Rapid Prototyping AND Precision Simulation
RadTherm offers you both rapid prototyping tools and a precision thermal simulation options. For your rapid prototyping and development needs, you need immediate design feedback. RadTherm delivers thermal results faster than any other code, allowing you to answer "what-if" questions about prototype designs. RadTherm is the ONLY thermal code that displays node temperatures DURING THE SIMULATION. If you recognize a design problem partway through a simulation, you can simply abort the run and reconfigure - you do not have to complete a run to see the results. 

Fixed or Transient Convection
RadTherm offers a simple modeling convection that can be quickly setup through the graphical user interface. When advection is not a concern, simply select one or more parts, and pick an "H" value/curve and fluid temperature/curve. The convective heat transfer is automatically enabled and calculated along with radiation and planar conduction.

Convection Library
For mid-range accuracy in convection, you can quickly employ RadTherm’s convection library. You enable the convection library with a simple mouse click, and select a fluid temperature (value, curve, or fluid node) and flow rate (volume flow value/curve, velocity flow value/curve, or draw flow information from the selected fluid node). RadTherm automatically calculates a convection coefficient for each element, based on mixed natural and forced convection parameters. The fluid properties are calculated based on the average of the wall and fluid temperatures (for Raleigh, Grashof, and Nusselt No’s). This is done for each iteration of a transient simulation.

Advection with RadTherm ’s Convection Library
RadTherm’s convection library allows for rapid 1-D fluid analysis. Advection is enabled by connecting a fluid node to upstream fluid node(s). Flow rates can be set as values or curves, allowing fast and powerful transient analysis of simple or circulating flow networks. Like all other nodes or parts in RadTherm, fluid node temperatures can be plotted or exported.

Sample model with imported convection and fluid temperature data for the surface nodes of surface (front and back). At different points in the transient run, the net effect of convection changes from heating to cooling.

Wind and Weather
TAI Software offers your team realistic environments. Using actual or simulated weather data yields insight to the thermal effects of wind speed, ambient temperature, solar loading through glass, cloud cover, and even the thermal effects of rain. Wind convection is calculated based on each element’s angle relative to the wind flow direction and the ambient air temperature. When modeling vehicles, a vector calculation of the vehicle and air velocities yields transient effects of start-stop traffic.

Convection Analysis Tools
RadTherm allows you choose from several different methods of convection calculation on each surface. You can select a convection coefficient (h) based on a fixed value that you enter or import a curve of time-varying h-values. Choose the convection library option, and RadTherm automatically calculates the convection coefficient based on fluid flows induced by the temperature difference between the fluid and surface.

This "natural" convection can be automatically combined with forced convection based on fluid flow values or curves. For the highest level of accuracy, import node-level h and t data from a CFD code. 

If natural environments play a role in your analysis, RadTherm can read in weather data for wind speed, direction, solar, and other data, and automatically calculate h-values based on the planar orientation of each element.