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Workshop 07.2: Steady State Thermal Analysis

Introduction to ANSYS Mechanical

1 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Goals
In this workshop we will analyze the pump housing shown below for its heat transfer
characteristics. We’ll consider two materials: plastic and aluminum. Our goal is to
compare thermal results for these two material configurations.

2 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Assumptions
• The pump housing is mounted to a pump that is held at a constant 60 °C. We will
assume that the mating face on the pump housing is also held at this temperature.
• The interior surfaces of the pump housing are held at the constant temperature of
90 °C by the contained fluid.
• A simplified convection correlation for stagnant air at 20 °C will be applied to the
exterior surfaces of the pump housing.

3 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Project Schematic
1. From the Toolbox, double-click
“Steady-State Thermal” to create a
new Steady-State Thermal analysis
system. 1.

2.
2. Select the Geometry cell, then RMB >
Import Geometry > Browse… >
“Pump_housing.stp” > Open.

4 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Project Schematic
3. Double-click the Engineering Data cell and
activate the Engineering Data Sources 3.
toolbar button.

4. Select the General Materials data source.

In the Outline view, click the ‘+’ symbols
next to “Aluminum Alloy” and
“Polyethylene” to add them to the project. 4.
5. Return to Project Schematic view.

5.

5 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Project Schematic
6. Double click the Model cell to open the
Mechanical application. 6.

7. From the Units menu, verify that “Metric

(mm, kg, N, s, mV, mA)” and “Celsius (For
Metric Systems)” are selected. 7.

6 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Preprocessing
8a.
8. Assign material and mesh control to the
pump housing.
a. Expand the Geometry branch and select part “1.”
b. In the Details view, assign the material
“Polyethylene.”
c. Select the Mesh branch and set Relevance to
“100.”
d. Set Element Size to “4 mm.” 8b.

8d.
8c.

7 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Environment
9. Select the Steady-State Thermal branch, then:
a. Use Extend to Limits to select the 13 interior surfaces of
the pump housing.
b. RMB > Insert > Temperature.
c. In the Temperature Details view, set Magnitude to 90 °C.

9c.

9a.

9b.

8 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Environment
9. Continue …
d. Select the mating surface of the pump housing.
e. RMB > Insert > Temperature.
f. In the Temperature Details view, set Magnitude to 60 °C.

9d.
9f.

9e.

9 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Environment 10a.
10. Apply Convection:
a. Use Extend to Limits to select the 32 exterior surfaces of
the pump housing.
b. RMB > Insert > Convection.
c. In the Convection Details view, click the arrow in the Film
Coefficient data field and choose “Import Temperature
Dependent…” from the fly-out menu.

10b.
10c.

10 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Environment
10. Continue …
d. From the list of correlations, select the “Stagnant Air -
Simplified Case” and click OK.
e. Set the “Ambient Temperature” field to 20 °C.
11. Solve. 10e.

10d.
11.

11 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Postprocessing
12. Insert Temperature and Total Heat Flux results, evaluate,
and review results for the polyethylene pump housing:
12.

12 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Preprocessing
We’ll now prepare the model for the second material
option. 13.
13. Return to the Project Schematic, select the Steady-
State Thermal cell (Cell A1), and RMB > Duplicate.
14. Double-click the Model cell in the new analysis
system.
15. When the new model opens in Mechanical, change
the part “1” material assignment to Aluminum
Alloy. 14.

16. Solve.

16. 15.

13 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Postprocessing
17. Review results for the aluminum pump housing: 17.

14 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Postprocessing
18. Select the Total Heat Flux results in each model, switch to vector display mode,
and compare.
Activate vector display Activate grid aligned

Control vector scaling Control vector density

Polyethylene Aluminum

15 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Postprocessing
19. Drag and drop the three boundary conditions onto the Solution branch, evaluate,
and verify the heat balance:

16 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 Go Further!
If you find yourself with extra time, try the
following:
1. Now that the temperature fields are
known, create a thermal-stress analysis
using techniques described in the
lecture.

17 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016

 END
Workshop 07.2: Steady State Thermal Analysis

18 © 2016 ANSYS, Inc. March 11, 2016