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Module 01: Basics and Preprocessing

ANSYS Mechanical Heat Transfer

1 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 Welcome

Welcome to the ANSYS Mechanical Heat Transfer training course!

This training course covers the basics of using Mechanical in performing
thermal analyses.
It is intended for Mechanical users regardless of the CAD software used.
Course Objectives:
• The prerequisite Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical training course (or equivalent experience)
is assumed.

• This course is intended to expand on the thermal analysis capabilities outlined in the
introduction to Mechanical training course material.

• Although the underlying thermal analysis capabilities of the solver is related to MAPDL, this
course is distinct from the Heat Transfer Analysis with MAPDL training course.

2 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 Module 01 Topics

1. About ANSYS, Inc. 8. Workshop 01.1 - Thermal Bar

2. ANSYS Customer Portal 9. Engineering Data
3. Symbols and Convections 10. Geometry Types
4. Heat Transfer Basics 11. Thermal Elements
5. Characteristics of FEA Thermal Solutions 12. Thermal Contact
6. Boundary Conditions 13. Meshing
7. Thermal Structural Comparisons 14. Workshop 01.2 - Heating Coil

3 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.01 About ANSYS, Inc. ANSYS is the Simulation Leader

FOCUSED TRUSTED
This is all we do.
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nearest competitor

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4 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016
 01.01 About ANSYS, Inc.
Breadth of Technologies
Fluid Mechanics: To Multiphase
From Single-Phase Flows Combustion

Structural Mechanics: To High-Speed Impact

From Linear Statics

Electromagnetics: From To High-Frequency

Low-Frequency Windings Field Analysis

Systems: To Multi-Domain
From Data Sharing System Analysis

5 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.02 ANSYS Customer Portal
https://support.ansys.com
Submit and review service requests
If you cannot find the answer to your question within the ANSYS Customer Portal then you can
submit a service request for technical assistance.

Download the latest software and updates

Download either ISO images or individual installer packages to access the latest software release.

Download training and tutorial materials

Examples are available for both a broad range of ANSYS products and user’s experience. Search
the hundreds of examples available and improve your knowledge of ANSYS software.

6 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.02 ANSYS Customer Portal
The ANSYS Customer Portal’s search is
powered by dedicated Google® hardware.
Search Facets
Mesh = Meshed = Meshing
Export = Exported = Exporting
XXXXX = YYYYY = ZZZZZ
Example:
You want a meshing tutorial for ANSYS Meshing and your search has results for
other products that are not of interest to you; by selecting the product facet
“ANSYS Meshing” you can narrow down your results further.

7 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.03 Symbols and Convections
The following symbols will be used throughout:

t  time
T  temperature
  density
c  specific heat
h  film coefficient
  emissivity
  Stefan - Boltzmann constant
K  thermal conductivity
Q  heat flow (rate)
q  heat flux
q , v  internal heat generation/volume
E  energy

8 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics

There are three basic modes of heat transfer:

• Conduction - internal energy exchange between one body in perfect contact with another or
from one part of a body to another part due to a temperature gradient.
• Convection - energy exchange between a body and a surrounding fluid.
• Radiation - energy transfer from a body or between two bodies by electromagnetic waves.

In many cases, we analyze heat conduction problems with some combination of

convection, heat flux, specified temperature, and radiation boundary conditions.

9 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics

Conduction heat transfer is defined by Fourier’s Law of Conduction:

T
q   K nn  heat flow rate per unit area in direction n
n
Where,
K nn  thermal conductivity in direction n
T  temperature q
T T
 thermal gradient in direction n dT
n
dn

Negative sign indicates that heat flows in the opposite direction n

of the gradient (i.e., heat flows from hot to cold).

10 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics

If we consider a cubic block of surface A and height L

The Fourier’s Law can be written in the height direction as:

T
q  the amount of heat which transists through the structure
Rthcond
Where,

T  the temperature difference between the ends of the the cube through the Length
L
Rthcond  the thermal conductive resistance, in this case Rthcond  ,
KL  A
where: L is the length, A is the area, and the K L is the thermal conductivity in the length direction

Refer to the Quick Workshop 01 for better understanding of the conduction.

11 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics
Convection heat transfer is defined by Newton’s Law of Cooling:

q  h (TS  TF )  heat flow rate per unit area between surface and fluid
Where,
h  convective film coefficient
TS  surface temperature
TF  bulk fluid temperature

TF
Convection is typically applied as a surface boundary condition.
The simplest form of convection condition requires the user to
prescribe a film coefficient and fluid temperature as user inputs.
Ts

12 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics
𝑻𝑺
If we consider a cubic block of surface A in contact with a fluid
𝑻𝑭

The Newton’s Law can be written as:

T
q  the amount of heat which transists through the structure
Rthconv
Where,

T  TS  TF
1
Rthconv  the thermal convective resistance, in this case Rthconv  ,
h A
where: h is the convective film coefficient, and A is the area

Refer to the Quick Workshop 02 for better understanding of the convection.

13 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics

Radiation heat transfer derived from the Stefan-Boltzmann Law:

Q  Ai Fij (Ti  T j4 )  heat flow rate from surface i to surface j
4

Where,
  "Stefan - Boltzmann constant"
  emissivity i
Ai  area of surface i
Fij  form factor from surface i to surface j
Ti  absolute temperature of surface i
T j  absolute temperature of surface j
j
Radiation in ANSYS Mechanical is treated as a surface
phenomenon where bodies are assumed to be opaque.

14 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.04 Heat Transfer Basics
First Law of Thermodynamics:
• Conservation of Energy requires that the net change of the energy of a system is always equal to
the net transfer of energy across the system boundary as heat and work.
• Conservation of Energy, for a small time increment, can be expressed in equation form as:
Estored  Ein thru the boundary  Eout thru the boundary  Egenerated  0

• When one applies this to a differential volume, the strong form of governing differential equation
for heat conduction (in the absence of applied heat loads and advection is obtained)
𝜕𝑇
𝜌𝑐 + 𝑄 − 𝐾𝛻 2 𝑇= 0
𝜕𝑡
where Q is the rate of internal heat generation per unit volume and the Laplacian is defined as:

𝜕 2𝑓 𝜕 2𝑓 𝜕 2𝑓
𝛻2𝑓 ≡ 2 + 2 + 2
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

15 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.05 Characteristics of FEA Thermal Solutions

Potential Problems:
• Poorly posed / Under constrained :
– In a Steady-State analysis when heat is supplied with no heat outlet the temperature is undefined
(energy balance not satisfied). This is the thermal equivalent to rigid body motion in structures.
– In practice, this issue shows up frequently among technical support service requests.
– Well-posed problems typically have at least one boundary with prescribed temperature or non-
adiabatic heat flux boundary condition.

• Thermal Gradient/Flux Singularities:

– As mesh is refined near a point heat source, the gradient/flux is observed to increase without
bound.
– Sharp corners and coarse geometry can cause non-physical thermal results.
– Poorly-shaped elements can create anomalous results.

16 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.05 Characteristics of FEA Thermal Solutions

The Well Posed Problem:

• Has an identifiable path for the heat flow.
– Heat balance can be checked and divided into their modes of transport.
• Steady state problems require both a source of heat and a heat sink.
– Transient heating problems do not require an energy in-out balance, but will
not have steady state solutions without it.
• Proper specification of boundary conditions is crucial.
– What is realistic? What do you know?
– Is the heat load known, or a function of an unknown temperature?
• Nonlinear problems benefit from good initial guesses for temperature.

17 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.06 Boundary Conditions

Specified Temperature:
• Temperature is the degree of freedom (DOF) ANSYS solves for thus constraining it makes the
problem easier to solve.
• Users must verify that a fixed temperature is a reasonable assumption.
• At a fixed temperature there will be a heat flux calculated which maintains this temperature.
• A simulation that contains only fixed temperature boundary conditions will always be bounded.
• A temperature applied as a step change during a transient analysis is generally more difficult to
solve than one that is ramped.

18 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.06 Boundary Conditions

Convective Boundary – Newton’s Law of Cooling

• This condition implies there is a flow condition that carries heat to or from a surface.
• The effect of the flow on the surface is simulated although there is no actual flow modeling at all.
• Two items are required:
– The ambient temperature.
– The “heat transfer coefficient” (HTC) or “film coefficient”.
• HTC values are commonly obtained from correlations for specific flow and heat transfer conditions.
– The HTC may be thought of as a proportionality constant between the surface temperature and the ambient
temperature.
• For a convective boundary, both the surface temperature and the heat flux are unknowns which
are calculated by the ANSYS solver.

19 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.06 Boundary Conditions

Heat Flux
• Heat added per unit area per unit time.
• Applied to a face.
• If the geometry (area) changes, the amount of heat added will change.

Heat Flow
• Heat added per unit time.
• Applied to a face, edge, or vertex.
• If the geometry changes, the amount of heat added does not.

20 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.06 Boundary Conditions

Radiation
• The radiation boundary condition employed in Mechanical is a surface condition.
That is, the surface in question radiates to ambient and/or to other surfaces.

• ANSYS radiation assumes gray-diffuse bodies in radiation:

– Gray body – assumes no dependence on wavelength.
– Diffuse – assumes emissivity and absorptivity do not depend on direction.

21 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.06 Boundary Conditions
Net Radiation Heat Flux: qr  T  (1   ) qi  qi
4

Emitted
Reflected
Incident

22 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.07 Thermal Structural Comparisons
Some common analogies relating thermal quantities to structural quantities.

23 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.08 Workshop 01.1 - Thermal Bar
Please refer to your Workshop Supplement for instructions on:
Workshop 01.1 – Thermal Conduction Bar

24 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.09 Engineering Data
The Engineering Data application provides overall control for material properties
• Engineering data can be opened “stand alone” (as a precursor to starting a project for example)

To Edit the Engineering

Data in an Existing
Project RMB > Edit or
Double Click

To Open the Engineering Data

Standalone, Add from the When Engineering Data
Component Systems in the is open there will be a
Toolbox (Drag/Drop or Double tab to access it from the
Click), Then RMB > Edit or Double Workbench GUI’s main
Click window (R15 and later)

For more information about the Engineering Data, please consult the course Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical
25 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016
 01.10 Geometry Types
All geometry types (solid, surface and line bodies), can be used for thermal analyses
in Mechanical. The elements contain temperature degrees of freedom (DOF).
Solid Geometry (2D and 3D):
• Models may be full 3D or symmetry sections 3D
including 2D sections.

• 2D geometry can be planar or axisymmetric.

– Planar models can have thickness assigned and you
should check and/or assign this value.
– Thickness will default to 1.0 (DM’s units) if not 2D
prescribed. It will still vacant in case the geometry is
imported from SCDM.
– Axisymmetric models assume all loads and constraints
are applied to the full 360 degree model.

26 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.10 Geometry Types
Surface Geometry:
• Models representing thin “sheet like” structures where through thickness behavior
is simplified or ignored.
• ANSYS/Mechanical assume no temperature variation through the thickness.

All temperature
variation is along
membrane
directions

Exterior Surface
Interior Surface
27 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016
 01.10 Geometry Types
Thermal Shells – SHELL131 Elements
• Only membrane behavior in ANSYS/Mechanical is directly exposed.
• Through thickness is possible with ANSYS/MAPDL or with command objects.
• Layered sections can be defined via command objects.
Layered Solids Support - SOLID278
• Composite thermal solids supported starting with Revision 15.
• Advanced Composites Prep/Post is required for defining imported sections.

28 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.10 Geometry Types
Line Geometry:
• Simplified geometry typical of beams, pipes, etc. where the cross section is not modeled, but assigned
to each line section.
• Assumes no temperature variation through the cross section, only along the length.
– Note: line body geometry may be available from several CAD sources however beam cross section definitions
and orientations can only be set in DesignModeler or SpaceClaim.

Line Bodies

29 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.10 Geometry Types
Thermal Point Mass: For transient thermal
analyses, you can idealize the thermal
capacitance of a body using a thermal
point mass.
Used as a device to store or draw heat
from surroundings.
Can be used to simulate various types of
heat sinks for example.

Thermal
Point Mass

30 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.11 Thermal Elements
Thermal solid elements use high order interpolation and shape functions (midside nodes)
by default.
Nodal degree of freedom (DOF) is temperature.
Temperature distribution within elements is calculated from the element shape functions.

3D Solids (SOLID90) 2D Solids (PLANE77)

31 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.11 Thermal Elements
Thermal shell elements (surface geometry) use linear interpolation - corner nodes by default.
Nodal degree of freedom (DOF) is temperature (TEMP) for the “in-plane” formulation.
Thickness for surface models must be provided in the details for each surface part.

3D Shells (SHELL131)

Note: Thru-thickness formulation requires APDL command objects

32 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.11 Thermal Elements
Thermal line elements are uniaxial/linear 2 node elements.
Nodal degree of freedom (DOF) is temperature (TEMP).
The cross section is defined and assigned to line sections in ANSYS Design Modeler or
SpaceClaim.

DesignModeler Cross Line Element (LINK33)

Section Library.

33 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact
In Mechanical bodies are assigned their
material properties in the Details for
each body.
Contact regions are used to relate heat
transfer from one body to another.

34 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact
• If parts are in contact heat transfer can occur between them.
• If parts are out of contact – outside pinball - no heat transfer takes place
• Summary:
Heat Transfer Between Parts in Contact Region
Contact Type
Initially Touching Inside Pinball Region Outside Pinball Region
Bonded Yes Yes No
No Separation Yes Yes No
Rough Yes No No
Frictionless Yes No No
Frictional Yes No No

• For Bonded and No Separation contact the pinball region determines when contact occurs and is
automatically defined and set to a relatively small value to accommodate small gaps in the model.

• Remember, thermal contact in Mechanical involves no status changes. The initial status of the contact
controls heat transfer throughout the solution.

35 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact

If the contact is bonded or no separation, then heat

transfer will occur (solid green lines) when the surfaces
are within the pinball radius.

Pinball Radius

Gap Between the Two Parts is Bigger

Than the Pinball Region, So No Heat
Transfer Will Occur Between the Parts

36 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact
By default, perfect thermal contact conductance between parts is assumed, meaning no
temperature drop occurs at the interface
Numerous conditions can contribute to less than perfect contact conductance:
• surface flatness
• surface finish
• oxides
• entrapped fluids T
• contact pressure
• surface temperature T
• use of conductive grease x
• ....
Continued . . .

37 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact

• The amount of heat flow across a contact interface is defined by the contact heat flux q:
q  TCC  Ttarget  Tcontact 
– where Tcontact is the temperature of the contact surface and Ttarget is the temperature of the
corresponding target surface.

• By default, TCC is set to a relatively ‘high’ value based on the largest material
conductivity defined in the model KXX and the diagonal of the overall geometry
bounding box ASMDIAG:
TCC  KXX 10,000 / ASMDIAG
• This essentially provides ‘perfect’ conductance between parts.

38 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact
Users may define a thermal contact conductance value (TCC) for all contact formulations
except MPC.
• TCC is input for each contact region in the Details view
• If thermal contact resistance is known, invert this value
and divide by the contacting area to obtain TCC value

Thermal Contact Resistance is equivalent

to Thermal Contact Conductance

39 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.12 Thermal Contact

Spot welds provide discrete heat transfer points:

• Spot welds are defined in the CAD software (currently only DesignModeler and Unigraphics).

T2

T1

40 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.13 Meshing

Mesh controls are accessed by

1. highlighting the mesh
branch,
2. RMB and then
3. inserting the desired
controls

Note: An extensive discussion of mesh controls in Mechanical is in the Introductory course. Thermal
applications requiring specific meshing considerations will be addressed later as needed.
41 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016
 01.13 Meshing
As with other analyses, poor quality meshes
can adversely effect thermal results. One
common problem seen with coarse meshing is
thermal over/under shoot.

T is below
minimum T
prescribed
when the
coarse mesh
is solved

42 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016

 01.14 Workshop 01.2 - Heating Coil
Please refer to your Workshop Supplement for instructions on:
Workshop 01.2 – Heating Coil

43 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. July 14, 2016