thermalBC

(To be removed) Specify boundary conditions for a thermal model

thermalBC will be removed. Use edgeBC and faceBC instead. (since R2023a) For more information on updating your code, see Version History.

Syntax

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"Temperature",Tval)

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"HeatFlux",HFval)

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"ConvectionCoefficient",CCval,"AmbientTemperature",ATval)

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"Emissivity",REval,"AmbientTemperature",ATval)

thermalBC(___,InternalBC=intBCFlag)

thermalBC(___,"Label",labeltext)

thermalBC = thermalBC(___)

Description

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"Temperature",Tval) adds a temperature boundary condition to thermalmodel. The boundary condition applies to regions of type RegionType with ID numbers in RegionID.

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"HeatFlux",HFval) adds a heat flux boundary condition to thermalmodel. The boundary condition applies to regions of type RegionType with ID numbers in RegionID.

Note

Use thermalBC with the HeatFlux parameter to specify a heat flux to or from an external source. To specify internal heat generation, that is, heat sources that belong to the geometry of the model, use internalHeatSource.

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"ConvectionCoefficient",CCval,"AmbientTemperature",ATval) adds a convection boundary condition to thermalmodel. The boundary condition applies to regions of type RegionType with ID numbers in RegionID.

thermalBC(thermalmodel,RegionType,RegionID,"Emissivity",REval,"AmbientTemperature",ATval) adds a radiation boundary condition to thermalmodel. The boundary condition applies to regions of type RegionType with ID numbers in RegionID.

thermalBC(___,InternalBC=intBCFlag) applies boundary conditions on internal edges. Use this syntax with any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.

thermalBC(___,"Label",labeltext) adds a label for the thermal boundary condition to be used by the linearizeInput function. This function lets you pass thermal boundary conditions to the linearize function that extracts sparse linear models for use with Control System Toolbox™.

thermalBC = thermalBC(___) returns the thermal boundary condition object.

Examples

Specify Temperature on the Boundary

Apply temperature boundary condition on two edges of a square.

thermalmodel = createpde("thermal");
geometryFromEdges(thermalmodel,@squareg);
thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",[1,3],"Temperature",100)

ans = 
  ThermalBC with properties:

               RegionType: 'Edge'
                 RegionID: [1 3]
              Temperature: 100
                 HeatFlux: []
    ConvectionCoefficient: []
               Emissivity: []
       AmbientTemperature: []
               Vectorized: 'off'
                    Label: []
               InternalBC: []

Input Arguments

thermalmodel — Thermal model

ThermalModel object

Thermal model, specified as a ThermalModel object. The model contains the geometry, mesh, thermal properties of the material, internal heat source, boundary conditions, and initial conditions.

Example: thermalmodel = createpde("thermal","steadystate")

RegionType — Geometric region type

"Edge" for a 2-D model | "Face" for a 3-D model

Geometric region type, specified as "Edge" or "Face".

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Face",1,"Temperature",72)

Data Types: char

RegionID — Geometric region ID

vector of positive integers

Geometric region ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs by using pdegplot with the "FaceLabels" (3-D) or "EdgeLabels" (2-D) value set to "on".

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",2:5,"Temperature",72)

Data Types: double

Tval — Temperature boundary condition

number | function handle

Temperature boundary condition, specified as a number or a function handle. Use a function handle to specify the temperature that depends on space and time. For details, see More About.

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Face",1,"Temperature",72)

Data Types: double | function_handle

HFval — Heat flux boundary condition

number | function handle

Heat flux boundary condition, specified as a number or a function handle. Use a function handle to specify the heat flux that depends on space and time. For details, see More About.

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Face",[1,3],"HeatFlux",20)

Data Types: double | function_handle

CCval — Coefficient for convection to ambient heat transfer condition

number | function handle

Convection to ambient boundary condition, specified as a number or a function handle. Use a function handle to specify the convection coefficient that depends on space and time. For details, see More About.

Specify ambient temperature using the AmbientTemperature argument. The value of ConvectionCoefficient is positive for heat convection into the ambient environment.

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",[2,4],"ConvectionCoefficient",5,"AmbientTemperature",60)

Data Types: double | function_handle

REval — Radiation emissivity coefficient

number in the range (0,1)

Radiation emissivity coefficient, specified as a number in the range (0,1). Use a function handle to specify the radiation emissivity that depends on space and time. For details, see More About.

Specify ambient temperature using the AmbientTemperature argument and the Stefan-Boltzmann constant using the thermal model properties. The value of Emissivity is positive for heat radiation into the ambient environment.

Example: thermalmodel.StefanBoltzmannConstant = 5.670373E-8; thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",[2,4,5,6],"Emissivity",0.1,"AmbientTemperature",300)

Data Types: double | function_handle

ATval — Ambient temperature

number

Ambient temperature, specified as a number. The ambient temperature value is required for specifying convection and radiation boundary conditions.

Example: thermalBC(thermalmodel,"Edge",[2,4],"ConvectionCoefficient",5,"AmbientTemperature",60)

Data Types: double

labeltext — Label for thermal boundary condition

character vector | string

Label for the thermal boundary condition, specified as a character vector or a string.

Data Types: char | string

intBCFlag — Apply boundary conditions on internal edges in 2-D geometries

false (default) | true

Apply boundary conditions on internal edges in 2-D geometries for all models, specified as true or false.

There are two types of edges in 2-D geometries:

• External boundary edges. These edges separate the geometry from the rest of the 2-D space.

• Internal boundary edges. These edges separate faces of the geometry.

Data Types: logical

Output Arguments

thermalBC — Handle to thermal boundary condition

ThermalBC object

Handle to thermal boundary condition, returned as a ThermalBC object. See ThermalBC Properties.

thermalBC associates the thermal boundary condition with the geometric region.

More About

Specifying Nonconstant Parameters of a Thermal Model

Use a function handle to specify these thermal parameters when they depend on space, temperature, and time:

• Thermal conductivity of the material

• Mass density of the material

• Specific heat of the material

• Internal heat source

• Temperature on the boundary

• Heat flux through the boundary

• Convection coefficient on the boundary

• Radiation emissivity coefficient on the boundary

• Initial temperature (can depend on space only)

For example, use function handles to specify the thermal conductivity, internal heat source, convection coefficient, and initial temperature for this model.

thermalProperties(model,"ThermalConductivity", ...
                        @myfunConductivity)
internalHeatSource(model,"Face",2,@myfunHeatSource)
thermalBC(model,"Edge",[3,4], ...
                "ConvectionCoefficient",@myfunBC, ...
                "AmbientTemperature",27)
thermalIC(model,@myfunIC)

For all parameters, except the initial temperature, the function must be of the form:

function thermalVal = myfun(location,state)

For the initial temperature the function must be of the form:

function thermalVal = myfun(location)

The solver computes and populates the data in the location and state structure arrays and passes this data to your function. You can define your function so that its output depends on this data. You can use any names instead of location and state, but the function must have exactly two arguments (or one argument if the function specifies the initial temperature).

• location — A structure containing these fields:

  • location.x — The x-coordinate of the point or points

  • location.y — The y-coordinate of the point or points

  • location.z — For a 3-D or an axisymmetric geometry, the z-coordinate of the point or points

  • location.r — For an axisymmetric geometry, the r-coordinate of the point or points

  Furthermore, for boundary conditions, the solver passes these data in the location structure:

  • location.nx — x-component of the normal vector at the evaluation point or points

  • location.ny — y-component of the normal vector at the evaluation point or points

  • location.nz — For a 3-D or an axisymmetric geometry, z-component of the normal vector at the evaluation point or points

  • location.nr — For an axisymmetric geometry, r-component of the normal vector at the evaluation point or points

• state — A structure containing these fields for transient or nonlinear problems:

  • state.u — Temperatures at the corresponding points of the location structure

  • state.ux — Estimates of the x-component of temperature gradients at the corresponding points of the location structure

  • state.uy — Estimates of the y-component of temperature gradients at the corresponding points of the location structure

  • state.uz — For a 3-D or an axisymmetric geometry, estimates of the z-component of temperature gradients at the corresponding points of the location structure

  • state.ur — For an axisymmetric geometry, estimates of the r-component of temperature gradients at the corresponding points of the location structure

  • state.time — Time at evaluation points

Thermal material properties (thermal conductivity, mass density, and specific heat) and internal heat source get these data from the solver:

• location.x, location.y, location.z, location.r

• Subdomain ID

• state.u, state.ux, state.uy, state.uz, state.r, state.time

Boundary conditions (temperature on the boundary, heat flux, convection coefficient, and radiation emissivity coefficient) get these data from the solver:

• location.x, location.y, location.z, location.r

• location.nx, location.ny, location.nz, location.nr

• state.u, state.time

Initial temperature gets the following data from the solver:

• location.x, location.y, location.z, location.r

• Subdomain ID

For all thermal parameters, except for thermal conductivity, your function must return a row vector thermalVal with the number of columns equal to the number of evaluation points, for example, M = length(location.y).

For thermal conductivity, your function must return a matrix thermalVal with number of rows equal to 1, Ndim, Ndim*(Ndim+1)/2, or Ndim*Ndim, where Ndim is 2 for 2-D problems and 3 for 3-D problems. The number of columns must equal the number of evaluation points, for example, M = length(location.y). For details about dimensions of the matrix, see c Coefficient for specifyCoefficients.

If properties depend on the time or temperature, ensure that your function returns a matrix of NaN of the correct size when state.u or state.time are NaN. Solvers check whether a problem is time dependent by passing NaN state values and looking for returned NaN values.

Additional Arguments in Functions for Nonconstant Thermal Parameters

To use additional arguments in your function, wrap your function (that takes additional arguments) with an anonymous function that takes only the location and state arguments. For example:

thermalVal = ...
@(location,state) myfunWithAdditionalArgs(location,state,arg1,arg2...)
thermalBC(model,"Edge",3,"Temperature",thermalVal)

thermalVal = @(location) myfunWithAdditionalArgs(location,arg1,arg2...)
thermalIC(model,thermalVal)

Version History

Introduced in R2017a

R2025a: To be removed

thermalBC will be removed. Use edgeBC and faceBC instead.

For example, you can specify temperature on two edges of a unit square as follows.

model = femodel(AnalysisType="thermalTransient", ...
                Geometry=@squareg);
model.EdgeBC([1 3]) = edgeBC(Temperature=100);

The unified finite element model workflow defines the type of a problem and all of its parameters as the properties of an femodel object. This object enables you to specify physical parameters for structural, thermal, and electromagnetic types of analyses. The solver in the unified workflow uses only the parameters (properties) appropriate for the current analysis type while ignoring all other properties. If you switch the analysis type by setting the AnalysisType property of the model, the solver uses the appropriate set of properties corresponding to the new analysis type.

For more help migrating your existing code that uses ThermalModel to the unified finite element workflow, see Migration from Domain-Specific to Unified Workflow.

R2021b: Label to extract sparse linear models for use with Control System Toolbox

Now you can add a label for thermal boundary conditions to be used by the linearizeInput function. This function lets you pass thermal boundary conditions to the linearize function that extracts sparse linear models for use with Control System Toolbox.