Hello all,

I am looking to do a thermal study for a fin rod attached to steel plate and strip heater (heat power source), but am running into errors regarding the setup of the thermal loads. I am receiving the error: "The Iterative Solver stopped. Numerical difficulties (Preconditioning failed) Please check thermal loads folder."

Setup: The fin rod system (strip heater, steel plate, fin rod) is connected to an insulated stand. The objective of the thermal study is to calculate the temperature distribution along the fin rod with the strip heater at a base temperature of 50, 75, and 100 degrees. My current settings which I receive the error for:

- the insulated stand has global contact settings to be insulated from the fin rod system (strip heater, steel plate, fin rod)

- I have a contact setting between the strip heater and steel plate to accommodate for a thermal adhesive used to attach the plates together

- I have defined the convective heat transfer for all the exposed faces of the fin rod system

- Set the base temperature (50 degrees Celsius so far) on the strip heater

- Assigned the heat power (120W) to the strip heater

I have tried adjusting the heat power location/direction as well as the convective heat transfer faces and locations but nothing seems to work. I have not assigned any contact sets or thermal loads to the stand as it should be insulated from the whole system and not be influenced.

I have attached a file of my thermal study and am hoping for someone to give me some guidance/recommendations to correct these errors. Please contact me if you have questions regarding my thermal study.

Adam