Comparison between CONDN and COND modules

The following list provides a brief comparison between the COND and CONDN conduction modules.

  • CONDN creates conductances between boundary elements, whereas COND also creates conductances between element centers. For regular rectangular meshes, CONDN creates a much denser mesh.
  • CONDN is more tolerant of odd element shapes.
  • For meshes which contain irregular elements CONDN generally produces more accurate temperatures, especially if the thermal model includes radiation or convection effects. This is because that CONDN module allows the thermal solver to calculate temperatures at the center of gravity of the surface elements, which more accurately represent the average surface temperature of the radiating or convecting elements. In addition, the conductance matrix derivation for solid elements is much more accurate than that of COND, and CONDN allows the creation of negative conductances, while COND does not.