1/6/25, 12:46 AM U of A ANSYS Tutorials - Conduction Example
ANSYS BASIC INTERMEDIATE ADVANCED POSTPROC. COMMAND PRINTABLE
UofA ANSYS Tutorial
UTILITIES TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS TUTORIALS LINE FILES VERSION
Effect of Self Weight
Distributed Loading
Simple Conduction Example
NonLinear Analysis
Solution Tracking Introduction
Buckling
This tutorial was created using ANSYS 7.0 to solve a simple conduction problem.
NonLinear Materials
The Simple Conduction Example is constrained as shown in the following figure. Thermal conductivity
Dynamic - Modal
(k) of the material is 10 W/m*C and the block is assumed to be infinitely long.
Dynamic - Harmonic
Dynamic - Transient
Thermal-Conduction
Thermal-Mixed Bndry
Transient Heat
Axisymmetric
Index
Contributions
Comments
MecE 563
Mechanical Engineering
University of Alberta
ANSYS Inc. Preprocessing: Defining the Problem
1. Give example a Title
2. Open preprocessor menu
Copyright © 2001
University of Alberta
ANSYS Main Menu > Preprocessor
/PREP7
3. Create geometry
Preprocessor > Modeling > Create > Areas > Rectangle > By 2 Corners > X=0, Y=0,
Width=1, Height=1
BLC4,0,0,1,1
4. Define the Type of Element
Preprocessor > Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete... > click 'Add' > Select Thermal Mass
Solid, Quad 4Node 55
ET,1,PLANE55
For this example, we will use PLANE55 (Thermal Solid, Quad 4node 55). This element has 4
nodes and a single DOF (temperature) at each node. PLANE55 can only be used for 2
dimensional steady-state or transient thermal analysis.
5. Element Material Properties
Preprocessor > Material Props > Material Models > Thermal > Conductivity > Isotropic >
KXX = 10 (Thermal conductivity)
MP,KXX,1,10
6. Mesh Size
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1/6/25, 12:46 AM U of A ANSYS Tutorials - Conduction Example
Preprocessor > Meshing > Size Cntrls > ManualSize > Areas > All Areas > 0.05
AESIZE,ALL,0.05
7. Mesh
Preprocessor > Meshing > Mesh > Areas > Free > Pick All
AMESH,ALL
Solution Phase: Assigning Loads and Solving
1. Define Analysis Type
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis > Steady-State
ANTYPE,0
2. Apply Constraints
For thermal problems, constraints can be in the form of Temperature, Heat Flow, Convection,
Heat Flux, Heat Generation, or Radiation. In this example, all 4 sides of the block have fixed
temperatures.
Solution > Define Loads > Apply
Note that all of the -Structural- options cannot be selected. This is due to the type of
element (PLANE55) selected.
Thermal > Temperature > On Nodes
Click the Box option (shown below) and draw a box around the nodes on the top line.
The following window will appear:
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1/6/25, 12:46 AM U of A ANSYS Tutorials - Conduction Example
Fill the window in as shown to constrain the side to a constant temperature of 500
Using the same method, constrain the remaining 3 sides to a constant value of 100
Orange triangles in the graphics window indicate the temperature contraints.
3. Solve the System
Solution > Solve > Current LS
SOLVE
Postprocessing: Viewing the Results
1. Results Using ANSYS
Plot Temperature
General Postproc > Plot Results > Contour Plot > Nodal Solu ... > DOF solution,
Temperature TEMP
Note that due to the manner in which the boundary contitions were applied, the top corners are
held at a temperature of 100. Recall that the nodes on the top of the plate were constrained first,
followed by the side and bottom constraints. The top corner nodes were therefore first constrained
at 500C, then 'overwritten' when the side constraints were applied. Decreasing the mesh size can
minimize this effect, however, one must be aware of the limitations in the results at the corners.
Command File Mode of Solution
The above example was solved using a mixture of the Graphical User Interface (or GUI) and the
command language interface of ANSYS. This problem has also been solved using the ANSYS
command language interface that you may want to browse. Open the .HTML version, copy and paste
the code into Notepad or a similar text editor and save it to your computer. Now go to 'File > Read
input from...' and select the file. A .PDF version is also available for printing.
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