Discussion Forum

Hi,

I am doing the following simulation: Non-isothermal flow with heat transfer. My goal is to simulate the heat distribution / gradient when an aluminium tube gets heated up by a heat source, i.e. through thermal contact layer, and gets cooled by water flowing through the tube. Basically, it is a watercooling of a heat sources. Please set the attached drawing for a visualization of the simulation

The setup is the following: 2D simulation with time dependent study. Geometry: Hollow aluminium tube with liquid water, chip as heat source, thermal conductive interface between aluminium tube and chip.

I built the setup and added a physics, materials and boundary conditions. All elements have an initial temp. of 293 K. The water inlet is from the left at 1 m/s. The chip acts as a heat source with 20 W/m^3.

I can run the simulation but the study does not show any heat distribution. Upon closer investigation I noticed that under both Physics, i.e. Non-isothermal flow with heat transfer, there is a manditory boundary condition called thermal insulation. I assume that this is the reason why there is no heat exchange between the components. Is there a way that I can set the boundary condition for the entire system? If I put the aluminium tube and the chip under the non-isothermal flow Physics the the program treats them as liquids.

Thank you for your help and please let me know if I should ellaborate