Femap Thermal Solver

The Femap Thermal Solver adds state-of-the-art thermal analysis solutions to the Femap environment and provides fast and accurate solutions to complex thermal engineering problems. Using finite-element mesh, finite-volume based numerical techniques, the Femap Thermal Solver makes it easy to model nonlinear and transient heat transfer processes including conduction, radiation as well as phase change. Leading-edge solver technology provides solid reliability and superior solution speed for even the most challenging problems. With Femap, accurate thermal analysis can be performed quickly and effectively, delivering the engineering insight and turnaround speed needed to ensure success within today’s rapid development cycles.

Basic functionality

Finite volume FE- based thermal solver technology to efficiently simulate heat transfer phenomena

The Femap Thermal solver addresses thermal analysis requirements in industries including aerospace, defense, consumer products and appliances, energy, medical devices and instruments and electronics. You can also seamlessly couple Femap Thermal with Femap Flow, the Femap CFD siemens/plm/femap solution, for fully coupled thermo-fluid simulations. The Femap Thermal solver features highorder, finite-volume FE-based technology to accurately and efficiently simulate heat transfer phenomena. It combines the versatility of FE-based analysis with the accuracy and efficiency of a finite-difference scheme. Femap Thermal solver technology facilitates simulation of Femap parts and assemblies within complex thermal environments. The solver and modeling features include :

Benefits

• Facilitates investigation of multiple “what-if” scenarios involving complex assemblies.
• Facilitates assembly building by modeling heat flow between unconnected parts and components.
• Enables the user to simulate strong and fully-coupled thermo-fluid interactions, including proper treatment of radiative heat transfer.
•  Supports mapping results to a Nastran FE model for thermo-elastic analysis.
• Works within the Femap environment, allowing users to leverage all Femap FEA capabilities.

Feature-related advantages

Thermal couplings for joining dis-joint solid or surface meshes Thermal couplings provide a powerful and efficient capability for building assemblies by modeling heat flow between unconnected parts, components even with dissimilar meshes. Multiple what-if scenarios and positioning of parts within an assembly can be investigated by defining the thermal coupling parameters between unconnected parts only once. Heat transfer paths are automatically created between elements on opposing parts at run time. These conductance’s are established based on proximity, they account for overlap and mismatch between disjoint and dissimilar meshes exchanging heat, allowing parts to be moved freely within the assembly prior to running the analysis. Thermal coupling types include conductive, radiative, convective and interface couplings. Thermal couplings can also be defined as varying with different model parameters such as temperatures or heat loads.