Thermal Insulation, Interface (Heat Transfer in Shells Interface)
Use this node to specify thermal insulation on the exterior interfaces of a shell and, for the case of a layered shell, at the interfaces between its layers.
Boundary Selection
Select the boundaries on which to specify the thermal insulation. If a layered material (Material with Layer thickness specified, Single Layer Material, Layered Material Link, or Layered Material Stack) is available, its name is then displayed beside the boundary index (for example, slmat1), otherwise the boundary is marked as not applicable.
Interface Selection
Set the interfaces for which the thermal insulation should be prescribed. These can be internal interfaces between layers or the top and bottom surfaces.
Different settings are available, depending on the settings in the Shell Properties section of the parent interface:
When the Shell type is Layered shell in the Shells Properties section of the parent interface, the available options in the Apply to list are Top interface, Bottom interface, Exterior interfaces, Interior interfaces, All interfaces, and Selected interfaces. With the last option you can select any set of interfaces for a given layered material, by clearing the check boxes corresponding to layer interfaces where the node should not be applied in the Selection table. The top and bottom interfaces refer respectively to the upside and downside of the boundary, defined from the orientation of the normal vector. See Interface Selections for more details on the interfaces identification.
When the Shell type is Nonlayered shell in the Shells Properties section of the parent interface, a single layer material is defined on the boundary, and the available options in the Apply to list are Top interface, Bottom interface, and All interfaces.
You can visualize the selected interfaces by clicking the Layer Cross Section Preview and Layer 3D Preview buttons.
Upside and downside settings can be visualized by plotting the global normal vector (nx, ny, nz), that always points from downside to upside. Note that the normal vector (ht.nx, ht.ny, ht.nz) may be oriented differently.
See Tangent and Normal Variables in the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.
Location in User Interface
Context Menus
Ribbon
Physics tab with Heat Transfer in Shells selected in the model tree: