Thermal analyses are very useful in ANSYS® Mechanical interface. ANSYS® provides lots of tools to specify required boundary conditions for thermal analyses. Heat flow is a very important boundary condition for thermal analyses, and you can define heat flow over a body or plane. Here we explain how to define heat flow in ANSYS® thermal analyses.
How To Define Heat Flow In ANSYS® Thermal Analyses?
Heat flow is the flow of heat energy through a body or geometry at a specific time. The most used unit for heat flow is J/s which is also W. Definition of heat flow in ANSYS® Mechanical is very basic.
In ANSYS® Mechanical, right-click on thermal analyses which is Steady-Statein the above example. Inside ‘Insert’ click on ‘Heat Flow’ as shown by the red arrow above.
After clicking on ‘Heat Flow’, click to select required geometries then click on the ‘Apply’ button as shown in the red box above in ANSYS® Mechanical.
From heat flow boundary conditions, you can define perfect insulation condition also.
As you see above, you can define a heat flow or perfect insulation. If you select perfect insulation, regions that are selected on the geometry will be treated as insulated perfectly. So, no heat can be transferred through this region.
If you select ‘Heat Flow’, you can define the heat flow rate as ‘Constant’, ‘Tabular’, and ‘Function’. If you select ‘Constant’ you need to enter a heat flow rate value inside the ‘Magnitude’ section.
If you select it as ‘Tabular(Time)’, you can define the heat flow rate from the table that is shown in the red box, which changes with time. Enter the time ranges, and enter the corresponding heat flow rates on this table in ANSYS® Mechanical.
If you select ‘Function’, you can define heat flow rate as a function that changes with ‘time’. When you are defining your heat flow rate as a function, the variable is ‘time’ here. You can see the example above as shown by the red arrow. And you can see each corresponding heat flow rate value for each time step.
You can change the number segments to change the time step number in tabular data shown in the green box above.
Conclusion
These are the general information to define heat flow and perfectly insulated in ANSYS® Mechanical.
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NOTE: All the screenshots and images are used for educational and informative purposes. Images used courtesy of ANSYS, Inc.
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