Chapter 1 - Introduction, contains mostly nontechnical information about this Guide, the Viewfactor module, and the relationship between the Viewfactor code, Patran Thermal and Patran. If you are unfamiliar with the conventions and structure of the Patran System product documentation, you should read Introduction (Ch. 1) before attempting to use the other chapters of this Guide.

Chapter 2 - Overview, describes, at a high level of abstraction, the program structure, data flow, and program execution sequence for the Viewfactor product. An understanding of this overview will provide a reference frame within which to organize and associate the technical information contained in this document and to relate it to Patran and P⁄THERMAL. The last section of this chapter reviews the analysis cycle for a thermal radiation problem using the Patran System products:Patran and Patran Thermal. The next group of chapters, The Analysis Cycle, is summarized here. The Analysis Cycle is fairly long and complicated, and therefore the new user may find the Summary of the Analysis Cycle for a Thermal Radiation Problem, 20 to be an excellent introduction and overview of Chapter 3 through Chapter 7. If you are unfamiliar with the overall thermal analysis cycle using the Patran System products Patran and Patran Thermal, you should first read Overview (Ch. 2).

Chapters 3-7 - The Analysis Cycle, deal with the details of thermal analysis as it relates to the thermal radiation boundary condition and its subsequent modeling and analysis using P⁄THERMAL,and Patran. Other aspects of the analysis cycle, such as general model creation, other thermal boundary conditions, material properties, thermal network analysis, and thermal results postprocessing, are described in more detail in Volume 1 of the MSC Patran Thermal User’s Guide and the Patran Reference Manual. Please refer to these other documents for information relating to those parts of the thermal analysis cycle not pertaining directly to the thermal radiation boundary condition. Unfortunately, the analysis of complex thermal phenomena is itself complex. The software described here was designed to model complex phenomena, such as temperature and/or time dependent emissivities and transmissivities. Therefore, the analysis cycle is more complex than it would be if only simple phenomena were being modeled. This complexity is the price for the richness of the thermal modeling and highly nonlinear system solution capabilities available in this software. This complexity will not go away. For the analyst wishing to model the simpler phenomena, the complexity generally reduces to simple steps in the analysis cycle. With this in mind, it is advisable to obtain a thorough understanding of the cycle presented here and then become proficient at using the parts applicable to your thermal analysis needs.

Chapters 8-10 - Theory and Specifications, deal with the following topics:

Generally, this information will only be needed by the engineer concerned with the limitations of the computer algorithms and who wishes to obtain a more complete understanding of what is being done in the program, or wishes to interface the Viewfactor data files to other software. MSC.Software Corporation does not guarantee that the data file formats will remain unchanged.

Appendices - Examples, Appendix E contains examples of thermal radiation analysis problems presented as complete analysis cycles. These examples were designed to present the important features and capabilities of the Viewfactor code, as well as some of the advanced features of Patran Thermal as they pertain to analysis of thermal radiation problems. The problems are generally simple in other aspects and thus are easy to model and not too time-consuming. Once you have gained sufficient understanding of the analysis cycle, a quick review of the example problems will refresh your memory after you’ve been away from this software for a period of time. Some of the examples were also designed to demonstrate the correctness of the thermal analysis and to build confidence in the use of the Viewfactor code.

Other topics covered in the appendices are error conditions, memory requirements, and technical support.