Changes in temperature can induce substantial deformations, strains, and stresses. Thermal stress analysis refers to static analysis that includes the effect of temperature.
Perform thermal stress analysis using one of the following options:
- Using a uniform rise or drop in temperature for the whole model.
- Using a temperature profile resulting from a steady state or transient thermal analysis.
- Using a temperature profile from Flow Simulation.
- Using a temperature profile specified directly by prescribing temperature values to components, faces, and vertices in the static study. This option is not practical in most cases as the temperature is assumed zero at other locations. You may need to solve a thermal study first and then use the results to solve a thermal stress analysis.
The Flow/thermal effects tab in the Static dialog box controls the inclusion of thermal effects for static studies. If you define material properties manually, you must define the coefficient of thermal expansion for each material in the model.