Learn the differences between thermal Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and thermal Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as presented in use cases for SOLIDWORKS Simulation and SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation in this video.

Thermal FEA requires definition of a "convection coefficient" to represent heat transfer to surrounding fluid, which is a large potential source of error. This approach is recommended for problems that are dominated by conduction or radiative heat transfer, or where the convection coefficient is wellquantified from physical experiments.

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation CFD cosimulates the heat transfer and fluid flow removing any guesswork around convection coefficients. In fact, the convection coefficient can be extracted from a CFD analysis as an output. The meshing technology in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation also makes it ideal for tackling more complex thermal problems. SIMULIA CST Studio Suite is a standalone application with a variety of solvers for electromagnetic (EM), radio frequency (RF), and thermal simulation including CFD. It supports direct ECAD / EDA import, and has true bidirectional coupling between the electromagnetic and thermal solver, allowing analysis of tightly coupled electrical thermal problems.

Presented by Ryan Navarro

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