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Thermal Solver
Contains thermal solver related guides, such as the TMG reference manual, thermal API guide, and error message list.
Thermal solver theory
Describes the theory and methods of the thermal solver.
Conduction methods
To model heat conduction, the thermal solver can use two finite volume methods, center of element method or element's center of gravity method, or the finite element method.
Finite volume methods
Center of element method
The following table lists element types supported by the center of element conduction method and how the thermal solver identifies their center of location and sub-elements to create conductances between elements.

Thermal Solver
Contains thermal solver related guides, such as the TMG reference manual, thermal API guide, and error message list.
- Thermal solver guides
  Maya HTT's thermal solver is included in Simcenter 3D and in Simcenter Femap. This page contains links to thermal solver guides, which help you understand how the thermal solver works.
- Thermal solver theory
  Describes the theory and methods of the thermal solver.
  - Introduction
    This guide provides the theory and methods used by the thermal solver, including methods to calculate conduction, convection, and radiation, as well as modeling specific topics using the thermal solver.
  - Conduction methods
    To model heat conduction, the thermal solver can use two finite volume methods, center of element method or element's center of gravity method, or the finite element method.
    - Finite volume methods
      - Comparison between finite volume methods
        The thermal solver supports two finite volume conduction methods—the center of element method and the element's center of gravity (CG) method—to create conductive conductances from geometry.
      - Element's center of gravity method
        The element's center of gravity (CG) method creates conductances between the CG of the element and its boundary elements.
      - Center of element method
        The following table lists element types supported by the center of element conduction method and how the thermal solver identifies their center of location and sub-elements to create conductances between elements.
        Conductance computation
      - Axisymmetric elements
        This topic describes how axisymmetric shell and solid elements are defined in thermal analysis.
      - Orthotropic materials
        This topic explains how orthotropic materials are handled in thermal analysis, detailing the process for stretching shell and solid elements based on their thermal conductivities in different material directions and the subsequent calculation of conductance.
    - Finite element method
      The finite element method computes the temperature values at discrete points, solid nodes, by solving the heat conduction equation.
  - Convective heat transfer methods
    The thermal solver computes convection conductances for various geometrical configurations using correlations that depend on specified characteristic lengths, convective surfaces, and type of convection.
  - Radiation exchange methods
    Thermal radiation is a heat transfer due to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the surface of bodies due to their temperature.
  - Miscellaneous topics
  - References
- Thermal solver API guide
  Allows you to create or add functionality to enhance the thermal solver capabilities.

Center of element method

The following table lists element types supported by the center of element conduction method and how the thermal solver identifies their center of location and sub-elements to create conductances between elements.


Element Type	Element Center Location	Sub-elements
Lump mass	Node	N/A
Beam	Center of gravity (CG)	N/A
Triangular shell	Point where the three perpendicular bisectors of the edges meet	N/A
Quadrilateral shell—regular shape, such as a rectangle	Point where the perpendicular bisectors of the edges meet	Single sub-element
Quadrilateral shell—irregular shape	Center of the sub-element closest to the CG (blue point)	Two triangular sub-elements created by connecting the diagonal corners that form the largest angle sum
Tetrahedron solid	Point where the perpendiculars that derive from the center of side triangular surfaces meet	N/A
Wedge and hexahedron solid—regular surface shapes, such as triangles, rectangles, or isosceles trapezoids	Unique center	Single sub-element
Wedge and hexahedron solid—irregular surface shapes	Center of the sub-element closest to the CG, by default When the software uses custom settings, the thermal solver can also compute a unique element center near solid element's CG.	Tetrahedral sub-elements

Thick shell elements

The thermal solver identifies the thickness direction for solid elements and computes the smallest average edge length in the thickness direction, as the approximate thickness. For example, in wedge elements, the thickness direction is considered from one triangular face to the other. The aspect ratio of a solid element is defined as the ratio of the longest edge to the approximate thickness. When the aspect ratio of a solid element is greater than 5, the thick shell approximation is used.

In-plane conductances are calculated as if the solid element were planar with a thickness equal to the mean thickness of the solid element.

The through-thickness conductance is calculated as if the solid element were solid with a unique element center.