How to select exposed surface area only to apply radiation in a thermal simulation

[k_michopoulos_177]

Greetings guys,

I have a simple question and would appreciate if someone from Autodesk could help. I have created below two simple geometries to illustrate my point and question:

Basically I have two connected plates like you can see in the image below. The two plates are in contact. I am trying to perform thermal simulation and I want to select only the exposed surfaces to radiate heat. But as you can see in the second image, you can only select the entire surface for radiation,which includes the intersection / contact area between the two plates and which is not supposed to radiate. Is there a simple way of selecting only the exposed surface? If yes, could you please describe how?

The roundabout way would be to make the section that is exposed as a new body and select it like that, but in some more complex assemblies I have with multiple such scenarios, it would not be very practical. Is there a simpler alternative?

Thank you for your time.

Kind Regards,

Kon

[henderh · Accepted solution]

Hi @k_michopoulos_177,

For thermal loads, we don't offer a Limit Target option as we do for the Force load.

The workaround is similar to what you mentioned. Instead of splitting the exposed section as a new body, it can be split as a new face:

The Split Face tool can be used in Simulation's "Simplify" workspace, which will not alter the model in the Design workspace. The overlapping face from the other body can be selected as the Splitting Tool:

Best regards,