2013/2/6 Adrien Girard <[email protected]>: > > Hello, > > I just finish university and I am now working as a mechanical engineer and I > am still confused with some points of FEM theory. > > I have to make the complete thermal analysis of a rectangular box, I decided > to use the symetry of the problem and thus modelise only 1/8 of the box. But > now, I wonder when I have to add the symetry to the problem. > > - 1) to the mechanical model ? (before the simulation) > - 2) at the simulation phase ? > - 3) only for the post process, to visualise the result ?
The finite element has what are called "natural boundary conditions" so that for each partial differential equation, doing nothing on a boundary has a definite physical significance. Generally in thermal problems this means no conduction, i.e. an adiabatic condition. This is appropriate to a plane of symmetry, so the answer to your question is most likely (3), although even that could be omitted, displaying just the nonredundant octant; this would have the advantage that the insides would be visible on the symmetry planes. _______________________________________________ gmsh mailing list [email protected] http://www.geuz.org/mailman/listinfo/gmsh
