Exporting Temperatures from

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS

Structural using CFD Post in WB

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June 23, 2010

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Goals
This example illustrates how you can export temperatures from an ANSYS
thermal analysis to an ANSYS structural analysis with a different mesh
The technique is based on using CFD Post and its ability to interpolate
results onto ANSYS structural meshes.
Although CFD Post can load ANSYS results files, this capability is not yet
supported by drag and drop in WB 12.
In the approach, the first step is to export the nodes from the ANSYS
structural mesh using command snippets. CFD Post is then started in WB
and the ANSYS thermal results file is loaded. The cdb file from the
structural mesh is then read into CFD Post using its ANSYS Import/Export
capability. The volumetric temperatures from the ANSYS thermal
simulation are then exported to an ANSYS steady-state structural analysis
via a load file computed as an ANSYS export from CFD Post. The load file
is then read into ANSYS Mechanical using command snippets.
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2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Starting CFD Post in Workbench

1. Drag an instance of Results (CFD Post) onto the project schematic
2. Right-click on the Results Cell and select Edit to bring up CFD Post

Right-click/Edit

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Loading the Thermal Results Fie

3. First change the temperature units in CFD Post to C to match the
ANSYS convention (Edit/Options/Units/Custom)
4. The select File/Load results and browse to the results file from the
ANSYS thermal analysis and choose Open

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Specifying the Units for the Thermal Results

5. There will be a popup asking you to specify the units of the
ANSYS results file. You should specify the correct units for the ANSYS
rth file (C in this example) when prompted by the popup .

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Exporting a CDB File from Structural

6. The nodes used in the ANSYS structural mesh must be exported
using a command snippet. The commands to do this are shown
below along with the corresponding command to read the load file in
that will eventutally be exported from Post. Here the CDWRITE
command is commented out you would reverse this and comment
out the CDREAD command when exporting the cdb file

Command to export solid nodes to a CDB file

Command to read in temperatures exported
from CFD Post as a body load

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2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved.

May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

ANSYS CFD Post Import

7. With this approach, you are using
a volume load transfer method to
transfer temperatures from
ANSYS thermal to ANSYS
structural. You should now import
the cdb file you exported from
ANSYS and read it in using
File/ANSYS Import/Export. When
you do the import, disable the
toggle to specify an associated
boundary as this will be a volume
export, not a surface transfer.

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

CDB Surface
8. The solid temperatures for the cdb locator
can be visualized by creating a Point Cloud
object scoped to the cdb locator

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

ANSYS Export from CFD Post

9. This step writes out the sfe load file that is
read into ANSYS Mechanical via a
command snippet
T units set to C!

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May 6, 2009

ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Format of ANSYS Load SFE File

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ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Reading in the Body Load in ANSYS Structural

10. Here the command to export the node
locations has been commented out and the
command to read in the load file has been
entered and made active

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ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Deformation for Volume Load Transfer

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ANSYS Thermal to ANSYS Structural

Equivalent Stress for Surface Load Transfer

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May 6, 2009