Heat Transfer Applications

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Heat Transfer Applications

We are analyzing the temperature and heat transfer between different components
and the environment.

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Boundary Conditions

● Thermal constraints (fixed temperature)

● Thermal loads (convective heat flux, surface heat flux, volumetric heat flux)

● Contacts (bonded contact)

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Thermal simulation on structures |

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Three different heat transfer phenomena

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Three different heat transfer phenomenon | Conduction

What is conduction?
● Transfer of heat between substances that are in direct contact
with each other
● Exists in all phases
● Heat energy passes from hot to the cold end of the substance
● Better the conductor - more rapid heat transfer e.g. metals are
good conductor of heat compared to plastics

Simulation examples
● Conduction of heat in different material (see image on the
right)
● Heat transfer in a spark plug Heat transfer via conduction in steel, ABS plastic, copper and lead

● Heat transfer in sink through a LED mounted on it

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Three different heat transfer phenomenon | Convection

What is convection?
● Transfer of heat from substance by movement of particles
● In fluids - liquids and gases
● Surface phenomenon
● Convection depends on the velocity of liquid or gas i.e. the faster
moving liquid or gas will take out more heat from substance than that
of the static one.

Simulation examples
● Data center cooling (see image on the right)
● Convection inside light bulb
● Cooling of a heat sink

Cooling of a data center via convective heat transfer

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Three different heat transfer phenomenon | Radiation

What is radiation?
● Transfer of energy through waves
● No medium required
● Heat can be transferred even in empty space by thermal radiation
● Radiation predominant at higher temperatures

Simulation examples
● Immense heating of a Spotlight (see image on the right)
● Cooling of highly heated steel plate Effect of radiative heat transfer on spotlight heating

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Thermal simulation on structures |

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Meshing in SimScale

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3D meshes in SimScale

● SimScale supports tetrahedral volume elements

for FEA
4-node
○ Automatic meshing Tet Element
■ Mesh fineness setting from 1 (very coarse)
- 5 (very fine)
○ Manual meshing
■ User defines maximum and minimum 10-node
element edge lengths Tet Element

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3D meshes in SimScale

Defining element edge lengths for Manual Meshing

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3D meshes in SimScale

1st-Order 2nd-Order

● # of Nodes: 4 ● # of Nodes: 10
● Degrees of Freedom: UX, UY, ● Degrees of Freedom: UX, UY,
UZ UZ
●

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1st- or 2nd-order mesh?
● Choosing a 1st-order mesh or 2nd-order mesh is problem dependent
● For problems involving only heat transfer, 1st-order elements are always
recommended over 2nd-order elements
● For thermomechanical problems involving high deformation and material
nonlinearities, 2nd-order elements are recommended

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Checking mesh quality

For the best mesh quality avoid sharp angles in tetrahedral mesh (high aspect ratio)

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Heat Transfer Analysis

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What is heat transfer analysis?
● Heat transfer analysis is used to determine the temperature and heat flux change
within different components of a structure caused by any kind of thermal load.

● Does not take into account any mechanical change. Only thermal changes are assumed

○ Externally applied thermal loads like temperature and surface heat flux

○ Heat loss via convection and radiation

○ Steady state and transient

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Why heat transfer?

1. Fast to perform - only temperature field calculation

2. Relevant for cases where only thermal study is required
3. Good to start with as a test case

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Steady state and transient analysis
● Steady state
○ Prevails in a heat conducting medium when
temperatures do not change with time
○ Heat transfer remains constant at a point
○ Considered only when final stage is of interest
● Example: Worm gearbox thermal analysis
● Transient
○ Transient or unsteady state designates a
phenomenon which is time dependent
○ Heat transfer continuously changes at a point
○ Considered when full change phase is of interest
● Example: Transient thermal analysis of PCB

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Linear and Nonlinear heat transfer analysis
● Linear heat transfer analysis
○ Material thermal properties do not change with
time or temperature
○ No radiation is considered
● Example: Worm gearbox thermal analysis

● Nonlinear heat transfer analysis

○ Material thermal properties can vary with
temperature
○ Radiation can be considered
○ Thermal boundary conditions and loading can
also vary with temperature
● Example: Transient thermal analysis of PCB
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Nonlinearities in heat transfer

Material nonlinearities
● Thermal material properties depending on temperature

● Available on SimScale:
○ Temperature dependent density
○ Temperature dependent conductivity
○ Temperature dependent specific heat

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Nonlinearities in heat transfer

Nonlinear boundary conditions

● Heat flux boundary conditions depending on temperature
● Available on SimScale:
○ Temperature dependent surface heat flux
○ Radiation

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Heat transfer between multiple bodies

Bonded contact
● Used to bond two bodies with different materials to allow heat transfer
● Every node in the slave surface is tied to a node in the master surface

Recommendations for bonded contact:

● Make use of contact tolerance for better heat transfer
● Make sure that slave surface is smaller than master

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 Heat transfer analysis type in SimScale
Analysis Type Heat transfer Heat transfer - Advanced
Solver Calculix Code_Aster
Reason to use ● Faster Solver ● Better overconstrained system handling
● Can handle contact between a single body ● Offer both time and temperature dependent boundary conditions
● Radiation model is available ● Availability of cyclic symmetry

Reasons to Avoid ● May lead mostly to overconstrained system ● Slower solver

● Only time dependent boundary conditions ● Radiation model isn’t available
● Have the possibility of concentrated heat flux

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Screencast:
Heating of a CFL

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