Error Message—Electric Current Calculations Require Triangular Shells

Issue

A Joule heating analysis stops with the following error message: 

Error: Electric current calculations require triangular shells 

Solution

Surface parts used with Joule heating must be meshed with triangular elements. If any other type is used (such as four-sided quads), the Solver will be unable to compute Joule heating.

This error can also be caused by a region of the surface mesh that is badly distorted. 

If the mesh contains non-triangular surface elements, redefine the mesh distribution to use triangles. This can happen if the mesh was produced in a third-party mesher and imported into Autodesk Simulation CFD, redefine the mesh on the surface parts to use triangular elements.

Additionally, inspect the mesh on the surface part. If there are regions that are highly distorted or even collapsed, modify the mesh definition to ensure a more uniform distribution. In many cases, this means refining the mesh in the regions of interest to eliminate highly stretched or distorted element faces.