NAFEMS Benchmark for Thermal Analysis

This device is one of the NAFEMS Benchmark tests for thermal analyses. It consists of 2d region 0.6 meter wide by 1 meter high, with a fixed temperature of 100 degrees Celsius on the lower boundary, perfect insulator on the left boundary, and a heat transfer at 750 W/m2C on the other two boundaries. The material in the region has a thermal conductivity of 52 W/mC. The problem is to calculate the steady-state temperature distribution. A complete description of this problem is given in the paper by A.D. Cameron, J.A. Casey, G.B. Simpson, "Benchmark Tests for Thermal Analyses", NAFEMS Documentation, also described here. It is simulated in ThermNet using the static 2d solver.

Results

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This image shows the steady-state temperature distribution. The benchmark states that the temperature partway up the right side at the point (0.6,0.2) is 18.25 C, ThermNet calculates a temperature of 18.26 C.

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This image shows the steady-state heat flow, plotted on a logarithmic scale. The singularity at the bottom-right corner is more obvious in this graph.