Discussion Forum

Hello,

I am trying to simulate a 3D bimaterial beam structure, where the different thermal expansion coefficient should cause the beam to bend when temperature is increased at one surface. The material in use is Aluminum and SiO2 and ambient temperature is 293K. If at the left surface (which is fixed for sturctural simulation )temperature is set to 393K, the temperature across the length of the beam should slowly reach 393K. Also due to this heat, both material would expand but at different rate and cause the free end of the beam would bend (z displacement). I could do a transient simulation to see the temperature distribution and a parametric analysis to see deflection at the free end of the beam with temperature increase.

But when I tried to couple them I ran into various problem. I tried to follow the "microrobot" model example, and other examples mentioned in the forum, but in the "structural" physics part where you define "Include thermal expansio" in the load tab, I could not see that option. I also tried to use the COMSOL 3.4, but couldn't see the option. I tried to run the simulation by defining equation system in subdomain settings following other examples, but ran into trouble with memory shortage suring matrix sparse.. I am running it on Pentium 2.8 GHz 4GB RAM machine. Is more RAM required?

I would be grateful if someone could guide me on how to couple transient heat transfer and structural mechanics physics to see a displacement vs time plot.

Also if you could tell me how to define a time variable heat source for the same simulation I would be grateful.