Supported features with the FE method

The following tables list the features that are supported by the thermal solver with the finite element (FE) method in serial and parallel runs.

Mesh types

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Concentrated mass Yes Yes
Beam Yes Yes
Duct Yes Yes
Thin shell Yes Yes
Solid Yes Yes
Null shell Yes Yes
Multilayer shell No No

Boundary conditions

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Duct flow boundary conditions Yes Yes
Immersed ducts Yes Yes
Interface resistance No No
Joule heating No No
Junction for thermal streams Yes Not tested
Orbital heating Yes Yes
Protective layers Yes Yes
Radiative heating 1 Yes Yes
Solar heating 1 Yes Yes
Solid motion effect Yes Yes
Thermal coupling 2,3 Yes Yes
Advanced thermal coupling No No
Convection thermal coupling Yes Yes
Radiation thermal coupling - gap radiation Yes Not tested
Radiation thermal coupling - object to object radiation Yes No
Radiation Yes Yes
Thermal devices Not tested Not tested
Thermal rotational periodicity Yes Yes
Cyclic symmetry Yes Yes
Surface-to-surface contact and gluing Yes Yes
Edge-to-edge contact and gluing Yes Yes
Note:
  1. Not supported on null shells.
  2. For the additional conductance type, non-geometric elements, 0D, and 1D are not supported with parallel run.
  3. Additional conductance type Follower is not supported with the FE method.

Loads

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Rotation Yes Yes
Heat loads 1 Yes Yes
Heat flux 1 Yes Yes
Heat generation 1 Yes Yes
Thermal convecting zone Yes Yes
Thermal stream Yes Yes
Thermal void Yes Yes
Note:

1. Reference temperature set and control heater are not tested.

Constraints

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Convection to environment Yes Yes
Initial temperature Yes Yes
Simple radiation to environment Yes Yes
Temperature Yes Yes

Simulation entities

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Advanced parameters Yes Yes
Deactivation set Yes Yes
Override set for thermal properties Yes Yes
Element add/remove No No
Heat maps report Yes Yes
Per region report 1 Yes Yes
Per element report No No
Between regions report No No
Track during solve report No No
Note:
  1. Supports only temperature data.

Solution attributes and parameters

Solution running mode Serial Parallel
Plugin functions in expressions Yes Yes
User-written subroutines No No

Datasets not supported by POSTLIB

When you solve using the FE method, the thermal solver uses the POSTLIB library by default to write result datasets. The following datasets are not supported:

  • Connectivity
  • Elemental adjoint temperature
  • Elemental irradiance heat load
  • Elemental local temperature error estimates
  • Elemental orbital heat fluxes
  • Elemental radiosity heat load
  • Elemental RC products
  • Elemental solar, albedo, and Earth view factors
  • Elemental static pressure
  • Elemental transverse temperature gradients on multilayers
  • Heat flows
  • Nodal adjoint temperature
  • Nodal local temperature error estimates
  • Nodal static pressure
  • Nodal transverse temperature gradients on multilayers
  • Joule data
  • Phase change quality