Workbench - Mechanical Introduction 12.

Workshop 6.1

Steady State Thermal Analysis

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS6.1-1 Inventory #002594
WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 - Goals Workshop Supplement

• In this workshop we will analyze the pump housing shown below for
its heat transfer characteristics.
• Specifically a plastic and an aluminum version of the housing will be
analyzed using the same boundary conditions.
• Our goal is to compare the thermal results for each configuration.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 - Assumptions Workshop Supplement

Assumptions:
• The pump housing is mounted to a pump which is held at a constant
60 C. We assume the mating face on the pump is also held at this
temperature.
• The interior surfaces of the pump are held at a constant temperature
of 90 C by the fluid.
• The exterior surfaces are modeled using a simplified convection
correlation for stagnant air at 20 C.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 – Project Schematic Workshop Supplement

• Open the Project page.

• From the Units menu verify:
– Project units are set to “Metric (kg, mm, s, C, mA, mV).
– “Display Values in Project Units” is checked (on).

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
… Workshop 6.1 – Project Schematic Workshop Supplement

1. From the Toolbox, double

click “Steady-State Thermal”
to create a new Steady State
Thermal system.

1.

2. RMB the Geometry cell and

“Import Geometry” – browse
to the file: 2.
“Pump_housing.x_t”

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
… Workshop 6.1 – Project Schematic Workshop Supplement

3. Double click “Engineering Data” to

access material properties. 3.

4. With “General Materials” highlighted

click the „+‟ next to “Aluminum Alloy”
and “Polyethylene” properties to add
them to the project.

5. “Return to Project”.
4.
5.

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
… Workshop 6.1 – Project Schematic Workshop Supplement

6. Drag/drop a “Steady
State Thermal”
system onto the
“Geometry” cell in
6.
the first system.
– Prior to releasing the
new system the drop
box should indicate
cells A2 and A3 will
be shared

• When complete the

schematic should
graphically indicate
this data sharing as
shown here (we now
have 2 “systems”, A
and B).

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
… Workshop 6.1 – Project Schematic Workshop Supplement

7. Double click the “Model” cell in the first

(A) system to open the Mechanical
application.
7.

8. From the Units menu choose:

– “Metric (mm, kg, N, s, mV, mA)”
– “Celsius (For Metric Systems)”

8.

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 – Preprocessing Workshop Supplement

9. Change the material and mesh on

the pump housing (“Part 1”): a.
a. Highlight “Part 1” under geometry.
b. From details import the material
“polyethylene”.
c. Highlight the Mesh branch and set
the mesh relevance = 100.

b.

c.

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 - Environment Workshop Supplement

10. Apply temperatures (highlight the

Steady State Thermal branch): a. b.
a. Select the interior surfaces (13
faces) of the pump housing (hint: use
“Extend To Limits” selection feature).
b. RMB > Insert > Temperature.
c. Set “Magnitude” field to 90 C.

d. Select the mating surface of the

pump housing. c.
e. “RMB > Insert > Temperature”.
f. Set “Magnitude” field to 60 C. e.

d.
f.

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
. . . Workshop 6.1 - Environment Workshop Supplement

11. Apply Convection: b.

a. Select the exterior (32) surfaces of the pump a.
housing (hint: use extend to limits).
b. “RMB > Insert > Convection”.
c. In the “Details of Convection” click in the “Film
Coefficient” field and choose “Import . . . ”.

Be sure to choose import for convections.

d. “Import” the correlation “Stagnant Air –

Simplified Case”.
e. Set the “Ambient Temperature” field to 20 C.

c.
d.

e.
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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 – Solution – Model A Workshop Supplement

12. Solve the model. 12.

13. When the solution is complete insert Temperature and Total Heat
Flux results (solve to evaluate results).
13.

• Results for polyethylene model.

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 – Model B Setup Workshop Supplement

14. From the project schematic

double click the “Model”
branch in system “B” to
open a second Mechanical
application window.
14.

• Repeat steps 9 (a thru c)

choosing “Aluminum
Alloy”.

• Repeat steps 10 and 11 to

apply the same boundary
conditions on Model B.

• Repeat steps 12 and 13 to

solve and view results for
model B.
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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
Workshop 6.1 – Solution – Model B Workshop Supplement

• Results for aluminum alloy model.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

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WS6.1: Steady State Thermal Analysis
. . . Workshop 6.1 – Postprocessing Workshop Supplement

• Compare Heat Flux:

• Highlight the “Total Heat Flux” results from each model and switch to
vector display mode.

Activate vector display

Control vector density

Polyethylene Aluminum

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary May 5, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS6.1-15 Inventory #002594