Thermal Analysis in ANSYS® Thermal Analysis of Large Antenna

Thermal Analysis in ANSYS®
Your Contact Person:
Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Iberer
Tel. +49-(0)8092-7005-50
E-Mail [email protected]
Thermal Analysis of Large Antenna Structures
Task
Imagine the sunrise at the foothills of Chile's Andes
mountains. The wind blows slowly through the dry Atacama
desert…
This scenario isn’t based on the fantasy of a lonely
adventurer but the given thermal load case for the design of
one of the telescopes of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter
Array) project. In corporation with VERTEX Antennentechnik
GmbH a complex thermal analysis has been performed by
CADFEM Consulting.
Due to the given specifications the antenna had to be
analyzed considering sun radiation, outgoing radiation and of
course the convective heat transfer to the environment.
Taking into account the heat transfer effects
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heat conduction
heat convection
heat radiation
it was possible to determine the temperature field of the
antenna. Both steady state and transient analysis gives
valuable information about the resulting thermal loads to the
structure. Special care had to be taken into account for the
laminated CFRP structure. By idealization of the CFRP
material properties many simplifications could be done. As a
special challenge the thermal analysis of the convective heat
transfer part to the environment has been combined with a
CFD analysis. Therefore also the wind influence onto the
temperature field of the antenna has been computed.
12m ALMA telescope
The resulting temperature field can be used for subsequent
structural analyses to determine thermal deformation or
critical thermal stress zones.
FE Modell of the Structure
Wind load for the determination
of heat transfer coefficients
Figures Courtesy of Vertex Antennentechnik GmbH Sun load at the structure