ANSYS FLUENT Industry Solutions

Powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics Software for

Optimization of Product Development and Processes
Companies throughout the world benefit from the extensive range of
physical modeling capabilities available in ANSYS® FLUENT® software.
The broad physical modeling capabilities of this important engineering
design and analysis tool have been successfully applied to industrial
applications ranging from flow over an aircraft wing to combustion in a
furnace, from bubble columns to glass production, from blood flow to
wastewater treatment plants. The ability of the fluid dynamics software
to model internal combustion engines, aero-acoustics, turbomachinery
and multiphase systems has broadened its reach across the product
engineering sector. Internal combustion engine and
the flow inside modeled using
With its longstanding reputation of being user friendly and robust, ANSYS FLUENT software
ANSYS FLUENT makes it easy for new users to come up to productive
speed. The integration of ANSYS FLUENT into the ANSYS® Workbench™
environment combined with the ability to use ANSYS CFD-Post software
for post-processing creates a comprehensive fluids simulation software
solution available to the engineering analysis community. In conjunction,
ANSYS technical support offers comprehensive user training focused on
making customers successful. Throughout the years, these important
components — comprehensive models, usability and technical support
— have combined to accelerate the adoption of ANSYS FLUENT across a
broad spectrum of industries.

ANSYS FLUENT and the ANSYS Workbench Environment

ANSYS FLUENT software is fully integrated into the ANSYS Workbench Evaporating diesel fuel inside an
environment, the framework for the full engineering simulation suite autothermal reformer mixing chamber
of solutions from ANSYS. Its adaptive architecture enables users to Courtesy Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH.

easily set up any problem from standard fluid flow analyses to complex
interacting systems with simple drag-and-drop operations. Users can
easily assess performance at multiple design points or compare several
alternative designs. Within ANSYS Workbench, applications from
multiple simulation disciplines can access tools common to all, such as
CAD connection, geometry and meshing tools. ANSYS CFD-Post software
can be used to compare results and to perform final data analysis. Data
transfer from ANSYS FLUENT to the ANSYS® Mechanical™ program
permits one-way FSI calculations.

Technology
ANSYS FLUENT software leads the engineering simulation industry in the
number of complex physical models offered for solution on unstructured
meshes. Combinations of elements in a variety of shapes are permitted,
such as quadrilaterals and triangles for 2-D simulations and hexahedra,
tetrahedra, polyhedra, prisms and pyramids for 3-D simulations. Meshes 1 billion cells were used to model the
can be created using ANSYS or third-party meshing products and, in fluid flows around the spinnaker and
the case of polyhedra, via automatic cell agglomeration directly within main sail of a racing yacht design
ANSYS FLUENT. Meshes containing many cells, even over a billion, can Courtesy Ignazio Maria Viola.
quickly be automatically partitioned when read into ANSYS FLUENT
software running on a compute cluster. Additional built-in tools can be
used to further manipulate meshes.
Industry Solutions Numerics and Parallel Processing: Inside ANSYS FLUENT, sophisticated
numerics and robust solvers — including a pressure-based coupled
solver, a fully segregated pressure-based solver and two density-based
solver formulations — help to ensure robust and accurate results for a
nearly limitless range of flows. Advanced parallel processing numerics
can efficiently utilize multiple multi-core processors in a single machine
and in multiple machines on a network. Dynamic load balancing
automatically detects and analyzes parallel performance and adjusts
the distribution of computational cells among the processors so that
a balanced load is shared by the CPUs even when complex physical
models are in use. ANSYS FLUENT is available on Windows®, Linux®
and UNIX® platforms.

Scaling of ANSYS FLUENT software is Turbulence: ANSYS continually defines the cutting edge of turbulence
nearly ideal up to 1,024 processors and modeling in commercial CFD software and offers the engineering
78 percent of ideal at 2,048 processors. community an unparalleled breadth of models. Inside ANSYS FLUENT,
Data courtesy SGI, based on the SGI several popular k–epsilon and k–omega models are available, as is
the Reynolds stress model (RSM) for highly swirling or anisotropic
Altix® ICE 8200EX using quad-core Intel®
flows. Advanced computing power at reduced cost is making large
Xeon® processor E5472 with Infiniband®
eddy simulation (LES) and the more economical detached eddy
simulation (DES) turbulence models attractive for industrial applications.
Also available are innovative new models such as those for predicting
laminar-to-turbulent transition and the novel scale-resolving
Scale-Adaptive Simulation™ (SAS) model for flows in which steady-state
turbulence models are insufficient. Wall functions and enhanced wall
treatment options allow for the best possible representation of all
wall-bounded flows. The range of turbulence options and the ability
for further customization ensure that turbulence for any flow condition
can be simulated using ANSYS FLUENT software.

Acoustics: Aero-acoustics is an important focus for many industrial

applications. In ANSYS FLUENT, the noise resulting from unsteady
Vortical structures generated by an pressure fluctuations can be computed in several ways. Transient
aircraft landing gear visualized using LES predictions for surface pressure can be converted to a frequency
deformation isosurfaces colored by spectrum using the built-in fast Fourier transform (FFT) tool. The
velocity magnitude Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings acoustics analogy can be used to model the
propagation of acoustic sources for objects ranging from exposed bluff
bodies to rotating fan blades. Broadband noise source models allow
acoustic sources to be estimated based on the results of steady-state
simulations and, as a result, are practical tools for quickly evaluating
design modifications.

Dynamic and Moving Mesh: The dynamic mesh capability within

ANSYS FLUENT allows engineers to model the arbitrary, complicated
motion of parts in challenging applications — such as in internal
combustion engines, valves, store separation, ships moving through
waves and rocket launches. Dynamic meshing is compatible with a host
of other models, including the ANSYS FLUENT suite of spray breakup
and combustion models, multiphase flow, free-surface prediction and
Pathlines in a nuclear reactor
compressible flow. The sliding mesh and multiple reference frame
showing a vortex observed in the
models have a proven track record for representing the periodic motion
space between the diffuser and
inside mixing tanks, pumps and turbomachinery. These moving mesh
plate-region
models are fully compatible with complex models, such as LES, reactions
Courtesy ANOVA-CAD-CAE TEST and
Turkish Atomic Energy Authority.
and multiphase flow.
Heat Transfer, Phase Change and Radiation: ANSYS FLUENT offers Industry Solutions
engineers a comprehensive suite of options for modeling convection,
conduction and radiation. Models are available for analyzing radiation
in environments with optically thick (participating) media, and a view
factor-based, surface-to-surface model is available for environments with
transparent non-participating media. The discrete ordinates (DO) model
is suited for any medium, including glass. A solar load model permits
more meaningful climate control simulations. Other capabilities closely
associated with heat transfer include models for cavitation, compressible
liquids, heat exchangers, shell conduction, real gases, wet steam, and
melting and freezing. Evaporation from droplets or wet particles and
devolatilization from coal are available with the discrete phase model
(DPM). The straightforward addition of heat sources and a complete
set of thermal boundary condition options round out the capabilities, Temperatures on flame surface modeled
making heat transfer modeling in ANSYS FLUENT a mature and reliable using LES and state-of-the-art combustion
tool for any set of needs. models inside ANSYS FLUENT software

Reacting Flow: Comprehensive chemical reaction modeling, especially

in turbulent conditions, has been a hallmark of ANSYS FLUENT software
since its inception. The eddy dissipation concept, PDF transport and
stiff finite rate chemistry models, paired with the proven workhorses of
ANSYS FLUENT technology — the eddy dissipation, equilibrium mixture
fraction, flamelet and premixed combustion models — are useful
for tackling a vast array of gaseous, coal and liquid fuel combustion
simulations. Models for reactions between gas and surface species and
the prediction of the formation of NOx, SOx and other pollutants are
also widely used and customizable. Reaction models in ANSYS FLUENT
can be used in conjunction with the LES and DES turbulence models.
When these transient turbulence models are coupled with the reacting
flow models, the power to predict flame stabilization and burnout
becomes possible.
An isosurface of solid concentration in
Multiphase: ANSYS FLUENT multiphase modeling technology allows a stirred tank during solids suspension
engineers to gain insight into equipment that is often difficult to
probe. The Eulerian multiphase model makes use of separate sets of
fluid equations for interpenetrating fluids or phases. Special physics are
available if one of the fluids is granular as well as to model an interface
between fluids. In many cases, the more economical mixture model
can be used for both granular and nongranular mixtures. An unlimited
number of phases including any combination of liquid, solid and gas can
be modeled. As a result, simulations of slurry bubble columns and trickle
bed reactors are possible. Heat and mass transfer between phases can
be accounted for, making homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions
possible. Bubble size distributions can be tracked using integrated
population balance models. Both the volume of fluid model and the
coupled level-set model are available for free surface flows, such as
bubble flow, in which the prediction of the interface is of interest.

The Discrete phase model, a Lagrangian model, is appropriate for some

multiphase applications — such as spray dryers, coal furnaces, continuous
fiber drawing and liquid fuel sprays. Injections of particles, bubbles The predicted spray resulting from
or droplets can undergo heat, mass and momentum transfer with the atomization. Unstable waves, called
background fluid. Kelvin–Helmholtz waves, are apparent
previous to the areas of disintegration
Post-Processing: User-defined functions allow analysts and engineers ligaments and further into droplets
wanting to customize ANSYS FLUENT software. Add-on modules Courtesy Bend Research.
for applications such as PEM and solid oxide fuel cells as well as

R ELEASE 1 3 .0
 Industry Solutions magnetohydrodynamics are available for
many special applications.

Customized Tools: Within ANSYS FLUENT,

a full suite of qualitative and quantitative
post-processing tools can be used to
check solution progress and to generate
meaningful graphics, animations and Polyhedral mesh and
reports that make it easy to convey pressure distribution on an
fluids simulation results to engineers F1 car post-processed using
and nonengineers alike. The embedded ANSYS CFD-Post software
post-processing capability within ANSYS
FLUENT works in parallel and can handle
even the largest data sets. Solution data can be exported to ANSYS
CFD-Post software, third-party graphics packages or CAE packages
for additional scrutiny. Solution data also can be mapped to ANSYS®
Mechanical™ APDL and third-party FEA meshes for FSI simulation.
ANSYS CFD-Post provides extended capabilities including a powerful
Pathlines of blood flow in an aneurysm
expression language to derive further quantities from the calculated
during time of average inflow (left).
results, session files and scripting for automation, and templates for
The 3-D model of the cerebral automatic report generation incorporating charts, tables and 2-D or 3-D
vasculature showing the location images. Results from multiple simulations can be compared via either
of the aneurysm (right) side-by-side examination or by calculating differences.
Courtesy of The Methodist Hospital
Research Institute.
Summary
ANSYS FLUENT software provides fast, accurate and robust CFD solutions.
Built-in physical models are available for directly simulating a multitude
of complex processes. Add-on modules and customization tools allow for
more specialized applications. ANSYS is eager to continue its long history
of meeting customer needs for a variety of industries and a myriad of
applications.

Contours of pressure on a helicopter The ANSYS Advantage

in hovering flight mode With the unequalled depth and unparalleled breadth of ANSYS
engineering simulation solutions, companies are transforming their
leading-edge design concepts into innovative products and processes
that work. Today, almost all of the top 100 industrial companies on the
“FORTUNE Global 500” invest in engineering simulation as a key strategy
to win in a globally competitive environment. They choose ANSYS as
their simulation partner, deploying the world’s most comprehensive
multiphysics solutions to solve their complex engineering challenges.
The engineered scalability of solutions from ANSYS delivers the flexibility
customers need, within an architecture that is adaptable to the processes
and design systems of their choice. No wonder the world’s most
Static pressure contours on a successful companies turn to ANSYS — with a track record of 40 years
bicycle helmet as the industry leader — for the best in engineering simulation.
Courtesy: University of Sheffield.

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