Thermal Simulation

Ensure thermal performance

Thermal management is a major consideration for a wide range of products, including industrial machinery, automobiles and consumer electronics. The objective of any thermal management solution is to maintain a product’s temperature within a range that is optimal for performance. Accomplishing this may require the removal or addition of heat, either passively or in an actively managed fashion, and this can be evaluated using thermal simulation software. Simcenter includes comprehensive, best-in-class thermal simulation capabilities that can help you to understand the thermal characteristics of your product and subsequently tailor your thermal management solution for optimal performance.

Boiling

Consider boiling phenomena in your heat transfer applications with wall and bulk boiling models, improving accuracy of heat transfer and phase-change simulation in your application.

Conduction Heat Transfer

Thermal conduction occurs when heat transfers through a solid, from the higher-temperature to lower-temperature regions. This happens spontaneously, and continues until a state of thermal equilibrium is attained. Typical examples of conduction in everyday life include the handle of a pot of boiling water getting hot, the increase in temperature of the outer wall of a copper pipe as hot water passes through it, or the spontaneous chill you experience when you consume a spoonful of ice cream. Understanding conduction behavior can help you design safer, more dependable and better performing products. Simcenter places robust conductive heat transfer analysis capabilities at your fingertips.

Convection Heat Transfer

Convection is a major heat transfer pathway that is present in a wide range of applications, processes and natural phenomena. Many products rely on a robust heat management strategy for optimal performance and durability. Optimizing convective heat transfer in these devices, either by strategic placement of components or the use of other working fluids, is a complex problem. Simcenter offers robust capabilities for addressing convection in the design of products.

Energy in Solids

The comprehensive heat transfer models in Simcenter extend to solid energy models including conduction in solid shells and exothermic solids.

Heat Exchangers

Simcenter offers single and dual stream heat exchanger models to model the heat transfer between two fluid streams

Phase Change

Some types of thermal simulation involve a change in state of materials. Examples include freezing of water on a cold windshield, de-fogging of interior volumes, and condensation and boiling that may occur where a fluid meets a structural boundary. Simcenter provides advanced capabilities to account for phase change in thermal and fluid-thermal simulations.

Radiation Heat Transfer

Radiative heat transfer occurs when objects radiate electromagnetic energy due to temperature. This energy, typically located in the infra-red region of the wave spectrum, is also known as thermal radiation.

Simcenter provides you with capabilities to solve most complex problems involving radiative heat transfer.

Thermal Stress

Thermal loads will usually result in stresses in components that add to the stresses resulting from other types of loads such as contact, force, and pressure. Thermal stresses are caused by changes in temperature in a structure where expansion or contraction is constrained. Simcenter includes advanced capabilities for evaluating thermo-mechanical stress in structures.

Thermal modeling

Model preparation can account for up to 80 percent of the overall CAE process. This is often the result of tedious geometry clean-up and preparation. Simcenter offers sophisticated capabilities for model preparation including surface wrapping techniques for extracting fluid volumes and for boundary layer meshing.

Thin Film: De-icing & Defogging

A simplified approach for simulating ice or fog layer formation, thickness and distribution, offering quick results with minimal turnaround time. Applications include deicing and defogging.