The Steady-State Thermal system determines temperatures, thermal gradients, heat flow rates, and heat fluxes in an object that are caused by thermal loads that do not vary over time. A steady-state thermal analysis calculates the effects of steady thermal loads on a system or component. Engineers often perform a steady-state analysis before performing a transient thermal analysis, to help establish initial conditions. A steady-state analysis also can be the last step of a transient thermal analysis, performed after all transient effects have diminished.
Important: By default, the application does not write thermal gradient results to the result file. To have these results written to the results file, use a Command object and insert the command OUTRES,ERASE.
This analysis is configured in the Mechanical application, which uses the Ansys, ABAQUS, or Samcef solver to compute the solution, depending on which system you have selected.
To work through a Steady-State Thermal system:
To add a Steady-State Thermal analysis system, drag the system from the Toolbox to the Project Schematic or double-click the system in the Toolbox.
To load the geometry, right-click the Geometry cell and select from the context menu.
To view the geometry, right-click the Model cell and select from the context menu or double-click the Model cell.
Alternatively, you can complete this step using the Setup cell.
In the Mechanical application window, complete your analysis using the application's tools and features.
See Steady-State Thermal Analysis in the Mechanical User's Guide for more information on conducting this analysis.
See the Thermal Analysis Guide for more information on thermal analyses using the Mechanical APDL application.