Transient Thermal Analysis

[wkveits]

I need the capability of performing a transient thermal analysis?  I have a thermal load that is repetitive.  The load is on for 300uS, and repeats every 3 mS for example.  I need to be able to determine the temperature vs time for several hundred milliseconds for this type of transient load.

[adamwoster]

It's important that this transient thermal analysis includes the ability to add-in transient thermal loads of all kinds (radiation, convection, conduction). It would be very helpful to be able to have these transient thermal loads be controlled by a "thermostat" at a node. This will help a mechanical designer give input back to the system design to maintain optimal thermal performance of the design.

[MikeSmell_ADSK]

Hi @wkveits - 

Thanks for reaching out on this topic. This is something we are considering for future development. Please keep an eye out for updates on this topic later this year. 

Thanks, 

Mike Smell

[chris.r.schroeder]

This would be soo useful.  If this capability were there I would switch over from Solidworks today!

[rob9GTTM]

Transient thermal analysis is an obvious missing capability in the simulation capabilities.  The mechanical simulation capabilities seem very advanced in comparison to the thermal capabilities. 

[urban_harrysson]

Transient analysis often gives a more realistic result compared to a static analysis. For example the most dominant stresses in a jet engine occur during take of when the outer shell of the engine get hot before the core of the engine. This will cause a thermal expansion of the outer core while the core still is cold. This is the case for many everyday designs. An other example would be the thermal behavior of a 3D-printer nozzle that extrude plastic. There are many empirical designs being made and an thermal analysis would improve the understanding of the design.

In order to use the thermal results for stress calculations the temperature and resulting thermal expansion it would be necessary to be able to do a combined analysis of thermal followed by a stress at given time intervals. This process is similar to the non linear stress analysis already implemented in Fusion.

An analysis is only as good as the boundary conditions. For thermal analysis the heat flow in and out of a part is often controlled by a heat transfer coefficient from air or fluid. The simplest but still very useful condition is to have a heat transfer coefficient and a bulk temperature on the boundaries.

The capability to do transient analysis would be very useful to me. On the other hand I regard static thermal analysis as almost useless. I have worked with air and space engines for 15 years and designing 3D-printer for 20 years. The stress and modal analysis combined with a transient thermal capability in fusion 360 would make the software complete for me.

[Anonymous]

Probably the most important thing that Fusion 360 is missing.

[Abraham.Long]

What is the status of this feature request?

[adamwoster]

@MikeSmell_ADSK what is the status of this feature request? @wkveits started this thread over three years ago and it's still in future consideration. This is just as important as substantial updates to 2D drawings.

[urban_harrysson]

I agree! It is strange that such fundamental analysis capability is missing in the perspective that several other sophisticated capabilities are added.