examples guide

cfdesign v10
R

Upfront CFD

Copyright (C) Blue Ridge Numerics, Inc. 1992-2009

Copyright
The CFdesign product is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by
Blue Ridge Numerics, Incorporated.
Copyright (c) 1992-2009 Blue Ridge Numerics, Incorporated. All
Rights Reserved.
The distribution and sale of CFdesign is intended for the use of the
original purchaser only and for use only on the computer system
specified at the time of the sale. CFdesign may be used only under
the provisions of the accompanying license agreement.
The CFdesign Examples Guide may not be copied, photocopied,
reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or
machine readable form in whole or part without prior written consent from Blue Ridge Numerics, Incorporated. Blue Ridge Numerics,
Incorporated makes no warranty that CFdesign is free from errors
or defects and assumes no liability for the program. Blue Ridge
Numerics, Incorporated disclaims any express warranty or fitness
for any intended use or purpose. You are legally accountable for
any violation of the License Agreement or of copyright or trademark. You have no rights to alter the software or printed materials.
The development of CFdesign is ongoing. The program is constantly
being modified and checked and any known errors should be
reported to Blue Ridge Numerics, Incorporated.
Information in this document is for information purposes only and
is subject to change without notice. The contents of this manual do
not construe a commitment by BRNI.
Portions of this software and related documentation are derived
from and are copyrighted by Symmetrix and Ceetron.
All brand and product names are trademarks of their respective
owners.

Rev 20090205

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-1

1.1

Example Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-1

1.2

Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-1

1.3

Starting CFdesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-10

1.4

Mouse Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-13

1.5

CAD Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-15

1.6

Entity Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-16

1.7

Viewing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-16

1.8

Convergence Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-24

CHAPTER 2

The Basic Faucet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-1

2.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-1

2.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-1

2.3

Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-2

2.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-3

2.5

Flow Volume Creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-4

2.6

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-6

2.7

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-8

2.8

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-8

2.9

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-11

2.10 Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-12

CHAPTER 3

HVAC Duct System . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-1

3.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-1

3.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-1

3.3

Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-2

3.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-3

3.5

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-4

3.6

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-5

3.7

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3.8

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12

3.9

Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-13

CHAPTER 4

Electronics Cooling: Forced . . . . . . . . .

4-1

4.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

4.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

4.3

Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

4.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

4.5

Flow Volume Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

4.6

Group Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6

4.7

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

4.8

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

4.9

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

4.10 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-22

4.11 Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23

CHAPTER 5

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy. . . . . . .

5-1

5.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

5.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

5.3

Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

5.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

5.5

Flow Volume Creation (External Volume) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

5.6

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

5.7

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

5.8

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8

5.9

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14

5.10 Results Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15

CHAPTER 6

ii

Heat Exchanger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-1

6.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

6.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

6.3

Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

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6.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-3

6.5

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-4

6.6

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-7

6.7

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-8

6.8

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-10

6.9

Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-11

CHAPTER 7

External Aerodynamics--Car . . . . . . . .

7-1

7.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-1

7.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-1

7.3

Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-1

7.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-2

7.5

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-3

7.6

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-5

7.7

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-7

7.8

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-7

7.9

Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-8

CHAPTER 8

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-1

8.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-1

8.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-1

8.3

Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-2

8.4

Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-3

8.5

Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-4

8.6

Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-6

8.7

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-6

8.8

Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-7

8.9

After the Analysis: Creating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-8

8.10 The Design Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-9

8.11 Results and the Design Review Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-10

8.12 XY Plots in the Design Review Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-12

8.13 Creating a Project Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-13

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CHAPTER 9

Viewing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-1

9.1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

9.2

Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

9.3

Model Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

9.4

Launch CFdesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

9.5

Results Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9.6

Global Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

9.7

Model Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

9.8

Entity Blanking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

9.9

Model Surface Probing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7

9-4

9.10 Z-Clip and Crinkle Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

9.11 Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9
9.12 Planar Cut Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-10
9.13 Other Cut Surface Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12
9.14 Non-Planar Cut Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17
9.15 Iso Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-21
9.16 Wall Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-22
9.17 Multiple Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23
9.18 Saving View Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24
9.19 Sharing Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24

CHAPTER 10

Transient Heat Transfer: Valve. . . . . . .

10-1

10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1

10.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1
10.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2
10.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-3
10.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4
10.6 Initial Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7
10.7 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7
10.8 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8
10.9 Analyze (Step 1: Flow Only, Steady State) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10-9

10.10Solution Step 2: Thermal Only, Transient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

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10.11Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER 11

Solar Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10-12

11-1

11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-1

11.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-1

11.3 Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-2

11.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-3

11.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-4

11.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-6

11.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-8

11.8 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-10

11.9 Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11-13

CHAPTER 12

External Compressible Flow . . . . . . . .

12-1

12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-1

12.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-1

12.3 Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-2

12.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-3

12.5 Setting the Analysis Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-3

12.6 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-4

12.7 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-6

12.8 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-7

12.9 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-9

12.10Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12-10

CHAPTER 13

Centrifugal Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-1

13.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-1

13.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-1

13.3 Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-2

13.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-4

13.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-5

13.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13-6

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13.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

13.8 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-10
13.9 Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-11

CHAPTER 14

Axial Fan (Periodic Symmetry) . . . . . .

14-1

14.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1

14.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1
14.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2
14.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3
14.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4
14.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6
14.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6
14.8 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-9
14.9 Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-10

CHAPTER 15

Conveyor Oven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15-1

15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1

15.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1
15.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2
15.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-3
15.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-4
15.6 Initial Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-6
15.7 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-7
15.8 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-8
15.9 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-9
15.10Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-11
15.11Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-12

CHAPTER 16

Axial Check Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-1

16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1

16.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1
16.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

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16.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-3

16.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-4

16.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-5

16.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-7

16.8 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-9

16.9 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-11

16.10Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-12

16.11Motion Output Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16-13

CHAPTER 17

Oscillating Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-1

17.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-1

17.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-1

17.3 Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-2

17.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-3

17.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-4

17.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-6

17.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-6

17.8 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-8

17.9 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-10

17.10Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-11

17.11Motion Output Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17-12

CHAPTER 18

Angular Check Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-1

18.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-1

18.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-1

18.3 Geometry Description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-2

18.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-3

18.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-4

18.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-6

18.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-8

18.8 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-10

18.9 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18-13

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Table of Contents

18.10Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-14

18.11Motion Output Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-15

CHAPTER 19

Raising an Oscillating Antenna . . . . . .

19-1

19.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-1

19.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-1
19.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2
19.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3
19.5 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4
19.6 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-7
19.7 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-7
19.8 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-9
19.9 Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-12
19.10Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-13
19.11Motion Output Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-14

CHAPTER 20

Nutating Flow Meter. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20-1

20.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-1

20.2 Key Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-1
20.3 Geometry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2
20.4 Setting Analysis Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-3
20.5 Edge Merging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-4
20.6 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5
20.7 Mesh Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6
20.8 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6
20.9 Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-8
20.10Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-9
20.11Results Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-10
20.12Motion Output Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-11

viii

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 1

1.1

Introduction

Example Set

Chapter 2: The Basic Faucet

Chapter 12: External Compressible Flow

Chapter 3: HVAC Duct System

Chapter 13: Centrifugal Pump

Chapter 4: Electronics Cooling:

Forced

Chapter 14: Axial Fan (Periodic Symmetry)

Chapter 5: Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Chapter 15: Conveyor Oven

Chapter 6: Heat Exchanger

Chapter 16: Axial Check Valve

Chapter 7: External Aerodynamics-Car

Chapter 17: Oscillating Antenna

Chapter 8: Projects

Chapter 18: Angular Check Valve

Chapter 9: Viewing Results

Chapter 19: Raising an Oscillating

Antenna

Chapter 10: Transient Heat Transfer:

Valve

Chapter 20: Nutating Flow Meter

Chapter 11: Solar Heating

1.2

Descriptions

This book contains 19 example models to help you become accustomed to working
with CFdesign. In most cases, geometry is supplied in Parasolid and Acis formats as
well as for specific CAD systems: Pro/Engineer Wildfire, Inventor, Solid Edge, Solid
Works, UGNX, CATIA v5, CoCreate One Space Designer, and SpaceClaim. If any of
these CAD systems is available, then open the supplied CAD model and launch
directly into CFdesign from the CAD system. The Parasolid and Acis formats can be
opened directly by CFdesign, and do not require a CAD system.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-1

Introduction

Seventeen of the exercises start with geometry, and list step-by-step instructions
for setting up, running, and viewing results. The Viewing Results exercise is supplied with a completed analysis, and focuses entirely on results visualization. The
Projects and Analyses exercise focuses on using CFdesign for design changes. A
simple analysis is set up, run, and added to a new project. A design change is than
made and added to the project. After running the second analysis, the results are
compared using the Design Review Center.
The examples do not have to be worked in any particular order, but they are
ordered (loosely) in ascending complexity and model size.
The Faucet, the HVAC model, the two Electronic Cooling models, the Heat
Exchanger, the Hot Rod, the Projects exercise, and the Results Viewing exercise
require just the Basic module of CFdesign.
The Transient Valve, Solar Heating, and the Bullet examples require the Advanced
module of Solver. Advanced is an additional set of functionality that includes transient, compressible, and scalar models.
The Centrifugal Pump, Axial Fan, Process Oven, Axial Check Valve, Angular Check
Valve, Oscillating Antenna exercises, and the Nutating Flow Meter require the
Motion Module. This module incorporates the motion of solid objects in the flow.

1-2

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

The 19 examples are listed:

Chapter

Image

Three dimensional assembly

Incompressible Flow
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer
Automatic Mesh Sizing
Automatic forced convection sequencing
Flow volume creation using
Geometry Tools

Chapter 3:
HVAC Duct
System

General direction distributed

resistances
Centrifugal blower material
object
Cylindrical distributed resistance (filter)
Surface Parts to simulate
sheet metal obstructions

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-3

Introduction

Chapter 2:
The Basic
Faucet

Topics

Introduction

Chapter
Chapter 4:
Electronics
Cooling:
Forced

Image

Topics
Flow Volume creation using
Geometry Tools
Small Object Removal
Creation and use of Groups
Total Heat Generation
boundary condition
Conjugate and convection
heat transfer
Internal Fans and Resistance materials
Material Database
Component Temperature
Report output
Monitor Points
Surface Parts to simulate
contact resistance
Compact Thermal Model

Chapter 5:
Electronics
Cooling:
Buoyancy

Buoyancy-driven flow
Creation of external flow
volume using Geometry
Tools
Total heat generation
boundary condition
Incompressible, turbulent,
steady state flow
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer
Surface Parts to simulate
contact resistance
Compact Thermal Model

1-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

Chapter

Image

Multiple, non-contacting fluids

Automated staged forced
convection
Extrusion Meshing

Chapter 7:
External
Aerodynamics--Car

External flow
Incompressible, turbulent,
steady state flow
Symmetric Model
Mesh Refinement Region
Mirroring function

Chapter 8:
Projects

Creation of projects and

adding analyses to projects.
Copying settings from one
analysis to another within
the same project.
Viewing results from multiple analyses in the Design
Review Center.
Creating a Project Report

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-5

Introduction

Chapter 6:
Heat
Exchanger

Topics

Introduction

Chapter
Chapter 9:
Viewing
Results

Image

Topics
Cutting Surfaces
Offset and morphing nonplanar cutting surfaces
Probing on wall surfaces
Surface blanking
Particle Traces, Bulk
Results, and XY Plots
Iso Surfaces
Model Mirroring
Wall Results
Dynamic Images

Chapter 10:
Transient
Heat Transfer: Valve
(Requires
Advanced
Module)

Transient loads
Transient Analysis
Results visualization and
animation.
Initial Conditions
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer

Chapter 11:
Solar Heating

Steady-state radiative heating

(Requires
Advanced
Module)

Selection of geographical
location, date, and time for
Solar heating
Adjustment of mesh distribution on parts

1-6

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

Chapter

Image

(Requires
Advanced
Module)

Chapter 13:
Centrifugal
Pump
(Requires
Motion Module)

Chapter 14:
Axial Fan
(Periodic
Symmetry)
(Requires
Motion Module)

CFdesign Examples Guide

Compressible, turbulent,
external flow.
Axisymmetric (2D)
Material creation
Supersonic flow with a
shock
A great example of Intelligent Solution Control making things easy.
Rotating Machinery
Transient Analysis
Non-impulsive start-up
technique
Setting the time step size
equal to single blade pass

Rotating Machinery
Transient Analysis
Periodic Boundary Conditions

1-7

Introduction

Chapter 12:
External
Compressible
Flow

Topics

Introduction

Chapter
Chapter 15:
Conveyor
Oven
(Requires
Motion Module)

Chapter 16:
Axial Check
Valve
(Requires
Motion Module)

Image

Topics
Moving Solids
Transient Analysis
Initial Conditions
Heat Transfer

Moving Objects
Flow-Driven Linear Motion
Spring Resistive Force
Setting Bounds
Setting the Initial Position
The Motion Output Table

Chapter 17:
Oscillating
Antenna

Moving Objects

(Requires
Motion Module)

Applying an Initial Position

1-8

User-Prescribed Angular
Motion
The Motion Output Table

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

Chapter

Image

Topics
Moving Surface Parts

(Requires
Motion Module)

Flow-Driven Angular Motion

Automatic flow-volume creation

Torsion Spring Resistive
Force
Setting Angular Bounds
The Motion Output Table

Chapter 19:
Raising an
Oscillating
Antenna
(Requires
Motion Module)

Chapter 20:
Nutating Flow
Meter
(Requires
Motion Module)

CFdesign Examples Guide

Moving Objects
User-Prescribed Combined
Linear and Angular Motion
User-Prescribed Linear
Motion
Applying an Initial Position
The Motion Output Table

Moving Objects
Edge Merge Geometry Tool
Flow-Driven Nutating Motion
The Motion Output Table

1-9

Introduction

Chapter 18:
Angular
Check Valve

Introduction

1.3
1.3.1

Starting CFdesign
From the CAD System

After opening the model, launch CFdesign from your CAD system:
Wildfire

Applications_CFdesign *See below

Solid Works

CFdesign icon

Solid Edge

CFdesign icon

Inventor

Tools_InventorCFdesign_Launch CFdesign

UGNX

Analysis_Launch CFdesign 10.0:

CATIA V5

CFdesign icon

CoCreate
One Space
Designer

Tools_Toolbox_CFdesign Launcher
A dialog will appear containing two modes:
Selection Mode: Solid parts and assemblies must
be selected to be exported. Note that face parts and
wire parts will not be launched to CFdesign.
As Displayed Mode: All solid parts in the
selected viewports drawlist will be exported.

SpaceClaim

1-10

CFdesign icon (in the CFdesign tab)

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

You will be prompted to enter an analysis name. This name can be different from
the CAD model name.

1.3.2.1

The Pro/E Wildfire Launcher

AutoPrep

When launching from Pro/E, a small application will start that helps guide the
launch process. This tool is called AutoPrep, and contains four primary functions:

Modification of the length units of all components to ensure consistency

Setting of consistent absolute accuracy
Removal of part interferences
Selection of launch method--Granite or Mechanica

These tools are designed to automate certain steps that are often required to successfully launch geometry from Pro/Engineer. None of the models in this example
suite require any additional modification, and will launch simply by clicking the
CFdesign button on the AutoPrep dialog.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-11

Introduction

1.3.2

Introduction

1.3.2.2

Granite or Mechanica

There are two mechanisms for launching geometry from Pro/E: Granite and
Mechanica. Most of the examples in this suite will automatically use the Granite
method. Launching with this method allows the Pro/E interface to remain active
after launching into CFdesign. There are some limitations concerning the use of surface parts with this method, however, and for that reason the HVAC model automatically uses the Mechanica launch method. More information about Granite is
available in the CAD Connection chapter of the Users Guide.

1.3.3

Starting From the Desktop or Start Menu

Launching CFdesign from the Desktop is useful when using either of the geometry
kernel formats--Acis or Parasolid:
CFdesign icon on Desktop or
Start Menu
Start CFdesign.
Click the New icon.
On the Create Analysis or
Project dialog:

1. Select the parasolid (.x_t) or

acis (.sat) file

2. Make sure Analysis is
selected.
3. Enter an analysis name in
the Name field.
4. Click Open.

1-12

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

1.4

Mouse Navigation

A summary of the four mouse modes is presented in the following tables. The convention in this table refers to the mouse buttons and the roller wheel as follows:
Right Mouse Button

Left Mouse Button

Middle Mouse Button and

Scroll Wheel

Mouse

CFdesign Mode:
Zoom

Ctrl + Left Mouse Button

Rotate

Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button

Pan

Ctrl + Right Mouse Button

Wheel Zoom

Scroll Wheel rotate

Select/Deselect

Left Mouse Button

Rubberband Select

Middle Mouse Button drag (New in v10)

Blank an entity

Right Mouse Button

Unblank all entities

Right Mouse Button off model

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-13

Introduction

There are five available modes: one is the traditional CFdesign mode, three are
modeled after CAD-tool mouse modes (Wildfire, Inventor, and Solid Works), and a
fifth mode, CAD Dependent, automatically changes the mouse mode to correspond
to the CAD tool from which the model was launched (Wildfire, Inventor, and Solid
Works). Mouse modes are chosen from the Navigation Mode menu of the
File_Preferences_User Interface dialog.

Introduction

Unblank an entity (undo/

redo blank history)

Ctrl + Scroll Wheel (New in v10)

Rubberband zoom

Shift + Left Mouse Button

Align to Surface

Shift + Right Mouse Button

Roll about Center Z

Shift + Middle Mouse Button (New in v10)

Inventor Mode:
Zoom

F3 + Left Mouse Button

Rotate

F4 + Left Mouse Button

Pan

F2 + Left Mouse Button (and Middle Mouse)

Wheel Zoom

Scroll Wheel rotate

Select/Deselect

Left Mouse Button

Rubberband Select

Ctrl + Left Mouse Button

Blank an entity

Right Mouse Button

Unblank all entities

Right Mouse Button off model

Unblank an entity (undo/

redo blank history)

Ctrl + Scroll Wheel (New in v10)

Rubberband zoom

Shift + Left Mouse Button

Align to Surface

Shift + Right Mouse Button

Roll about Center Z

Shift + Middle Mouse Button

Wildfire Mode:
Zoom

Cntl + Middle Mouse Button

Rotate

Middle Mouse Button

Pan

Shift + Middle Mouse Button

Wheel Zoom

Scroll Wheel rotate

Select/Deselect

Left Mouse Button

Rubberband Select

Ctrl + Left Mouse Button

Blank an entity

Right Mouse Button

Unblank all entities

Right Mouse Button off model

1-14

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

Ctrl + Scroll Wheel (New in v10)

Rubberband zoom

Shift + Left Mouse Button

Align to Surface

Shift + Right Mouse Button

Roll about Center Z

n/a

Introduction

Unblank an entity (undo/

redo blank history)

Solid Works Mode:

Zoom

Shift + Middle Mouse Button

Rotate

Middle Mouse Button

Pan

Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button

Wheel Zoom

Scroll Wheel rotate

Select/Deselect

Left Mouse Button

Rubberband Select

Ctrl + Left Mouse Button

Blank an entity

Right Mouse Button

Unblank all entities

Right Mouse Button off model

Unblank an entity (undo/

redo blank history)

Ctrl + Scroll Wheel (New in v10)

Rubberband zoom

Shift + Left Mouse Button

Align to Surface

Shift + Right Mouse Button

Roll about Center Z

n/a

1.5

CAD Attributes

When launching from Wildfire, Inventor, or Solid Works, you will notice that certain
aspects of the view from the CAD model are preserved when CFdesign is first
started. The background color and mouse mode of the launching CAD tool are automatically enabled within CFdesign. Additionally, the model orientation and part colors also are consistent between the launching CAD and the CFdesign session.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-15

Introduction

1.6

Entity Selection

Shown is the selection region of the Loads, Mesh Size, and Materials task dialogs.
Selection Mode

Selection method

Select All

Group Selection

Deselect
highlighted

Selection List
Deselect All

1.7

Select Previously selected entities

Viewing Results

A more detailed explanation of result visualization is presented in the Results Viewing exercise and the Results Visualization chapter of the Users Guide. This section
provides a basic overview of some of the CFdesign visualization tools.
Results can be inspected during and after the analysis. Change
to the Results task. Cutting planes, iso surfaces, wall results
can all be evaluated during the analysis

1-16

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

1.7.1

Global Controls--Scalars

The Global_Scalar dialog controls results appearance throughout the model:

Legend Range

The global scalar result

and units

Number of legend
levels
Part-dependent legend
range

Contour controls

Filtering controls

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-17

Introduction

The displayed iteration

or time step

Introduction

1.7.2

Global Controls--Vectors

The Global_Vector dialog controls how vectors appear in the results view:

Global Vector result to

be displayed
Attributes to control
all vectors
Toggle to show global
vectors
Clamping
(all vectors)
Filtering
(all vectors)
Toggle and control
for uniform length
(all vectors)

1-18

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

1.7.3

Cutting Surfaces

1. Add and Remove Cut Surfaces with the

Add and Remove buttons. Activate a cut surface by selecting it from the list. (Controls
apply to the active surface.)

2. Select the result quantity from the Result

pull-down menu. Be sure to select Planar.

3. Position the cut surface normal to a Carte-

sian direction by pressing the X, Y, or Z buttons.

3
4

4. Move and Rotate the cut surface as needed

with the mouse controls.

5. Align the cut surface to the model by first

clicking the Surface Align button, and then
click on the desired surface.

6. Change the Appearance of the cut surface

with the controls to show it shaded, with vectors, etc.

7. Adjust the Vector Density to show more or

fewer vectors.

8. Optional: Move or Rotate the cut surface

with the Move and Rotate tools. These tools
are useful for precisely locating the cut surface.

More details about results viewing are presented in the Results Visualization Exercise.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-19

Introduction

The most versatile visualization entity is the Cutting Surface. These are controlled
with the Cut Surface tab of the Results dialog task:

Introduction

1.7.4

Surface Probing

To probe on the surface of the object, switch to Surface Blanking by clicking the
Surface Peel icon and blank away the walls of any surrounding geometry:

Result values can be probed on any surface--walls, openings, slip faces, internal
fluid surfaces, etc., by hovering the mouse over the area of interest and holding
down the shift and control keys simultaneously. The value of the active scalar is
displayed on the Status bar:

To probe on a cutting plane, hover the mouse over the cutting plane, and hold the
shift key. The results are also displayed in the Status bar.

1-20

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

1.7.5

Wall Results

Select the Wall button on the Results task.

Introduction

1. Select desired surfaces. Pickable surfaces

are any wall surface as well as openings (inlets

and outlets). The IDs of selected surfaces are
shown in the List Region.
When the Selection Mode is Volume, volumes
will highlight when hovered over, and can be
selected. Note that the surfaces belonging to
the picked volume are actually be added to the
selection list.
Groups of surfaces are selected from the
Selection Basis menu.Note that the group
must exist prior to running the last set of iterations. If not, simply run 0 iterations to force
the model to re-process.

2. Select the quantities and desired units to

output. Choices include Forces, Temperature,

Heat Flux, Pressure, Film Coefficient, and
Torque. (Description of each follows.)

3. Click the Calculate button.

Wall results are shown on the Output tab.

1.7.6

Animating Transient Analyses

Several of the examples are transient (time-varying) and have multiple time steps
saved during the analysis. This procedure describes how to animate saved time
steps.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-21

Introduction

To animate multiple time steps, we need to activate some or all of the saved sets.
To do this, switch to the Review task dialog, and click the Results tab
The Results dialog lists saved results sets and/
or time steps in the Available group.

1. Move sets from the Available group to the

Active group to make them part of the animation.There are three ways to select sets:
Directly from the list (Windowsstandard control-left click to select certain sets) and hit the Down button to
move.
Enter the range and increment in
the Parametric Selection section and
hit the Move button.
Hit the All Down button.
2. After selections are made, hit the Apply
button.
3. After an animation occurs, hit the Reset
button to regain control in the dialog.

To clear the Active list, hit the All Up button.

To remove certain steps, select them and hit
the Up button.

1-22

CFdesign Examples Guide

Introduction

Once result sets are made Active on the Results tab, hit the Animate tab to view the
animation:
Introduction

Play Forward
Play In Reverse
Single Frame
Reverse

Stop

Single Frame
Advance

Pause

Use the VCR controls to control the animation. Animated files can be played forward or in reverse as well as stopped, paused, and advanced by frame forward or
reverse. Click the Cycle box to alternate between playing the animation forward
and then in reverse.
The speed of the animation is controlled with the Frame Interval value (in milliseconds).
Use the controls on the Results task dialog to set up the view. Results objects can
be added, removed, and manipulated during the animation. Additionally, cutting
plane bulk data can be output for all active sets during an animation.

CFdesign Examples Guide

1-23

Introduction

1.8

Convergence Assessment

The Convergence Monitor in the Output Bar is a plot of the summary values of each
degree of freedom. As the calculation progresses, each curve should tend toward
horizontal. This is a quick qualitative way to determine if a solution is converged.

By default, Automatic Convergence Assessment determines when the solution has

stopped changing, and then automatically stops the analysis. Note that the criteria
used by Automatic Convergence Assessment tend to be quite conservative. In
some analyses, the results may be changing by such an amount that the Automatic
Assessment is not satisfied, but the solution itself is hardly changing, and would be
considered converged if assessed manually. Engineering judgement should be
applied in such a situation, and we recommend that you carefully assess the convergence of each quantity as described below.
To evaluate each quantity individually, select it from the Quantity List. The average
minimum and maximum value of the quantity will be shown as the range on the Yaxis of the plot.
The range of displayed iterations is changed by modifying the iteration number in
the Start and End fields. (Key in a new number and hit the keyboard Enter
key.) Changing this range (especially increasing the displayed Start iteration number) is useful for assessing how much a quantity changes over the last several iterations. A good guideline to follow when assessing convergence is that the quantities
change less than 5% over the last 20% of the total iterations.

1-24

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 2

2.1

The Basic Faucet

Introduction

In this example, we will model water flow through a simplified model of a household
faucet. A hot stream and a cold stream enter the device, combine in the mixing
region, and flow out the outlet. The pipe and mixing divider are made of copper.
The CAD model is composed of only the solid parts and caps on the three openings.
These parts fully enclose the void where the water flows, and when CFdesign reads
the model, it will automatically create the flow volume.
The mesh will be defined automatically using the Automatic Mesh Sizing. The flow
and thermal solutions will be run separately, but the transition between the two will
be automatic.

2.2

Key Topics
Three dimensional assembly
Incompressible Flow
Creation of flow volume using Geometry Tools
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer
Automatic Mesh Sizing
Automatic forced convection sequencing
Automatic flow volume creation

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2-1

Basic Faucet

2.3

Geometry Description

The analysis geometry consists of two parts: the Pipe and the Mixer/Divider.
Inlet Opening
Pipe Part
Inlet Opening

Mixer/Divider Part

Outlet opening
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\faucet sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire (use Granite Launch Configuration)

Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the faucet assembly (faucet part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the
appropriate folder.

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Basic Faucet

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\faucet

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\faucet

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

2.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

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2-3

Basic Faucet

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.

Basic Faucet

2.5

Flow Volume Creation

Skip this step if launching from CATIA v5.

The two parts in this model are solids. We will use the Geometry Tools to cap the
openings, which will then create the flow volume. Switch to the Geometry task,
and select the Void Fill tab:
Cap the three openings:

Select one of the inner edges of the first opening.

The other edge will automatically be selected.
Click the Build Surface button.
Select an inner edge of the other Inlet:

Click the Build Surface button.

Select one inner edge of the Outlet opening:

Click the Build Surface button.

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Basic Faucet

Create the flow volume by clicking the Fill Void

button.
In the Output Bar, you should see the following
line:
There was 1 additional part generated.

(Note that the precise number of the newly created part can vary based on the
launching CAD tool.)

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2-5

Basic Faucet

There are now three parts in the model. You can verify this in the model and in the
Parts branch of the Feature Tree. (A CFD part will be included in the part list.)

Basic Faucet

2.6

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Velocity:

Inlets:

Select the two Inlet Faces.

Type = Velocity
Unit = mm/s
Velocity Magnitude = 7500
Click Apply.

High Temperature Inlet:

Temperature:

Select the high temperature inlet.

Type = Temperature
Unit = Celsius
Magnitude = 50
Click Apply.

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Basic Faucet

Low Temperature Inlet:

Temperature:

Select the high temperature inlet.

Type = Temperature
Unit = Celsius
Basic Faucet

Magnitude = 7
Click Apply.

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the Outlet Face.

Type = Pressure
Unit = Pa
Magnitude = 0
Click Apply.

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Basic Faucet

2.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

2.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

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Basic Faucet

Pipe and Divider:

Material Assignment:

Select the pipe wall:

Basic Faucet

Right click on it to blank it.

Right click on the flow part to blank it.
Select the divider part:

Type = Solid
Name = Copper_Variable
Click Apply.

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Basic Faucet

Material Assignment:

Flow Part:
Right click somewhere off the model to re-display all parts.
Right click on the pipe part to blank it.
Select the flow part:

Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Constant
Click Apply.
Note that there should be two copper parts and one water part. No parts should be
assigned air.

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2.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

By default, Flow is On.

Set Heat Transfer to On.
Check Auto Forced Convection.

Basic Faucet

Auto Forced Convection will cause the analysis to automatically run in two stages. The
first stage will be flow-only (without heat
transfer). The second stage will solve only
for heat transfer, and will run for 10 iterations.
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the calculation.

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Basic Faucet

(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 300.)
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
Note: To view the mesh prior to starting the analysis, set the number of Iterations
to Run to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

2.10

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

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Basic Faucet

Left: velocity on a cutting plane. Right: temperature on cutting planes; parts

shaded with temperature, and shown with transparency.

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2-13

Basic Faucet

Left: particle traces showing flow patterns through the faucet, and colored by temperature. Right: temperature iso surface showing band of constant temperature
throughout the device.

Basic Faucet

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CHAPTE R 3

3.1

HVAC Duct System

Introduction

This analysis features an HVAC duct system. Air is ducted through several filters
and a centrifugal blower before being expelled through two delivery tubes. In this
exercise, we will explore how to use a centrifugal blower material type as well as a
cylindrical distributed resistance. Both of these material objects are sensitive to the
settings applied on the Materials Task dialog, so please pay particular attention
when defining these objects.
Additionally, we will use Surface Parts to simulate the presence of thin-walled sheet
metal guide vanes in the duct. In the Wildfire, SolidWorks, and Parasolid versions of
the geometry, the guide vanes were modeled with surfaces that were not a part of
any 3D part in the respective CAD tools. In Inventor, CATIA, Solid Edge, and Acis,
three dimensional volumes were constructed such that their sides are where the
guide vanes are located. These volumes will be treated as fluid regions, and the
sides will be assigned a solid material. This is a different way to use Surface Parts in
a CFdesign analysis model.

3.2

Key Topics
General direction distributed resistances
Centrifugal blower material object
Cylindrical distributed resistance (filter)
Surface Parts to simulate sheet metal obstructions

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HVAC System

3.3

Geometry Description

This geometry consists of the air volumes as well as the internal components. Typical CAD geometry would contain the duct walls as well, but they have been omitted
from this analysis:
Centrifugal Blower

Cylindrical Filter

Surface Parts
(Guide Vanes)

Inlet

Inlet Filter

Outlet
Outlet
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\hvac sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:
Pro/Engineer Wildfire (You must use the Mechanica launch configuration for this model because it contains surface parts.)
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

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HVAC System

Open the hvac assembly (hvac part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\hvac

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\hvac

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

3.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:
HVAC System

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.

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HVAC System

Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

3.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Pressure:

Inlet and Outlets:

Make sure that Surface selection is

active. Select the Inlet Face and two
outlet faces.
Type = Pressure
Units = psi
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

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HVAC System

3.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

We need to refine the mesh on the centrifugal blower. Do this by selecting the
blower part:

Size Adjustment:

HVAC System

Move the Slide Adjustment slider to 0.5.

Click the Apply button.
Click the Spread Changes Button to
finish the command.

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HVAC System

3.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Note: By default, all volumes are initially assigned Air-Constant. The flow parts in
this model contain air, so we only have to change the two filters (resistances),
blower, and the guide vanes.

3.7.1

Inlet Filter

Before we can assign a material to the inlet filter, we have to create a resistance
material. Change the Type to Resistance. Click the Edit Material button:

This opens the Material Editor.

Enter the name Inlet-Filter
in the Name field.
Click the Through-Flow K
button.
Variation Method = Constant
Value = 50. Click Apply.
Click the Normal Direction 1
K button.
Variation Method = Constant
Value = 100000. Click
Apply.
Repeat for Normal Direction 2 K
Click OK.

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HVAC System

Inlet Filter:

Material Assignment:

Select the filter.

Type = Resistance
Name = Inlet-Filter
Flow Direction: Open the pop-out,
and click the Select Surface button.
Select a surface on the filter normal
to the flow.
Normal Dir 1 = Global Y
Click Apply.

HVAC System

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HVAC System

3.7.2

Centrifugal Pump/Blower

Before we can assign a material to the blower, we have to create a centrifugal

pump/blower material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to Centrifugal
Pump/Blower. Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name blower in the
Name field.
Click the Flow Rate button.
Variation Method = Constant.
Value= 25. Units= m3/min
Click Apply.
Click the Rotational Speed
button.
Variation Method = Constant.
Value = 8000. Units = RPM
Click Apply.
Click OK.

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HVAC System

Blower:

Material Assignment:

Select the blower. (You may have to blank

the blower housing.)
Type = Centrifugal Pump/Blower
Name = Blower

1. Open the Axis of Rotation pop-out.

Pick the surface normal to the flow. The
unit vector should be 0,0,1.

2. Open the Inlet pop-out. Pick the blower

inlet.

On Inventor-, Acis-, and Pro/Ebased models, the outlet is comprised of two surfaces; on others,
there is only one surface.

3. Open the Outlet pop-out. Pick the outlet surface(s). Close the pop-out.
Click Apply.

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HVAC System

(Note: The surface IDs shown here

may not match the IDs on your
analysis model.)

HVAC System

3.7.3

Cylindrical Filter

Before we can assign a material to the cylindrical filter, we have to create a resistance material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to Resistance. Click
the Edit Material button.
Enter the name cyl-filter in
the Name field.
Click the Through-Flow K
button.
Variation Method = Constant
Value = 700. Click Apply.
Click the Normal Direction 1
K button.
Variation Method = Constant
Value = 100000. Click Apply.
Repeat for Normal Direction
2 K.
Click OK.
Cylindrical Filter:

Material Assignment:

Blank the filter housing, and select the cylindrical filter.

Type = Resistance
Name = cyl-filter
Open the Flow Direction pop-out, and click the
Radial button.
Now, select the axial flow direction by clicking
on a planar surface of the filter.
Click Apply.

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HVAC System

3.7.4

Guide Vanes

The guide vanes are very thin sheet metal parts within the duct. Instead of modeling them with thin solid parts, we will use surface parts. Geometrically, the parts
are surfaces, but the results on the two sides of each surface part will be unique.
(Note that we will assign a thickness, but this is does not affect the geometry or the
flow--it is only used for heat transfer analyses as a way to simulate conduction
across a thin part.)
Guide Vanes:

Surface Assignment:

HVAC System

Blank the Inlet Duct. Switch to Surface

Selection mode. Select the surfaces of
the guide vanes (9 in all).
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminium_Constant
Shell Thickness = 1 mm
Click Apply.

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HVAC System

3.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

The default settings in the Analysis Options section are suitable for a flow-only
solution.
Make sure the Iterations to run = 100
(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise. This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that
the Automatic Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 200.)
Click Go to start the simulation.
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from Wildfire or CATIA, the CAD interface will appear
during the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

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3.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

Velocity Vectors

HVAC System

Pressure Contours

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HVAC System

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CHAPTE R 4

4.1

Electronics Cooling: Forced

Introduction

This example features an electronics system containing numerous components. The

solid geometry was created in the CAD tool, and the air volume is created automatically by CFdesign. This analysis uses groups as a way to simplify dealing with large
numbers of objects.

4.2

Key Topics
Three dimensional assembly
Incompressible, turbulent, steady state flow
Automatic Flow Volume creation
Creation and use of Groups
Total heat generation boundary condition
Conjugate and convection heat transfer
Representing chips with a Compact Thermal Model material
Modeling printed circuit boards with the PCB Calculator
Thermoelectric Cooling Device (TEC)
Internal Fans and Resistance materials
Surface Parts to simulate contact resistance

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

4.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown from two angles. Note that the casing is shown in outline mode
for clarity:
internal fan

fan shroud
heat sink
(1 on each board)
TEC Device
(1 on each board)
medium chips
(1 on each board)
pcb (2)

baffle

small chips-Compact
Thermal Model material
(6 on each board)
Outlet (to be capped)

casing
(shown as outline)
power board

transformer
capacitors (3)

One Air part is created

automatically by CFdesign
with the Geometry Tools.
Inlet

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

The CAD geometry for this exercise consists of just the physical solids such as the
housing, circuit boards, and chips. The openings are capped off so that the internal
cavity is completely enclosed. Because of this, CFdesign will automatically create
the flow volume needed for the analysis.
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\electronics sub-folder of
your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the electronics assembly (electronics part in UGNX) in your CAD system
from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\electronics

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\electronics

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.

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4-3

Electronics Cooling

4.4

Electronics Cooling: Forced

If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

4.5

Flow Volume Creation

Skip this step if launching from CATIA v5.

There are two distinct fluid regions in this model. One is created automatically when
the model is opened into CFdesign because it is fully enclosed by the casing, inlet
fan, and baffle:

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

The other is not fully bounded, so we will have to use the Void Fill Geometry Tool to
create the internal fluid volume. This is done by first creating a surface at the opening. This will cause the flow volume to be fully enclosed, so we can then use the
Geometry tool fill the void.
Switch to the Geometry Tools task dialog, and open the Void Fill tab:
Flow volume near the outlet:

Void Fill

Begin by capping the Outlet opening:

Select two edges on the outlet that share a
vertex. After two are selected, the other two
will automatically be selected.
Click the Build Surface button.
Click the Fill Void button.
(Note that the edge ID numbers will vary with
the CAD model.)
The result is a volume between that is bounded by the baffle and the outlet surface:

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4-5

Electronics Cooling

The other flow volume to create is a small one upstream of the internal fan. This is
needed because a boundary condition cannot be applied directly to an internal fan
material device.

Electronics Cooling: Forced

4.6

Group Creation

In this section, we will create groups of similar components such as the small chips.
Later, these groups will be very useful for assigning boundary conditions, mesh
sizes, and materials.
Groups are created through the feature tree, and parts can be added to groups
using several different methods. We will use Selection By Name, Parts Branch
Selection, and Direct Geometric Selection:
Selection by Name:

Open the Feature Tree Task:

Group of small chips

1. Right-click on the Groups

branch of the feature tree, and
select Create Group.

Type in small chips for the group

name. Leave the Type as Geometric.
Click Ok.
2. On the feature tree, right click on
the small chips group of the Groups
branch, and select Add by Name.

3. In the Add by Name dialog, check

the Regular Expression box, and type:
S-CHIP. Click Ok.
The small chips group on the feature
tree should now contain all of the small
chip parts.

Check your groups by right clicking on the group name (in the feature tree), and
select Display Group Only. To display all parts again, click in the Graphics window
off of the model.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Part Branch Selection:

Group of medium chips

1. Expand the Parts branch of the feature

tree. Select one of the parts called M-CHIP.
2. Right click, and select Add to Group.
Select Create Group.
3. On the Create Group dialog, enter
medium chips as the group name. Leave
the Type as Geometric. Click Ok.
4. Right click on the other M-CHIP part,
select Add to Group, and select the Medium
Chips group just created.
Note: the part names in the feature tree will
look a little different depending on the geometry/CAD type.

Direct Geometric Selection:

Group of boards

1. On the Boundary Condition task, switch to

volume selection, and select the three
boards. (You will have to blank the casing
and air parts.)
2. Click the Group Operation icon, and select
Create New Group.
3. On the Add to Group dialog, enter boards
as the group name. Leave the Type as Geometric. Click Ok.
The boards group will be created and populated with the three board parts that were
graphically selected
Electronics Cooling

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

4.7

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Pressure:

Inlet:

Make sure that the Surface is the selection mode, and select the Inlet Face.
Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0

Temperature:

Click Apply.
Select the Inlet again, or use Previous
Select.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 25
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the Outlet Face.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Magnitude = 0
Click Apply.
Small Chips:

Total Heat Generation:

Select Volume as the selection mode.

Electronics Cooling

Select the small chip group from the

Selection Basis menu.
Type = Total Heat Generation
Units = W
Total Heat Generation= 2
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Total Heat Generation:

Medium Chips:

Select the medium chip group from the

Selection Basis menu.
Type = Total Heat Generation
Units = W
Total Heat Generation= 5
Click Apply.

Total Heat Generation:

Capacitors:

Select the three capacitors (as a group) or

graphically
Type = Total Heat Generation
Units = W
Total Heat Generation= 3
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Transformer:

Total Heat Generation:

Select the transformer

Type = Total Heat Generation; Units =
W
Total Heat Generation= 10
Click Apply.

Electronics Cooling

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

4.8

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

We need to coarsen the mesh on the

three capacitors. Do this by selecting
the three capacitors:

Size Adjustment:

Move the Slide Adjustment slider to

about 2.
Click the Apply button.
Click the Spread Changes Button to
finish the command.
This last step will reduce the model size by reducing the mesh density on the
capacitors where it is not as critical to the flow. If we did want to study the detailed
flow distribution around the capacitors, we would use the finer mesh distribution.

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4.9

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Note: By default, all volumes are initially assigned constant air. The flow parts in
this model contain air, so we only have to change the solid parts, the resistance,
and the fans.
Outer Casing, Fan Bracket, Heat Sinks,
Capacitors, and Transformer:

Material Assignment:

Select the outer casing, fan bracket, two

heat sinks, capacitors, and transformer.
(Hint: Blank the top board to see the second
heat sink)
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Click Apply.
Electronics Cooling

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Creating the PCB device. Before we can assign a material to the circuit boards,
we have to create a PCB material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to
Printed Circuit Boards. Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name Board in the Name field.

Step 1

1. Click the Total PCB Thickness button.

Value = 1.6. Units = mm.

Click Apply.

2. Click the Traces and Planes button.

Material = Copper_Constant
Layer 1: Thickness = 0.07;% metal= 20

Step 2

Layer 2: Thickness = 0.035;% metal = 95

Layer 3: Thickness = 0.07;% metal = 20
Layer 4: Thickness = 0.035;% metal = 95
Coverage Exponent = 2
Click Apply.

3. Click the Dielectric button.

The default material is called FR4. This is a
standard dielectric material used in many
PCB applications.
The effective properties are then computed
automatically, and shown on the left side of
the Material Editor dialog.

Step 3

Click OK to close the dialog.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Boards:

Material Assignment:

Select the boards group from the Selection Basis menu.

Type = Printed Circuit Boards
Name = Board
Click Apply.

Creating the Compact Thermal Model device. Before we can assign a material
to the chips, we have to create a Compact Thermal Model material. Dont select any
parts, but change the Type to Compact Thermal Model. Click the Edit Material
button.
Enter the name Chip in the
Name field.
Click the Theta JB button.
Value = 40. Units = C/W.
Click Apply.
Click the Theta JC button.
Value = 0.65. Units = C/W.
Electronics Cooling

Click Apply.
Click OK.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Material Assignment:

Small Chips:

Select the small chips group from the

Selection Basis menu.
Type = Compact Thermal Model
Name = Chip
Click Apply.

Material Assignment:

Medium Chips:

Select the medium chips group from the

Selection Basis menu.
Type = Solid
Name = Silicon_Constant
Click Apply.

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Creating the Baffle device. Before we can assign a material to the baffle, we
have to create a resistance material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type
to Resistance. Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name Baffle in the Name
field.
Click the Through-Flow K button.
Variation Method = Free Area Ratio
Value = 0.25. Click Apply.
Click the Normal Direction 1 K button.
Variation Method = Free Area Ratio
Value = 0. Click Apply.
Repeat for Normal Direction 2 K
Click the Conductivity button.
Value = 0.2 W/mm-K. Click Apply.
Click OK.
Perforated Plate:

Material Assignment:

Electronics Cooling

Select the filter.

Type = Resistance
Name = Baffle
Flow Direction: From the pop-out dialog,
select Global Z
Normal Direction 1 = Global X
Normal Direction 2 = Global Y
Click Apply.
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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Creating the Internal Fan device. Before we can assign a material to the fans,
we have to create an internal fan material. Dont select any parts, but change the
Type to Internal Fan/Pump. Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name fan in the Name
field.
Click the Flow Rate button.
Variation Method = Constant.
Value = 0.56. Units = m3/min
Click Apply.
(For this exercise, we will omit a
rotation speed.)
Click OK.

Internal Fan:

Material Assignment:

Select the fan. (You may have to blank the

fan bracket.)
Type = Internal Fan/Pump
Name = Fan
Flow Direction = Global X (Set this with
the pop-out dialog.)
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

The next step is to assign a surface material to simulate the presence of an adhesive layer between the chips and the board.
Creating the Adhesive Material. Before we can assign the adhesive material, we
have to create a new solid material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to
Solid. Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name adhesive in the
Name field.
Click the X-Direction button.
Select the Resistivity bullet.
Value = 6.35 K-mm/W.
Click Apply.
Click OK.

Electronics Cooling

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4-19

Electronics Cooling: Forced

Material Assignment:

Adhesive Layers:

Blank the chips and the heat sink on the top

board. Change the Selection Mode to Surface. Select the seven contact surfaces on
the board.
Type = Solid
Name = adhesive
Shell Thickness = 0.5 mm
Click Apply.
To assign the Adhesive material to the contact surfaces for the chips on the bottom
board:
Switch back to Volume selection mode.
Blank the top board and chips on the bottom board,
Switch back to Surface Selection mode.
Assign the Adhesive material to the contact surfaces, and use a shell
thickness of 0.5 mm.

Optional: apply an adhesive layer to the capacitors on the other board. (Blank the
capacitors, switch to Surface selection, and assign the Adhesive part to the surfaces
shared by the board and each capacitor.)

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

Assigning the Thermoelectric Component (TEC).

For this exercise, we will use one of the sample TEC devices included with CFdesign.
TEC Devices:

Material Assignment:

Select the top TEC part as shown.

Type = Thermoelectric Component
Name = Sample1
TEC Surface: Open the pop-out dialog, and
select the surface of the TEC device that
touches the chip.
Click Apply.

The TEC device will remove more

heat from the chip to the heat
sink than straight conduction
would.

Repeat for the lower TEC part:

Electronics Cooling

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

4.10

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

By default, Flow is On.
Set Heat Transfer to On.
Check Staged Forced Convection.
Auto Forced Convection will cause the analysis to automatically run in two stages. The
first stage will be flow-only (without heat
transfer). The second stage will solve only
for heat transfer, and will run for 10 iterations.
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the analysis.

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Electronics Cooling: Forced

(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 500.)
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

4.11

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

Electronics Cooling

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4-23

Electronics Cooling: Forced

Shown are velocity and temperature results. Available in Review_Notes, the Component Thermal Summary file lists the mean, max, and min temperature of each
component in the device.
Temperature Contours

The mesh

Velocity Vectors colored

by temperature and
Solid Temperatures

4-24

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CHAPTE R 5

5.1

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Introduction

This exercise is an analysis of the air flow and temperature distribution in and
around a sealed telecommunications module. There are several components inside
the aluminum case, some of which generate heat. The module comes into CFdesign
by itself, and is placed in a large air environment using the External Volume Geometry Tool. The flow around the module is driven by the buoyancy (temperatureinduced density variation) of the air. Fins on the case dissipate heat from the hot
components to the surrounding air.
In this analysis, we will simulate the device in an external application, and leave the
top and bottom of the box open. Ambient temperature will be assigned at the lower
opening of the box.

5.2

Key Topics
Three dimensional assembly
Creation of an external flow part
Incompressible, turbulent, steady state flow
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer
Buoyancy-driven flow
Total heat generation boundary condition
Surface parts to simulate an adhesive layer between components
Compact Thermal Model material type
Printed circuit board material type and property calculator

CFdesign Examples Guide

5-1

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5.3

Geometry Description

The electronic module and the computational domain are shown:

The module consists of an aluminum case, a circuit board, three chips, and a transceiver. The transceiver generates 5 Watts, and the chips generate 2 Watts each.
In this exercise, we will surround the module with a volume of air that is open at
the top and bottom.
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\receiver sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire (use Granite Launch Configuration)

Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the Receiver assembly (receiver-mod part in UGNX) in your CAD system
from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
examples\acis\receiver

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\receiver

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

5.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

5-3

Natural Convection

Acis

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5.5

Flow Volume Creation (External Volume)

Skip this step if launching from CATIA v5.

To model the air flow around the device, we need to immerse it within an air volume. Switch to the Geometry task, and select the Ext. Volume tab.
Construct the External Volume:

Click the X bullet.

Positive Direction = 240
Negative Direction = -80
Click the Y bullet.
Positive Direction = 180
Negative Direction = -20
Click the Z bullet.
Positive Direction = 400
Negative Direction = -200
Click the Create button.

5-4

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5.6

Boundary Conditions
Natural Convection

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Inlet/Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the openings at the top and bottom.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

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5-5

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Temperature:

Inlet:

Select the inlet (bottom opening), and

assign a temperature condition:
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 25
Click Apply.

Heat Generation:

Chips:

Change the selection type to Volume,

and blank the outer air, the case, and
the internal air.
Select the three chip components.
Type = Total Heat Generation
Units = W
Value = 2
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Heat Generation:

Natural Convection

Transceiver:

Select the transceiver.

Type = Total Heat Generation
Units = W
Value = 5
Click Apply.

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5-7

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

5.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Surrounding air and Internal Air:

Material Assignment:

Redisplay all parts, select the outer air part,

and blank it. Blank the case, then select the
internal air part.
Type = Fluid
Name = Air_Buoyancy
Click Apply.

5-8

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Material Assignment:

Natural Convection

Case:

Undo the blanking until the case is showing (use keyboard ctrl + mouse roller
wheel to undo the blanking). Select the
case.
Type = Solid
Name=Aluminum_Constant
Click Apply.

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5-9

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Creating the PCB Material. Before we can assign a material to the circuit boards,
we have to create a PCB material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to
Printed Circuit Boards. Click the Edit Material button.

Enter the name Board in the Name field.

Step 1

1. Click the Total PCB Thickness button.

Value = 1.6. Units = mm.
Click Apply.

2. Click the Traces and Planes button.

Material = Copper_Constant
Layer 1: Thickness = 0.07;% metal= 20

Step 2

Layer 2: Thickness = 0.035;% metal = 95

Layer 3: Thickness = 0.07;% metal = 20
Layer 4: Thickness = 0.035;% metal = 95
Coverage Exponent = 2
Click Apply.

3. Click the Dielectric button.

The default material is called FR4.
The effective properties are then computed
automatically, and shown on the left side of
the Material Editor dialog.
Step 3
Click OK to close the dialog.

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Material Assignment:

Natural Convection

Board:

Select the board.

Type = Printed Circuit Boards
Name = Board
Click Apply.

Transceiver and Top Chip:

Material Assignment:

Blank the case and the internal air part,

and select the transceiver and top chip.
Type = Solid
Name = Silicon_Constant
Click Apply.
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5-11

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Creating the Compact Thermal Model Material. Before we can assign a material to the two chips, we have to create a Compact Thermal Model material. Dont
select any parts, but change the Type to Compact Thermal Model. Click the Edit
Material button.
Enter the name Chip in the
Name field.
Click the Theta JB button.
Value = 40. Units = C/W.
Click Apply.
Click the Theta JC button.
Value = 0.65. Units = C/W.
Click Apply.
Click OK.

Material Assignment:

Chips:

Select the two chips.

Type = Compact Thermal Model
Name = Chip
Click Apply.

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

Enter the name adhesive in the

Name field.
Click the X-Direction button.
Select the Resistivity bullet.
Value = 6.0 K-mm/W.
Click Apply.
Click OK.

Adhesive Layers:

Material Assignment:

Blank the chips and the transceiver.

Change the Selection Mode to Surface.
Select the three contact surfaces on the
board.
Type = Solid
Name = adhesive
Shell Thickness = 0.5 mm
Click Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

5-13

Natural Convection

Creating the Adhesive Material. Before we can assign the adhesive material, we
have to create a new solid material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to
Solid. Click the Edit Material button.

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Flow = On
Heat Transfer = On
Gravity Method = Earth;
Gravity Direction = 0, 0, -1
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the simulation.

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Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

5.10

Results Images

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Velocity Vectors and temperature contours are shown:

CFdesign Examples Guide

5-15

Natural Convection

(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 600.)

Electronics Cooling: Buoyancy

5-16

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 6

6.1

Heat Exchanger

Introduction

In this example, we will set up and run a heat exchanger. Hot water enters the tank
and is cooled by cold water flowing through the tubes. This analysis uses automatic
staged forced convection. Because the tubes are so long, we will employ extruded
meshing through them. This technique greatly reduces the overall model size and
analysis time.

6.2

Key Topics
Extrusion Meshing
Multiple fluids
Automated staged forced convection

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-1

Heat Exchanger

6.3

Geometry Description

The analysis geometry consists of several parts: the tank through which the air
flows, the copper tubes, and the water tube flow volumes.
Hot Inlet
Tank
Cold Inlets

Cold Outlets
4 Copper Tubes
(Water inside)

Hot Outlet

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\heat-exchanger sub-folder

of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the Heat-Exchanger assembly (heat-exchanger part in UGNX) in your CAD

system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

6-2

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Heat Exchanger

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\heat-exchanger

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\heat-exchanger

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

6.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-3

Heat Exchanger

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.

Heat Exchanger

6.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Hot Inlet

Velocity:

Select the Hot Inlet:

Type = Velocity
Units = mm/s
Magnitude = 3800

Temperature:

Click Apply.
Select the air inlet again, or use the Previous Select button.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 93
Click Apply.

6-4

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Heat Exchanger

Cold Inlets

Velocity:

Select the 4 Cold Inlets

Heat Exchanger

Type = Velocity

Temperature:

Units = mm/s
Velocity Magnitude = 5080
Click Apply.
Select the Inlet again, or use the Previous Select button.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 4
Click Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-5

Heat Exchanger

Pressure:

Outlets
Select the four cold outlets and the hot
outlet:

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Magnitude = 0
Click Apply.

6-6

CFdesign Examples Guide

Heat Exchanger

6.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

Heat Exchanger

Extrusion Mesh on Tubes

Extrusion Parameters:

Blank the tank part.

Select the four tube walls and four
tube flow parts:

There should be eight parts selected.

Click the Extrude Mesh button.
The default extrusion parameters are
acceptable for this model.
Click OK on the Extrusion Dialog.

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-7

Heat Exchanger

6.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Copper Parts

Material Assignment:

Blank the tank, and select the four

straight tube walls

Type = Solid
Name = Copper_Constant
Click Apply.

6-8

CFdesign Examples Guide

Heat Exchanger

Water parts

Material Assignment:

Resume the tank and select it.

Heat Exchanger

Now, blank the tank and the four tube

walls, and select the four tube flow parts.

Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Constant
Click Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-9

Heat Exchanger

6.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

By default, Flow is On.
Set Heat Transfer to On.
Check Auto Forced Convection.
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the calculation.

6-10

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Heat Exchanger

Auto Forced Convection will cause the analysis to automatically run in two stages.
The first stage will be flow-only (without heat transfer). The second stage will solve
only for heat transfer, and will run for 10 iterations.
(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 300.)
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.

Note: To view the mesh prior to starting the analysis, set the number of Iterations
to Run to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

6.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-11

Heat Exchanger

After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.

Heat Exchanger

Velocity:

Temperature:

6-12

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Heat Exchanger

The image below shows the extruded mesh on the tubes:

Heat Exchanger

CFdesign Examples Guide

6-13

Heat Exchanger

6-14

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 7

7.1

External Aerodynamics--Car

Introduction

This exercise describes how to analyze external flow aerodynamics. The test object,
a race car, is housed in a wind tunnel, and is subjected to 80 mph air flow. The purpose of the analysis is to understand the air flow characteristics around the body of
the car as well as to obtain the aerodynamically-induced forces on the car surfaces.

7.2

7.3

Key Topics
External flow
Incompressible, turbulent, steady state flow
Mesh Refinement Region
Symmetric geometry and mirroring results about symmetry plane

Geometry Description

The car and the wind tunnel are shown:

CFdesign Examples Guide

7-1

External Aerodynamics--Car

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\car sub-folder of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the car-air part in your CAD system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\car

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\car

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

7.4

Setting Analysis Units

The length unit of this analysis is meters, and that is the default. Nothing needs to
be done for units except for the CATIA-based model.
For the CATIA-based model, select mm as the units system.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

7-2

CFdesign Examples Guide

External Aerodynamics--Car

7.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Inlet:

Velocity:

Select the Inlet Face.

Type = Velocity
Units = mph
Magnitude = 80
(Alternative, velocity = 130 km/h)
Click Apply.
Aerodynamics--Car

CFdesign Examples Guide

7-3

External Aerodynamics--Car

Pressure:

Outlet:

Select the Outlet Face.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.
Symmetry:

Symmetry:

Select the Symmetry Face.

Type = Slip/Symmetry
Click Apply.

7-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

External Aerodynamics--Car

7.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

Aerodynamics--Car

CFdesign Examples Guide

7-5

External Aerodynamics--Car

Mesh Refinement Region downstream of the car.

Refinement Region:

(This is to focus mesh in the wake where flow gradients will be signficant.)

Begin by clicking the Add button.

Select the X Axis bullet.
Set the Positive Direction = 2.25 (CATIA: 2250)
Set the Negative Direction = 0
Select the Y Axis bullet.
Set the Positive Direction = 2.5 (CATIA: 2500)
Set the Negative Direction = 0
Select the Z Axis bullet.
Set the Positive Direction = 18.0 (CATIA: 18000)
Set the Negative Direction = 10.0 (CATIA: 10000)
Click the Get Local Mesh Size button.
Click the Spread Changes button.
Click OK to finish.
Note that after hitting the Get Local Mesh Size button, a fine distribution will be
assigned to the refinement region based on the smallest element size found within
the region. The mesh can be made even finer by adjusting the slider bar.

7-6

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External Aerodynamics--Car

7.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

By default, all volumes are assigned constant-air. Since the car is cut out from the
air, we are only concerned with the wind tunnel material. It is air, so we do not
need to change its material definition.

7.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog.

The default settings in the Analysis Options section are suitable for a flow-only
solution.
Make sure the Iterations to run = 100

Click Go to start the simulation.

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CAD interface will appear during the
mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

CFdesign Examples Guide

7-7

Aerodynamics--Car

(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise. This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that
the Automatic Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 500.)

External Aerodynamics--Car

7.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

7-8

CFdesign Examples Guide

External Aerodynamics--Car

Pressure on a pressure iso-surface:

CFdesign Examples Guide

Aerodynamics--Car

To show the complete geometry, click the Mirror icon:

7-9

External Aerodynamics--Car

On the Mirror dialog, check Mirror Enabled, and click on the symmetry surface of
the model. The model will then be mirrored about this surface to show what the
complete geometry would look like:

7-10

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 8

8.1

Projects

Introduction

Up to this point, all of the exercises have covered setting up and running a single
analysis. In this exercise, we are going to utilize the parametric link between CFdesign and CAD to run an analysis, make a change to the geometry, and then run a
subsequent analysis.
In this exercise, we will set up and run a simple 3D model. We will then place the
completed analysis into a project. A second CAD file will then be read into CFdesign,
creating a second analysis. This analysis will be added to the project, and the settings will be copied from the first analysis. After running the second analysis, we
will post-process both using the results viewing tools and the Design Review Center
(DRC).
In this exercise, separate CAD models are supplied for each design iteration. In
normal practice however, design iterations would most likely occur within the same
CAD file. To keep analyses that are spawned from the same CAD model from overwriting each other, CFdesign prompts the user for an analysis name, which can and
often should be different from the CAD file name. This allows a unique name to be
assigned to each analysis. Previous versions of CFdesign simply used the CAD file
name as the analysis name.

8.2

Key Topics

Creation of projects and adding analyses to projects.

Copying settings from one analysis to another within the same project.
Viewing results from multiple analyses in the Design Review Center.
Set-up and running of a 3d turbulent, incompressible, analysis with
heat transfer.
Creating a Project Report

CFdesign Examples Guide

8-1

Projects

8.3

Geometry Description

The analysis geometry consists of two parts: the flow part and an internal obstruction:

Air

Obstruction
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\projects sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the design-1 assembly (design-1 part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the
appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

8-2

CFdesign Examples Guide

Projects

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\projects

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\projects

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

8.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.

Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

8-3

Projects

Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.

Projects

8.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog

task.

Velocity:

Inlets:

Cold Inlet

Hot Inlet

Hot Temperature:

Select both Inlets.

Type = Velocity
Units = mm/s
Magnitude = 2540
Click Apply.
Select the Hot Inlet.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 90

Cold Temperature:

Click Apply.
Select the Cool Inlet.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 4
Click Apply.

8-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

Projects

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the Outlet Face.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Magnitude = 0
Click Apply.

Projects

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Projects

8.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

8.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Obstruction:

Material Assignment:

Select the internal obstruction.

Type = Solid
Name = Steel_Variable
Click Apply.

Note: The default material is air_constant so will only assign the solid material.

8-6

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Projects

8.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

By default, Flow is On.
Set Heat Transfer to On.
Check Auto Forced Convection.
Auto Forced Convection will cause the analysis to automatically run in two stages. The
first stage will be flow-only (without heat
transfer). The second stage will solve only
for heat transfer, and will run for 10 iterations.
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the calculation.

Projects

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Projects

(We set the number of iterations to 100 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 300.)
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.
Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

8.9

After the Analysis: Creating a Project

After the analysis has completed 100 iterations and has finished, we are ready to
evaluate the effect of a geometry change. To do that, we first will create a project
and place this analysis into it.
This is done by clicking Project_Place Current Analysis into Project from the
Main Menu.
You will be prompted for a project name. After entering it, click the Save button on
the browse window.
You will now be in a project. Click the Save icon or File_Save.
Exit out of CFdesign, and return to your CAD system.

8-8

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Projects

8.10

The Design Change

A change has been made to the geometry, and is in the assembly called design-2
for all supplied CAD formats except Pro/E. For Pro/E users the change must be
made manually, as described below.
Do one of the following:

If launched from Solid Works, Solid Edge, Inventor, or CATIA

V5: Open the assembly called design-2 (found in the examples\CAD\projects sub-folder of your CFdesign installation), and launch
into CFdesign. Give the analysis a name.
If launched from a parasolid or acis file: start CFdesign from the
Desktop, click the New icon, and select design-2.x_t or design-2.sat.
(Found in the examples\acis\projects and examples\parasolid\projects sub-folders, respectively.) Give the analysis a name.

If launched from Pro/E Wildfire 2, 3, or 4:

In Pro/E, make sure the design-1 assembly is open.
On the feature tree, right click on the Flow-Block part, and click Edit.
On the model, change the offset distance to 0.25. Regenerate the assembly.
Launch back into CFdesign, and assign a new name to the analysis (use the
name Design-2).
1.
2.
3.
4.

In the design-2 model, the blockage was moved a quarter inch toward the hot inlet.
At this point, you are in an analysis with no settings. Projects make assigning the
settings easy.
Add this analysis into the project created earlier by clicking the Project_Place
Current Analysis into Project from the Main menu.
Projects

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Projects

On the Feature tree (Model mode), you should see that the top entry is the project,
and that each analysis is a separate branch:

To copy the settings from the first

analysis into the second analysis:
Right click on the design-2 analysis
entry in the feature tree.
Select Import Settings From
Select the first analysis.
At this point, all settings from the first analysis are applied to the second analysis,
and you are ready to analyze the second geometry configuration.
Change to the Analyze task.
Iterations to run = 100
Click Go to start the simulation.
A new mesh will generate, and the analysis will run.

8.11

Results and the Design Review Center

Go into the Results dialog task:

8-10

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Projects

We first want to create an interesting view of the current analysis results:

Create a cutting plane showing Velocity
Magnitude.
Orient it normal to the Y axis.
On the feature tree, expand the Materials
branch. Right click on Steel_Variable, and
select Solid. (This will show the obstruction as a shaded part.)

To view both analyses in the study in exactly the same manner, we will use the
controls on the Design Review Center (DRC) dialog in the Output Bar:

Click the DRC-Compare button.

Use the slider bar to scroll between the two analyses. Both will be displayed with the same cutting plane, and with the same view attributes. The
model can be navigated (panned, zoomed, and rotated), but no settings
can be changed while the DRC is activated.
Use the VCR controls to automate flipping between the analyses. As
the DRC flips between the two analyses, you should see the geometric
change that was made from one analysis to the other.

Click the Reset button on the DRC to disable the DRC and to re-enable
the user interface. The analysis that is showing when the DRC is reset will
be opened automatically.

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8-11

Projects

Note: Models in an project do not have to have similar geometry or mesh. They can
be in completely different orientations and locations.

Projects

To change the view.

Change the cutting plane quantity to temperature.
Click the X button (in the Position section) to orient the cutting plane normal to the
X direction.
Position the plane mid-way through the outlet pipe.
Switch to the Global panel:
Select Static Temperature.
To change the legend range to conform to the obstruction:

Select the Set to Part button, and select the obstruction part.

Click the Reset button to return the range to the default.

Activate the DRC again, and flip between the two analyses. Notice how the position
of the obstruction greatly affects the temperature distribution on this cutting plane.
Reset the DRC.

8.12

XY Plots in the Design Review Center

We will now create an XY plot on a cutting plane, and use the DRC to plot results
across the same path for all analyses in the project.

Go into the Cut plane task.

Select the XY Plot tab.
Pick two or three locations on the cutting plane. (The results will be plotted
along the path of selected point locations.)
Click the Plot button.

Click the DRC-GO button. The XY plot will have a curve for each analysis in the
project:

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Projects

8.13

Creating a Project Report

Now that weve completed the analysis, we can create a report describing the
project. A CFdesign-generated report is an HTML document that contains sections
for introductory notes, the model set up, results, and conclusions. The layout and
content of the report are fully customizible, but a default template is provided for
convenience.
Before switching to the Report tab, it is helpful to create one or more Dynamic
Images showing your results. Using the Cutting Surface tools described above,
save an image that shows some aspect of the flow or temperature distribution
throughout the device by clicking the Save Dynamic Image icon (under the Save
icon):

The analysis name is the name of the analysis (design-1, for example), and the
image name is whatever descriptive name you want to use. Be sure to separate the
two names with the _g_.

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8-13

Projects

When saving the image, be sure to use this naming convention: analysis
name_g_image name

Projects

By default, the report template will be shown for the current analysis, and all modifications to the template will affect only the current analysis.
Switch to the Project Report mode by checking the Project Report box near the bottom of the task dialog:

A project report contains information from all analyses in the project.

1. The Project report Introduction

1
2
3
4
5

8-14

section is similar to the Analysis report

introduction--except the project name
is the default title.
2. A Project Description section contains a text file for an project-specific
introduction.
3. The Graphics Files section automatically contains every dynamic
image file (vtf) for the analyses in the
project.
4. A project Conclusions section is
provided as a place to list conclusions
and findings.
5. Additional sections are then provided for the set-up, summary, and
conclusions sections from each analysis. Modifications made to these sections within the analysis report will
automatically be migrated into the
project report.

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Projects

Click the Generate Report button to produce a report of the project and the analyses in the project. The report will appear in Internet Explorer, and the files will be
saved into a unique sub-directory of the working directory.
Customize the report by re-arranging objects and sections and by removing or adding files. The right mouse button menu and the command buttons near the bottom
of the dialog are useful for customizing the report.

Projects

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Projects

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CHAPTE R 9

9.1

Viewing Results

Introduction

The CFdesign results viewing tools combine the traditional post-processing tools
(cutting planes and iso surfaces) with numerous innovative features. The result is a
comprehensive suite of tools that makes viewing and sharing analysis results quick,
efficient, and thorough.
This exercise explores these tools in a step-by-step manner that can be applied to
all CFdesign analyses. Detailed descriptions of the steps to visualize results in
CFdesign are given for a completed analysis of an aerodynamic study of flow over a
sports car.

9.2

Key Topics
Cutting Surfaces
Offset and morphing non-planar Cutting Surfaces
Probing on wall surfaces
Surface blanking
Particle Traces, Bulk Results, and XY Plots
Iso Surfaces
Wall Results
Z-Clip and Crinkle Cut
Model Mirroring
Multiple Views
Dynamic Images

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9-1

Viewing Results

9.3

Model Description

The analysis model is shown:

9.4

Launch CFdesign

For this exercise, it is best to start CFdesign from the Desktop or Start Menu using
the CFdesign icon

Use the CFdesign Open icon to open the appropriate analysis based on which CAD
system you use with CFdesign:
If you use this CAD
system...

Open this CFD file:

Pro/Engineer

\examples\proe\viewing-results\results-pro.cfd

Inventor

\examples\acis\viewing-results\results-acis.cfd

Solid Edge

\examples\parasolid\viewing-results\results-parasolid.cfd

Solid Works

\examples\parasolid\viewing-results\results-parasolid.cfd

9-2

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Viewing Results

If you use this CAD

system...

Open this CFD file:

\examples\parasolid\viewing-results\results-parasolid.cfd

One Space Designer

\examples\acis\viewing-results\results-acis.cfd

SpaceClaim

\examples\acis\viewing-results\results-acis.cfd

Any other parasolidbased system

\examples\parasolid\viewing-results\results-parasolid.cfd

Any other acis-based

system

\examples\acis\viewing-results\results-acis.cfd

CATIA

\examples\catia\viewing-results\results-catia.cfd

Viewing Results

UGNX

This model is set up and run to a converged solution.

Note: it is not necessary to open the analysis in your CAD system first.

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9-3

Viewing Results

9.5

Results Task

Change to the Results task.

9.6

Global Result

The result quantity displayed on all walls of the model is controlled from the Global
dialog.
Select the desired quantity and units from the
Results section. This is also the default quantity for cutting planes and iso-surfaces.
Use this field to change the displayed
quantity to Static Pressure.
The units field also controls the units of quantities display on cutting planes and iso surfaces.
Modify the legend range and number of legend
levels in the Legend section.

9-4

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Viewing Results

9.7

Model Appearance
Viewing Results

The icons in the View toolbar control the appearance of the model.
Click the Shaded icon,

, to display the model as shaded:

Click the Outline icon,

, to display the model in Outline mode:

Click the Transparent icon,

Click the Wireframe Mesh icon,

CFdesign Examples Guide

, to show the model as transparent:

, to show the mesh edges:

9-5

Viewing Results

Click the Shaded Mesh icon,

, to show the mesh faces:

(For an assembly, all of these controls can be applied to individual parts using the
Feature Tree.)

9.8

Entity Blanking

Blank a part by right clicking on it.

Right click anywhere in the Graphics
window, and the part will reappear.
Click the Surface Peel icon:
Right click on a few surfaces to blank
them from the image.

Hold the Ctrl key while rolling the

scroll wheel to resume blanked surfaces one at a time...
Right click off of the model to resume
all surfaces.

9-6

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Viewing Results

9.9

Model Surface Probing

The value of the active Scalar will be shown in the Status Bar below the Graphics
window:

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9-7

Viewing Results

To probe on any surface of the model, hold down the keyboard Shift and Ctrl keys
together, and hover the mouse over the area of interest.

Viewing Results

9.10

Z-Clip and Crinkle Cut

Z-clip is another way to cut into a model to see internal results. In its default mode,
Z-clip cuts into the model, making it easy to see internal details and visualization
objects such as cutting planes and iso surfaces.
Click the Z-Clip icon from the Tool
bar:
On the Z-Clip dialog, use the
Front Plane slider to change the
position of the z-clip plane.
This cuts into or away from the
model.

Check the Crinkle Cut box to show the mesh inside the model:
The clip will reset, so use the Front
Plane slider to cut into the model.
The mesh inside the model will appear.
Adjust the slider to change the view of
the internal mesh.
Note that the crinkle view does not
update as the model is navigated. To
update the crinkle view after navigation, move the slider a tiny bit.

9-8

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Viewing Results

9.11

Mirroring

Click the Mirror icon from the Tool

bar.
The Mirror dialog will appear.
Check the Mirror Enabled box.
Choose the mirror plane by either
selecting a planar surface on the model
or by selecting one of the Cartesian
planes on the dialog.
For this model, select the symmetry
plane--the plane that cuts through the
car.
The model will appear as a complete
wind tunnel and car.
All operations performed to the original
side are displayed in the mirrored side
as well.
Surface blanking, cutting surfaces,
particle traces, iso surfaces, etc., will
be shown in both regions.
Note that surfaces and results entities
in the mirrored region are not selectable.

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9-9

Viewing Results

The Mirroring function is very useful for showing how symmetry models appear as a
complete geometry. Because this model was cut in half to take advantage of symmetry, it lends itself nicely for use with Mirroring.

Viewing Results

9.12

Planar Cut Surfaces

For this part, disable mirroring, and show the model in shaded mode.
Click the Cut sub-task button. The tab should be set to Controls.

1. Create a cutting plane by hitting the Add

button.
2. Change the displayed quantity to Pressure (or back to Velocity) with the Result
menu.
3. Change the orientation by clicking the X,
Y, or Z buttons. This aligns the cut plane normal to the selected direction.
4. Snap the cut plane to the model by first
clicking the Surface Align button, and then
clicking on a surface in the model.
5. Move the cut plane by holding the Ctrl
and Shift keys, and dragging the left mouse
button.
6. Rotate the cut plane by holding the Ctrl
and Shift keys, and dragging the right
mouse button.

9-10

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3
5
6

Viewing Results

Appearance

1. Expand the Appearance section (by

Viewing Results

clicking on the section title bar).

2. To see inside the model, uncheck Shade
by Result.
3. To show vectors, check Show Vectors.
4. Adjust vector spacing with the Vector
Density slider
1
2
3
4

Alternative Ways to Move the Cut Plane

The interactive mouse-driven controls described above are well suited for rapidly
moving the cut plane. The tools presented here provide a more precise method of
cut plane movement.

1. Expand the Move section (by clicking on

the section title bar).
2. Move the cut plane with the Move slider.
3. Specify the movement direction by entering a Normal unit vector.
4. Expand the Rotate section.
5. Rotate the cut plane with the Rotate

slider.
6. Set the Axis of Rotation by either specifying an Axis, or by selecting a Cartesian axis
from the pop-out menu.

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1
2
3
4
5
6

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Viewing Results

9.12.1

Results Probing

To get the value of the displayed Result at any location on a cutting plane:
Hold the shift key and hover the mouse over the desired location.
The value and location are displayed in the Status bar, in the lower left corner of
the interface.

9.13

Other Cut Surface Tools

There are three additional functions associated with cutting planes that help to
extract data from an analysis and provide a broader perspective of the results field.
Particle Traces are similar to an injected dye in a flow, and show a high level of
detail about the flow direction. Bulk (mass) weighted results of a flow quantity
across a cutting plane are calculated using the Bulk function. XY plots of data on a
cutting plane are created with the XY Plot function.
Particle Traces, XY plots, and the Bulk data can only be used with planar cutting
surfaces.

9-12

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Viewing Results

9.13.1

Particle Traces

We will begin this step by resetting the view:

Remove All button.

2. Create a new one by clicking the Add but-

ton.

3. Click the Trace tab on the cutting plane

dialog.

4. Make sure Pick on Plane is selected.

5. Select several points on the cutting plane,
and hit the Add Trace Set button...

To identify a specific trace, click on its name in

the list, and it will highlight. Delete an individual trace by clicking the Delete button.

To see the traces better, blank the cutting plane by opening the Controls tab, and
unchecking Shade by Result. The image above was made by also selecting the
Peel by Surface icon, and blanking the inlet, top, and symmetry surfaces.

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9-13

Viewing Results

1. Delete the current cut plane by clicking the

Viewing Results

Trace Types
There are four ways to display particle traces:
Cylinders, Spheres, Lines, and Points.
These methods are chosen from the Appearance menu.

Animation

1. To animate the traces, click the Start button.

2. Check the Animate Incrementally box

to show a progressive animation of the traces.

3. Click Stop to halt the animation.
4. Click the Reset button to re-display the
traces.

2
1/3

Return to the Trace tab, and delete the traces by highlighting the set in the Edit
Sets field, and hitting the Delete button.

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Viewing Results

9.13.2

Bulk Values

1. Click the Bulk tab on the cutting plane dialog.

1
2

2. Check Mass Flow, Pressure, and Velocities.

2
2

3. Click the Calculate button.

4. The bulk quantities through the cutting

plane will then be displayed in the list region.

3

5. Click the Save... button to save the bulk

data to an external file.

Move the cutting plane, and notice how the

bulk values update automatically.

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9-15

Viewing Results

For this exercise, show the model as wireframe, and make sure a planar cutting
surface is displayed. (If necessary, go to the Controls tab, and check Shade by
Result.)

Viewing Results

9.13.3

XY Plots

For this exercise, show the model as outline, and make sure a planar cutting surface exists.

1. Click the XY Plot tab on the cutting plane

dialog.
2. Make sure Add by Picking is selected.
3. Select two or more points on the cutting
plane. These are the points through which the
xy plot will pass. They will be listed on the XY
Plot dialog.
4. Hit the Plot button to create the plot.

1. Change the plot quantity from the

menu on the plot window.

2. Change the units, axis labels, and
background color by right clicking on
the plot, and selecting the appropriate
menu item.
3. Save the data to a .csv file by
clicking the Save Data button.

This concludes the cutting plane exercises. Close the XY Plot view, and delete any
traces that still may be visible. Remove all cutting planes by clicking the Remove
All button.

9-16

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Viewing Results

9.14

Non-Planar Cut Surfaces

To start, display the model in shaded

mode, and enable Surface Peeling.

Shaded:

Surface Peel:

1. Select Surface, and the Select Source

Surface(s) dialog will open.

2. Blank the symmetry and top faces of the
box, and select a few surfaces of the car.
Click OK on the Select Source Surface(s)
dialog.
3. Switch to Outline mode:

After turning the model around, the cutting surface may look like:

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9-17

Viewing Results

In this exercise, we will create a non-planar cutting surface by selecting surfaces of

the car. We will move and rotate the cutting surface through the domain. We will
then use the Morph feature to transform the surface to a different shape.

Viewing Results

9.14.1

Moving and Changing the Appearance:

1. Change the direction of movement by

selecting the X, Y, or Z Direction buttons.

1
2

2. Move the cut surface graphically by hold-

ing the Ctrl and Shift keys, and dragging

with the left mouse button.
3. Rotate by holding the Ctrl and Shift keys
and dragging the right mouse button.
4. Show vectors or the mesh by checking
Show Vectors or Show Mesh, respectively.

The cutting surface will display the local scalar as it is moved throughout the model.

A cutting surface that is moved.

9-18

A cutting surface displaying vectors.

CFdesign Examples Guide

Viewing Results

9.14.2

Morphing

1
2

4. Expand the Move section, and use the

Move slider to transform between the source
target positions.

2% morph

66% morph

CFdesign Examples Guide

33% morph

99% morph

9-19

Viewing Results

1. Change the Movement to Morph to Target Surface(s).

2. Click the Target pop-out dialog button.
3. Select the top surface of the wind tunnel,
and click OK on the Select Target Surface(s) dialog.

Viewing Results

9.14.3

Offsetting

Move the cut surface back the 0% location.

1. Change the Movement Type to Offset

Surface.
2. Expand the Move section, and use the
Move slider to move the cutting surface. It will
retain the shape of the source surface, but will
grow or shrink as the slider is moved in the
positive or negative directions.

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Viewing Results

9.15

Iso Surfaces

1. Click the ISO button.

2. Click the Add button.

The shape of the iso surface is controlled by

the Iso Quantity. The coloring of the iso surface is controlled by the Color by Result.

3. Move the Value Slider to change the

value of the Iso Quantity.

Velocity Iso Surface

Pressure Iso Surface

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9-21

Viewing Results

Iso surfaces are a great way to visualize the flow or temperature distribution in a
model. For this section, it is best to show the model in outline mode. For clarity,
turn off or delete any cutting surfaces that were created in the previous sections.

Viewing Results

9.16

Wall Results

Result such as aerodynamic forces, film coefficient, and heat flux on wall surfaces
are available with the Wall Results function.
For this section, neither a cutting plane nor an iso-surface is necessary.

1. Click the Wall button.

1

Show the model as shaded, make sure Surface

Peel is enabled, and blank the surface opposite
the slip face. Select a surface or two from the
car.

2. Check Force and Pressure.

3. Click the Calculate button.
The dialog will switch to the Output tab automatically. The results are displayed for each
selected surface.

2
2

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Viewing Results

9.17

Multiple Views

The Graphics window will be divided into four views:

The active view is marked with the CFdesign logo, and is the lower left view in the
image above.
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9-23

Viewing Results

More than one view of the results can be displayed at any given time using the Multiple View icons in the Window Toolbar. Click the Four Views icon:

Viewing Results

Create a different view in each window to show either different results quantities or
different visualization techniques. The image in each view will navigate independently of the others. To lock them together, select Synchronous Navigation from
the Window menu.

9.18

Saving View Settings

To save a particularly interesting view for a future session with the analysis model,
click the Save View Settings icon:

Hit the Open Settings icon to apply a saved view to an analysis:

Note that if multiple view windows are open, only the View Settings from the active
view will be saved.

9.19

Sharing Results

This section presents techniques for creating and sharing results images. Before
proceeding, create a view with a cutting plane and some particle traces.

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Viewing Results

9.19.1

Saving Static Images

Such an image can be viewed with tools that are included on most PCs. They can be
imported into programs such as Word or PowerPoint as part of a report or presentation.

9.19.2

Saving Dynamic Images

To save a Dynamic Image, click the Save Dynamic Image icon:

A standard browse window will appear, prompting for the name and location of the
dynamic image file. Such a file has a .vtf extension, and is different from a bitmap, gif, or tif image in that the model can be navigated in the image.
Dynamic Images are viewable with the Design Communication Center, a free
viewer that in included with the CFdesign installation and can be downloaded from
the CFdesign web site.

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9-25

Viewing Results

To save a jpeg, bitmap, tif, or gif file, click the Save Image icon:

Viewing Results

Start the viewer (located in the Design-Communication-Center subfolder of the

CFdesign load point), and open the vtf file:
Open

Mouse Navigation is as follows:

Left Mouse Button = Pan

Middle Mouse Button = Zoom
Right Mouse Button = Rotate

The Design Communication Center does not require a license, and can be
shared with anyone.
Additionally, the Design Communication Center can be downloaded by anyone from
the CFdesign web site without charge.

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CHAPTE R 10

10.1

Transient Heat Transfer: Valve

Introduction

The purpose of this exercise is to set up and run a transient analysis. This exercise
is similar to the first exercise, and uses the same CAD geometry. The primary difference is that the inlet temperature is a time-varying boundary condition. After the
steady state flow solution completes, a transient heat transfer analysis will be run.
The additional steps required to visualize transient results are also described.
In this example, we will model air flow through an automotive EGR valve. Both the
poppet and the outer pipe wall are made of steel. The air entering the valve is hot,
but the inlet temperature varies with time. The outer shell is exposed to a lower
temperature environment which will be modeled with a convection condition. After
the steady state flow solution is complete, we will solve for the transient temperature distribution.
When dealing with time-varying forced convection, it is acceptable and correct to
run the steady-state flow solution first (without heat transfer) and then solve for
just the transient temperature distribution in a separate step using the completed
flow solution. This procedure will reduce the overall solution time, and will result in
the same solution as a simultaneous calculation of flow and heat transfer.

10.2

Key Topics
Three dimensional assembly
Application of Initial Conditions
Animation of multiple time steps
Conjugate and forced convection heat transfer
Transient boundary condition, solution, and results visualization.

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10-1

Transient Valve

10.3

Geometry Description

The analysis geometry consists of three parts: the outer pipe wall, the poppet, and
the air:
Pipe Wall

Air

Poppet
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\transient-valve sub-folder
of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the transient-valve assembly (transient-valve part in UGNX) in your CAD

system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:

10-2

Acis

examples\acis\transient-valve

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\transient-valve

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Transient Valve

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

10.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:
Transient Valve

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

10-3

Transient Valve

10.5

Boundary Conditions

The Loads dialog task (Boundary tab) should be

showing.
Velocity:

Inlet:

Select the Inlet Face.

Type = Velocity
Units =m/s
Magnitude = 6.3
Click Apply
Select the Inlet again, or use Previous
Select.
Type = Temperature

Temperature:

Units = Celsius
Select Transient
Select Ramp Step
and the Time Curve dialog will open...

10-4

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Transient Valve

To define the ramp step time-varying

temperature:
T1 = 10, T2 = 20, T3 = 30, T4 = 40
F1 = 540, F2 = 460
This will vary the inlet temperature
between 540 and 460 degrees C.
Hit OK.
Hit Apply on the Loads dialog.

Transient Valve

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the Outlet Face.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Magnitude = 0
Hit Apply.

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Transient Valve

Symmetry:

Symmetry Plane:

Flat face
of fluid volume
Select the Symmetry Face.
Type = Slip/Symmetry
Hit Apply.

Outer walls:

Film Coefficient:

Select the 5 outer walls.

Type = Film Coefficient.
Units = W/m2/K.
Film Coefficient = 15
Ref Temp = 27 C
Hit Apply.

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Transient Valve

10.6

Initial Conditions

Change to the Initial Condition task dialog:

Initial Temperature:

All Volumes:

Transient Valve

Select Volume Selection.

Select All volumes.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 21
Hit Apply

10.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

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Transient Valve

10.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Poppet and pipe wall:

Material Assignment:

Note: By default, all volumes are initially

assigned constant-air. The flow part in this
model is air, so we only have to change the
solid parts.
Select the poppet and the pipe wall.
Type = Solid
Name = Steel_Variable
Hit Apply.

10-8

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Transient Valve

10.9

Analyze (Step 1: Flow Only, Steady State)

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

For this first phase of the analysis, we are
going to solve for just the flow, and neglect
thermal effects.
The default settings:
Flow = On and Heat Transfer = Off
Transient Valve

are suitable for a flow-only solution.

Iterations to run = 100

Hit Go to start the simulation.

(After a converged flow solution is attained,

we will return to Analyze and make the necessary changes to solve for the temperature distribution.)
(We set the number of iterations to 100 to
reduce the overall time of the exercise. This
will stop the calculation before the Automatic
Convergence Assessment would have stopped
it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations
so that the Automatic Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 200.)

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Transient Valve

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from Wildfire or CATIA, the CAD interface will appear
during the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

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Transient Valve

10.10

Solution Step 2: Thermal Only, Transient

In the first step, we solved the steady state flow distribution. In this
second step, we will solve the time-varying temperature distribution. After the analysis has completed, return to the Analyze task.
Set Flow = Off.
Set Heat Transfer = On.
Analysis Mode= Transient
Time Step Size = 5
Inner Iterations = 2
Transient Valve

Results Output (Under Save Intervals) = 2

Continue From = s100
Time Steps to Run = 16
Hit Go to continue the analysis.

These settings will cause the solution to vary with time. The time step is 5 seconds,
and we are running 16 time steps for a total of 80 seconds. This will solve two comCFdesign Examples Guide

10-11

Transient Valve

plete cycles of the transient inlet temperature (period = 40 seconds). The Results
Output of 2 will save every other time step (every 10 seconds). The number of
inner iterations per time step is reduced to 2 because flow-only heat transfer is linear, and does not require the default of 10 inner iterations.

10.11

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Velocity

Temperature after 80 seconds

10-12

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CHAPTE R 11

11.1

Solar Heating

Introduction

In this example, two houses are exposed to solar heating. A tree in front of the first
house provides some shade, while the other house is completely exposed. As part
of the analysis definition, the geographical location and time and date are specified.
Flow is not analyzed, so predicted temperatures are higher than actual because
convection (which would have a cooling effect) is omitted.

11.2

Key Topics
Steady-state radiative heating
Selection of geographical location, date, and time for Solar heating
Adjustment of mesh distribution on parts

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11-1

Solar Heating

11.3

Geometry Description

The analysis geometry consists of three parts: the air domain, two houses, a tree,
and the ground:

Air

Houses

Tree

Ground

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\solar-heating sub-folder of

your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

11-2

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

CFdesign Examples Guide

Solar Heating

Open the solar-heating assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the
appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\solar-heating

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\solar-heating

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

11.4

Setting Analysis Units

The length unit of this analysis is meters, and that is the default. Nothing needs to
be done for units except for the CATIA-based model. For the CATIA-based model,
select mm as the units system.

Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

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11-3

Solar Heating

Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.

Solar Heating

11.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Sides and Top of Air:

Temperature:

Select the top and four sides of the air.

Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Magnitude = 25
Hit Apply.

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Solar Heating

Bottom of Ground Volume:

Temperature

Select the bottom face of the Ground.

Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Magnitude = 20
The purpose of these applied temperatures is to define the sky and ground temperatures. This is necessary for a solar heating analysis.
If this was a transient study (diurnal heating), the sky temperature would likely be
defined as a transient boundary condition--hotter during the day and colder at
night.

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11-5

Solar Heating

Hit Apply.

Solar Heating

11.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

Modify Mesh on Left House:

Size Adjustment:

Select the house as indicated, and slide

the Size Adjustment slider to 0.3.
Click Apply.

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Solar Heating

A slightly different adjustment is made to the other house because the initial mesh
distributions were different. The objective is to refine the mesh on both houses to a
a similar distribution. It is not critical that they be exactly the same, however.
Modify Mesh on Right House and
Ground:

Size Adjustment:

Select the house as indicated and the

ground, and slide the Size Adjustment
slider to 0.6.
Click Apply, then Spread Changes.
Solar Heating

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Solar Heating

11.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Air:

Material Assignment:

Select the surrounding Air part.

Type = Fluid
Name = Air_Constant
Click the Edit Material button to
open the Material Editor.
Change the Name of the material
to Air_Emissivity.
Change Emissivity = 0.3.
Click Apply.
Click OK on the Material Editor.
On the Task dialog, select
Air_Emissivity from the Name
menu, and click the Apply button.
This change was necessary because the default air material has an emissivity value
of 0. A non-zero value is necessary to correctly simulate the radiative contribution
from the sky.

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Solar Heating

Materials directly from the database will be assigned to the houses and the tree.
Both brick and hardwood, respectively, have non-zero emissivity value.
Houses:

Material Assignment:

Blank the surrounding Air, and select the

two houses.
Type = Solid
Name = Brick_Constant
Click Apply.

Material Assignment:

Solar Heating

Tree:

Select the tree.

Type = Solid
Name = Hardwood_Constant
Click Apply.

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Solar Heating

In this step, well select the Hardwood part and modify the emissivity to a lower
value to simulate a more reflective surface, such as grass
Grass Material to Ground Part:

Material Assignment:

Select the Ground part.

Type = Solid
Name = Hardwood_Constant
Click the Edit Material button to
bring up the Material Editor.
Change the Name of the material
to Grass.
Change Emissivity = 0.3.
Click Apply.
Click OK on the Material Editor.
On the Task dialog, select grass
from the Name menu, and click the
Apply button.

11.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

On the Analyze dialog, well disable Flow, enable Heat Transfer and Radiation, and
configure the Solar settings. In this particular analysis, we are neglecting any cool-

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Solar Heating

ing due forced or natural convection in the flow. A more rigorous approach would
be to solve for the flow as well.
Setting Analysis Options

Analyze Dialog:

Make the following settings:

Flow = Off
Heat Transfer = On
Radiation = On
Click the Solar Heating button. (see below for
Solar settings)
(We set the number of iterations to 100 to
reduce the overall time of the exercise. This will
stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would have stopped it.
To allow the solver to run enough iterations so
that the Automatic Convergence Assessment
will stop it, increase the number of iterations to
300.)
Iterations to run = 100
Solar Heating

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Solar Heating

Solar Heating Dialog

Solar Settings:
Check the Enable Solar Heating box.
Pick a country and city.
Set a date and time.
The model is oriented so that the
default East direction in the Global X makes sense. Change it if
desired.
Click OK.

Click Go to start the calculation.

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
Note: To view the mesh prior to starting the analysis, set the number of Iterations
to Run to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

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Solar Heating

11.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

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11-13

Solar Heating

The Solar Flux results shown are for late afternoon in mid April in Charlottesville,
Virginia (USA). Note the shadows, on the east side of the houses and the tree. The
sun is in the western sky, and is casting shadows off of all three objects.

Solar Heating

11-14

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CHAPTE R 12

12.1

External Compressible Flow

Introduction

This is an example of flow over a supersonic projectile moving at Mach 1.5 through
air at sea level. The model is axisymmetric about the x-axis, and the mesh you will
construct is very fine near the body to capture the strong gradients and considerably more coarse near the far field boundary. The far field boundary in this example
extends about 50 chord lengths from the body. The boundary conditions are placed
so far from the body to minimize their direct influence on the flow phenomena
occurring around the body.

12.2

Key Topics
Compressible, turbulent, external flow
Axisymmetric (2D)
Material creation
Supersonic flow with shocks

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External Compressible Flow

12.3

Geometry Description

Using recommended techniques for high-speed external flow, the bullet is

immersed in a large air volume. A sub-region surrounds the bullet to help focus the
mesh in the anticipated shock region and in the wake. The geometry is shown:

Air Volume

Sub-region for mesh focus

Bullet
A close up view of the bullet:

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\bullet sub-folder of your

CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:
Pro/Engineer Wildfire (You must use the Mechanica launch configuration for this model because this is a 2D geometry.)
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX

Open the bullet part in your CAD system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

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External Compressible Flow

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\bullet

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\bullet

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

12.4

Setting Analysis Units

The length unit of this analysis is meters, and that is the default. Nothing needs to
be done for units except for the CATIA-based model.
For the CATIA-based model, select mm as the units system.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

12.5

Setting the Analysis Coordinate System

This analysis is axisymmetric about the X axis. Use the feature tree to make this
setting: Expand the Coordinate System branch. Select Axisymmetric in X:

Compressible

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External Compressible Flow

12.6

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Inlet:

Velocity:

Select the Inlet Edge.

Type = Velocity
Units = m/s
Magnitude = 520.83
Click Apply.

Select the Inlet again.

Pressure

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

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External Compressible Flow

Outlet:

Unknown:

Select the Outlet Edge.

Type = Unknown
Click Apply.

Free-Stream Velocity on top of

Domain:

Vx Velocity Component:

Compressible

Select the Top Edge.

Type = Velocity
Units = m/s
Select Components
Check Vx, and set to 520.83
Click Apply.

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External Compressible Flow

12.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

Because the geometry is simple, the

default mesh distribution around the
bullet needs to be refined. The easiest
way is to select both the bullet and the
refinement area:

Size Adjustment:

Move the Size Adjustment slider to 0.2.

Click Apply.
Click Spread Changes.

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External Compressible Flow

12.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

We will have to create a new material, and make its density vary with
equation of state.
On the Materials task dialog, make sure Type = Fluid.
Click the Edit Material button.
On the Material Editor, enter a new name in the Name field (call it
Air_compressible).
On the Read From menu, select Air_Constant
Push the Density button.
Set the Variation Method = Equation of State.
Hit Apply.
Hit OK to close the dialog.

12-7

Compressible

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External Compressible Flow

To assign our newly created material:

Material Assignment:

Select the main air and refinement

regions.
Type = Fluid
Name = Air_compressible
Hit Apply.

Material Assignment:

Select bullet
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

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External Compressible Flow

12.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible.
Set Total Temperature =162 Celsius
Iterations to run = 1000
Click Results Quantities, and select Mach
Number. Click Ok.
Hit Go to start the simulation.

Compressible

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External Compressible Flow

(We set the number of iterations to 1000 to reduce the overall time of the exercise.
This will stop the calculation before the Automatic Convergence Assessment would
have stopped it. To allow the solver to run enough iterations so that the Automatic
Convergence Assessment will stop it, increase the number of iterations to 3000.)
As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from Wildfire or CATIA, the CAD interface will appear
during the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

12.10

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

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Compressible

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12-11

External Compressible Flow

12-12

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 13

13.1

Centrifugal Pump

Introduction

A centrifugal pump with back-swept blades is analyzed in this project. Water is the
working fluid, and the impeller spins at 600 RPM. The impeller is housed in a volute
casing. We will run this analysis at the zero head state (maximum flow rate). A
head can be imposed on the pump by assigning a positive gage pressure boundary
condition to the outlet or a negative gage pressure to the inlet.
This analysis uses the Motion Module, and specifically, a Rotating Region. A rotating
region is a volume that completely surrounds the rotating impeller, and serves as
the interface between rotating components and the surrounding stationary objects.
You will see that as the calculation progresses, the impeller will physically rotate
within the stationary volute. Because of this, the effects of the volute on the flow as
well as blade-pass interaction with the volute can be studied.
The calculation will be run as a transient, and requires approximately four complete
revolutions to obtain a steady state result. We will use a time step size (calculated
automatically) that rotates the impeller three degrees per time step.

13.2

Key Topics
Rotating Machinery
Transient Analysis
Non-impulsive start-up technique
Setting the time step size equal to single blade pass

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Centrifugal Pump

13.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

volute

impeller

rotating
region

inlet

This geometry consists of the fluid volumes of the impeller and the inlet pipe. The
rotating region completely surrounds the impeller. The impeller is a physical solid,

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Centrifugal Pump

and the rotating region is the fluid region surrounding the impeller. For clarity, the
two are shown below:
Centrifugal Pump

rotating
region

impeller

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\centrif-pump sub-folder of

your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the centrif-pump assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the
appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\centrif-pump

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\centrif-pump

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

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Centrifugal Pump

13.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

13-4

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Centrifugal Pump

13.5

Boundary Conditions
Centrifugal Pump

The Loads dialog task (Boundary tab) should be showing. If not, click the
Loads task icon:
Inlet and Outlet:

Pressure:

Selection Mode = Surface.

Select the Inlet and Outlet Faces.
Type = Pressure
Units = psi
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

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Centrifugal Pump

13.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

For Rotating Analyses, it is often useful to ensure that the mesh on the Rotating
Region is uniform. This will prevent artificial gradients in the flow due to mesh size
variations.
Rotating Region

Use Uniform and

Size Adjustment:

Blank the impeller part, and select the

Rotating Region.

1. Click the Use Uniform button.

2. Adjust the Size Adjustment slider to
approximately 2.
3. Click Apply.

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13.7

Materials
Centrifugal Pump

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Volute and Inlet Pipe:

Material Assignment:

Select the volute and the inlet pipe.

Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Constant
Click Apply.
Impeller:

Material Assignment:

Select the impeller.

(The front face of the impeller can be
selected without blanking the
volute.)
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

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Centrifugal Pump

Before we can assign a material to the rotating region, we have to create a rotating
region material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to Rotating Region.
Click the Edit Material button.
Enter the name rotor in the
Name field.
Make sure the Analysis Type is
Known Rotational Speed.
Hit the Rotation Speed button.
Variation Method = Table
Enter these values:
0 RPM 0 seconds
600 RPM 0.75 seconds
600 RPM 100 seconds
Click Apply.
Click OK.
The values in the table are designed to ramp up the rotational speed of the impeller
gradually to avoid an impulsive start. This technique often reduces analysis instability, and improves overall accuracy of the solution.
The values of time in the table were chosen in order to span the startup over 30
time steps. To compute these values, we had to know that the time step size would
be 0.025 seconds. (This is entered in the Analyze dialog in a subsequent step.) This
value of 0.025 seconds was computed based on the number of blades, the rotation
speed, and the fact that the impeller will rotate one blade passage per time step:

D
t = ----------N6
where t = time step size (in seconds)

360
NumberofBlades

D = number of degrees per time step: D = -------------------------------------------N = rotational speed (in RPM)
(Alternatively, we could have entered 600 as a constant rotational speed, switched
to the Analyze dialog, and click the Estimate button. The Time Step Estimator
would have indicated that the time step for a four-bladed impeller at 600 rpm

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Centrifugal Pump

would be 0.025 seconds. We could then return to the Materials dialog, and specify
the rotational speed as a table as described above.)
Material Assignment:

Centrifugal Pump

Rotating Region:

Select the rotating region. (You will

have to blank the impeller.)
Type = Rotating Region
Name = rotor
To set the Axis of Rotation, open the
pop-out dialog, and select Z.
Click Apply.

Click the -/+ button to reverse the unit

vector to show as: 0, 0, -1 (if needed).

CFdesign uses the right-hand rule convention to determine the direction of rotation.
In this device, we want the impeller spin clock-wise, so by the right hand rule, the
unit vector that describes the axis of rotation must point in the negative Z direction.

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Centrifugal Pump

13.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Analysis Mode = Transient (set by default)
To run several complete rotations quickly, we
will use a time step size such that the impeller
rotates through a complete blade passage
with every time step. To determine this, click
the pop-out button on the Time Step Size
line. The Time Step Size dialog will open:

Select the Number of Blades bullet, and

enter 4. Click the Calculate button. This will
set the time step size to be 0.025 seconds.
Save Intervals_Results (Output) = 4
Time Steps to run = 70
(This will allow the impeller to complete ten
revolutions at full speed. The first 30 time
steps are for the start-up procedure.)
Hit Go to start the simulation.

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Centrifugal Pump

After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.

To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

13.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Velocity Magnitude after 10 revolutions.

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13-11

Centrifugal Pump

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.

Centrifugal Pump

Pressure results:

13-12

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 14

14.1

Axial Fan (Periodic Symmetry)

Introduction

Many turbomachinery devices can be studied by analyzing a single blade or blade

passage. The assumption that makes this possible is that cyclic symmetry exists
around the circumference of the device. This assumption is valid for many axial
devices in which the inlet and outlet of each passage has identical flow. This
assumption breaks down for centrifugal devices that are surrounded by a volute
discharge because the flow in each passage is influenced by the blade position relative to the volute.
In this project, we will analyze an axial fan by modeling a single blade. In this case,
we will apply a uniform pressure to the inlet and outlet, and measure the amount of
flow rate the fan imparts to the flow.
The region surrounding the blade is a rotating region, but in a periodic analysis, it
will not rotate. The analysis will still be run as a transient, however. There are two
ways the geometry can be constructed: as a blade passage that extends between
the suction and pressure surfaces of two adjacent blades or as a single blade centered within the region. In the latter case (used in this example), the rotating
region must divide two adjacent passages evenly.
Non-rotating extensions upstream and downstream of the rotating region have
been added to the model. The sides of these regions are periodic, which means that
the flow on one side of a region is identical to the flow on the other. Pair IDs are
needed to indicate which surfaces are periodic to each other.

14.2

Key Topics
Rotating Machinery
Transient Analysis
Periodic Boundary Conditions

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Axial Fan

14.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

Fan Blade

Outlet

Periodic
Pair

Periodic
Pair
Periodic
Pair
Inlet

Rotating Region

The fan blade is cut out from the rotating region, and the region splits the two adjacent blade passages evenly.
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\axial-fan sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

14-2

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Fan

Open the axial-fan assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\axial-fan

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\axial-fan

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking. Please consult the Entity
Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

14-3

Axial Fan

14.4

Axial Fan

14.5

Boundary Conditions

The Loads dialog task (Boundary tab) should be showing. If not, click the
Loads task icon:
Pressure:

Inlet and Outlet:

Select the Inlet and Outlet Faces.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Hit Apply.
Periodic Pair 1:

Periodic:

Side 1

Side 2
Select side 1 of the inlet periodic pair.
Type = Periodic
Pair ID = 1, Side ID = 1
Hit Apply.
Select Side 2. Pair ID = 1, Side ID = 2
Hit Apply.

14-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Fan

Periodic:

Periodic Pair 2:
Side 1

Side 2

Select side 1 of the middle periodic pair.

Axial Fan

Type = Periodic
Pair ID = 2, Side ID = 1
Hit Apply.
Select Side 2. Pair ID = 2, Side ID = 2
Hit Apply.
Periodic

Periodic Pair 3
Side 1

Side 2

Select side 1 of the outlet periodic pair.

Type = Periodic
Pair ID = 3, Side ID = 1
Hit Apply.
Select Side 2. Pair ID = 3, Side ID = 2
Hit Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

14-5

Axial Fan

14.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

14.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

The default material is constant property air, and that is appropriate for the inlet
and outlet extension.
Before we can assign a material to the rotating region, we have to create a rotating
region material. Dont select any parts, but change the Type to Rotating Region.
Click the Edit Material button.

14-6

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Fan

Enter the name fan in the Name

field.
Make sure the Analysis Type is
Known Rotational Speed.
Hit the Rotation Speed button.
Variation Method = Table
Enter these values:
0 RPM 0 seconds
1200 RPM 0.5 seconds
1200 RPM 100 seconds
Click OK.
The values in the table are designed to ramp up the rotational speed of the impeller
gradually to avoid an impulsive start. This technique often reduces analysis instability, and improves overall accuracy of the solution.
The values of time in the table were chosen in order to span the startup over 30
time steps. To compute these values, we had to know that the time step size would
be 0.0167 seconds. (This is entered in the Analyze dialog in a later step.) This value
of 0.0167 seconds was computed based on the number of blades, the rotation
speed, and the fact that the impeller will rotate one blade passage per time step:

D
t = ----------N6
where t = time step size (in seconds)

360
NumberofBlades

D = number of degrees per time step: D = -------------------------------------------N = rotational speed (in RPM)
(Alternatively, we could have entered 1200 as a constant rotational speed,
switched to the Analyze dialog, and click the Estimate button. The Time Step Estimator would have indicated that the time step for a three-bladed impeller at 1200
RPM would be 0.0167 seconds. We would then return to the Materials dialog, and
specify the rotational speed as a table as described above.)

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14-7

Axial Fan

Click Apply.

Axial Fan

Material Assignment:

Rotating Region:

Select the rotating region.

Type = Rotating Region
Name = fan
To set the Axis of Rotation, open the
pop-out dialog, and select Z.
Click Apply.

Click the -/+ button to reverse the unit

vector to show as: 0, 0, -1 (if needed).

CFdesign uses the right-hand rule convention to determine the direction of rotation.
In this device, we want the fan to spin clock-wise (looking from the positive end of
the Z axis), so by the right hand rule, the unit vector that describes the axis of
rotation must point in the negative Z direction.

14-8

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Fan

14.8

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Analysis Mode = Transient (set by default)
To run several complete rotations quickly, we
will use a time step size such that the impeller
rotates through a complete blade passage
with every time step. To determine this, click
the pop-out button on the Time Step Size
line. The Time Step Size dialog will open:
Axial Fan

Select the Number of Blades bullet, and

enter 3. Click the Calculate button. This will
set the time step size to be 0.01667 seconds.
Time Steps to run = 100
Hit Go to start the simulation.

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14-9

Axial Fan

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

14.9

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Velocity Vectors:

14-10

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 15

15.1

Conveyor Oven

Introduction

This analysis features a solid moving on a conveyor belt through an oven. Three
fans blow hot air into the chamber while the solid object (the product) moves
through. The initial temperature of the product is room temperature.
This analysis uses the CFdesign Motion Module. The solid will move relative to the
stationary oven along a user-defined path. The analysis will be run transient, and
multiple time steps will be saved to be animated.
At the beginning of the analysis, the product will start completely outside of the
oven. As the analysis progresses, the product will move through the oven, and exit
out the other end. We will run the analysis for a few more time steps after the product has left the oven to observe how the flow returns to an uninterrupted state
(without any obstructions).
This is an example of user-defined, linear motion.

15.2

Key Topics
Moving Objects
Transient Analysis
Heat Transfer
Initial Conditions

CFdesign Examples Guide

15-1

Conveyor Oven

15.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

Air Outlet
Moving Solid
(product)

Product
Inlet

Fans (hot air inlets)

Product
Outlet
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\heating-process subfolder of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

15-2

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

Open the heating-process assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the
appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.
CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\heating-process

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\heating-process

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

15.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.

CFdesign Examples Guide

15-3

Conveyor Oven

If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

Conveyor Oven

Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

15.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Volume Flow Rate:

Air Inlets:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is set

to Surface.
Select the three inlets.
Type = Volume Flow Rate

Temperature

Units = m3/min
Volume Flow Rate = 0.85
Hit Apply.
Hit Previous Select or select the three
inlets.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temp = 230
Hit Apply.

15-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

Product Openings and Air Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the Product Inlet and Outlet and

the Air Outlet.
Type = Pressure; Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

Conveyor Oven

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15-5

Conveyor Oven

15.6

Initial Condition

Switch to the Initial Condition dialog task:

Initial Temp on Solid Product

Initial Temperature

Set the selection mode to Volume.

Select the product part.
Type = Temperature
Units = Celsius
Temperature = 15
Click Apply

15-6

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

15.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

We need to refine the mesh on all the

parts. Select the air volume and the
product.

Size Adjustment:

Move the Slide Adjustment slider to 0.5.

Click the Apply button.

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

Click the Spread Changes Button to

finish the command.

15-7

Conveyor Oven

15.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Material Assignment:

Product

Select the moving solid (the product).

Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

15-8

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

15.9

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

Product

Motion Assignment:

Select the moving solid (the product).

Type = Linear
Direction Vector = 1,0,0 (open the
Pop-out dialog to select Global X).

We will use this table to define the displacement of the object with time. In this

CFdesign Examples Guide

15-9

Conveyor Oven

Click the Edit button to open the

Motion Editor. The Motion settings
are described below.

Conveyor Oven

case, the object will move 70 inches in 600 seconds.

Variation Method = Table
Enter these two data points (distances are in mm, time is in seconds):
Distance = 0, Time = 0
Distance = 1800, Time = 600
Hit Enter (on your keyboard).
Hit Apply.
Hit OK.

Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings. Click the Preview button to preview the Motion. Use the slider to move the product on the Preview dialog.

15-10

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

15.10

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Change Heat Transfer to On.
By default, Transient will be selected.
Time Step Size = 20
Save Intervals_Results Output = 2
(This will save every other time step.)
Time Steps to run = 30
Hit Go to start the simulation.

Conveyor Oven

CFdesign Examples Guide

15-11

Conveyor Oven

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

15.11

Results Visualization

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Temperature after 160 seconds:

15-12

CFdesign Examples Guide

Conveyor Oven

Temperature after 320 seconds:

Temperature after 600 seconds:

Conveyor Oven

CFdesign Examples Guide

15-13

Conveyor Oven

15-14

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 16

16.1

Axial Check Valve

Introduction

This is an example of flow-driven, linear motion.

An axial check valve will be analyzed to determine how much the poppet opens for
a supplied volume flow rate of water. A spring provides some resistance force on
the poppet, keeping it closed when there is little or no flow moving through the
valve. As the flow rate through the valve is increased, the poppet opens by balancing the hydrodynamic forces with the resistive spring force.
In this exercise, we will define the initial position of the poppet, the limits of travel
of the poppet, and the parameters that define the spring. We will run with a fairly
low flow rate which will only partially open the poppet. An optional part of the exercise is then to increase the flow rate and continue the analysis. This will open the
poppet wider.

16.2

Key Topics
Moving Objects
Flow-Driven Linear Motion
Spring Resistive Force
Setting Bounds
Setting the Initial Position
The Motion Output Table

CFdesign Examples Guide

16-1

Axial Check Valve

16.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

Inlet Cap
Pipe Wall

Poppet
Flow Volume
(Automatically
created by CFdesign.)

Outlet Cap

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\axial-check-valve subfolder of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the axial-check-valve assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from
the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

16-2

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Check Valve

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\axial-check-valve

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\axial-check-valve

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

16.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.

Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

16-3

Axial Check Valve

Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.

Axial Check Valve

16.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Volume Flow Rate:

Inlet:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is set

to Surface.
Select the inlet.
Type = Volume Flow Rate
Units = m3/min
Volume Flow Rate = 0.2
Click Apply.

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the outlet.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

16-4

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Check Valve

16.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To remove the outer pipe wall from the

analysis, we will need to suppress it.

Part Suppression

Change the Type to Diagnostics.

Set the Selection Mode = Volume.
Select the outer pipe wall.
Click Suppress Selected Part(s).
To assign mesh sizes to the model,
change the Type to Automatic.

Automatic Sizing:

Click the Automatic Size button.

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.
Axial Check Valve

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16-5

Axial Check Valve

Refine the Main Flow Volume and

Poppet:

Size Adjustment:

Because this is a motion analysis, and

the geometry is fairly simple, we need
to refine the mesh distribution throughout the flow regions.
Blank the pipe wall, and select the main
flow volume and the poppet.

Move the Size Adjustment slider to

approximately 0.6.
Click Apply.
Click Spread Changes.
The purpose of this last step is to ensure that we have adequate mesh throughout
the flow region to properly account for flow gradients as well as the motion of the
poppet. The default mesh distribution is a little too coarse to resolve the flow well,
so we added refinement throughout the flow.

16-6

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Check Valve

16.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Pipe Wall

Material Assignment:

Select the pipe wall

Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

Caps and Flow Volume

Material Assignment:

Axial Check Valve

Blank the pipe wall, and select the caps

and the flow volume
Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Buoyancy
Hit Apply.
This is not a buoyancy analysis, but allowing the density to vary will make the solution more stable.
CFdesign Examples Guide

16-7

Axial Check Valve

Material Assignment:

Poppet

Blank the flow volume, and select

the poppet
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

16-8

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Check Valve

16.8

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

Poppet

Motion Assignment:

Blank the pipe wall, and select the

poppet.
Type = Linear
Check Flow-Driven
Direction Vector = 1,0,0 (open the
Pop-out dialog to select Global X).
Initial Position = -5 (key-in the value
or use the pop-out dialog)
Minimum Bound = 0.0
Maximum Bound = 12 (key in the
value or use the popout dialog)
Click the Edit Motion button to open
the Motion Editor.

The Minimum and Maximum Bounds control the limits of travel, and are relative to
the initial position. In this case, we will allow the poppet to move only between the
initial position and 12 mm of travel.

CFdesign Examples Guide

16-9

Axial Check Valve

The Initial Position slider adjusts the location of the part, if the desired starting
location is different from the as-built CAD location.

Axial Check Valve

To define the spring parameters using the Motion Editor.

Click the Resistive Force button.

Variation Method = Spring
Engagement Displacement = 0 mm
Compression Displacement = 15 mm
Engagement Force = 2.2 Newton
Compression force = 44.5 Newtons
Click Apply.
Click OK.

These settings will cause the spring to exert a force of 2.2 Newtons on the poppet
in the closed position. The spring can compress a maximum of 15 mm, at which
time it exerts a force of 44.5 Newtons on the poppet.
Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings.

16-10

CFdesign Examples Guide

Axial Check Valve

16.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible from the Compressibility
group.
(Adding compressibility to the solution will
improve the pressure response of the solver. It
will greatly facilitate the solution when regions
are isolated from one another (particularly at
the beginning of the calculation).
By default, Transient will be selected, and the
number of iterations per time step will be set to
1.
Time Step Size = 0.0001
Results Save Interval = 10
Time Steps to run = 100
Click the Solution Control button, and move
the Pressure slider to 0.25. (This will improve
stability within the calculation, and is a recommended technique for flow-induced motion
analyses.)
Click Go to start the analysis.
Axial Check Valve

CFdesign Examples Guide

16-11

Axial Check Valve

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

16.10

Results Visualization

As the solution progresses, the poppet will move because of the forces caused by
the flow. To view the progress of the poppet, show the model in Outline mode, and
then to change the visibility of the poppet to Solid using the Feature Tree:

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

16-12

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Axial Check Valve

Velocity results after 100 time steps with a flow rate of 0.2 m3/min are shown:

16.11

Motion Output Table

For every Motion analysis, a table of the time history of the behavior of the moving
object is saved to the working directory. This file is accessible through
Review_Notes_Motion Results. This file is also saved to the working direction in
Excel comma-separate-variable format, so it will open directly into Excel.

In this case, if the analysis is named axial_check_valve, the part is named valvedoor, and the part number is 2, then the motion file will be named:
axial_check_valve_VALVE-DOOR_2_motion.csv

CFdesign Examples Guide

16-13

Axial Check Valve

For every time step, this table lists the linear and angular displacements, force,
torque, and velocities. The file is named using the name of the analysis and the part
name and number within the CFdesign Part list.

Axial Check Valve

The information in this file is very useful for determining if the moving object has
come to an equilibrium position, indicating that the solution has stopped changing.
This is also the best source for force and torque data for any moving solid. (Do not
use the Wall Results Calculator to compute the force and/or torque on moving
objects.)
In this analysis, the linear displacement of the valve is of interest. By plotting the
linear displacement with time in Excel, we can see exactly how the poppet moves
because of the flow:

16-14

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 17

17.1

Oscillating Antenna

Introduction

This is an example of user-prescribed, angular motion.

A telecommunications antenna in high winds is subject to a high level of torque,
and must be built to withstand such a demanding environment. If the antenna
oscillates about its axis, as is the case of RADAR antennas, then the structural
demands are even worse.
In this exercise, we will define the oscillatory angular motion of a radar antenna,
and subject it to a 20 mph wind. Through the analysis, the antenna will sweep
through several cycles of it oscillation, and we will save many of the time steps and
animate them. The time-history of the forces and torque imposed on the antenna
will be recorded in the Motion Output file for inspection.

17.2

Key Topics
Moving Objects
User-Prescribed Angular Motion
Applying an Initial Position
The Motion Output Table

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-1

RADAR: Angular Motion

17.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown. A volume of air is built around the radar antenna.:
Air Volume

Oscillating RADAR antenna

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\radar sub-folder of your

CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the radar assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the appropriate
folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

17-2

CFdesign Examples Guide

RADAR: Angular Motion

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
examples\acis\radar

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\radar

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

17.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-3

RADAR: Angular

Acis

RADAR: Angular Motion

17.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Velocity:

Inlet:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is set

to Surface.
Select the inlet.
Type = Velocity
Units = mph
Velocity = 20
(alternatively, enter 32 km/hr)
Hit Apply.

17-4

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RADAR: Angular Motion

Outlet:

Pressure:
RADAR: Angular

Select the outlet.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Hit Apply.

Sides:

Slip Condition:

Select the top and two sides.

Type = Slip
Hit Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-5

RADAR: Angular Motion

17.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

17.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Material Assignment:

Air Volume

Select the air volume

Type = Fluid
Name = Air_Buoyancy
Hit Apply.
This is not a buoyancy analysis, but allowing the density to vary will make the solution more stable.

17-6

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RADAR: Angular Motion

Dish and mast parts

Material Assignment:
RADAR: Angular

Blank the air volume, and select the

RADAR dish and the two mast parts.
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-7

RADAR: Angular Motion

17.8

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

Motion Assignment:

RADAR Dish

Select the Dish part.

Type = Angular
Axis of Rotation = 0,1,0 (open the popout dialog and select Global Y)
Center of Rotation = 0,0,-100 (key in the
value)
Initial Position = -40 (key in the value or
use the pop-out dialog)
Click the Edit Motion button to open the
Motion Editor.

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RADAR: Angular Motion

RADAR: Angular

Click the Angle button.

Variation Method = Oscillating
Half Period Time = 6 seconds
Angular Displacement = 80 deg
Click Apply.
Click OK.

These settings will cause the RADAR dish to oscillate through 80 degrees every six
seconds.
Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings.

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-9

RADAR: Angular Motion

17.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible from the Compressibility
group.
(Adding compressibility to the solution will
improve the pressure response of the solver. It
will greatly facilitate the solution when regions
are isolated from one another (particularly at
the beginning of the calculation).
By default, Transient will be selected, and the
number of iterations per time step will be set to
1.
Click the pop-out button on the Time-Step line
to automatically calculate a Time Step Size.
Results Save Interval = 5
Time Steps to run = 50
Click Go to start the calculation.

17-10

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RADAR: Angular Motion

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.

To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

17.10

Results Visualization

As the solution progresses, the dish will oscillate according to the prescribed motion
parameters. To view the progress of the dish, show the model in Outline mode, and
then to change the visibility of the dish (or all of the solids) to Solid using the Feature Tree:

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

CFdesign Examples Guide

17-11

RADAR: Angular

After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.

RADAR: Angular Motion

Velocity and pressure results after 50 time steps are shown:

17.11

Motion Output Table

For every Motion analysis, a table of the time history of the behavior of the moving
object is saved to the working directory. This file is accessible through
Review_Notes_Motion Results. This file is also saved to the working direction in
Excel comma-separate-variable format, so it will open directly into Excel.
For every time step, this table lists the linear and angular displacements, force,
torque, and velocities. The file is named using the name of the analysis and the
part name and number within the CFdesign Part list.
In this case, if the analysis is named radar, the part is named radar-scanner,
and the part number is 1, then the motion file will be named:
radar_radar_scanner_1_motion.csv.
This file is the best source for force and torque data for any moving solid. (Do not
use the Wall Results Calculator to compute the force and/or torque on moving
objects.)

17-12

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 18

18.1

Angular Check Valve

Introduction

This is an example of flow-driven, angular motion with surface parts.

An angular check valve will be analyzed to determine how much the valve opens for
a supplied volume flow rate of water. Torsion springs provide some resistance force
on the flappers, keeping it closed when there is little or no flow moving through the
valve. As the flow rate through the valve is increased, the flappers open by balancing the hydrodynamic forces with the resistive spring force.
In this exercise, we will define the angular limits of travel and the parameters that
define the springs. We will run with a fairly low flow rate which will only partially
open the valve. An optional part of the exercise is then to increase the flow rate and
continue the analysis. This will open the valve wider.

18.2

Key Topics
Moving Surface Parts
Automatic flow-volume creation
Flow-Driven Angular Motion
Torsion Spring Resistive Force
Setting Angular Bounds
The Motion Output Table

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18-1

Angular Check Valve

18.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

Valve Flapper surfaces
on embedded volumes (2)

Outlet Cap

Inlet Cap

Pipe Wall
(not included
in the analysis)
Flow Volume
(created automatically)

The flappers are actually surfaces of two half-cylinder volumes. These cylinders are
flow parts, and are constructed for two reasons:
The first is to provide a level of mesh refinement in the path of the part
motion. These parts help drive the mesh sizing on the model, and help
focus moderate refinement in the path of the shells. This method is not
required for motion analyses, but it is an effective technique.
The second is that some CAD tools do not readily allow surface parts in
a 3D model. This method uses surfaces belonging to volumes as surface
parts, but the volumes are treated as fluid regions.

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\angular-check-valve subfolder of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:
Pro/Engineer Wildfire (You must use the Mechanica launch configuration for this model because it contains surface parts.)
Inventor

18-2

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Angular Check Valve

Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the angular-check-valve assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from
the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

Acis

examples\acis\angular-check-valve

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\angular-check-valve

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

18.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

CFdesign Examples Guide

18-3

Angular Check Valve

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:

Angular Check Valve

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

18.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Volume Flow Rate:

Inlet:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is set

to Surface.
Select the inlet.
Type = Volume Flow Rate
Units = m3/min
Volume Flow Rate = 0.45
Hit Apply.

18-4

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Angular Check Valve

Outlet:

Pressure:

Angular Check Valve

Select the outlet.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Hit Apply.

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18-5

Angular Check Valve

18.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

Exclude the Pipe Wall:

Diagnostics Tab

Change the Type to Diagnostics.

Set the Selection Mode = Volume.
Select the outer pipe wall.
Click Suppress Selected Part(s).
To assign mesh sizes to the model:

Automatic Sizing:

Change the Type to Automatic.

Click the Automatic Size button.
All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

18-6

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Angular Check Valve

Refine the Two End Caps:

Size Adjustment:

Move the Size Adjustment slider to

approximately 0.4.
Click Apply.
Click Spread Changes.
Because the end caps are very simple geometry, their default mesh distribution is
too coarse. This step refines these two volumes. (The other volumes are fine
enough for a first-pass analysis, but they should be refined as well for a more rigorous study.)

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18-7

Angular Check Valve

Select the two end caps.

Angular Check Valve

18.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Material Assignment:

Pipe Wall

Select the pipe wall

Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.
(Because the pipe wall is not
meshed, and not included in the
analysis, this step is optional.)

18-8

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Angular Check Valve

Fluid Volumes

Material Assignment:

Angular Check Valve

Click the Select All icon, and then deselect

the pipe wall part.
Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Buoyancy
Hit Apply.
This is not a buoyancy analysis, but allowing the density to vary will make the solution more stable.
Flappers

Material Assignment:

Blank the flow volume, switch the selection

mode to Surface, and select the two flapper surfaces on the motion path volumes.
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Shell Thickness = 6 mm.
Click Apply.

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18-9

Angular Check Valve

18.8

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

Left Flapper

Motion Assignment:

Blank the pipe wall, set the selection mode

to Surface, and select one flapper, as
shown.
Type = Angular
Axis of Rotation = 0,1,0 (key in or use the
pop-out dialog to select Global Y)
Center of Rotation: 68.58,0,0.5
Initial Position = 0
Check Flow-Driven
Minimum Bound = 0
Maximum Bound = 90
Click the Edit Motion button to bring up the
Motion Editor.
The Min. and Max. bounds control the limits of travel, and are relative to the initial
position. In this case, we will allow the flappers to rotate between the initial position
and 90 degrees.

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Angular Check Valve

We will define the spring parameters using the Motion Editor:

Angular Check Valve

Click the Resistive Torque button.

Variation Method = Torsion Spring
Engagement Angle = 0 deg
Compression Angle = 90 deg
Engagement Torque = 0.056 N-m
Compression Torque = 1.13 N-m
Hit Apply.
Hit OK.

These settings will cause the spring to exert a torque of 0.056 N-m on the flapper in
the closed position. The spring can compress a maximum of 90 degrees, at which
time it exerts a force of 1.13 N-m on the flapper.
Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings.

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18-11

Angular Check Valve

Right Flapper

Motion Assignment:

Blank the pipe wall, and select one flapper

as shown.
Type = Angular
Axis of Rotation = 0,-1,0 (key in or use the
pop-out dialog to select Global Y)
Center of Rotation: 68.58,0,-0.5
Initial Position = 0
Check Flow-Driven
Min: Key-in Location = 0
Max: Key-in Location = 90
Click the Edit Motion Properties button
to bring up the Motion Editor.
On the Motion Editor, assign the same parameters for the torsion spring as
described for the left flapper.

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Angular Check Valve

18.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible from the Compressibility
group.

Angular Check Valve

Adding compressibility to the solution will

improve the pressure response of the solver. It
will greatly facilitate the solution when regions
are isolated from one another, particularly at
the beginning of the calculation.
By default, Transient will be selected, and the
number of iterations per time step will be set to
1.
Time Step Size = 0.0001
Results Save Interval = 10
Time Steps to Run = 100
Click the Solution Control button, and move
the Pressure slider to 0.25. (This will improve
stability within the calculation, and is a recommended technique for flow-induced motion
analyses.) Close the Solution Control dialog.
Hit Go to start the analysis.

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18-13

Angular Check Valve

Note: The mesh will generate first. If this analysis was started from Pro/E or CATIA,
the appropriate interface will appear during the mesh generation. Status messages
will be written to the CAD interface. If launched from the other CAD tools or from
the User Interface, the CFdesign interface will remain during meshing, informational messages will be displayed on the Analyze dialog.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

18.10

Results Visualization

As the solution progresses, the flappers will open because of the force caused by
the flow. To view their progress, display the model in Transparent mode, and then
to change the Transparency of the fluid walls using the Feature Tree:

This will make the flappers and the cutting planes easier to see. The surfaces of the
two motion path parts will also show. These are fluid volumes, so their surfaces do
not act as walls or impede the flow.

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Angular Check Valve

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.
Velocity results after 100 time steps with a flow rate of 0.45 m3/min are shown:

Angular Check Valve

18.11

Motion Output Table

For every Motion analysis, a table of the time history of the behavior of the moving
object is saved to the working directory. This file is accessible through
Review_Notes_Motion Results. This file is also saved to the working direction in
Excel comma-separate-variable format, so it will open directly into Excel.

CFdesign Examples Guide

18-15

Angular Check Valve

For every time step, this table lists the linear and angular displacements, force,
torque, and velocities. The file is named using the name of the analysis and the part
name and number within the CFdesign Part list.
In this case, if the analysis is named angular_check_valve, the part is named
valve-door, and the part number is 2, then the motion file will be named:
angular_check_valve_face 106_106_motion.csv.
In this model, the other valve door is part three, so the motion file is named:
angular_check_valve_face 107_107_motion.csv
The information in this file is very useful for determining if the moving object has
come to an equilibrium position, indicating that the solution has stopped changing.
This, as well as the Wall Calculator, are good sources for force and torque data for
any moving solid.
In this analysis, the angular displacement of the flappers is of interest. By opening
the .csv files in Excel, and plotting the angular displacement with time, we can
see exactly how the flappers move because of the flow

18-16

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CHAPTE R 19

19.1

Raising an Oscillating Antenna

Introduction

This is an example of user-prescribed, combined linear and angular motion.

A telecommunications antenna in high winds is subject to a high level of torque,
and must be built to withstand such a demanding environment. An antenna that
oscillates about its axis, as is the case of RADAR antennas, experience higher
torque loadings. If an antenna is raised and lowered while oscillating, then the
effect is more severe.
In this exercise, we will define the combined linear translation and oscillatory angular motion of a radar antenna, and subject it to a 20 mph wind. Through the analysis, the antenna will sweep through several cycles of it oscillation while it is raised
and then lowered. A telescoping mast will be raised and lowered as well. We will
save many of the time steps and animate them. The time-history of the forces and
torque imposed on the antenna will be recorded in the Motion Output file for inspection.

19.2

Key Topics
Moving Objects
User-Prescribed Combined Linear and Angular Motion
User-Prescribed Linear Motion
Applying an Initial Position
The Motion Output Table

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19-1

Antenna: Combined Motion

19.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown. A volume of air is built around the radar antenna.:
Air Volume

Telescoping Mast
Mast
Oscillating RADAR antenna
The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\antenna sub-folder of your
CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the antenna assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

19-2

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Antenna: Combined Motion

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\antenna

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\antenna

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

19.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.
Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

19-3

Antenna: Combined

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Antenna: Combined Motion

19.5

Boundary Conditions

Switch to the Boundary Condition dialog task:

Velocity:

Inlet:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is set

to Surface.
Select the inlet.
Type = Velocity
Units = mph
Velocity = 20
(alternatively, enter 32 km/hr)
Click Apply.

19-4

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Antenna: Combined Motion

Outlet:

Pressure:

Select the outlet.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.
Antenna: Combined

Sides:

Slip Condition:

Select the top and two sides.

Type = Slip/Symmetry
Click Apply.

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19-5

Antenna: Combined Motion

Pressure:

Bottom of Mast:
Blank the air volume and the outer mast
part. Select the bottom surface of the
inner mast part.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.
This is necessary because when the mast starts moving, a fluid region will be created. The applied pressure will allow flow to be drawn in through the bottom of the
mast, which will add stability to the analysis.

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Antenna: Combined Motion

19.6

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

19.7

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Air Volume

Material Assignment:
Antenna: Combined

Select the air volume

Type = Fluid
Name = Air_Buoyancy
Hit Apply.
This is not a buoyancy analysis, but
allowing the density to vary will
make the solution more stable.

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19-7

Antenna: Combined Motion

Material Assignment:

Dish and mast parts

Blank the air volume, and select the

RADAR dish and the two mast parts.
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Hit Apply.

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Antenna: Combined Motion

19.8

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

RADAR Dish

Motion Assignment:

Select the Dish part.

Type = Combined Linear/Angular
Linear:
Antenna: Combined

Direction Vector = 0,1,0

Initial Position = 0
Angular:
Axis of Rotation = 0,1,0
Center of Rotation = 0,0, -100
Initial Position = -40
Click the Edit Motion button to open
the Motion Editor.

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19-9

Antenna: Combined Motion

Click the Distance button.

Variation Method = Reciprocating
Half Period Time = 25 seconds
Angular Displacement = 500 mm
Click Apply.

Click the Angle button.

Variation Method = Oscillating
Half Period Time = 6 seconds
Angular Displacement = 80 deg
Click Apply.
Click OK.

These settings will cause the RADAR dish to translate 500 mm in 25 seconds and to
oscillate through 80 degrees every six seconds.
Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings.

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Antenna: Combined Motion

Telescoping Mast

Motion Assignment:

Select the telescoping mast part.

Type = Linear
Direction Vector = 0,1,0
Initial Position = 0

Antenna: Combined

Click the Edit Motion button to bring up

the Motion Editor.

Click the Distance button.

Variation Method = Reciprocating
Half Period Time = 25 seconds
Angular Displacement = 500 mm
Click Apply.
Click OK.

These settings will cause the mast to translate 500 mm in 25 seconds with the
RADAR dish.
Click Apply on the Motion task dialog to apply the motion settings.

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19-11

Antenna: Combined Motion

19.9

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible from the Compressibility
group.
(Adding compressibility to the solution will
improve the pressure response of the solver. It
will greatly facilitate the solution when regions
are isolated from one another (particularly at
the beginning of the calculation).
By default, Transient will be selected, and the
number of iterations per time step will be set to
1.
Click the pop-out button on the Time-Step line
to automatically calculate a Time Step Size.
Results Save Interval = 5
Time Steps to run = 50
Click Go to start the analysis.

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Antenna: Combined Motion

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and hit Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

19.10

Results Visualization

As the solution progresses, the dish will oscillate according to the motion parameters weve prescribed. To view the progress of the dish, show the model in Outline
mode, and then to change the visibility of the dish (or all of the solids) to Solid
using the Feature Tree:
Antenna: Combined

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

CFdesign Examples Guide

19-13

Antenna: Combined Motion

Velocity and pressure results after 50 time steps are shown:

19.11

Motion Output Table

For every Motion analysis, a table of the time history of the behavior of the moving
object is saved to the working directory. This file is accessible through
Review_Notes_Motion Results. This file is also saved to the working direction in
Excel comma-separate-variable format, so it will open directly into Excel.
For every time step, this table lists the linear and angular displacements, force,
torque, and velocities. The file is named using the name of the analysis and the
part name and number within the CFdesign Part list.
In this case, if the analysis is named antenna, the part is named radar-scanner,
and the part number is 1, then the motion file will be named:
antenna_radar_scanner_1_motion.csv.
This file is the best source for force and torque data for any moving solid. (Do not
use the Wall Results Calculator to compute the force and/or torque on moving
objects.)

19-14

CFdesign Examples Guide

CHAPTE R 20

20.1

Nutating Flow Meter

Introduction

This is an example of flow-driven, nutating motion.

Nutating flow meters are often to measure flow volume in liquid flows. The motion
within a nutating flow meter is conceptually similar to a positive displacement
device in that the motion is directly proportionate to the volume of fluid moving
through the meter.
In this exercise, we will define the direction and orientation of a nutating disk and
then flow water through the system at 1 m/s. Beginning from a stand-still, the disk
will accelerate due to the flow-induced forces until reaching a constant nutating
velocity.
The internal flow volume and the disk inside make up the supplied geometry.

20.2

Key Topics
Moving Objects
Edge Merge Geometry Tool
Flow-Driven Nutating Motion
The Motion Output Table

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-1

Nutating Flow Meter

20.3

Geometry Description

The device is shown:

Nutating Disk

Internal Flow Volume

(Inside housing)

The geometry files are located in the examples\CAD\nutating-flow-meter subfolder of your CFdesign installation, where CAD is one of the following CAD systems:

Pro/Engineer Wildfire
Inventor
Solid Edge
Solid Works
UGNX
CATIA V5
CoCreate
SpaceClaim

Open the nutating-flow-meter assembly (part in UGNX) in your CAD system from
the appropriate folder.
Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the CAD system.

20-2

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Nutating Flow Meter

CAD-independent files are also provided in two additional formats and are located
in the following directories:
Acis

examples\acis\nutating-flow-meter

Parasolid

examples\parasolid\nutating-flow-meter

Chapter 1 contains information on launching CFdesign from the Desktop for use
with either of these files.

20.4

Setting Analysis Units

If launching from Wildfire, SolidWorks, or Inventor, the units will automatically be

set to mm. No further steps are necessary for length unit assignment.
If launching from the other CAD tools or from the Desktop, change the length units
to mm:

On the Specify Length Units Change Mode dialog, select Scale Model Also:

Please consult the Navigation section in Chapter 1 for information on mouse commands for panning, zooming, rotating, and blanking.
Please consult the Entity Selection section in Chapter 1 for information on using the
selection tools.

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-3

Nutating Flow Meter

Note that this dialog does not appear when launching from CATIA.

Nutating Flow Meter

20.5

Edge Merging

Skip this step if launching from CATIA v5.

This model contains several edges that are broken into small segments. We will use
the Edge Merging utility found in the Geometry tools task dialog to unify some of
these edges. By combining smaller edge segments into larger edges, the mesh will
have fewer nodes and elements, resulting in a faster run time.
Switch to the Geometry task, and select the Edge Merging tab:
Merge the Edges

We will use the default included angle of 5

degrees. The dialog indicates there are 16
edges that will be merged.
Click the Merge button.
The result is that the number of edges is reduced from 113 to 104 edges. This will
reduce the overall mesh density of the model.

20-4

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Nutating Flow Meter

20.6

Boundary Conditions

The Loads dialog task (Boundary tab) should be showing. If not, click the
Loads task icon:
Inlet:

Velocity:

Make sure that the Selection Mode is

set to Surface.
Select the inlet.
Type = Velocity
Units = m/s
Velocity = 1
Click Apply.
Outlet:

Pressure:

Nutating Flow Meter

Select the outlet.

Type = Pressure
Units = Pa
Pressure = 0
Click Apply.

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-5

Nutating Flow Meter

20.7

Mesh Definitions

Change to the Mesh task dialog:

To assign mesh sizes to the model, click
the Automatic Size button.

Automatic Sizing:

All sizes will be automatically determined and assigned to the geometry.

20.8

Materials

Change to the Materials task dialog:

Flow Volume

Material Assignment:

Select the flow volume.

Type = Fluid
Name = H2O_Buoyancy
Click Apply.
This is not a buoyancy analysis, but
allowing the density to vary will
make the solution more stable.

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Nutating Flow Meter

Nutating Disk:

Material Assignment:

Blank the flow volume, and select

the nutating disk.
Type = Solid
Name = Aluminum_Constant
Click Apply.

Nutating Flow Meter

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-7

Nutating Flow Meter

20.9

Motion

Change to the Motion task dialog:

Motion Assignment:

Nutating Disk

Select the nutating disk.

Type = Nutating
Tilt Axis = Open the pop-out dialog,
and click the Select Surface button.
Select the top surface of the disk.
Axis of Nutation = 0,1,0 (Global Y)
Center of Nutation = 0,0,0
Initial Position = 0
Check Flow-Driven
Min = Unbounded
Max = Unbounded
Click Apply
Click the Preview button to test the motion. If it is not correct, the tilt axis is probably pointing in the wrong direction. Click the +/- button on the pop-out dialog to
change the direction of the tilt axis if necessary.

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Nutating Flow Meter

20.10

Analyze

Change to the Analyze task dialog:

Select Compressible from the Compressibility group.
Adding compressibility to the solution will
improve the pressure response of the solver.
It will greatly facilitate the solution when
regions are isolated from one another (particularly at the beginning of the calculation).
By default, Transient will be selected, and the
number of iterations per time step will be set
to 1.
Set the Time Step Size to 0.25.
Results Save Interval = 10
Time Steps to run = 100
Click Go to start the analysis.

Nutating Flow Meter

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-9

Nutating Flow Meter

As the mesh is created, informational messages will be displayed in the Output Bar.
If this analysis was launched from CATIA, the CATIA interface will appear during
the mesh generation. Status messages will be written to the CAD interface.
After the mesh is completed, the analysis will run.
To view the mesh prior to the analysis starting, set the number of Iterations to Run
to 0, and click Go. After the mesh is generated, go to the Results task to view and
inspect the mesh.
The Convergence Assessment section in Chapter 1 describes how to use the Convergence Monitor.

20.11

Results Visualization

As the solution progresses, the disk will nutate because of the forces caused by the
flow. To view the progress of the disk, show the model in Outline mode, and then to
change the visibility of the disk to Solid using the Feature Tree:

Please refer to the Viewing Results section in Chapter 1 for information about
Results Visualization.

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Nutating Flow Meter

Velocity results after 30 time steps (7.5 seconds), 60 time steps (15 seconds), and
100 time steps (25 seconds) are shown:

Motion Output Table

For every Motion analysis, a table of the time history of the behavior of the moving
object is saved to the working directory. This file is accessible through
Review_Notes_Motion Results. This file is also saved to the working direction in
Excel comma-separate-variable format, so it will open directly into Excel.

CFdesign Examples Guide

20-11

Nutating Flow Meter

20.12

Nutating Flow Meter

For every time step, this table lists the linear and angular displacements, force,
torque, and velocities. The file is named using the name of the analysis and the part
name and number within the CFdesign Part list.
In this case, if the analysis is named nutating-flow-meter, the part is named
nutating_disk, and the part number is 2, then the motion file will be named:
nutating-flow-meter_NUTATING_DISK_2_motion.csv
The information in this file is very useful for determining if the moving object has
reached a constant velocity, indicating that the solution has stopped changing. This
is also the best source for force and torque data for any moving solid. (Do not use
the Wall Results Calculator to compute the force and/or torque on moving objects.)

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CFdesign Examples Guide