Thermal

[kerrie]

Does anyone know anything about using Thermal? I can't get it to give me any sort of sensible answers. I set up a simple flat steel plate insulated on all sides, with an incoming heat load of 500 J/s on one face. Not only does Pro/M respond with an assymetrical temperature distribution, but the temperatures are way too big and in some parts of the model, it actually gets *colder*. If anyone has experience with common problems in Thermal (and yes, I've checked my units 16 different times!) or knows of a good, step-by-step Thermal tutorial, please make an overstress engineering student happy and give me a reply. Thanks a ton!

 

[Tunalover]

Kerrie-



It sounds like your boundary conditions are unreasonable. If a plate is insulated on all sides and still has heat going into it then of course the temperature will increase without bound. If you give more physically reasonable boundary conditions (that is, give the heat somewhere where it can get out) then your going in the right direction to get the right answers.



Analysis codes do strange things when presented with problems that have no solution!



Tunalover

 

[JHardy]

As Tunalover said, you need to let the heat out somewhere, as well as pumping it in!



Try putting a convection condition on one edge, for example, as the other boundary condition, and you should get some sensible results.



Hope this helps.