Thermal Convection

In thermal analysis, define a convective heat exchange condition on faces and spots.

The convection coefficient defines the rate of heat transfer between the bulk fluid (liquid or gas, buoyant or moving) and a surface of your model. The convective coefficient is equal to the heat rate per unit area per unit temperature difference between the model surface and the bulk fluid.

Ambient temperature value specifies the temperature of the bulk fluid, which is assumed to remain constant during the analysis.

  1. In the Project Tree, click on a Thermal analysis branch to open the Analysis Workbench.
  2. On the workbench toolbar, click the (Convection) icon.
    The Thermal convection dialog will open.
  3. Specify which type of entity will have constraints applied.
  4. Optional: If applying to Faces, you can select the Add tangent faces check box.
  5. Optional: If applying to Spots, you can create new spots by clicking Create new spot.
  6. On the modeling window, click to select specific parts on the model.
  7. Use the drop-down menus to specify Temperature units and Convection coefficient units.
  8. In the text boxes, specify Convection conditions.
  9. Click OK to create.