CST2013: Boundary Conditions - Thermal

Simulation: Settings Boundaries Thermal Boundaries

Xmin, Ymin, Zmin, Xmax, Ymax, Zmax

Boundary conditions for thermal problems can be selected independently from those for electromagnetic problems. Currently three types of boundaries are available, which are comparable to electric, magnetic and open boundaries.

The table below shows which thermal boundaries are available and how temperature and heat flow are affected.

Example:

The example above is a coaxial connector with a loss distribution from a hf-simulation. Usually adiabatic boundaries are applied when the structure is continued behind the boundary (e.g. when waveguide ports are used). If a device is embedded in a thermally controlled environment an isothermal boundary is advisable. For devices which operate more or less in a free surrounding the open boundary is likely the best choice.

Note: choosing the correct type of boundary is very important for a proper thermal simulation. Especially the temperature distribution is very sensitive to the boundary settings.

Open boundary...

Pressing this button opens the Settings for Open Boundaries dialog box, which offers the possibility to enter some settings regarding open boundaries. Consequently this button is only enabled if an open boundary condition is selected. The behavior of this boundary condition is very much related to the background temperature setting in the thermal solver dialog boxes (Thermal Stationary Solver / Thermal Transient Solver) .