General

General

How does the BFINT command interpolate temperatures from a thermal model to a structural model?

    • FAQFAQ
      Participant

      BFINT uses the nodal location from the structural model, and the element shape functions and nodal temperatures from the thermal model to interpolate the temperatures. Each node in the structural model is located within a corresponding element in the thermal model. Based on its location, the temperature for each structural node is determined from the nodal temperatures and interpolation functions for the appropriate thermal element. For example, if the thermal element is a 3-noded, triangular, PLANE element. The temperature at any location within that element is T = TIL1 + TJL2 + TKL3 where TI,j,K are the nodal temperatures and L1,2,3 are normalized coordinates that linearly vary from 0.0 to 1.0. The nodal temperatures are stored in the thermal results file. The magnitude of the each normalized coordinate is determined from the nodal locations of the thermal nodes and the location of the structural node.