Finite Volume Heat Transfer in Solid Shells
Problems where thin solid shells are involved in heat transfer are common in engineering practice. For thin solid shells, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ can model heat conduction within the shell, and radiative heat transfer between the surface of the shell and the surfaces of other objects.
Modeling of in-plane shell heat conduction is required when the following apply:
- The heat conduction in the lateral direction of the shells cannot be neglected.
- The shells are so thin that their meshing is not practical.
Model selection is identical to that of solid materials in conjugate heat transfer problems.
You can model radiation in solid shells as you do in other volumetric solids. Specifically, you can:
- Set emissivity, reflectivity, specularity, and transmissivity in shell boundaries.
- Model radiative transfer between the external side of the shell and the surfaces of other objects by setting Radiation Transfer Option to External (for opaque shells) or Internal and External (for semi-transparent shells).
Solid Shell Boundaries
A shell region is a surface domain in space and can be created using region boundaries. Each shell region is assigned a unique name that is based on the name of the boundary which is used for the shell region creation, although it can be renamed.
A shell region is joined to another region, or shell region, using an interface, so that information can be passed between them. An interface between a shell region and the region which owns the boundary that is used to create the shell region is created automatically during the shell region creation.
Solid shell interfaces using top and bottom boundaries of a shell region, where both sides are in the same continuum, cannot be internal interfaces. If the solid shell interface is edge-based, it can still be internal.
Solid shell interfaces with edge-to-edge connections cannot be mapped interfaces.