SS-T: 3055 Structural Thermal Steady-state Analysis with Solar Load

Purpose
SimSolid performs meshless structural analysis that works on full featured parts and assemblies, is tolerant of geometric imperfections, and runs in seconds to minutes. In this tutorial, you will do the following:
  • Learn to apply solar load for thermal steady-state analysis.
Model Description
The following model file is needed for this tutorial:
  • Solar_load.ssp
Figure 1.


The file has the following specifications:
  • Material is set to Steel for all parts.
  • Virtual connectors (pin-bonded) were created.

Open Project

  1. Start a new SimSolid session.
  2. On the main window toolbar, click Open Project .
  3. In the Open project file dialog, choose Solar_load.ssp
  4. Click OK.

Create Subcase

On the main window toolbar, click Thermal Analysis > Thermal Steady-state.
The new analysis appears in the Project Tree under Design study 1 and the Analysis Workbench opens.

Create Temperature Constraint

  1. In the Analysis Workbench, click Temperature.
  2. In the dialog, verify the Faces radio button is selected.
  3. In the modeling window, select the five faces highlighted in orange in Figure 2.
    Figure 2.


  4. For Temperature change, enter 23℃.
    Note: Ambient temperature in this case is 23℃.

Create Solar Load Boundary Condition

  1. In the Analysis Workbench, click Solar Load.
    The Solar Loads dialog opens.
  2. For Sunbeam direction, enter -1 along the y-axis.
    In the modeling window, the direction of the sunbeam is denoted as a directional arrow in the triad.
    Figure 3.


  3. For Absorption coefficient, enter 1.
    The value 0.01 denotes the minimum solar flux and 1 denotes the maximum solar flux. Solar flux is applied to the complete model in the modeling window along the specified sunbeam direction. The maximum solar flux (when absorption coefficient is set to 1) is 1412.11 W/m2.

Edit Solution Settings

  1. In the Analysis branch of the Project Tree, double-click on Solution settings.
  2. In the Solution settings dialog, for Adaptation select Global+Local in the drop-down menu.
  3. Click OK.

Run Analysis

  1. On the Project Tree, open the Analysis Workbench.
  2. Click Solve.
SimSolid runs the analyses in Design study 1. When finished, a Results branch for each analysis appears in the Project Tree.

Review Results

  1. In the Project Tree, select the Results branch for Thermal steady-state 1.
  2. On the Analysis Workbench, click (Results plot).
  3. Select the Temperature plot.
  4. Adjust the legend settings to set the minimum value to 23℃ and the maximum value to 500℃ for better display of the temperature contour.
    Figure 4.