Using Autodesk Mechanical Simulation. I would like to know if there is an easy way to get the total amount of heat lost per time step for a simple cooling analysis. I have a model that begins at a high temperature with the ambient temperature being much lower, and the part is allowed to cool over a long period of time. I need to know how much heat was lost from the model at each time step. My model is a highly complex shape with varying thicknesses, so going through and calculating an average heat loss from all the different regions is not feasible.
Hi jr1287,
I do not know of an automatic method. But if your material properties are independent of temperature, the software can calculate the equilibrium temperature. You can then calculate the heat loss from Q = mass*cp*dTemp. Search the documentation for "Equilibrium Temperature", and then go to the page named "Current Results".