Configuring a fully coupled, simultaneous heat transfer and electrical procedure

• Choose Steady-state to omit the internal energy term (the specific heat term) in the governing heat transfer equation. Only direct current is considered in the electrical problem, and it is assumed that the system has negligible capacitance. (Electrical transient effects are so rapid that they can be neglected.) For more information, see Steady-State Analysis.

• Choose Transient to perform time integration with the same backward Euler method used in uncoupled heat transfer analyses. This method is unconditionally stable for linear problems. For more information, see Transient Analysis.

(For information on displaying the Edit Step dialog box, see Creating a step, or Editing a step.)

• Choose Automatic if you want Abaqus/Standard to determine suitable time increment sizes.

• Choose Fixed to specify direct user control of the incrementation. Abaqus/Standard uses an increment size that you specify as the constant increment size throughout the step.

1. In the Initial field, enter the initial time increment. Abaqus/Standard modifies this value as required throughout the step.
2. In the Minimum field, enter the minimum time increment allowed. If Abaqus/Standard needs a smaller time increment than this value, it terminates the analysis.
3. In the Maximum field, enter the maximum time increment allowed.

• Toggle on End step when temperature change is less than n if you want the analysis to end when the temperature at every temperature degree of freedom changes at a rate that is less than a rate that you specify. If you toggle on this option, enter the desired temperature change rate in the field provided.

• If you selected Automatic in Step 2, enter a value for the Max. allowable temperature change per increment. Abaqus/Standard restricts the time step to ensure that this value is not exceeded at any node (except nodes with boundary conditions) during any increment of the step.

(For information on displaying the Edit Step dialog box, see Creating a step, or Editing a step.)

• Choose Use solver default to allow Abaqus/Standard to decide whether a symmetric or unsymmetric matrix storage and solution scheme is needed.

• Choose Unsymmetric to restrict Abaqus/Standard to the unsymmetric storage and solution scheme. (This is the only matrix storage option available if you choose the Full Newton solution technique.)

• Choose Symmetric to restrict Abaqus/Standard to the symmetric storage and solution scheme.

For more information on matrix storage, see Matrix Storage and Solution Scheme in Abaqus/Standard.

• Choose Full Newton to use Newton's method as a numerical technique for solving nonlinear equilibrium equations. For more information, see Nonlinear solution methods in Abaqus/Standard.

• Choose Separated to specify that linearized equations for the individual fields in the fully coupled procedure are to be decoupled and solved separately for each field. This option provides a less costly solution for an analysis that is fully coupled in the sense that the electrical and thermal solutions evolve simultaneously, but with a weak coupling between the two solutions. For more information, see Approximate Implementation.

• Select Off to force a new iteration if severe discontinuities occur during an iteration, regardless of the magnitude of the penetration and force errors. This option also changes some time incrementation parameters and uses different criteria to determine whether to do another iteration or to make a new attempt with a smaller increment size.

• Select On to use local convergence criteria to determine whether a new iteration is needed. Abaqus/Standard will determine the maximum penetration and estimated force errors associated with severe discontinuities and check whether these errors are within the tolerances. Hence, a solution may converge if the severe discontinuities are small.

• Select Propagate from previous step to use the value specified in the previous general analysis step. This value appears in parentheses to the right of the field.

For more information on severe discontinuities, see Severe Discontinuities in Abaqus/Standard.

• Select Linear to indicate that the process is essentially monotonic and Abaqus/Standard should use a 100% linear extrapolation, in time, of the previous incremental solution to begin the nonlinear equation solution for the current increment.

• Select Parabolic to indicate that the process should use a quadratic extrapolation, in time, of the previous two incremental solutions to begin the nonlinear equation solution for the current increment.

• Select None to suppress any extrapolation.

For more information, see Extrapolation of the Solution.