About Heat Loads
Heat loads are entity loads that are available only in Thermal mode. Click > to apply heat loads at one or more points, edges or curves, volumes, surfaces, or components. You can then group these loads into sets. Heat loads provide local heat sources and sinks for your model. You can apply heat loads to model internal heat generation or flux.
For information on using heat loads with various model types and geometry, see
Guidelines for Heat Loads.
When you click > , the Heat Load dialog box opens with the following items:
• Name—The name of the load. Click the color swatch adjacent to
Name to
change the color of the icon and the text for the heat load.
• Member of Set—The name of the
load set. Select an existing load set, or click
New to create a new set using the
Load Set Definition dialog box.
• References—The type of geometric entities to apply the load. If you select the geometric entities before opening the Heat Load dialog box, your selections are displayed in the References collector.
You can apply heat loads to the following geometric entities:
◦ Components—For a part model, the part is selected by default. For an assembly model you can select component parts or subassemblies to apply the heat load. You can also select the top-level assembly.
◦ Volumes—One or more volume regions.
◦ Edges/Curves—One or more curves, composite curves, edges or
intent chains.
◦ Points—A point, feature, a pattern of points or
intent points.
◦ Lattice Feature—Simplified lattice feature. You can apply only uniform heat loads to simplified lattice features in your model. The Advanced area of the Heat Load dialog box is not available when you apply a heat load to a lattice feature.
• Advanced—Click Advanced to display the Distribution, Spatial Variation, and Temporal Variation options with their default values. Click Advanced again, to hide these options. The Advanced button is not available if you change the default values of the Distribution, Spatial Variation, and Temporal Variation options.
◦ Distribution—Determines how the heats load is distributed across the geometric entity. Select
Total Load or
Load per unit type where type can be length, area or volume.
◦ Spatial Variation—Distributes the heat load. When you select
Function of Coordinates or
Function of Arc Length from the drop-down list, the
button appears along with a list of predefined functions.
◦ Temporal Variation—Specifies whether the heat load is
Steady or a
Function of Time. The
Function of Time option is available only in native mode.
◦ Combine Spatial and Temporal Functions—Combine spatial and temporal variations. This check box is available only when you set
Spatial Variation to
Function of Coordinates or
Function of Arc Length and
Temporal Variation to
Function of Time.
• Value—Specify any real number for the total or distributed heat transfer rate.
Select the units of heat transfer rate from the drop-down list or accept the default unit.
• Preview—Checks the load for errors before you close the Heat Load dialog box.
| For transient heat loads with combined spatial and temporal variations, the Preview Time dialog box opens when you click Preview. Type a non-negative value for the time at which you want to preview the load distribution. |
Refer to the Creo Parametric Fundamentals Help for more information on surface sets.
Click
OK to apply the heat load. A
heat load icon is placed at all the specified locations.