Thermal Option

The thermal option in 3DEC allows the simulation of transient heat conduction. There are two separate formulations of the thermal logic. The first is a numerical formulation using the explicit or implicit finite difference method. This method is more accurate for short times, and includes thermal-mechanical fluid coupling. The second is an analytical formulation that uses superposition of point heat sources in an infinite medium. This method is suitable for long thermal times and is very fast. The comparative features of the two methods are listed below.

Table 1: Comparison of Features Available with Numerical vs Analytical Formulations

feature

numerical

analytical

thermal mechanical coupling

yes

yes

thermal fluid coupling

yes

no

thermal convection in fluid

yes

no

temperature boundary

yes

no

thermal flux boundary

yes

no

thermal convection boundary

yes

no

adiabatic boundary

yes

yes

nonhomogeneous thermal block properties

yes

no

heat sources

yes

yes