Heat Flux Profile

[dpounds9999]

Hello All,

I am working on project for a concentrated solar power application.  I am looking for a method of specifying a heat flux distribution, or profile, across a single surface.  Meaning, the magnitude of the heat flux varies (non-linearly) with position at the heat input surface.  Is this possible to do with Autodesk Simulation CFD?

Thanks,
DP

[apolo_vanderberg · Accepted solution]

No method of specifying a flux gradient

The only method would be to manually split the surface in to smaller surfaces and then to assign respective Fluxes to each subset to create the gradient

[dpounds9999]

This is what I feared.  For a Gaussian distribution like function, the slope can be very steep near the peak and therefore can be quite painful to discretize.  I have a put in a suggestion to the idea forum to include a way to define a vertex and a function that would define the heat flux as a function of position, possibly with definite bounds.

[nhahn]

An interesting application.  Off the cuff suggestion - If your problem is not transient, perhaps modeling a thin layer of highly conductive material between your parts and where you apply the heat flux will smooth out the distribution - this will allow you to use fewer regions and still achive a more continuous near-gaussian profile, instead of a stepwise one.

[dpounds9999]

While the approach of breaking up the surface into discrete regions is a valid approach, it can be a painful approach depending on the situation.  Please note that I have accepted this as a solution but I have also put in a request in the idea forum to incorporate an option to define a spatial function.  Thanks.