{"id":32152,"date":"2017-04-03T10:02:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=32152"},"modified":"2017-04-03T10:20:31","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:20:31","slug":"use-fea-vs-cfd-thermal-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2017\/04\/use-fea-vs-cfd-thermal-analysis.html","title":{"rendered":"When to use FEA vs. CFD for Thermal Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that SOLIDWORKS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis for heat transfer is now as easy to perform as Finite Element Analysis (FEA)?<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s true.<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the past if an engineer didn\u2019t have a PhD and expensive specialized software, their choice for heat transfer analysis was limited to FEA. That\u2019s unfortunate because for most thermal simulation applications, FEA is not the best tool for the job. SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation is fully embedded inside SOLIDWORKS, making it easy to use and easy to set up. Since the power of CFD is now seamlessly integrated into the platform that you use every day, you can readily choose the simulation tool that best fits your needs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-32165 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_image-2.png\" width=\"391\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_image-2.png 391w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_image-2-300x258.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 391px) 100vw, 391px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now you know that FEA and CFD are equally easy to use, do you know when to use one versus the other? We will make that question easy to answer too. The tool to use depends on the heat transfer mechanisms that are taking place in the components that you are designing: conduction, convection, radiation or most of the time, a combination of all three. In addition, the level of accuracy you are willing to accept will also influence your decision.<\/p>\n<p>The table below summarizes the tool to use depending on the type of heat transfer mechanisms you are analyzing:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-32164\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_chart-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_chart-2.jpg 670w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_chart-2-300x89.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/fea-cfd_chart-2-615x182.jpg 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To find out more about when to use FEA vs. CFD, watch this short video:<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1140\" height=\"641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-gezLXALHNA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Click on the banner below to get more information about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solidworks.com\/sw\/products\/simulation\/packages.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>SOLIDWORKS Simulation packages<\/strong><\/a> or contact your Value Added Reseller.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solidworks.com\/sw\/products\/simulation\/packages.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-32158 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/SimBanner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/SimBanner.jpg 525w, https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/SimBanner-300x95.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This blog explains which analysis tool to use when conducting thermal analysis.<\/p>\n... <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2017\/04\/use-fea-vs-cfd-thermal-analysis.html\">Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":32155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[465,66,469,153],"class_list":["post-32152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidworks-simulation","tag-cfd","tag-fea","tag-heat-transfer","tag-simulation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}