Forced Convection

If the heated or cooled air is being blown (by a fan, for example) through the solution domain, this is usually forced convection. In forced convection heat transfer, the temperature does not influence the fluid material properties.

For this reason, the energy equation can and should be solved alone after the flow solution (velocity, pressure) has converged. This sequence is automated by checking Auto Forced Convection on the Solve dialog.

Note: It is not necessary to specify a gravity vector for forced convection analyses (leave the gravity components set to 0).