This document describes a simple conduction problem analyzed using ANSYS. A 1x1 square area made of a material with thermal conductivity of 10 is meshed and boundary conditions of 500°C on top and 100°C on other sides are applied. The steady-state thermal analysis is solved to give a contour plot showing maximum temperature of 500°C at the top decreasing to 100°C at other boundaries. Corner nodes are noted to show some limitation due to overwriting of constraints.

1. Simple Conduction
Prof Charlton S. Inao
Defence University
College of Engineering
Ansys LAB Heat transfer
PE -3011
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3. Preprocessing
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4. File>Change Jobname> “Heat Transfer”;
File >change Title>”Simple Conduction
Problem”>Ok;Plot>Replot
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5. Preference>Thermal
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6. Preprocessing>Modeling>Create>Areas>Rectangle > By
two Corners>Wp x=0,WP y=0, width=1, height=1
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7. Preprocessor > Element Type > Add/Edit/Delete... > click 'Add' >
Select Thermal Solid, Quad
4Node 55
Define the type element
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
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8. Element Material Properties
Preprocessor > Material Props > Material Models > Thermal > Conductivity > Isotropic
> KXX =
10 (Thermal conductivity)
MP,KXX,1,10
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9. Mesh Size
Preprocessor > Meshing > Size Cntrls > ManualSize > Areas > All
Areas > 0.05
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10. Mesh
Preprocessor > Meshing > Mesh > Areas > Free >
Pick All
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11. Meshed area should look like this
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12. Solution Phase:
Assigning Loads
and Solving
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13. Define Analysis Type
Solution > Analysis Type > New Analysis >
Steady-State
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14. 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.
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16. Reference Illustration
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17. Click the Box Option> Make a box to
enclose all the nodes at the top most
line as shown in the illustration below.
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18. Plot >Nodes ( select all the top nodes
by enclosing in the box)
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19. Click the TEMP option >Constant Value
of 500
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20. Orange triangles in the graphics window
indicate the temperature contraints.
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21. Using the same method, constrain the
remaining 3 sides to a constant value of
100
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22. Constraining the left nodes by a
constant value of temperature of 100
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23. Putting a temperature constraint of
100 deg centigrade constant value to
the bottom nodes
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24. Finally, putting a temperature constraint of 100
deg centigrade constant value to the right most
nodes
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25. Solve the System
Solution > Solve > Current LS
Solution is done pop up box should appear, then
Clear>Ok
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26. Post Processing Phase
General Postproc > Plot Results > Contour Plot > Nodal
Solution ... > DOF solution, Temperature
TEMP
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27. Ansys Actual Results,Maximum Thermal Stress
at the red part at the top 500, Minimum
thermal stress is exhibited at the left ,right and
bottom side which is 100
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28. Note
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.
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29. End of Presentation
Thank You Very Much
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