Temperature Loads

[champeau24]

I am trying to figure out the premise on which Solidworks Simulation uses temperature loads. For instance, if I have a solid body anchored at two points and I set the body temperature at say 500F. What does Solidworks assume the starting temperature was? This has application for structures that are installed at say, 70F. Then when they are in production, warm up to a temperature significantly higher, which induces stresses in the structure because the anchor points are not moving as the structure under analysis is.

 

[gravityandinertia]

In the study options there is a setting for zero-strain temperature. By default it's set to room temperature, 77F I believe. You can change it to whatever you like. It will use that to calculate the delta of temperature.

 

[Bobfromoh]

A training book I have says that the initial temperature can only be changed when doing transient analysis.
Steady state analysis doesn't make any difference with the initial temperature.

 

[gravityandinertia]

Bobfromoh,

Initial temperatures matter for a transient analysis because applying 100W for 60 seconds will yield different temperatures if the part starts at 100F or 200F.

However, in this case, he's talking about expansion, how much strain is caused by expansion from his temperature increase, the software calculates this by calculating a delta_temperature*thermal_expansion_coefficient.
The delta_temperature = final_temperature - zero_strain_temperature. The zero_strain_temperature is set in the study options.

Source: I train SOLIDWORKS Simulation Classes.