Note: This discussion is about an older version of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The information provided may be out of date.

Discussion Closed This discussion was created more than 6 months ago and has been closed. To start a new discussion with a link back to this one, click here.

Adding Conduction with Air Removes Convection (Heat Flux)

Please login with a confirmed email address before reporting spam

Hello,

I am trying to model a solar cell being heated. In a basic sense, this is just a solid being heated by a boundary heat source. This model needs to include Surface-to-ambient radiation, the boundary heat source on the solid itself, conduction to the air surrounding the solid, and convection with the air surrounding the solid. So basically what I have is just a block with these boundary conditions.

Here's the problem: If I have just the solid as the only geometric entity in the model, I can have the boundary heat source, surface-to-ambient radiation, and heat flux (convection). What's missing, however, is conduction to the surrounding air. So, what I did is I added a very big block of air surrounding the solid block. This takes care of the conduction, however, when I do this, the Heat Flux/convection boundary conditions on my solid block are all "not applicable"/overridden. This of course make my model inaccurate.

In short: How can I include both Heat Flux/convection, and conduction in this model?

Note: I only have COMSOL multiphysics and do not yet have the Heat Transfer Module.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Best,
Nick

1 Reply Last Post Jul 4, 2014, 7:15 a.m. EDT

Please login with a confirmed email address before reporting spam

Posted: 1 decade ago Jul 4, 2014, 7:15 a.m. EDT
As far as I know, when you use a boundary condition heat flux it is not neccessary to apply also conduction to surrounding air.

On the other side when you add an air block enclosing the entire model you should add the physics conjugated heat transfer to consider the convection.


As far as I know, when you use a boundary condition heat flux it is not neccessary to apply also conduction to surrounding air. On the other side when you add an air block enclosing the entire model you should add the physics conjugated heat transfer to consider the convection.

Note that while COMSOL employees may participate in the discussion forum, COMSOL® software users who are on-subscription should submit their questions via the Support Center for a more comprehensive response from the Technical Support team.