Thermal Analysis – Current Capabilities
Three types of thermal analyses are currently available within nTop:
Steady-state, linear Thermal Analysis in the Simulation tab
Nonlinear and Transient Thermal Analysis in the Beta tab
Overview of Thermal FEA in nTop
| Block Name | Solver | Transient / Steady-state | Linear / Nonlinear | Nonlinearity Type | Modeling of Lattices | Required Material Properties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal Analysis | Implicit | Steady-state (static) | Linear | NA | Solids and/or Beams** | Thermal Conductivity + Specific Heat |
| Transient Thermal Analysis | Implicit | Transient (dynamic) | Linear | NA | Solids and/or Beams** | Thermal Conductivity + Specific Heat + Density |
| Nonlinear Thermal Analysis | Implicit | Steady-state (static) | Nonlinear | Material only* | Solids and/or Beams*** | Thermal Conductivity [Temperature Dependent] + Specific Heat [Temperature Dependent] |
**Beam-based lattices (Graphs) cannot be submitted to Convection or Radiation Boundary Loads (which are necessarily applied to face entities) as it is not possible to select faces in an FE Lattice Mesh. It is therefore necessary to mesh the beam lattices as solid elements in this case.
***For a Nonlinear Thermal Analysis, all FE components must be assigned with nonlinear properties
Note: It is possible to perform an uncoupled Thermal Stress Analysis by taking the result of a Thermal Analysis / Transient Thermal Analysis / Nonlinear Thermal Analysis and using it as a boundary condition in a Static Analysis to obtain the mechanical response of the thermal load due to expansion/contraction. Refer to the lesson on Thermal Stress Analysis.