findHeatSource

R2026b

(To be removed) Find heat source assigned to a geometric region

findHeatSource will be removed. Use the CellLoad and FaceLoad properties of femodel instead. (since R2023a) For more information on updating your code, see Version History.

Syntax

hsa = findHeatSource(heatSources,RegionType=RegionID)

Description

hsa = findHeatSource(heatSources,RegionType=RegionID) returns the heat source value hsa assigned to the specified region.

Examples

Find Heat Sources for Faces of 2-D Geometry

Create a thermal model that has three faces.

thermalmodel = createpde("thermal");
geometryFromEdges(thermalmodel,@lshapeg);
pdegplot(thermalmodel,FaceLabels="on")
ylim([-1.1 1.1])
axis equal

Specify that face 1 generates heat at 10 W/m^3, face 2 generates heat at 20 W/m^3, and face 3 generates heat at 30 W/m^3.

internalHeatSource(thermalmodel,10,Face=1);
internalHeatSource(thermalmodel,20,Face=2);
internalHeatSource(thermalmodel,30,Face=3);

Check the heat source specification for face 1.

hsaFace1 = findHeatSource(thermalmodel.HeatSources,Face=1)

hsaFace1 = 
  HeatSourceAssignment with properties:

    RegionType: 'face'
      RegionID: 1
    HeatSource: 10
         Label: []

Check the heat source specification for faces 2 and 3.

hsa = findHeatSource(thermalmodel.HeatSources,Face=[2 3]);
hsaFace2 = hsa(1)

hsaFace2 = 
  HeatSourceAssignment with properties:

    RegionType: 'face'
      RegionID: 2
    HeatSource: 20
         Label: []

hsaFace3 = hsa(2)

hsaFace3 = 
  HeatSourceAssignment with properties:

    RegionType: 'face'
      RegionID: 3
    HeatSource: 30
         Label: []

Input Arguments

heatSources — Internal heat source of the model

HeatSources property of a thermal model

Internal heat source of the model, specified as the HeatSources property of a ThermalModel object.

Example: thermalmodel.HeatSources

RegionType — Geometric region type

Face | Cell

Geometric region type, specified as Face for a 2-D model or Cell for a 3-D model.

RegionID — Geometric region ID

vector of positive integers

Geometric region ID, specified as a vector of positive integers. Find the region IDs by using the pdegplot function.

Data Types: double

Output Arguments

hsa — Heat source assignment

HeatSourceAssignment object

Heat source assignment, returned as a HeatSourceAssignment Properties object.

Version History

Introduced in R2017a

R2025a: To be removed

findHeatSource will be removed. Use the CellLoad and FaceLoad properties of femodel instead.

For example, you can check the heat sources for faces of a 2-D geometry as follows.

model = femodel(AnalysisType="thermalSteady", ...
                Geometry=@lshapeg);
model.FaceLoad(1) = faceLoad(Heat=10);
model.FaceLoad(2) = faceLoad(Heat=20);
model.FaceLoad(3) = faceLoad(Heat=30);
model.FaceLoad

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.