Learning Forum

[abi151994]

Dear All,nI want to perform a coupled thermal structural analysis. For this, I doing the transient thermal analysis first and then I am importing the temperature results to the structural analysis. The structural analysis has only temperature loads and a fixed support at one face. But I could not decide whether to use static structural or transient structural in this case. I know that in transient structural, the inertia effects are considered but how do I find out if the inertial effects are significant or not in my system? My model is big and hence when I try to perform transient structural, it takes days to solve it. nI have already gone through the Ansys documentation pages on the analysis explanation. I would appreciate any help that would help me understand it better. nThanks!n

[peteroznewman]

nInertial forces will almost always be insignificant when heat is the cause of the deformation, you don't need Transient Structural.nWhat results do you want from the structural analysis? I expect it is the strain caused by the thermal expansion of the materials and the stress caused by the constraints that prevent free expansion.nThere are good and bad designs for connecting parts with different Coefficients of Thermal Expansion (CTE). In a good design, flexures are used to accommodate the change in size of two materials. In a bad design, the two parts are bolted together, which cause stress in the parts. A Fixed Support is a source of stress. What is the real connection of the part to ground? If you insert some images of your design I can comment further.nDo you need to see the history of stress in the assembly, or do you only care about the final state of stress at the end time? I expect you only care about the final temperature distribution. Do you even need a Transient Thermal, don't you want the Steady State Thermal solution?n