Conducting Plate Properties

Conducting plates can conduct heat in either direction and have no physical thickness.

General
Name	The Name of the plate appears in the Project Manager window and 3D Modeler window.
Thermal Specification: Thickness	Thicknessspecifies the effective thickness of the specified Solid Material.
Thermal Specification: Conductance	Conductance specifies the value for the conductance. The inverse of this value is used to calculate the contact resistance of the plate.
Thermal Specification: Thermal Resistance	Thermal Resistance specifies the value for the thermal resistance to heat transfer.
Thermal Specification:Thermal Impedance	Thermal Impedance specifies the value for the thermal impedance. Icepak computes the thermal resistance of the plate as Z/A where Z is the thermal impedance of the plate and A is the area of the plate.
Total Power	Total power specifies the total power dissipated by the plate.
Enable Joule Heating	Enable Joule Heating allows you to model a contact resistance plate between conductor-conductor interfaces. Specify a Contact Resistance value and unit for heat transfer. Contact resistance represents barriers to current flow between two electrically conducting objects. Contact resistance is caused due to factors like surface imperfections or low contact pressures. The contact resistance is calculated by multiplying the specified value by its area. For example, a contact resistance of 0.7 mOhm specified on 4.0mm2 is calculated as follows: .
Solid Material (Thermal Specification: Thickness)	Solid Material specifies the material type of the plate using the Select Definition dialog box.
Shell Conduction	Shell Conduction can be turned on to enable heat conduction along the plane of the plate.
Note: When Native Joule heating is enabled, shell conduction is disabled by default unless you deselect Disable Shell Conduction for Joule Heating on the Icepak Design Settings Advanced tab.
Side Specification	Low side and High side allows you to specify different physical characteristics for each side of the plate.
Low/High Side
Surface Material	Surface Material specifies the material type for the side of the plate using the Select Definition dialog box.
Radiate To	Select All Objects or Reference Temperature. All Objects specifies that the object or surface exchanges radiation with all other objects and surfaces also specified as subject to radiation with heat transfer. Reference temperature specifies a fixed temperature to which the selected sides of the object radiate heat. Enter a Temperature and View factor, which is the proportion of radiation that leaves the plate and contacts surrounding objects. The default view factor is 1.0 and the value of the ambient temperature is the Temperature specified in the Icepak Design Settings dialog box.

Assigning a Conducting Plate and Defining Thermal Properties

To assign a conducting plate boundary condition and define its properties:

1. Press F to enable face-selection mode.
2. Select and right-click a two-dimensional geometry component in the 3D Modeler window or the history tree.
3. From the right-click menu, select Assign Thermal>Plate > Conducting.
4. On the General tab, enter a Name for the object.
5. Select a Thermal Specification. Do one of the following:
   • If you selected Thickness, enter the effective Thickness.
   • If you selected Conductance, enter the Conductance.
   • If you selected Thermal Resistance, enter the Thermal Resistance.
   • If you selected Thermal Impedance, enter the Thermal Impedance.
6. Enter the Total Power.
7. Click the Solid Material button to open the Select Definition dialog box. Select a material and click OK.
8. If needed, select Enable Joule Heating and enter a Contact Resistance.
9. If needed, select Shell Conduction.
10. If needed, under Side Specification, select Low side and/or High side to enable thermal specification of the low and/or high side of the plate.
11. Do one of the following:
• If you did not select a Side Specification check box, click OK.
• If you selected Low side and/or High side, click the Low Sideand/or High Side tab.
12. Click the button next to Surface Material to open the Select Definition dialog box. On the Materials tab, select the material for the side of the plate and click OK.
13. For Radiate To, click All Objects or Reference Temperature.
14. If you selected Reference Temperature, enter a Temperature and View Factor.
15. If you selected both Low side and High side, repeat steps 9 through 12.
16. Click OK.

Click here for scripting information related to this feature.