Set up a Thermal Stress analysis

Overview video (6:44)

Workflow: Run a Thermal Stress Study

1. Open or create a model.

2. Access the Simulation workspace.

   • The first time you enter the Simulation workspace, the New Study dialog appears automatically.

3. In the New Study dialog, set the Study Type to Thermal Stress.

4. Optionally, click Settings in the upper right corner of the large image in the New Study dialog, to specify settings for the analysis.

   Note: From the Results tab, select Manage > Settings to specify or modify the Settings any time using a separate Settings dialog.

5. Click OK.

6. Optionally, use the Simplify tools to modify the simulation model, preserving the production model:

   • Remove unnecessary features that complicate the analysis and do not provide useful information.
   • See Model Simplification (Defeaturing).
   • Take advantage of Symmetry when appropriate to reduce the simulation model size and solution time. Symmetry can also facilitate constraining a model in a way that provides full stability but does not at all impede the natural deformation.
   • Split faces to confine loads or constraints to a only portion of a larger face.

7. Assign Materials.

   • Refer to Materials for more details.

8. Apply Constraints.

   • Refer to Constraints for more details.

9. Apply Loads.

   • Refer to Apply thermal loads for more details.

10. Define Contact surfaces if multiple bodies are present in the simulation.

    • Refer to Contacts for more details.
    • Be sure to specify an appropriate Thermal Conductance value in the Edit Contacts dialog to properly reflect thermal resistance across contact boundaries.
      • The units of thermal conductance are W/(m2·°K), which currently cannot be changed.
      • A blank input field (no thermal conductance value specified) results in infinite conductance (no thermal resistance across the contact pair).

11. Optionally, adjust the mesh settings, generate, and preview the mesh until you are satisfied with its appearance.

    • If you don't wish to adjust the default mesh settings, the mesh will be generated automatically at solve time.
    • Refer to Meshes for more details.

12. Solve the analysis.

    • Refer to Solve for more details.

13. Review results.

    • Refer to Thermal stress results for more details.