Defining thermal convection across gap surfaces

You can use the Edit Material dialog box to define convective heat transfer with gap flow as well as thermal convection between the gap fluid cohesive elements. For more information, see Defining Thermal Convection for a Cohesive Element.

  1. From the menu bar in the Edit Material dialog box, select Other Pore Fluid Gap Convection.

    (For information on displaying the Edit Material dialog box, see Creating or editing a material.)

  2. Click the arrow to the right of the Type field, and specify how you want to define the Nusselt number:

    • Select Flux to define a constant flux solution for convective heat transfer.

    • Select Temperature to define a constant temperature solution for convective heat transfer.

    • Select Tabular to specify the Nusselt number as a function of temperature and/or field variables.

  3. If you selected Tabular in Step 2, toggle on Use temperature-dependent data to define the Nusselt number as a function of temperature.

    A column labeled Temp appears in the Data table.

  4. Click the arrows to the right of the Number of field variables field to increase or decrease the number of field variables on which the flow parameters depend.
  5. If you selected Tabular in Step 2, enter the following data in the Data table:

    Nusselt Number

    The Nusselt number.

    Temp

    Temperature.

    Field n

    Predefined field variables.

    For detailed information on how to enter data, see Entering tabular data.

  6. Click OK to close the Edit Material dialog box. Alternatively, you can select another material behavior to define from the menus in the Edit Material dialog box (see Browsing and modifying material behaviors, for more information).