Heat Transfer

Heat Transfer

Why do I frequently get energy imbalance when I use shell conduction, even if my calculation looks well converged (stable monitors and low residuals)?

    • FAQFAQ
      Participant

      Heat flux at the sides of the shell walls are not taken into account inside the heat flux reports in Fluent (> Report > Fluxes > Total Heat Transfer rate). This means that at these locations, heat flux is accounted for correctly in Fluent, but cannot be post-processed. If the heat flux crossing the side faces is significant, this could lead to an imbalance in the reports between the wall and wall-shadow (more than 30% imbalance reported in some cases). To make sure this imbalance is not due to convergence difficulties, a good practice is performing a quick sensitivity analysis by reducing either the shell conduction thickness or the conductivity of the solid material, and then checking changes in the heat flux report accordingly.