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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.
Radiation exchange methods
Thermal radiation is a heat transfer due to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the surface of bodies due to their temperature.
View factor calculation using ray-tracing
Energy packet strength computation
To compute the strength of the packets associated with the ray launched from DA_i, an incremental view factor DVF_ij between sub-elements DA_i and DA_j must be computed.

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.
  - 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.
    - Basic view factor concepts
    - View factor calculation without ray-tracing
    - View factor calculation using ray-tracing
      - Ray-tracing methodology
        The following topic describes the thermal solver methodology for handling radiation in the presence of diffuse and transparent/specular surfaces using deterministic ray tracing method.
      - Ray-tracing with explicit planet modeling
      - Energy packet strength computation
        To compute the strength of the packets associated with the ray launched from DA_i, an incremental view factor DVF_ij between sub-elements DA_i and DA_j must be computed.
      - Accuracy consideration for ray-tracing
        Accuracy and performance of ray-tracing strongly depend on the elemental subdivision parameter, MESH.
      - Reflected/transmitted energy packet strengths computation
      - Angle dependent surface properties
        This section explains how specular reflectivity or transmissivity is determined for elements based on the angle of incidence.
      - Calculation of ray intercept and direction for curved elements
        This topic describes the procedure for calculating the local surface normal, the point of interception, and the new ray direction for curved elements.
      - Ray termination conditions
        This section outlines the circumstances under which ray termination occurs.
      - Summation of the energy packets to calculate the ray-traced view factors
        This section explains how energy packets are summed to calculate geometric view factors after ray-tracing calculations are completed.
      - Ray-tracing through solid elements
        This section describes the methodology for performing ray-tracing within solid elements when solar spectrum extinction or IR spectrum extinction coefficients are defined.
      - Reciprocity in ray-tracing
        This section explains how reciprocity is handled when calculating view factors with ray-tracing.
    - Plane stress view factor calculation when modeling with axisymetric or 3D elements
      This section explains how the thermal solver computes the view factor for axisymmetric or mixed 2D axi-3D models with plane stress elements for radiation requests.
  - Miscellaneous topics
  - References
- Thermal solver API guide
  Allows you to create or add functionality to enhance the thermal solver capabilities.

Energy packet strength computation

To compute the strength of the packets associated with the ray launched from DA_i, an incremental view factor DVF_ij between sub-elements DA_i and DA_j must be computed.

For each non-zero DVF_ij, a ray packet of strength Strength_solj in the solar spectrum and strength Strength_IRj in the IR is launched from the CG of the sub-element DA_i towards the CG of DA_j:

Strength_solj = DA_i DVF_ij for view factor calculations.
Strength_solj = DA_i DVF_ij POWER for solar spectrum heat flux view factor calculations
Strength_solj = DA_j DVF_ij for solar view factor calculations
Strength_solj = DA_i DVF_ij ALB cos(θ_sun) for albedo factor calculations with explicit planet modeling.
Strength_IRj = DA_i DVF_ij for view factor calculations.
Strength_IRj = DA_i DVF_ij POWER_IR for IR spectrum heat flux view factor calculations.
Strength_IRj = 0 for solar view factor calculations.
Strength_IRj = DA_i DVF_ij for planet view factor calculations by explicitly modeling the section of the planet seen by the satellite as a segment of a faceted sphere, and computing the sun's reflections from the facets.

where

POWER is the solar spectrum energy per unit area emitted by the element i.
POWER_IR is the specified IR spectrum energy per unit area emitted by the element i.
ALB is the albedo value specified for the planet.
θ_sun is the angle between the solar vector and the explicitly specified planet element.