADMIDF RADM identification number for the front face I0 0
RADMIDB RADM identification number for the back face. I0 0
SET3 idn ID of the element collection to be considered a super I0
element.

Remarks
1. This entry is for RC Network solver only.
2. IVIEWF/IVIEWB will default to 0 if left blank. This would indicate that the corresponding front and/or back do
participate in the radiation.
3. IF an IVIEWF is specified, there must also be a RADMIDF for surface material properties. If an IVIEWB is
specified there must also be a RADMIDB for surface material properties.
1246 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

PRIMx Thermal Geometric Primitives for RC Radiation

Specifies the properties of geometric primitives to be used in radiation calculations in place of elements.

Format
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM1 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM2 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) P4(1) P4(2) P4(3) A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM3 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM4 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) Diam1 Diam2 Angle1 Angle2
A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM5 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) Diam1 Angle1 Angle2 A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM6 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) Diam1 Diam2 Angle1 Angle2
A_mesh B_mesh

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM7 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) Diam1 Angle1 Angle2 Trunc1 Trunc2
A_mesh B_mesh
 CHAPTER 68 1247
Collection and Primitives Radiation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PRIM8 PRIMID IVIEWF IVIEWB RADMIDF RADMIDB SET3ID +
+ P1(1) P1(2) P1(3) P2(1) P@(2) P2(3) +
+ P3(1) P3(2) P3(3) Diam1 Angle1 Angle2 Trunc1 Trunc2
A_mesh B_mesh

Field Contents Type Default

PRIMID Primitive identification number; unique to all I0 Required
other PRIMx
SET3 ID ID of the element collection to which this I>0 Required
primitive describes. This collection acts as the
elements that will exist in the thermal model,
but the collection will be absent from the
radiation model. Instead, the primitive will be
used to calculate radiation and be
redistributed back onto the elements. All
radiation properties for the primitive will be
applied to the element collection and must be
consistent across.
RADMID ID of the radiation material properties used to
describe this primitive for analysis.
Pi(a) The position of point i in the a axis as R Required
described in the correlating picture. For
example, P2(2) denotes the y coordinate of
the second point. Position is always described
in global coordinates.
Diamx Diameter x of the primitive if applicable and R  0.0 Required
as described in the correlating picture.
Anglex Angle x of the primitive if applicable and as 0 R  360.0 Required
described in the correlating picture.
Truncx Truncation x of the primitive if all are R  0 for PRIM8 Required
pickable and as described in the correlating
picture.
-0.5*Diam1  R 0.5*Diam1 for PRIM7
A-mesh Number of mesh spaces in parametric I0 Required
direction-1 as described in the correlating
picture.
B_mesh Number of mesh spaces in parametric I0 Required
direction-2 as described in the correlating
picture.
1248 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

Remarks
1. This entry is for RC Network solver only.
2. SET3 should include all the elements which belong to this primitive. It will cause wrong results if only a partial
of the elements are included.
3. PRIMID should be unique across all primitives (PRIMx) in the model.
4. About the primitives:
PRIM1: Rectangle

PRIM2: Quad

PRIM3: Triangle
 CHAPTER 68 1249
Collection and Primitives Radiation

PRIM4: Disc

PRIM5: Cylinder

PRIM6: Cone
1250 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

PRIM7: Sphere

PRIM8: Parabolic

Results
Temperatures
104.8 104.6 104.3

Small Facets Collection (Super Element) Primitives

(1113 sec) (6 sec) (3 sec)
Figure 68-2 Temperature contour of Model for Case 1 (Steady State)
 CHAPTER 68 1251
Collection and Primitives Radiation

The following form illustrates the Thermica execute times and temperature results. (Windows XP v2002 SP3, Dell
Precision | M65 laptop, Intel® Core(TM) 2 CPU, T7200@2.00GHz, 997MHz, 3.25GB of RAM).

Table 1-1 Speed and Result Comparison among the Three Methods (Ray count: 500,000)
Radiation Executing Time (s) Temperature Result (ºC)
Small facets method 1113 -79.74 to 104.8
Collection method 6 -79.67 to 104.6
Primitives method 3 -79.53 to 104.3

Modeling Tips
As you can see, the temperature results are about the same, but the collection and primitives methods are much faster
then the traditional small facets method. Because of the feature of the re-match algorithm, no obstructions between the
two collections or primitives are allowed; otherwise we may lose some accuracy.
The parabolic primitive has not been supported yet in SimXpert, but MD Nastran/RC Network Solver supports that.
In MSC Sinda for Patran, you can put multiple primitives inside one application region, the translator will
automatically separate them to be multiple single- primitive loads, but SimXpert does not support this feature, one
single primitive is required for one primitive load.
You can preview the AB mesh of the primitive (Figure 68-3). These AB mesh is used to form the radiation model in
Thermica or other external radiation codes. The AB mesh does not have to be congruent with the conduction mesh.

Figure 68-3 AB mesh preview in SimXpert

1252 MD Demonstration Problems
CHAPTER 68

Input File(s)
Files
QT16_hemi_sph_sf.dat
QT33_hemi_sph_se.dat
QT32_hemi_sph_pr.dat
Description
MD Nastran SOL400/RC Network Solver thermal input file
MD Nastran SOL400/RC Network Solver thermal input file
MD Nastran SOL400/RC Network Solver thermal input file

Video
Click on the image or caption below to view a streaming video of this problem; it lasts approximately 30 minutes and
explains how the steps are performed.

Radiation insulated
Space T = -273.15 oC upper side

Plate: 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 1 mm

Normal Flux Sphere: 1 m dia, t = 1 mm
1000 W/m2 Distance from Sphere center
Inner Side to plate = 1 m

Radiation insulated
Inner side

Figure 68-4 Video of the Above Steps