We are looking to verify that a temperature probe placed in the correct spot within our enclosure will reach 100 degrees F and trigger a set of contacts for alarm.

I have a 75 Cubic foot enclosure containing 39 heat sources putting out 2.03 BTU per hour each and 1 additional heat source set to a static 149 degrees F. We are able to reach steady state in 14 hrs calculation time using a standard analysis. The results were able to show us that our 100 degree F trigger in the cabinet will go off with these heat sources.

Here is where it gets interesting. My clients now want to know how long it will take to trip the Temperature probe.

We tried flipping to a time based analysis and used 48 HRS physical time with snap shots every 30 minutes. This test ran for 5 days and still only completed 25 seconds of physical time.

Should I not even be using Time based to figure this out? Is there anyway to find out how long it took to trigger in a standard analysis?

Thanks,

James Lupinek