Fluent can also handle heat transfer with fluid flow analysis and it accounts for all modes of heat transfer. Now my question is then why we need steady state thermal or transient thermal analysis standalone system? What are pros and cons of steady state thermal in comparison ansys fluent heat transfer analysis? And most importantly when to use which one?
Steady state and transient thermal analysis can be both done with CFD programs and heat transfer analysis programs. Transient analysis just means that you model something that varies in time (like heating up an object from initial temperature to a higher temperature). Steady state analysis seeks the equilibrium state reached after sufficiently long time (when boundary conditions are constant).
The standalone heat transfer programs are usually based on heat transfer correlations combined with analytical and numerical solutions. The convective heat transfer rate, for example, is calculated from known correlations, and thus the convective heat transfer coefficient is obtained very fast (and it is often quite accurate because the correlations are based on experimental data).
In CFD, you solve the convective heat transfer and fluid flow from full partial differential equations (which takes a lot of time and computer resources). The results might not always be accurate, because the turbulence models etc. might cause significant errors. From CFD, you also get a lot of results which you might not need if the heat transfer rate is everything you are seeking. On the other hand, with CFD you can model complicated cases where not heat transfer correlations are available.
Standalone heat transfer programs:
Pros: Fast to calculate (you can do optimization, sensitivity studies etc. easily). Might be more accurate than CFD.
Cons: Might be more inaccurate than CFD if no accurate heat transfer correlations are available for your case. You get less information than from CFD.
CFD:
Pros: You can analyze any geometry and case you need. You get a lot of data (turbulence, temperature, velocity fields in the whole simulation domain).
Cons: Slow to calculate, not so well suited for fast engineering dimensioning of devices (more suitable for advanced R&D). Might be more inaccurate.
But I also think we cannot study fluid flow with heat transfer in steady state thermal. Because it works only with solids not with fluids where flow is flowing and heat is also transferring simultaneously?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Thermal Engineering
- Thermofluid
- Heat Transfer