Thermal Engineering Simulators

How to Use

1. Select material properties (thermal conductivity in W/m·K, density, specific heat capacity) and geometry dimensions for your thermal domain
2. Define boundary conditions: inlet temperature, heat flux, convection coefficients, and ambient conditions for HVAC or CFD analysis
3. Set solver parameters (time step, convergence criteria, mesh density) and run transient or steady-state simulation
4. Analyze temperature contours, Nusselt number distributions, and heat flux vectors in post-processing view

Worked Example

Copper pipe with water cooling: inner diameter 25 mm, wall thickness 1.5 mm, thermal conductivity k=385 W/m·K. Water inlet 80°C, outlet 60°C, convection h=3500 W/m²·K inside; ambient air 25°C, h=45 W/m²·K outside. Over 1 meter length with 10 kW heat load, simulation predicts pipe outer surface temperature of 38°C and radial temperature drop of 15°C across the wall. Mesh refinement near wall boundary layer captures transition region accurately within 3 iterations.

Practical Notes

1. For HVAC duct thermal losses, increase mesh density in insulation layers and apply orthogonal inflation to resolve thin boundary layers where h=15 W/m²·K in still air
2. In CFD thermal coupling, validate Rayleigh number (Ra > 10⁹ indicates turbulent natural convection) before assuming laminar buoyancy flow
3. Use energy equation with viscous dissipation enabled only when local Eckert number exceeds 0.1 to avoid non-physical heating
4. For transient aluminum cooling (cp=900 J/kg·K, ρ=2700 kg/m³), Fourier number Fo=αt/L² must remain <0.25 for explicit schemes; use implicit solver for larger time steps