Solid Works Flow Simulations 2012
Solid Works Flow Simulations 2012
Solid Works Flow Simulations 2012
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Porous Media
Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-2 Creating a Flow Simulation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-2 Specifying Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-3 Creating Isotropic Porous Medium in the Engineering Database . . . . . . A3-5 Specifying Porous Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-6 Specifying Surface Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-7 Specifying the Equation Goal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-8 Running the Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-9 Viewing the Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-9 Viewing Flow Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-9 Cloning the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-10 Creating Unidirectional Porous Medium in the Engineering Database . A3-10 Specifying the Porous Medium - Unidirectional Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-11 Comparing the Isotropic and Unidirectional Catalysts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3-11
Intermediate Examples
Determination of Hydraulic Loss
Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-1 Model Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-2 Creating a Flow Simulation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-3 Specifying Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-7 Specifying Surface Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-8 Running the Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-9 Monitoring the Solver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-9 Cloning the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-10 Viewing Cut Plots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-11 Working with Parameter List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-14 Viewing the Goal Plot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-15 Working with Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-15 Changing the Geometry Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-17
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial iii
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Mesh Optimization
Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-2 Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-3 Creating a Flow Simulation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-3 Specifying Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-4 Manual Specification of the Minimum Gap Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-6 Switching off the Automatic Mesh Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-9 Using the Local Initial Mesh Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-11 Specifying Control Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-12 Creating a Second Local Initial Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-14
Advanced Examples
Application of EFD Zooming
Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1-1 The EFD Zooming Approach to Solve the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1-3 The Local Initial Mesh Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1-12 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1-15
Textile Machine
Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-1 Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-2 Creating a Flow Simulation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-2 Specifying Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-3 Specifying Rotating Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-3 Specifying Initial Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-4 Specifying Goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-5 Results (Smooth Walls) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-6 Displaying Particles Trajectories and Flow Streamlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-7 Modeling Rough Rotating Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-9 Adjusting Wall Roughness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-9 Results (Rough Walls) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2-10
Rotating Impeller
Problem Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-1 Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-2 Creating a Flow Simulation Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-2 Specifying Boundary Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-3 On Calculating the Impellers Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-5 Specifying Project Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-5 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5-7
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CPU Cooler
Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-1 Opening the SolidWorks Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-2 Creating a Flow Simulation Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-2 Adjusting the Computational Domain Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-2 Specifying the Rotating Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-3 Specifying Stationary Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-5 Specifying Solid Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-6 Specifying Heat Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-6 Specifying Initial Mesh Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-6 Specifying Project Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-8 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6-10
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Hospital Room
Problem Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-1 Model Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-2 Project Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-3 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-3 Specifying Heat Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-5 Specifying Calculation Control Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-7 Specifying Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-7 Adjusting Initial Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-8 Setting Local Initial Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-8 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .D2-9
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Features List
This chapter contains the list of the physical and interface features of Flow Simulation as they appear in the tutorial examples. If you need to find an example of a certain feature or function usage, look for the desired feature in the left column and in its row you can see in which tutorial examples this feature is used. Usually, the first entrance of the feature in the tutorial contains the most detailed description. The tutorial examples are listed in Features List by their respective numbers. All tutorial examples are divided in three categories: First Steps, Intermediate and Advanced.
In the First Steps examples you will learn the basic principles of the Flow Simulation
structure and interface. A1 - Ball Valve Design A2 - Conjugate Heat Transfer A3 - Porous Media
On the Intermediate level you will learn how to solve engineering problems with Flow
Simulation, using some of the most common tasks as examples. B1 - Determination of Hydraulic Loss B2 - Cylinder Drag Coefficient B3 - Heat Exchanger Efficiency B4 - Mesh Optimization
FL-1
In the Advanced examples you can see how to use a wide variety of the Flow
Simulation features to solve real-life engineering problems. It is assumed that you successfully completed all First Steps examples before. C1 - Application of EFD Zooming C2 - Textile Machine C3 - Non-Newtonian Flow in a Channel with Cylinders C4 - Radiative Heat Transfer C5 - Rotating Impeller C6 - CPU Cooler C7 - Oil Catch Can
In the examples for HVAC Module you can see how to use an additional capabilities of
the Flow Simulation to solve Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning tasks. This functionality is available for the HVAC module users only. D1 - 150W Halogen Floodligh D2 - Hospital Room
In the examples for Electronics Cooling Module you can see how to use an additional
capabilities of the Flow Simulation to simulate a wide variety of electronic components. This functionality is available for the Electronics Cooling module users only. E1 - Electronic components
FL-2
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
DIMENSIONALITY 2D flow 3D flow ANALYSIS TYPE External analysis Internal analysis PHYSICAL FEATURES Steady state analysis Time-dependent (transient) analysis Liquids Gases Non-Newtonian liquids Combustible Mixtures Multi-fluid analysis Mixed flows Separated flows (as Fluid Subdomains) Heat conduction in solids Heat conduction in solids only Gravitational effects Laminar only flow Porous media
FL-3
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Radiation Absorption in solids Spectrum Roughness Two-phase flows (fluid flows with particles or droplets) Rotation Global rotating reference frame Local rotating regions CONDITIONS Computational domain Symmetry Initial and ambient conditions Velocity parameters Dependency Thermodynamic parameters Turbulence parameters Concentration Solid parameters
FL-4
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Boundary conditions Flow openings Inlet mass flow Inlet volume flow Outlet volume flow Inlet velocity Pressure openings Static pressure Environment pressure Wall Real wall Boundary condition parameters Transferred boundary conditions Fans Contact resistances Perforated plates Volume conditions Fluid Subdomain nitial conditions Velocity parameters Dependency Solid parameters
FL-5
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Solid material Semi-transparent Porous medium Heat sources Surface sources Heat generation rate Volume sources Temperature Heat generation rate Goal-dependent sources Radiative conditions Radiation sources Radiative surfaces
Electronics module features (requires Electronics license) Two-resistor components Heat pipe Printed circuit board PROJECT DEFINITION Wizard and Navigator From template Clone project General settings
FL-6
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Copy projects features GOALS Global goal Surface goal Volume goal Point goal Equation goal MESH SETTINGS Initial mesh Automatic settings Level of initial mesh Minimum gap size Minimum wall thickness Manual adjustments Control planes Solid/fluid interface Narrow channels Local initial mesh Manual adjustments Refining cells Narrow channels TOOLS
FL-7
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Dependency Custom units Engineering database User-defined items Check geometry Gasdynamic calculator Toolbars Filter Component control CALCULATION CONTROL OPTIONS Result resolution level Solution adaptive mesh refinement Calculate comfort parameters RUNNING CALCULATION Batch run MONITORING CALCULATION Goal plot Preview GETTING RESULTS Cut plot Surface plot Isosurfaces
FL-8
Advanced C 4 C 5 C 6 C 7
Modules D 1 D 2 E 1
B B B B C C C 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
Flow trajectories Particle study XY plot Surface parameters Volume parameters Goal plot Display parameters Results summary Display mode Show/Hide model geometry Transparency Apply lighting OPTIONS Use CAD geometry Display mesh
FL-9
FL-10
A
First Steps
The First Steps examples presented below demonstrate the basic principles of the Flow Simulation structure and interface. Its strongly recommended to complete these tutorials examples first. A1 - Ball Valve Design A2 - Conjugate Heat Transfer A3 - Porous Media
A-1
First Steps:
A-2
A1
Ball Valve Design
This tutorial deals with the flow of water through a ball valve assembly before and after some design changes. The objective is to show how easy fluid flow simulation can be with Flow Simulation and how simple it is to analyze design variations. These two factors make Flow Simulation the perfect tool for engineers who want to test the impact of their design changes.
directory and ensure that the files are not read-only since Flow Simulation will save input data to these files.
2 Click File, Open. In the Open dialog box, browse to the Ball Valve.SLDASM assembly located in the A1 Ball Valve folder and click Open (or double-click the
assembly). Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Ball Valve.SLDASM file to an empty area of SolidWorks window. Make sure that the default configuration is the active one.
This is a ball valve. Turning the handle closes or opens
the valve. The assembly mate angle controls the opening angle.
3 Highlight the lids by clicking the features in the
changes. The user simply closes the interior volume using extrusions that we call lids. In this example the lids are made semi-transparent so you may look into the valve.
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project). Please keep in mind that after finishing the Wizard you can change the unit system at any time by clicking Flow Simulation, Units.
Within Flow Simulation, there are several
predefined systems of units. You can also define your own and switch between them at any time. Click Next .
4 Keep the default Internal analysis type.
structure. This is what we call an internal analysis. The alternative is an external analysis, which is the flow around an object. In this dialog box you can also choose to ignore cavities that are not relevant to the flow analysis, so that Flow Simulation will not waste memory and CPU resources to take them into account.
Not only will Flow Simulation calculate the fluid flow, but can also take into account
heat conduction within the solid, including surface-to-surface radiation. Transient (time-dependent) analyses are also possible. Gravitational effects can be included for natural convection cases. Analysis of rotating equipment is one more option available. We skip all these features, as none of them is needed in this simple example. Click Next .
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5 In the Fluids tree expand the Liquids item and choose Water as the fluid. You can either double-click Water or select the item in the tree and click Add. Flow Simulation is capable of calculating
flow of fluids of different types in the same analysis, but fluids of different types must be separated by walls. A mixing of fluids may be considered only if the fluids are of the same type.
Flow Simulation has an integrated database containing properties of several liquids,
gases and solids. Solids are used in conjugate heat conduction analyses. You can easily create your own materials. Up to ten liquids or gases can be chosen for each analysis run.
Flow Simulation can analyze any flow type: Turbulent only, Laminar only or Laminar
and Turbulent. The turbulent equations can be disregarded if the flow is entirely laminar. Flow Simulation can also handle low and high Mach number compressible flows for gases. For this demonstration we will perform a fluid flow simulation using a liquid and will keep the default flow characteristics. Click Next.
6 Click Next accepting the default wall
conditions.
Since we did not choose to consider heat
conduction in solids, we have an option to define a value of heat transfer for all surfaces of the model being in contact with the fluid. Keep the default Adiabatic wall to specify that the walls are perfectly insulated.
You can also specify a wall roughness value applied by default to all model walls. The
boundary condition.
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initial conditions.
On this step we can change the default
settings for pressure, temperature and velocity. The closer these values to the final values determined in the analysis, the quicker the analysis will finish. Since we do not have any knowledge of the expected final values, we will not modify them for this demonstration.
8 Accept the default for the Result Resolution.
Result Resolution is a measure of the desired level of accuracy of the results. It controls
not only the resolution of the geometry by the mesh, but also sets many parameters for the solver, e.g. convergence criteria. The higher the Result Resolution, the finer the mesh will be and the stricter convergence criteria will be set. Thus, Result Resolution determines the balance between results precision and computation time. Entering values for the minimum gap size and minimum wall thickness is important when you have small features. Accurately setting these values ensures that the small features of the model will not be passed over by the mesh. For our model we type the value of the minimum flow passage as the minimum gap size. Select the Manual specification of the minimum gap size check box. Type the value of 0.0093 m for the Minimum gap size. Click Finish . Now Flow Simulation creates a new configuration with the Flow Simulation data attached. Click on the Configuration Manager to show the new configuration.
Notice that the new configuration has the name that you entered in the Wizard.
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Go to the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree and expand all the items in the tree.
We will use the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree to define our
analysis, just as you use the FeatureManager design tree to design your models. The Flow Simulation analysis tree is fully customizable; anytime you can select which folders are shown and which folders are hidden. A hidden folder becomes visible when you add a new feature of the corresponding type. The folder remains visible until the last feature of this type is deleted.
Right-click the Computational Domain icon and select Hide to hide the wireframe box. The Computational Domain icon is used to modify the size of the volume being analyzed. The wireframe box enveloping the model is the visualization of the limits of the computational domain.
shown. (To access the inner face, right-click the Lid <1> in the graphics area and choose Select
Other
, move the mouse pointer over items in the list until the inner face is highlighted, then click the left mouse button).
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to 0.5 kg/s.
5 Click OK
. The new Inlet Mass Flow 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
With the definition just made, we told Flow Simulation that at this opening 0.5
kilogram of water per second is flowing into the valve. Within this dialog we can also specify swirling of the flow, a non-uniform profile and time-dependent properties of the flow. The mass flow rate at the outlet does not need to be specified due to the conservation of mass; inlet mass flow rate equals outlet mass flow rate. Therefore, a different condition must be specified, such as outlet pressure.
6 Select the inner face of the Lid <2> part as shown. (To
access the inner face, right-click the Lid <2> in the , move the graphics area and choose Select Other pointer over items in the list until the inner face is highlighted, then click the left mouse button).
7 In the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree, right-click the Boundary Conditions icon and select Insert Boundary Condition. 8 Select Pressure Openings
9 Keep the defaults under Thermodynamic Parameters, Turbulence Parameters, Boundary Layer and Options.
10 Click OK
. The new Static Pressure 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
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With the definition just made, we told Flow Simulation that at this opening the fluid
exits the model to an area of static atmospheric pressure. Within this dialog we can also set a time-dependent properties pressure.
the Inlet Mass Flow 1 item to select the face where the goal is going to be applied.
3 In the Parameter table, select the Av check box in the Static Pressure row. The already selected Use for Conv. check box means that the created goal will be used
check box is not selected, the goal will not influence the calculation stopping criteria. Such goals can be used as monitoring parameters to give you additional information about processes in your model without influencing the other results and the total calculation time.
4 Click OK
. The new SG Av Static Pressure 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
Engineering goals are the parameters of interest. Setting goals is a way of conveying to
Flow Simulation what you are trying to get out of the analysis, as well as a way to reduce the time Flow Simulation needs to reach a solution. By setting a parameter as a project goal you give Flow Simulation information about parameters that are important to converge upon (the parameters selected as goals) and parameters that
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial A1-7
can be computed with less accuracy (the parameters not selected as goals) in the interest of the calculation time. Goals can be set throughout the entire domain (Global Goals), within a selected volume (Volume Goals), for a selected surface area (Surface Goals), or at given point (Point Goals). Furthermore, Flow Simulation can consider the average value, the minimum value or the maximum value of the goal. You can also define an Equation Goal that is a goal defined by an equation involving basic mathematical functions with existing goals and input data parameters as variables. The equation goal allows you to calculate the parameter of interest (i.e., pressure drop) and keeps this information in the project for later reference. Click File, Save.
means that the results will be automatically loaded after finishing the calculation.
2 Click Run. The solver takes less than a minute to run on a
typical PC.
dialog box. By default, on the left is a log of each step taken in the solution process. On the right is the information dialog box with mesh information and warnings concerning the analysis. Do not be surprised when the error message A vortex crosses the pressure opening appears. We will explain this later during the demonstration.
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1 After the calculation has started and several first iterations has passed (keep your eye
on the Iterations line in the Info window), click the Suspend Solver toolbar.
button on the
We employ the Suspend option only due to extreme simplicity of the current example,
which otherwise could be calculated too fast, leaving you not enough time to perform the subsequent steps of monitoring. Normally you can use the monitoring tools without suspending the calculation.
2 Click Insert Goal Plot
box appears.
3 Select the SG Average Static Pressure 1 in the Select goals list and click OK.
and each goal created earlier is listed in the table at top. Here you can see the current value and graph for each goal as well as the current progress towards completion given as a percentage. The progress value is only an estimate and the rate of progress generally increases with time.
4 Click Insert Preview
on the Solver toolbar. The Preview Settings dialog box will appear.
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can select any SolidWorks plane from the Plane name list and then press OK. For this model, Plane2 can be a good choice.
The preview allows you to
look at the results while the calculation is still running. This helps to determine if all the boundary conditions are correctly defined and gives the user an idea of how the solution will look even at this early stage. At the start of the run the results might look odd or change abruptly. However, as the run progresses these changes will lessen and the results will settle in on a converged solution. The result can be displayed either in contour-, isoline- or vector-representation.
6 Click the Suspend
7 When the solver is finished, close the monitor by clicking File, Close .
transparent view of the geometry, a glass-body. This way you can easily see where cut planes etc. are located with respect to the geometry.
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You will see the plot like the one shown below.
plots, you can double-click on the color bar. Some options available here include changing the displayed parameter as well as changing the min/max plot values. The best way to learn each of these options is thorough experimentation.
4 Change the contour cut plot to a vector cut plot. To do this, right-click the Cut Plot 1 icon and select Edit Definition. 5 Under Display, clear Contours
.
The vectors size and spacing can be controlled under the Vectors. 6 Click OK
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You will see the plot like the one shown below.
Cut Plots. Feel free to experiment with different combinations on your own.
3 Click OK
below.
This plot shows the pressure (or other parameter selected) distribution on all faces of
the valve in contact with the fluid. You can also select one or more single surfaces for this plot, which do not have to be planar.
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and click OK
. You will see the isosurface like the one show in the picture right.
The Isosurface is a 3-Dimensional surface created by
4 Right-click the Isosurface 1 icon and select Edit Definition. Enable Value 2 and specify some value in the appeared box that is different to the Value 1. 5 Click OK
You will see the isosurfaces like the ones shown below.
The isosurface is a useful way of determining the exact 3D area, where the flow
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click the Static Pressure 1 item to select the inner face of the Lid <2>.
4 Set the Number of Points
to 16.
6 Click OK
.You will the flow trajectories like the ones shown in the picture right.
face or sketch can be selected) and therefore every trajectory crosses that selected face. Notice the trajectories that are entering and exiting through the exit lid. This is the reason for the warning we received during the calculation. Flow Simulation warns us of inappropriate analysis conditions so that we do not need to be CFD experts. When flow both enters and exits the same opening, the accuracy of the results will worsen. In a case like this, one would typically add the next component to the model (say, a pipe extending the computational domain) so that the vortex does not occur at opening.
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Viewing XY Plots
Right-click the Flow Trajectories 1 icon and select Hide. We will plot velocity and pressure distributions along the valve using the already created SolidWorks sketch containing several lines. This sketch work does not have to be done ahead of time and your sketch lines can be created after the calculation is finished. Take a look at Sketch1 in the FeatureManager design tree.
1 Right-click the XY Plots icon and select Insert.
Select Sketch1 from the flyout FeatureManager design tree. Leave all other options as defaults.
3 Click OK
. Excel will open and generate two columns of data points together with two charts for Velocity and for Pressure, respectively. One of these charts is shown below. You will need to toggle between different sheets in Excel to view each chart.
ball valve.sldasm [Project 3]
8
Velocity (m/s)
4 Sketch1@Line3@Line2@Line1_1 3
0 -0.04 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 -1 Model X (m) 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
The XY Plot allows you to view any result along sketched lines. The data is put directly
into Excel.
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2 Click the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree tab and then click
the Inlet Mass Flow 1 item to select the inner face of the Lid <1>.
3 Under Parameters, select All. 4 Click Show. The calculated parameters values are
displayed on the pane at the bottom of the screen. Local parameters are displayed at the left side of the bottom pane, while integral parameters are displayed at the right side.
5 Take a look at the local parameters.
The average static pressure at the inlet face is shown to be about 135500 Pa. We already know that the outlet static pressure is 101325 Pa since we have specified it previously as a boundary condition. So, the average static pressure drop through the valve is about 34000 Pa.
6 Close the Surface Parameters dialog.
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variations can be different geometric dimensions, new features, new parts in an assembly whatever! This is the heart of Flow Simulation and this allows design engineers to quickly and easily determine which designs have promise, and which designs are unlikely to be successful. For this example, we will see how filleting two sharp edges will influence the pressure drop through the valve. If there is no improvement, it will not be worth the extra manufacturing costs. Create a new configuration using the SolidWorks Configuration Manager Tree.
1 Right-click the root item in the SolidWorks Configuration Manager and select Add Configuration.
. A new window
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1 Right-click the root item in the SolidWorks Configuration Manager and select Add Configuration.
shown face.
assembly window and select Yes in the message dialog box that appears. In the FeatureManager design tree right-click the Ball item and select Component
Properties. 6 At the bottom of the Component Properties dialog box, under Referenced configuration change the configuration of
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Now we have replaced the old ball with our new 1.5_fillet Ball. All we need to do now is re-solve the assembly and compare the results of the two designs. In order to make the results comparable with the previous model, it would be necessary to adjust the valve angle to match the size of the flow passage of the first model. In this example, we will not do this.
8 Activate Project 1 by using the Configuration Manager Tree. Select Yes for the message
Now the Flow Simulation project we have chosen is added to the SolidWorks project which contains the geometry that has been changed. All our input data are copied, so we do not need to define our openings or goals again. The Boundary Conditions can be changed, deleted or added. All changes to the geometry will only be applied to this new configuration, so the old results are still saved. Please follow the previously described steps for solving and for viewing the results.
geometries. You may also want to run the same geometry over a range of flow rates. This section shows how quick and easy it can be to do that kind of parametric study. Here we are going to change the mass flow to 0.75 kg/s. Activate the Project 1 configuration.
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1 Create a copy of the Project 1 project by clicking Flow Simulation, Project, Clone Project. 2 Type Project 3 for the new project name and click OK.
Flow Simulation now creates a new configuration. All our input data are copied, so we do not need to define our openings or goals again. The Boundary Conditions can be changed, deleted or added. All changes to the geometry will only be applied to this new configuration, so the old results remain valid. After changing the inlet flow rate value to 0.75 kg/s you would be ready to run again. Please follow the previously described steps for solving and for viewing the results. Imagine being the designer of this ball valve. How would you make decisions concerning your design? If you had to determine whether the benefit of modifying the design as we have just done outweighted the extra costs, how would you do this? Engineers have to make decisions such as this every day, and Flow Simulation is a tool to help them make those decisions. Every engineer who is required to make design decisions involving fluid and heat transfer should use Flow Simulation to test their ideas, allowing for fewer prototypes and quicker design cycles.
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A2
Conjugate Heat Transfer
This tutorial covers the basic steps required to set up a flow analysis problem including heat conduction in solids. This example is particularly pertinent to users interested in analyzing flow and heat conduction within electronics devices, although the basic principles are applicable to all thermal problems. It is assumed that you have already completed the Ball Valve Design tutorial since it teaches the basic principles of using Flow Simulation in greater detail.
ensure that the files are not read-only since Flow Simulation will save input data to these files. Click File, Open.
2 In the Open dialog box, browse to the Enclosure Assembly.SLDASM assembly located in the A2 - Conjugate Heat Transfer folder and click Open (or double-click
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Power Supply
Motherboard
Fan-412, and all Screw components (to select more than one component, hold down the Ctrl key while you select).
2 Right-click any of the selected components
. and select Suppress Suppressing fan and its screws leaves open
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five holes in the enclosure. Since we are going to perform an internal analysis, all the holes must be closed with lids. To save your time, we created the lids and included them in this model. You just need to unsupress them.
3 In the FeatureManager design tree, select
the Inlet Lid, Outlet Lid and Screwhole Lid components and patterns DerivedLPattern1 and LocalLPattern1 (these patterns contain cloned copies of the outlet and screwhole lids).
4 Right-click any of the selected
components and select Unsuppress Now you can start with Flow Simulation.
Now we will create a new system of units named USA Electronics that is better suited for our analysis.
3 In the Unit system list select the USA system of units. Select Create new to add
a new system of units to the Engineering Database and name it USA Electronics.
Flow Simulation allows you to work with
several pre-defined unit systems but often it is more convenient to define your own custom unit system. Both pre-defined and custom unit systems are stored in the Engineering Database. You can create the desired system of units in the Engineering Database or in the Wizard.
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By scrolling through the different groups in the Parameter tree you can see the units
selected for the parameters. Although most of the parameters have convenient units such as ft/s for velocity and CFM (cubic feet per minute) for volume flow rate we will change a couple of units to that are more convenient for this model. Since the physical size of the model may be relatively small it is more convenient to choose inches instead of feet as the length unit.
4 For the Length entry, double-click its cell in the Unit column and select Inch.
Select Watt, Watt/meter 2, Watt/meter2/ Kelvin as the units for Total heat flow and power, Heat flux and Heat transfer coefficient respectively, because these units are more convenient when dealing with electronic components . Click Next .
6 Set the analysis type to Internal. Under Physical Features select the Heat conduction in solids check box, then click Next. Heat conduction in solids is selected
because heat is generated by several electronics components and we are interested to see how the heat is dissipated through the heat sink and other solid parts and then out to the fluid.
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7 Expand the Gases folder and double-click Air. Keep the default Flow Characteristics.
Click Next.
8 Expand the Alloys folder and click Steel Stainless 321 to assign it as the Default solid. In the Wizard you specify the default solid
material applied to all solid components in the Flow Simulation project. To specify a different solid material for one or more components, you can define a Solid Material condition for these components after the project is created. Click Next.
9 Select Heat transfer coefficient as Default outer wall thermal condition and specify the Heat transfer coefficient value of 5.5 W/m^2/K and Temperature of external fluid of 50F. The entered
value of heat transfer coefficient is automatically coverted to the selected system of units (USA Electronics).
In the Wall Conditons dialog box of the Wizard you specify the default conditions at the model walls. When Heat conduction in solids is enabled in an internal anlysis, the Default outer wall thermal condition parameter allows you to simulate heat exchange between the outer model
walls and surrounding environment. In our case the box is located in an air-conditioned room with the air temperature of 50F and heat transfer through the outer walls of the enclosure due to the convection in the room can significantly contribute to the enclosure cooling. Click Next. Although the initial temperature is more important for transient calculations to see how much time it takes to reach a certain temperature, in a steady-state analysis it is useful
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to set the initial temperature close to the expected final solution to speed up convergence. In this case we will set the initial air temperature and the initial temperature of the stainless steel (which represents the material of enclosure) to 50F because the box is located in an air-conditioned room.
10 Set the initial fluid Temperature and the Initial solid temperature (under Solid Parameters) to 50F.
Click Next .
minimum gap size and minimum wall thickness using information about the overall model dimensions, the computational domain, and dimensions of faces on which you specify conditions and goals. Prior to starting the calculation, we recommend you to check the minimum gap size and minimum wall thickness to ensure that small features will be recognized. We will review this again after all the necessary conditions and goals are specified. Click Finish . Now Flow Simulation creates a new configuration with the Flow Simulation project attached.
We will use the Flow Simulation Analysis tree to define our analysis, just as you use the
FeatureManager design tree to design your models. Right-click the Computational Domain icon and select Hide to hide the wireframe box.
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as shown. (To access the inner face, right-click the Inlet Lid in the graphics area and choose Select Other, move the pointer over items in the list of features until the inner face is highlighted, then click the left mouse button).
3 Under Type, select External Inlet Fan. 4 In the Fan list, under Pre-Defined , Axial, Papst, select the Papst 412 item.
Face coordinate system is created automatically in the center of a planar face when
you select this face as the face to apply the boundary condition or fan. The X axis of this coordinate system is normal to the face. The Face coordinate system is created only when one planar face is selected.
7 Click OK
. The new Fans folder and the External Inlet Fan 1 item appear in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
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Now you can edit the External Inlet Fan 1 item or add a
new fan using Flow Simulation Analysis tree. This folder remains visible until the last feature of this type is deleted. You can also make a feature folder to be initially available in the tree. Right-click the project name item and select Customize Tree to add or remove folders.
Since the outlet lids of the enclosure are at ambient
atmospheric pressure, the pressure rise produced by the fan is equal to the pressure drop through the electronics enclosure.
shown.
and
pressure for outgoing flows and as a total pressure for incoming flows.
4 Keep the defaults under Thermodynamic Parameters, Turbulence Parameters , Boundary Layer and Options. 5 Click OK
. The new Environment Pressure 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
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list.
as Parameter.
4 Enter 5 W in the Heat Generation Rate 5 Click OK
box.
6 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, click-pause-click the new VS Heat Generation Rate 1 item and rename it to Main Chip. Volume Heat Sources allow you to specify the heat generation rate (e.g. in Watts) or the
volumetric heat generation rate (e.g. in Watts per volume) or a constant temperature boundary condition for a volume. It is also possible to specify Surface Heat Sources in terms of heat transfer rate (e.g. in Watts) or heat flux (e.g. in Watts per area). Click anywhere in the graphic area to clear the selection.
1 In the Flow Simulation analysis tree, right-click the Heat Sources icon and select Insert Volume Source. 2 In the flyout FeatureManager design tree, select all three Capacitor
components.
3 Select the Temperature Temperature 4 Click OK
as
box. .
described above, specify the other volume heat sources as folows: all chips on PCBs (Small Chip components) with the total heat generation rate of 4 W, Power Supply with the temperature of 120 F.
7 Rename the heat source applied to the chips to Small Chips and the heat source for the power supply to Power Supply.
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2 In the Database tree select Materials, Solids, User Defined. 3 Click New Item
on the toolbar.
The blank Item Properties tab appears. Double-click the empty cells to set the corresponding properties values.
4 Specify the material properties as follows: Name = Tutorial PCB, Comments = Isotropic PCB, Density = 1120 kg/m^3, Specific heat = 1400 J/(kg*K), Conductivity type = Isotropic Thermal conductivity = 10 W/(m*K), Melting temperature = 390 K .
We also need to add a new material simulating thermal conductivity and other thermal properties of electronic components.
5 Switch to the Items tab and click New Item 6 Specify the properties of the chips material: Name = Tutorial component package, Comments = Component package, Density = 2000 kg/m^3, Specific heat = 120 J/(kg*K), Conductivity type = Isotropic Thermal conductivity = 0.4 W/(m*K), Melting temperature = 390 K .
on the toolbar.
7 Click Save
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You can enter the material properties in any unit system you want by typing the unit
name after the value and Flow Simulation will automatically convert the entered value to the SI system of units. You can also specify temperature-dependent material properties using the Tables and Curves tab.
4 Click OK
specify solid materials for other components: for the Main Chip and all Small Chips assign the new Tutorial component package material (available under User Defined); the Heat Sink is made of Aluminum (available under Pre-Defined, Metals); the lids (Inlet Lid, Outlet Lid, Screwhole Lidand all lids in both the DerivedLPattern1 and LocalLPattern1 patterns) are made of the Insulator material (available under Pre-Defined, Glasses and Minerals). To select a part, click it in the FeatureManager design tree or SolidWorks graphics area.
6 Change the name of each assigned solid material. The new,
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2 In the flyout FeatureManager design tree select all Small Chip components. 3 In the Parameter table, select the Max check box in the Temperature (Solid) row. 4 Accept selected Use for Conv. ( Use for Convergence Control)
item to
VG Small Chips Max Temperature. You
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row.
10 Click OK
11 Rename the new VG Max Temperature (Solid) 1 item to VG Chip Max Temperature.
the External Inlet Fan 1 item to select the face where the goal is going to be applied.
3 In the Parameter table select the Av check box in the Static Pressure row. 4 Accept selected Use for Conv. (Use for Convergence Control) check box to use this goal for convergence
control.
Notice the X(Y, Z) - Component of Force and X(Y, Z) -
Component of Torque surface goals. For these you can select the Coordinate system, in which these goals will be calculated.
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and then remove the PropertyManager, click Inlet <Number> field from the Name Template box.
6 Click OK
the Environment Pressure 1 item to select the faces where the goal is going to be applied.
9 In the Parameter table select the first check box in the Mass Flow Rate row. 10 Accept selected Use for Conv. (Use for Convergence Control) check box to use this goal for
convergence control.
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2 In the Parameter table select the Av check boxes in the Static Pressure and Temperature (Fluid) rows and accept selected Use for Conv. (Use for Convergence Control) check box to use these
. The GG Av Static Pressure and GG Av Temperature (Fluid) goals appear.In this tutorial, the engineering goals are set to determine the maximum temperature of the heat generating components, the temperature rise in air and the pressure drop and mass flow rate through the enclosure. Click File, Save. Next let us check the automatically defined geometry resolution settings for this project.
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wall thickness is important when you have small features. Setting these values accurately ensures that the small features are not "passed over" by the mesh. The minimum wall thickness should be specified only if there are fluid cells on either side of a small solid feature. In case of internal analyses, there are no fluid cells in the ambient space outside of the enclosure. Therefore boundaries between internal flow and ambient space are always resolved properly. That is why you should not take into account the walls of the steel cabinet. Both the minimum gap size and the minimum wall thickness are tools that help you to create a model-adaptive mesh resulting in increased accuracy. However the minimum gap size setting is the more powerful one. The fact is that the Flow Simulation mesh is constructed so that the specified Level of initial mesh controls the minimum number of mesh cells per minimum gap size. And this number is equal to or greater than the number of mesh cells generated per minimum wall thickness. That's why even if you have a thin solid feature inside the flow region it is not necessary to specify minimum wall thickness if it is greater than or equal to the minimum gap size. Specifying the minimum wall thickness is necessary if you want to resolve thin walls smaller than the smallest gap. Click OK.
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number of iterations to converge. The goal-oriented philosophy of Flow Simulation allows you to get the answers you need in the shortest amount of time. For example, if you were only interested in the temperature of fluid in the enclosure, Flow Simulation would have provided the result more quickly then if the solver was allowed to fully converge on all of the parameters.
An Excel spreadsheet with the goal results will be open. The first sheet will show a table summarizing the goals.
You can see that the maximum temperature in the main chip is about 88.5 F, and the maximum temperature over the small chips is about 87 F.
Goal progress bar is a qualitative and quantitative characteristic of the goal
convergence process. When Flow Simulation analyzes the goal convergence, it calculates the goal dispersion defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum goal values over the analysis interval reckoned from the last iteration and compares this dispersion with the goal's convergence criterion dispersion, either specified by you or automatically determined by Flow Simulation as a fraction of the
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goal's physical parameter dispersion over the computational domain. The percentage of the goal's convergence criterion dispersion to the goal's real dispersion over the analysis interval is shown in the goal's convergence progress bar (when the goal's real dispersion becomes equal or smaller than the goal's convergence criterion dispersion, the progress bar is replaced by word "Achieved"). Naturally, if the goal's real dispersion oscillates, the progress bar oscillates also, moreover, when a hard problem is solved, it can noticeably regress, in particular from the "achieved" level. The calculation can finish if the iterations (in travels) required for finishing the calculation have been performed, or if the goal convergence criteria are satisfied before performing the required number of iterations. You can specify other finishing conditions at your discretion. To analyze the results in more detail let us use the various Flow Simulation results processing tools. The best method for the visualization of how the fluid flows inside the enclosure is to create flow trajectories.
transparent view of the geometry, a glass-body. This way you can easily see where cut planes etc. are located with respect to the geometry.
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Insert.
2 Click the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree tab and then
click the External Inlet Fan1 item to select the inner face of the Inlet Lid.
3 Set the Number of Points
to 200.
4 Under Appearance , set Draw Trajectories as Bands. 5 Make sure that Color by Parameter
is selected and
is selected, then the trajectories are colored in accordance with the then all flow
distribution of the parameter specified. If you select Color trajectories will have a fixed color specified by you.
6 Click OK
Analysis tree.
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Notice that there are only a few trajectories along the adjacent to the wall PCB<2> and this may cause problems with cooling of the chips placed on this PCB. Additionally the blue color indicates low velocity in front of this PCB<2> . Right-click the Flow Trajectories 1 item and select Hide. Click anywhere in the graphic area to clear the selection. Let us now examine the velocity distribution in more detail.
. Change the Min and Max values to 0 and 10 ft/s respectively. The specified values produce a palette where it is easier to determine the value. to 30.
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5 Click OK
. The new Cut Plot 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis
tree.
6 Select the Top view
to -0.3 in.
9 Change the Parameter from Velocity to Temperature (Fluid). 10 Change the Min and Max values to 50 and 120 F
respectively.
11 Under Display, select Vectors
12 Under the appeared Vectors tab, make sure that the Parameter is set to Velocity and then select Adjust Minimum and Maximum
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13 Set the Max value to 1 ft/s. By specifying the custom Min and Max values you can
control the vector length. The vectors whose velocity exceeds the specified Max value will have the same length as the vectors whose velocity is equal to Max. Likewise, the vectors whose velocity is less than the specified Min value will have the same length as the vectors whose velocity is equal to Min. We have set 1 ft/s in order to display areas of low velocity.
14 Change the Vector Spacing 15 Click OK
to 0.18 in.
Right-click the Cut Plot 1 item and select Hide. Let us now display solid temperature.
Heat Sink and all Small Chip components to select their surfaces.
3 Under Contours, change the Parameter to Temperature (Solid). 4 Change the Min and Max values to 50 and 120 F
respectively.
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5 Click OK
6 Repeat steps 1 and 2 and select the Power Supply and all Capacitors components,
then click OK
You can view and analyze the results further with the post-processing tools that were shown in the Ball Valve Design tutorial. Flow Simulation allows you to quickly and easily investigate your design both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative results such as the maximum temperature in the component, pressure drop through the cabinet, and air temperature rise will allow you to determine whether the design is acceptable or not. By viewing qualitative results such as air flow patterns, and heat conduction patterns in the solid, Flow Simulation gives you the necessary insight to locate problem areas or weaknesses in your design and provides guidance on how to improve or optimize the design.
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A3
Porous Media
In this tutorial we consider flow in a section of an automobile exhaust pipe, whose exhaust flow is resisted by two porous bodies serving as catalysts for transforming harmful carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. When designing an automobile catalytic converter, the engineer faces a compromise between minimizing the catalyst's resistance to the exhaust flow while maximizing the catalyst's internal surface area and duration that the exhaust gases are in contact with that surface area. Therefore, a more uniform distribution of the exhaust mass flow rate over the catalyst's cross sections favors its serviceability. The porous media capabilities of Flow Simulation are used to simulate each catalyst, which allows you to model the volume that the catalyst occupies as a distributed resistance instead of discretely modeling all of the individual passages within the catalyst, which would be impractical or even impossible. Here, as a Flow Simulation tutorial example we consider the influence of the catalysts' porous medium permeability type (isotropic and unidirectional media of the same resistance to flow) on the exhaust mass flow rate distribution over the catalysts' cross sections. We will observe the latter through the behavior of the exhaust gas flow trajectories distributed uniformly over the model's inlet and passing through the porous catalysts. Additionally, by coloring the flow trajectories by the flow velocity the exhaust gas residence time in the porous catalysts can be estimated, which is also important from the catalyst effectiveness viewpoint.
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(or double-click the assembly). Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Catalyst.SLDASM file to an empty area of SolidWorks window.
Inlet
Once inside the Wizard , select Create new in order to create a new configuration and name it Isotropic.
The project Wizard guides you through
the definition of the projects properties step-by-step. Except for two steps (steps to define the project fluids and default solid), each step has some pre-defined values, so you can either accept these values (skipping the step by clicking Next) or modify them to your needs. These pre-defined settings are: unit system SI, analysis type internal, no additional physical capabilities are considered, wall condition adiabatic wall initial conditions pressure - 1 atm, temperature - 293.2 K. result and geometry resolution level 3, For this project these default settings suit perfectly and all what we need to do is just to select Air as the project fluid. To avoid passing through all steps we will use Navigator pane that provides a quick access to the Wizards pages.
2 Click an arrow
at the right.
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other properties we can close the Wizard. Click Finish in the Navigator panel.
You can click Finish at any moment, but if you attempt to close Wizard
without specifying all obligatory properties (such as project fluds), the Wizard will not close and the page where you need to define a missing property will be marked by the exclamation icon . Now Flow Simulation creates a new configuration with the Flow Simulation data attached. In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Computational Domain icon and select Hide to hide the black wireframe box.
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to 10 m/s.
this opening air is flowing into the catalyst with a velocity of 10 m/s.
6 Select the inner face of the outlet lid as shown. 7 Right-click the Boundary Conditions icon and select Insert Boundary Condition.
and Static
9 Keep the defaults under Thermodynamic Parameters, Turbulence Parameters, Boundary Layer and Options. 10 Click OK
With the definition just made, we told Flow Simulation that at this opening the fluid
exits the model to an area of static atmospheric pressure. Now we can specify porous media in this project. To do this, first we need to specify the porous mediums properties (porosity, permeability type, etc.) in the Engineering Database and then apply this feature to the components in the assembly.
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on the toolbar. The blank Item Properties tab appears. Double-click the empty cells to set the corresponding property values.
4 Name the new porous medium Isotropic. 5 Under Comment, click the button and type the desired comments for this porous medium. The Comment property is optional, you can leave this field blank. 6 Set the mediums Porosity to 0.5. Porosity is the effective porosity of the porous medium, defined as the volume fraction
of the interconnected pores with respect to the total porous medium volume; here, the porosity is equal to 0.5. The porosity will govern the exhaust flow velocity in the porous medium channels, which, in turn, governs the exhaust gas residence in the porous catalyst and, therefore, the catalyst efficiency.
7 Choose Isotropic as the Permeability type. First of all let us consider an Isotropic permeability, i.e, a medium with permeability
not depending on the direction within the medium. Then, as an alternative, we will consider a Unidirectional permeability, i.e., the medium permeable in one direction only.
8 Choose Pressure drop, Flowrate, Dimensions as the Resistance calculation formula. For our media we select the Pressure Drop, Flowrate, Dimensions medium
resistance to flow, i.e., specify the porous medium resistance as k = PS /(mL) (in units of s-1), where the right-side parameters are referred to a tested parallelepiped sample of the porous medium, having the cross-sectional area S and the length L in the selected sample direction, in which the mass flow rate through the sample is equal to m under the pressure difference of P between the sample opposite sides in this direction. In this project we will specify P = 20 Pa at m = 0.01 kg/s (and P = 0 Pa at m=0 kg/s), S = 0.01 m2, L = 0.1m. Therefore, k = 200 s-1. Knowing S and L of the catalyst inserted into the model and m of the flow through it, you can approximately estimate the pressure loss at the model catalyst from P = kmL/S.
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specify the linear dependency of pressure drop vs. mass flow rate as shown in the picture right.
11 Go back to the Item Properties tab. 12 Set Length to 0.1 m and Area to 0.01 m2.
13 Click Save
Now we will apply the specified porous medium to the model components representing the porous bodies. Note that a porous medium is applied only to a component that is not treated by Flow Simulation as a solid body. By default, all the components in the assembly considered are treated as solids. If there is a component that is not supposed to be treated as solid, you have to disable it in the Component Control dialog box. Components are automatically disabled when you assign a porous media to them by creating the Porous Medium condition, so you do not need to disable them manually.
3 Expand the list of the User Defined porous media and select Isotropic . If you skipped the definition of porous medium, use the Isotropic material
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To obtain the total pressure drop between the model inlet and outlet we will specify an Equation Goal based on two Surface Goals.
the Inlet Velocity 1 item to select the inner face of the inlet lid.
3 In the Parameter table select the Av check box in the Total Pressure row. 4 Accept the selected Use for Conv. check box to use
6 Click OK - the new SG Inlet Av Total Pressure 1 goal appears. 7 Right-click the Goals icon and select Insert Surface Goals. 8 Click the Flow Simulation Analysis Tree tab and click
the Static Pressure 1 item to select the inner face of the outlet lid.
9 In the Parameter table select the Av check box in the Total Pressure row. 10 Accept the selected Use for Conv. check box to use
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12 Click OK
calculator.
4 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree
specified Equation Goals), parameters of input data conditions and constants in the expression defining an Equation Goal. If the constants in the expression represent some physical parameters (i.e. length, area, etc.), make sure that they are specified in the projects system of units. Flow Simulation has no information about the physical meaning of the constants you use, so you need to specify the Equation Goal dimensionality by yourself.
5 Make sure that Pressure & Stress is selected in the Dimensionality list. 6 Click OK . The new Equation Goal 1 item appears in the tree.
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After the calculation has finished, close the Monitor dialog box.
An Excel spreadsheet with the goal results will open. The first sheet will contain a table presenting the final values of the goal. You can see that the total pressure drop is about 120 Pa.
Catalyst.SLDASM [Isotropic]
Goa l Na me Equation Goal 1 Unit [Pa] Value Avera ge d Va lue Minimum Va lue Ma x imum Va lue Progress [%] Use In Conve rge nce 136.1522826 137.5117212 136.1522826 140.4765712 100 Yes
To see the non-uniformity of the mass flow rate distribution over a catalysts cross section, we will display flow trajectories with start points distributed uniformly across the inlet.
To see trajectories inside the porous media we will apply some transparency to the model.
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6 Click Flow Simulation, Results, Display, Transparency and set its value to 0.75.
To compare the effectiveness of a unidirectional porous catalyst to an isotropic catalyst, let us calculate the project with a porous medium of unidirectional type.
in the list.
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6 Select the Copy of Isotropic (1) item and click the Item Properties tab. 7 Rename the item to Unidirectional. 8 Change the Permeability type to Unidirectional. 9 Save the database and exit.
System.
For porous media having unidirectional permeability, we must
specify the permeability direction as an axis of the selected coordinate system (axis Z of the Global coordinate system in our case).
4 Click OK
Since all other conditions and goals remain the same, we can start the calculation immediately
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Comparing the trajectories passing through the isotropic and unidirectional porous catalysts installed in the tube, we can summarize: Due to the asymmetric position of the inlet tube with respect to the larger tube in which the catalyst bodies are installed, the incoming flow is non-uniform. Since the incoming flow is non-uniform, the flow inside the first catalyst body is non-uniform also. It is seen that the catalyst type (isotropic or unidirectional) affects both the incoming flow non-uniformity (slightly) and, more substantially, the flow within the catalysts (especially the first catalyst body). In both the cases the gas stream mainly enters the first catalyst body-closer to the wall opposite to the inlet tube. For the isotropic case, the gas flows into the first body nearer to the wall than for the case of the unidirectional catalyst. As a result, the flow in the initial (about one-third of the body length) portion of the first catalyst body is noticeably more non-uniform in the isotropic catalyst. Nevertheless, due to the isotropic permeability, the main gas stream expands in the isotropic catalyst and occupies a larger volume in the next part of the body than in the unidirectional catalyst, which, due to its unidirectional permeability, prevents the stream from expanding. So, the flow in the last two-thirds of the first catalyst body is less non-uniform in the isotropic catalyst. Since the distance between the two porous bodies installed in the tube is rather small, the gas stream has no time to become more uniform in the volume between the catalyst bodies, although in the unidirectional case a certain motion towards uniformity is perceptible. As a result, the flow non-uniformity occurring at the first catalyst body's exit passes to the second catalyst body. Then, it is seen that the flow non-uniformity does not change within the second catalyst body. Let us now consider the flow velocity inside the catalyst. This is easy to do since the flow trajectories' colors indicate the flow velocity value in accordance with the specified palette. To create the same conditions for comparing the flow velocities in the isotropic and unidirectional catalysts, we have to specify the same velocity range for the palette in both the cases, since the maximum flow velocity governing the value range for the palette by default is somewhat different in these cases. It is seen that, considering the catalyst on the whole, the flow velocities in the isotropic and unidirectional catalysts are practically the same. Therefore, from the viewpoint of gas residence in the catalyst, there is no difference between the isotropic and unidirectional catalysts.
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We can conclude that the isotropic catalyst is more effective than the unidirectional catalyst (of the same resistance to uniform flows), since the flow in it, as a whole, is more uniform. In spite of specifying the same resistance of the catalysts to flow, the overall pressure loss is lower by about 2% in the case of employing the unidirectional catalyst. This difference is due to the different flow non-uniformity both in the catalyst bodies and out of them.
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B
Intermediate Examples
The Intermediate Examples presented below demonstrate how to solve engineering problems with Flow Simulation, using some of the most common tasks as examples. B1 - Determination of Hydraulic Loss B2 - Cylinder Drag Coefficient B3 - Heat Exchanger Efficiency B4 - Mesh Optimization
B-1
Intermediate Examples:
B-2
B1
Determination of Hydraulic Loss
In engineering practice the hydraulic loss of pressure head in any piping system is traditionally split into two components: the loss due to friction along straight pipe sections and the local loss due to local pipe features, such as bends, T-pipes, various cocks, valves, throttles, etc. Being determined, these losses are summed to form the total hydraulic loss. Generally, there are no problems in engineering practice to determine the friction loss in a piping system since relatively simple formulae based on theoretical and experimental investigations exist. The other matter is the local hydraulic loss (or so-called local drag). Here usually only experimental data are available, which are always restricted due to their nature, especially taking into account the wide variety of pipe shapes (not only existing, but also advanced) and devices, as well as the substantially complicated flow patterns in them. Flow Simulation presents an alternative approach to the traditional problems associated with determining this kind of local drag, allowing you to predict computationally almost any local drag in a piping system within good accuracy.
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Model Description
This is a ball valve. Turning the handle closes or opens the valve. The local hydraulic loss (or drag) produced by a ball valve installed in a piping system depends on the valve turning angle or on the minimum flow passage area governed by it. The latter depends also on a ball valve geometrical parameter, which is the ball-to-pipe diameter ratio governing the handle angle at which the valve becomes closed:
D ball = arc sin 2 -----------D pi pe
The standard engineering convention for determining local drag is by calculating the difference between the fluid dynamic heads measured upstream of the local pipe feature (ball valve in our case) and far downstream of it, where the flow has become uniform (undisturbed) again. In order to extract the pure local drag the hydraulic friction loss in the straight pipe of the same length must be subtracted from the measured dynamic head loss. In this example we will obtain pressure loss (local drag) in the ball valve whose handle is turned by an angle of 40o. The Valve analysis represents a typical Flow Simulation internal analysis.
Internal flow analyses deal with flows inside pipes, tanks, HVAC systems, etc. The fluid
enters a model at the inlets and exits the model through outlets. To perform an internal analysis all the model openings must be closed with lids, which are needed to specify inlet and outlet flow boundary conditions on them. In any case, the internal model space filled with a fluid must be fully closed. You simply create lids as additional extrusions covering the openings. In this example the lids are semi-transparent allowing a view into the valve.
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To ensure the model is fully closed click Flow Simulation, Tools, Check Geometry. Then click Check to calculate the fluid and solid volumes of the model. If the fluid volume is equal to zero, the model is not closed. Click Fluid Volume to see the volume that will be occupied by fluid in the analysis. Uncheck Fluid Volume. Close the Check Geometry dialog box.
The Check Geometry tool allows you to
calculate the total fluid and solid volumes, check bodies for possible geometry problems (i.e. invalid contact) and visualize the fluid area and solid body as separate models. The first step is to create a new Flow Simulation project.
project is associated with a SolidWorks configuration. You can attach the project either to the current SolidWorks configuration or create a new SolidWorks configuration based on the current one. Click Next.
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select the desired system of units for both input and output (results). For this project use the International System SI by default. Click Next .
4 In the Analysis Type dialog box you can select either Internal or External type of
the flow analysis. To disregard closed internal spaces not involved in the internal analysis, you select Exclude cavities without flow conditions. The Reference axis of the global coordinate system (X, Y or Z) is used for specifying data in a tabular or formula form in a cylindrical coordinate system based on this axis. This dialog also allows you to specify advanced physical features you may want to take into account (heat conduction in solids, gravitational effects, time-dependent problems, surface-to-surface radiation, rotation). Specify Internal type and accept the other default settings. Click Next .
5 Since we use water in this project, open the Liquids folder and double-click the Water item. Engineering Database contains
numerical physical information on a wide variety of gas, liquid and solid substances as well as radiative surfaces. You can also use the Engineering Database to specify a porous medium. The Engineering Database contains pre-defined unit systems. It also contains fan curves defining volume or mass flow rate versus static pressure difference for selected industrial fans. You can easily create your own substances, units, fan curves or specify a custom parameter you want to visualize. Click Next .
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6 Since we do not intend to calculate heat conduction in solids, in the Wall Conditions dialog box you can specify
the thermal wall boundary conditions applied by default to all the model walls contacting with the fluid. For this project accept the default Adiabatic wall feature denoting that all the model walls are heat-insulated. Click Next.
7 In the Initial Conditions dialog box specify
initial values of the flow parameters. For steady internal problems, the specification of these values closer to the expected flow field will reduce the analysis convergence time.
iterates until the solution converges. For unsteady (transient, or time-dependent) problems Flow Simulation marches in time for a period you specify. For this project use the default values. Click Next.
8 In the Results and Geometry Resolution
dialog box you can control the analysis accuracy as well as the mesh settings and, through them, the required computer resources (CPU time and memory). For this project accept the default result resolution level 3.
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Select the Manual specification of the minimum gap size check box and enter 0.04 m for the Minimum gap size.
Flow Simulation calculates the default minimum
gap size and minimum wall thickness using information about the overall model dimensions, the computational domain, and faces on which you specify conditions and goals. However, this information may be insufficient to recognize relatively small gaps and thin model walls. This may cause inaccurate results. In these cases, the Minimum gap size and Minimum wall thickness have to be specified manually.
Result Resolution governs the solution accuracy
via mesh settings and conditions of finishing the calculation that can be interpreted as resolution of calculation results. The higher the Result Resolution, the finer the mesh and the stricter the convergence criteria. Naturally, higher Result Resolution requires more computer resources (CPU time and memory). Geometry Resolution (specified through the minimum gap size and the minimum wall thickness) governs proper resolution of geometrical model features by the computational mesh. Naturally, finer Geometry Resolution requires more computer resources. Click Finish .
The Flow Simulation Analysis tree provides a convenient specification of project
data and view of results. You also can use the Flow Simulation Analysis tree to modify or delete the various Flow Simulation features. At the same time, a computational domain appears in the SolidWorks graphics area as a wireframe box.
The Computational Domain is a rectangular prism
embracing the area inside which the flow and heat transfer calculations are performed. The next step is specifying Boundary Conditions. Boundary Conditions are used to specify fluid characteristics at the model inlets and outlets in an internal flow analysis or on model surfaces in an external flow analysis.
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list.
3 In the Type of Boundary Condition list, select the Inlet Velocity item.
4 Click the Velocity Normal to Face edit box and set its value equal to 1 m/s (type the value, the units will appear
automatically).
5 Accept all the other parameters and click OK
This will simulate water flow entering the valve with the velocity of 1.0 m/s.
6 Select the Outlet Lid inner face. 7 In the graphics area, right-click outside the model and select Insert Boundary Condition, Other. The
Boundary Condition dialog appears with the selected face in the Faces to
apply the boundary condition
list.
Before the calculation starts, Flow Simulation checks the specified boundary
conditions for mass flow rate balance. The specification of boundary conditions is incorrect if the total mass flow rate on the inlets is not equal to the total mass flow rate on the outlets. In such case the calculation will not start. Also, note that the mass flow rate value is recalculated from the velocity or volume flow rate value specified on an opening. To avoid problems with specifying boundary conditions, we recommend that you specify at least one Pressure opening condition since the mass flow rate on a Pressure opening is automatically calculated to satisfy the law of conservation of mass.
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8 Click Pressure Openings and in the Type of Boundary Condition list, select the Static Pressure item.
By specifying this condition we define that at the ball valve pipe exit the water has a static pressure of 1 atm. The hydraulic losses are calculated through the outlet and inlet total pressure difference P from the following formula:
P = ---------------2 V 2
where is the water density, and V is water velocity. Since we already know the water velocity (specified by us as 1 m/s) and the water density (998.1934 kg/m3 for the specified temperature of 293.2 K), then our goal is to determine the total pressure value at the valves inlet and outlet. The easiest and fastest way to find the parameter of interest is to specify the corresponding engineering goal.
(this can be done easily by holding down the CTRL key and clicking the corresponding boundary conditions in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree).
3 Select Create goal for each surface check box to
create two separate goals, i.e. one for each of the selected faces.
4 In the Parameter table select the Av check box in the Total Pressure row. 5 Accept selected Use for Conv. check box to use
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6 Click OK
. The new SG Av Total Pressure 1 and SG Av Total Pressure 2 items appear in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
Now the Flow Simulation project is ready for the calculation. Flow Simulation will finish the calculation when the steady-state average value of total pressure calculated at the valve inlet and outlet are reached.
Flow Simulation automatically generates a computational mesh by dividing the computational domain into slices, which are further subdivided into cells. The cells are refined if necessary to resolve the model geometry properly. During the mesh generation process, you can see the current step in the Mesh Generation dialog box.
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inform you that there is a vortex crossing the opening surface at which you specified the pressure boundary condition. In this case the vortex is broken into incoming and outgoing flow components. When flow both enters and exits an opening, the accuracy of the results is diminished. Moreover, there is no guarantee that convergence (i.e., the steady state goal) will be attained at all. Anyway, in case a vortex crosses a pressure opening the obtained results become suspect. If this warning persists we should stop the calculation and lengthen the ball valve outlet pipe to provide more space for development of the vortex. It is also expedient to attach the ball valve inlet pipe to avoid the flow disturbance caused by the valves obstacle to affect the inlet boundary condition parameters. Since the warning persists, click File, Close to terminate the calculation and exit the Solver Monitor. You can easily extend the ball valve inlet and outlet sections by changing offset distance for the Inlet Plane and Outlet Plane features. Instead, we will simply clone the project to the pre-defined 40 degrees - long valve configuration.
valve.
3 Click OK . 4 Flow Simulation has detected that the model was modified. Confirm the both warning messages with Yes.
The new Flow Simulation project, attached to the 40 degrees - long valve configuration, has the same settings as the old one attached to the 40 degrees - short valve so you can start the calculation immediately. In the Flow Simulation analysis tree, right-click the root 40 degrees - long valve item and select Run. Then click Run to start the calculation. When the calculation is finished, close the Solver Monitor dialog box. Let us now see the vortex notified by Flow Simulation during the calculation, as well as the total pressure loss.
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selected view section. To define the view section, you can use SolidWorks planes or model planar faces (with the additional shift if necessary). The parameter values can be represented as a contour plot, as isolines, as vectors, or in a combination (e.g. contours with overlaid vectors).
2 In the flyout FeatureManager design
tree, expand the Valve item and select Plane2. Its name appears in the Section Plane or Planar Face list.
3 In the Cut Plot dialog box, in addition to displaying Contours
, select Vectors
to 0.012 m
to 0.02 m.
. The new Cut Plot 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
However, the cut plot cannot be seen through the non-transperent model. In order to see the plot, you can hide the model by clicking Flow Simulation, Results, Display,
Geometry. Alternatively, you can use the standard SolidWorks Section View
option.
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7 Click View, Display, Section View. Under Section 1 specify Plane2 as a Reference Section Plane/Face and click OK
8 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Computational Domain icon and select Hide.
Now you can see a contour plot of the velocity and the velocity vectors projected on the plot.
For better visualization of the vortex you can scale small vectors:
9 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Cut Plot 1 icon and select Edit Definition.
value to
vector length range so that the vectors in areas where velocity is less than the specified Minimum value will appear as if it is equal to Minimum. This allows us to visualize the low velocity area in more detail.
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11 Click OK
to save the changes and exit the Cut Plot dialog box. Immediately the cut plot is updated.
You can easily visualize the vortex by displaying the flow relative to the X axis. For that, you can display the x-component of velocity in a two-color palette and set the value, separating two colors, at zero.
12 In the graphics area, double-click the palette bar or right-click on it and select Edit. 13 Under Settings using the slider set Number of Levels
Now the distribution of the Velocity (X) parameter is displayed in red-blue palette so that all the positive values are in red and all the negative values are in blue. This means that the blue area show the region of reverse flow, i.e. half of the vortex.
Next, we will display the distribution of total pressure within the valve.
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2 In the opened Customize Parameter List dialog box, expand the Loads group and select Total Pressure. 3 Click OK to save the changes. 4 In the graphics area double-click
the palette bar. In the opened dialog box, change the visualization parameter to Total Pressure.
to about 30.
6 Click OK to save the changes and exit the Color Bar dialog box.
This will update the current cut plot to display the total pressure contour plot.
While the cut plot shows you the flow pattern, we will use the surface goal plot to determine the inlet and outlet values of total pressure required to calculate the loss.
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calculation. Flow Simulation uses Excel to display goal plot data. Each goal plot is displayed in a separate sheet. The converged values of all project goals are displayed in the Summary sheet of an automatically created Excel workbook. Click View, Display, Section View to hide the section.
1 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, under Results , right-click the Goal Plots icon and select Insert. The Goal Plot dialog box
appears.
2 Select All. 3 Click OK
created. This workbook displays how the goal changed during the calculation. You can take the total pressure value presented at the Summary sheet.
In fact, to obtain the pressure loss it would be easier to specify an Equation goal with the difference between the inlet and outlet pressures as the equation goals expression. However, to demonstrate the wide capabilities of Flow Simulation, we will calculate the pressure loss with the Flow Simulation gasdynamic Calculator.
The Calculator contains various formulae from fluid dynamics, which can be useful
for engineering calculations. The calculator is a very useful tool for rough estimations of the expected results, as well as for calculations of important characteristic and reference values. All calculations in the Calculator are performed only in the International system of units SI, so no parameter units should be entered, and Flow Simulation Units settings do not apply in the Calculator.
appears.
3 In the Select the name of the new formula tree expand the Pressure and Temperature item and select the Total pressure loss check box.
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4 Click OK . The total pressure loss formula appears in the Calculator sheet.
In the Result (or A) column you see the formula name, in the next columns (B, C, etc.) you see names of the formula arguments (variables and constants). You can either type all the formula arguments values in cells under their names in the SI units, or copy and paste them from the goals Excel worksheet table obtained through the Goals dialog box. The result value appears in the Result column cell immediately when you enter all the arguments and click another cell.
5 Specify the values in the cells as follows:
Density = 998.1934 (the water density at the specified temperature of 293.2 K), Velocity = 1.
6 Open the goals1 Excel workbook and copy the Value of SG Av Total Pressure 1 into
the Clipboard.
7 Go to the Calculator, click the B2 cell and press Ctrl+V to paste the goal value from
the Clipboard.
8 Return to Excel, copy the Value of SG Av Total Pressure 2. Go to the Calculator, click the C2 cell and press Ctrl+V. Click any free cell. Immediately the Total pressure
9 Click File, Save. 10 In the Save As dialog box browse to the folder where the ball valve model used in this example is located, enter ball valve for the file name, and click Save . 11 Click File, Exit to exit the Calculator.
To obtain the pure local drag, it is necessary to subtract from the obtained value the total pressure loss due to friction in a straight pipe of the same length and diameter. To do that, we perform the same calculations in the ball valve model with the handle in the 0o angle position. You can do this with the 00 degrees - long valve configuration. Since the specified conditions are the same for both 40 degrees - long valve and 00 degrees - long valve configuration, it is useful to attach the existing Flow Simulation project to the 00 degrees - long valveconfiguration.
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Clone the current project to the 00 degrees - long valve configuration. Since at zero angle the ball valve becomes a simple straight pipe, there is no need to set the Minimum gap size value smaller than the default gap size which, in our case, is automatically set equal to the pipes diameter (the automatic minimum gap size depends on the characteristic size of the faces on which the boundary conditions are set). Note that using a smaller gap size will result in a finer mesh and, in turn, more computer time and memory will be required for calculation. To solve your task in the most effective way you should choose the optimal settings for the task.
Click Flow Simulation, Solve, Run. Then click Run to start the calculation.
After the calculation is finished, create the Goal Plot. The goals2 workbook is created. Go to Excel, then select the both cells in the Value column and copy them into the Clipboard.
Goal Name SG Av Total Pressure 1 SG Av Total Pressure 2 Unit [Pa] [Pa] Value Averaged Value Minimum Value 102034.3926 102034.167 102031.5296 101830.2292 101830.0052 101829.188
Now you can calculate the total pressure loss in a straight pipe.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Tools, Calculator. 2 In the Calculator menu, click File, Open. Browse to the folder where you saved the calculator file earlier in this tutorial and select the ball valve.fwc file. Click Open. 3 Click the B4 cell and in the Calculator toolbar click
Clipboard.
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4 Save the existing value of the total pressure loss: click the A2 cell, click
, then click
.
25.78308
114709.6
102034.4 101830.2
25.78308
114709.6
102034.4 101830.2
Now you can calculate the local drag in the ball valve with the handle set at 40o.
Total Pressure loss (40 deg) Total Pressure loss (0 deg) Local Drag
2 5 .7 8
0 .4 1
2 5 .3 7
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B2
Cylinder Drag Coefficient
Problem Statement
Flow Simulation can be used to study flow around objects and to determine the resulting lift and drag forces on the objects due to the flow. In this example we use Flow Simulation to determine the drag coefficient of a circular cylinder immersed in a uniform fluid stream. The cylinder axis is oriented perpendicular to the stream. The computations are performed for a range of Reynolds numbers (1,1000,105), where
Re = ---------------- , D is the cylinder diameter, U is the velocity of the fluid stream, is the
density, and is the dynamic viscosity. The drag coefficient for the cylinder is defined as:
UD
FD C D = ---------------------1 2 -- U DL 2
where FD is the total force in the flow direction (i.e. drag) acting on a cylinder of diameter D and length L. The goal of the simulation is to obtain the drag coefficient predicted by Flow Simulation and to compare it to the experimental data presented in Ref.1 .
Click File, Open. In the Open dialog box, browse to the Cylinder 0.01m.SLDPRT part located in the B2 - Drag Coefficient\cylinder 0.01m folder and click Open (or double-click the part). Alternatively, you can drag and drop the cylinder 0.01m.SLDPRT file to an empty area of SolidWorks window.
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The Cylinder problem considered here represents a typical Flow Simulation External analysis.
External flows analyses deal with flows over or around a model such as flows over
aircrafts, automobiles, buildings, etc. For external flow analyses the far-field boundaries are the Computational Domain boundaries. You can also solve a combined external and internal flow problem in a Flow Simulation project (for example flow around and through a building). If the analysis includes a combination of internal and external flows, you must specify External type for the analysis.
definition of a new Flow Simulation project. In this project we will analyze flow over the cylinder at the Reynolds number of 1.
2 Select Create new. In the Configuration name box, type Re 1. This is the name of
the SolidWorks configuration that will be created for the associated Flow Simulation project. Click Next .
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select the desired system of units for both input and output (results). In this project we will specify the International System SI by default. Click Next.
4 In the Analysis Type dialog box select an External type of flow analysis. This dialog
also allows you to specify advanced physical features you want to include in the analysis. In this project we will not use any of the advanced physical features
the body you can select Exclude internal spaces; however no internal spaces exist within the cylinder in this tutorial. The Reference axis of the global coordinate system (X, Y or Z) is used for specifying data in a tabular or formula form with respect to a cylindrical coordinate system based on this axis.
The flow over a cylinder is steady at a Reynolds number Re < 40 (see the cylinder Re
definition above) and unsteady (time-dependent) at Re > 40. Since in this tutorial the first calculation is performed at Re=1, to accelerate the run, we perform a steady-state analysis.
Click Next.
5 Since we use water in this project, open the Liquids folder and double-click the Water item.
Click Next.
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may specify the default thermal wall conditions applied to all the model walls in contact with the fluid. In this project we keep the default
Adiabatic wall setting, denoting that all the
model walls are heat-insulated and accept the default zero wall roughness. Click Next .
For a steady External problem, such as the cylinder in this tutorial, the Initial and
Ambient Conditions dialog box asks you to specify the ambient flow conditions of the undisturbed free stream. Thus you will specify initial conditions inside the Computational Domain and boundary conditions at the Computational Domain boundaries. The ambient conditions are thermodynamic (static pressure and temperature by default), velocity, and turbulence parameters. In this project we consider the flow under the default thermodynamic conditions (i.e., the standard atmosphere at sea level), and set the incoming stream (X-component) velocity in accordance with the desired Reynolds number.
For convenience we can use the Dependency box to specify the incoming flow velocity in terms of the Reynolds number.
7 Click in the Velocity in X direction field. The Dependency button is enabled. 8 Click Dependency. The Dependency
several ways: as a constant, as a tabular or formula dependency on x, y, z, r, , coordinates and time t (only for time-dependent analysis). The radius r is the distance from a point to the Reference axis selected from the reference coordinate system (the Global Coordinate System for all data set in the Wizard and General Settings dialog boxes), while and are the polar and azimuthal angles of spherical coordinate system, respectively. Therefore, by combination of r, , and coordinates you can specify data in cylindrical or spherical coordinate systems.
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For most flows it is difficult to have a good estimation of their turbulence a priori, so it is recommended that the default turbulence parameters be used. The default turbulence intensity values proposed by Flow Simulation are 0.1% for external analyses and 2% for internal analyses and these values are appropriate for most cases. In this project we accept the default value of 0.1%. Click Next.
12 In the Result and Geometry Resolution
dialog box specify the result resolution level of 7 and accept the automatically defined minimum gap size and minimum wall thickness. Click Finish. The project is created and the 3D Computational Domain is automatically generated.
In this tutorial we are interested in determining only the drag coefficient of the cylinder, without accounting 3D effects. Thus, to reduce the required CPU time and computer memory, we will perform a two-dimensional (2D) analysis in this tutorial.
Specifying 2D simulation
1 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, expand the Input Data item.
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2 Right-click the Computational Domain icon and select Edit Definition. 3 Under Type select 2D simulation
and XY plane
condition is specified at the and Z max boundaries of the Computational domain under Size and Conditions. You can see that the Z min and Z max boundaries are set automatically, basing on the model dimensions. Thus the reference cylinder length L in the cylinder drag (CD) formula presented above is equal to L = Z max-Z min = 0.002 m.
For most cases, to study the flow field around an external body
and to investigate the effects of design changes it is recommended to use the default Computational Domain size as determined by Flow Simulation. However, in this case we will compare the Flow Simulation results to experimental results and we would like to determine the drag coefficient with a high degree of accuracy. In order to eliminate any disturbances of the incoming flow at the Computational Domain boundaries due to the presence of the cylinder, we will manually set the boundaries farther away from the cylinder. The accuracy will be increased at the expense of required CPU time and memory due to the larger size of Computational Domain.
5 Under Size and Conditions specify the X and Y coordinates
Since the incoming flow is aligned with the X-axis direction, the cylinder drag coefficient is calculated through the X-component of the force acting on the cylinder. The X-component of force can be determined easily by specifying the appropriate Flow Simulation goal. In this case you will need to specify the Force (X) as a Global Goal. This ensures that the calculation will not be finished until Force (X) is fully converged in the entire computational domain (i.e. on the cylinder surface).
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Torque) as goal you can select the Coordinate system in which these goals are calculated. In this example the default Global Coordinate System meets the task.
4 Click OK
. The new GG Force (X) 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
4 Select No units in the Dimensionality list and click OK. The new Equation Goal 1 item
To compare the Flow Simulation results with the experimental curve taken from Ref.1 , we will perform calculations considering Reynolds number values of 1, 103 and 105. As with Re = 1, the Cylinder 0.01m.SLDPRT will be used to calculate the flow at the Reynolds number of 103. The Cylinder 1m.SLDPRT will be used to calculate the flow at the Reynolds number of 105.
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created with the Flow Simulation project attached. Since the new project is a copy of the Re 1 Flow Simulation project, you only need to change the flow velocity value in accordance with the Reynolds number of 1000. Use the General Settings dialog box to change the data specified in the Wizard, except the settings for Units and Result and Geometry Resolution.
The General Settings always presents the current state of the project parameters. You can change General Settings to correct the settings made in the Wizard or to modify the project created with the Flow Simulation Template in accordance with the new
project requirements.
the flow over a cylinder is unsteady at Re > 40, select the Time-dependent physical feature for this project.
3 In the Navigator click Initial and ambient conditions.
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6 Click OK to return to the General Settings dialog box. 7 Click OK to save changes and close the General Settings
dialog box.
3 Select No units in the Dimensionality list. 4 Click OK to save changes and close the Equation Goal dialog box.
In the experiments performed with one fluid medium, the Reynolds numbers large rise is usually obtained by increasing both the velocity and the model overall dimension (i.e. cylinder diameter) since it is difficult to increase only velocity by e.g. 105 times. Since our simulation is performed with water only, let us increase the cylinder diameter to 1 m to perform the calculation at a Reynolds number of 105. Cloning a project is convenient if you want to create similar projects for the same model. The easiest way to apply the same general project settings to another model is to use the Flow Simulation Template.
Template contains all of the general project settings that can be used as a basis for a
new project. These settings are: problem type, physical features, fluids, solids, initial and ambient flow parameters, wall heat condition, geometry and result resolution, and unit settings. Notice that Boundary Conditions, Fans , Initial Conditions, Goals and other features accessible from the Flow Simulation, Insert menu, as well as results are not stored in the template. Initially, only the New Project default template is available, but you can easily create your own templates.
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Creating a Template
1 Click Flow Simulation, Project, Create Template. The Create Template dialog box appears. 2 In the Template name box, type Cylinder Drag. 3 Click Save. The new Flow Simulation template is
created.
All templates are stored as .fwp files in the
<install_dir>/Template folder, so you can easily apply a template to any previously created models.
4 Save the model.
The newly created project has the same settings as the Re 1000 project with the cylinder 0.01m model. The only exceptions are Geometry Resolution and Computational Domain size, which are calculated by Flow Simulation in accordance with the new model geometry. Notice that the 2D simulation setting and Global Goal are retained. Next, you can modify the project in accordance with the new model geometry.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Computational Domain and adjust
3 Open the General Settings dialog box and click Initial and ambient conditions, click the Velocity in X direction field, then click Dependency.
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Click OK to return to the General Settings dialog box. By default, Flow Simulation determines the default turbulence length basis equal to one percent of the model overall dimension (i.e. cylinder diameter). Since the Re 1e5 project was created from the template, it inherited the turbulence length value calculated for the small cylinder (d = 0.01m). For the cylinder 1m we need to change this value.
5 In the General Settings dialog box expand the Turbulence parameters item. Type 0.01 m in the Turbulence length field. 6 Click OK. 7 Create the Equation Goal for the drag
coefficient of the cylinder as it was described before. In the Expression box enter the formula:
{GG Force (X) 1}/(0.2*(0.0010115*10^5)^2)*(2*998.19*1).
8 Select No units in the Dimensionality list. 9 Click OK. Rename the Equation Goal 1 to Drag Coefficient.
Now you can solve all of the projects created for both cylinders.
all projects (Re 1, Re 1000, Re 1e5). Also select the Close Monitor check box in the All projects row. When the Close Monitor check box is selected, Flow Simulation automatically closes the Solver Monitor window when the calculation finishes.
3 Click Run.
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Getting Results
After all calculations are complete, go to the cylinder 0.01m model and activate the Re 1000 configuration. Create Goal Plot to obtain the Drag Coefficient value:
1 Click Flow Simulation, Results , Load\Unload Results . 2 In the Load Results dialog box, keep the default projects results file (2.fld) and click Open. 3 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, under Results, right-click the Goal Plots icon and select Insert. The Goal Plot dialog box appears. 4 Select All. 5 Click OK
. The Goals1 Excel workbook is created. Switch to Excel to obtain the value.
6 Activate the Re 1 configuration and load results. Create the goal plot for both the goals.
7 Switch to the cylinder 1m part, activate the Re 1e5 configuration, load results and
Even if the calculation is steady, the averaged value is more preferred, since in this case the oscillation effect is of less perceptibility. We will use the averaged goal value for the other two cases as well.
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You can now compare Flow Simulation results with the experimental curve.
Re
0.1
10
100
1000
Ref. 1 Roland L. Panton, Incompressible flow Second edition. John Wiley & sons Inc., 1995
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B3
Heat Exchanger Efficiency
Problem Statement
Flow Simulation can be used to study the fluid flow and heat transfer for a wide variety of engineering equipment. In this example we use Flow Simulation to determine the efficiency of a counterflow heat exchanger and to observe the temperature and flow patterns inside of it. With Flow Simulation the determination of heat exchanger efficiency is straightforward and by investigating the flow and temperature patterns, the design engineer can gain insight into the physical processes involved thus giving guidance for improvements to the design. A convenient measure of heat exchanger performance is its efficiency in transferring a given amount of heat from one fluid at higher temperature to another fluid at lower temperature. The efficiency can be determined if the temperatures at all flow openings are known. In Flow Simulation the temperatures at the fluid inlets are specified and the temperatures at the outlets can be easily determined. Heat exchanger efficiency is defined as follows:
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The actual heat transfer can be calculated as either the energy lost by the hot fluid or the energy gained by the cold fluid. The maximum possible heat transfer is attained if one of the fluids was to undergo a temperature change equal to the maximum temperature difference present in the exchanger, which is the difference in the inlet temperatures of the
inle i hot and cold fluids, respectively: ( T hot t T cnl et ) . Thus, the efficiency of a counterflow ol d hot hot heat exchanger is defined as follows: = ----------------------------------- - if hot fluid capacity rate is less inlet inl et
c ol d cold than cold fluid capacity rate or = ----------------------------------- - if hot fluid capacity rate is more than inlet inl et
cold fluid capacity rate, where the capacity rate is the product of the mass flow and the
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name was chosen because this problem will be calculated using Result Resolution level 3. Click Next.
system of units for both input and output (results). For this project we will use the International System SI by default. Click Next.
4 In the Analysis Type dialog box among Physical features select Heat conduction in solids.
By default, Flow Simulation will consider
heat conduction not in solids, but only within the fluid and between the walls and the fluid (i.e., convection). Selecting the Heat conduction in solids option enables the combination of convection and conduction heat transfer, known as conjugate heat transfer. In this project we will analyze heat transfer between the fluids through the model walls, as well as inside the solids.
Click Next.
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5 Since two fluids (water and air) are used in this project, expand the Liquids folder and add Water and then expand the Gases folder and add Air to the Project Fluids list. Check that the Default fluid type is Liquids.
Click Next .
6 Since we have selected the Heat conduction in solids option at the Analysis Type step of the Wizard, the Default Solid dialog box appears. In this dialog you specify the default solid material
applied to all solid components. To assign a different material to a particular assembly component you need to create a Solid Material condition for this component. If the solid material you wish to specify as the default is not available in the Solids table, you can click New and define a new substance in the Engineering Database. The tube and its cooler in this project are made of stainless steel. Expand the Alloys folder and click Steel Stainless 321 to make it the default solid material. Click Next .
If a component has been previously assigned a solid material by the SolidWorks
Materials Editor, you can import this material into Flow Simulation and apply this solid material to the component in the Flow Simulation project by using the Insert Material from Model option accessible under Flow Simulation, Tools.
7 In the Wall Condition dialog box, select Heat transfer coefficient as Default outer wall thermal condition.
This condition allows you to define the
heat transfer from the outer model walls to an external fluid (not modeled) by specifying the reference fluid temperature and the heat transfer coefficient value.
Set the Heat transfer coefficient value to 5 W/m2/K. Leave the default (zero) wall roughness. Click Next .
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8 In the Initial Conditions dialog box under Thermodynamics parameters enter 2 atm in the Value cell for the Pressure
parameter. Flow Simulation automatically converts the entered value to the selected system of units. Click Next accepting the default values of other parameters for initial conditions.
9 In the Results and Geometry Resolution dialog box we accept the
default result resolution level 3 and the default minimum gap size and minimum wall thickness. Click Finish. After finishing the Wizard you will complete the project definition by using the Flow Simulation Analysis tree. First of all you can take advantage of the symmetry of the heat exchanger to reduce the CPU time and memory required for the calculation. Since this model is symmetric, it is possible to cut the model in half and use a symmetry boundary condition at the plane of symmetry. This procedure is not required, but is recommended for efficient analyses.
graphics area click and drag the arrow handles at the sides of the computational domain frame to the desired positions, then adjust the exact coordinates in the appearing callouts.
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4 Click OK
Immediately the fluid subdomain you are going to create is displayed in the graphics area as a body of blue color.
To specify the fluid subdomain within a fluid region we must
specify this condition on the one of the faces lying on the regions boundary - i.e. on the boundary between solid and fluid substances. The fluid subdomain specified on the regions boundary will be applied to the entire fluid region. You may check if the region to apply a fluid subdomain is selected properly by looking at the fluid subdomain visualization in the graphics area.
3 Accept the default Coordinate System axis.
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Because Air was defined in the Wizard as one of the Project fluids and you have selected the appropriate fluid type, it appears as the fluid assigned to the fluid subdomain.
In the Fluids group box, Flow Simulation allows you to specify
the fluid type and/or fluids to be assigned for the fluid subdomain as well as flow characteristics, depending on the selected fluid type.
5 Under Flow Parameters in the Velocity in Z Direction box enter -10.
Flow Simulation allows you to specify initial flow parameters,
initial thermodynamic parameters, and initial turbulence parameters (after a face to apply the Fluid Subdomain is selected). These settings are applied to the specified fluid subdomain.
6 Under Thermodynamic parameters, change the Static Pressure
and Temperature to 1 atm and 600 K respectively. Flow Simulation will automatically convert the entered values to the selected system of units. These initial conditions are not necessary and the parameters of the hot air inlet flow are defined by the boundary condition, but we specify them to improve calculation convergence.
7 Click OK
8 To easily identify the specified condition you can give a more descriptive name for the Fluid Subdomain 1 item. Right-click the Fluid Subdomain 1 item and select Properties. In the Name box type Hot Air and click OK .
You can also click-pause-click an item to rename it
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(in contact with the fluid). The selected face appears in the
Faces to Apply the Boundary Condition
list.
condition, a callout showing the name of the condition and the default values of the condition parameters appears in the graphics area. You can doubleclick the callout to open the quick-edit dialog.
4 Click the Mass Flow Rate Normal to Face box and set its value equal to 0.01 kg/s. Since the symmetry plane halves
the opening, we need to specify a half of the actual mass flow rate.
5 Click OK
. The new Inlet Mass Flow 1 item appears in the Analysis tree.
This boundary condition specifies that water enters the steel jacket of the heat exchanger at a mass flow rate of 0.02 kg/s and temperature of 293.2 K.
6 Rename the Inlet Mass Flow 1 item to Inlet Mass Flow - Cold Water.
7 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Boundary Conditions icon and select Insert Boundary Condition. 8 Select the Water Outlet Lid inner face (in contact with the fluid). The selected face appears in the Faces to Apply the Boundary Condition
list.
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9 Click Pressure Openings and in the Type of Boundary Condition list select the Environment Pressure item.
10 Accept the value of Environment Pressure (202650 Pa), taken from the value specified at the Initial Conditions step of
(293.2 K) and
. The new Environment Pressure 1 item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.
Next we will specify the boundary conditions for the hot air flow.
13 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Boundary Conditions icon and select Insert Boundary Condition . 14 Select the Air Inlet Lid inner face (in contact with the
16 Click the Velocity Normal to Face box and set its value equal to 10 (type the value, the units will appear
automatically).
17 Expand the Thermodynamic Parameters item. The default
temperature value is equal to the value specified as the initial temperature of air in the Fluid Subdomain dialog box. We accept this value.
18 Click OK
This boundary condition specifies that air enters the tube at the velocity of 10 m/s and temperature of 600 K.
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial B3-9
list.
22 Click Pressure Openings and in the Type of Boundary Condition list select the Environment Pressure item.
and
are set to 101325 Pa and 600 K respectively. Accept the default values of other parameters. Click OK .
This project involving analysis of heat conduction in solids. Therefore, you must specify the solid materials for the models components and the initial solid temperature.
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1 Right-click the Solid Materials icon and select Insert Solid Material. 2 In the flyout FeatureManager design tree,
select all the lid components. As you select the lids, their names appear in the
Components to Apply the Solid Material
list.
Pre-Defined materials and select the Insulator solid in the Glasses & Minerals folder.
4 Click OK
The thermal conductivity of the Insulator substance is zero. Hence there is no heat
After the calculation finishes you can obtain the temperature of interest by creating the corresponding Goal Plot.
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If you wish, you may hide the Flow Simulation toolbars to save the space for the graphics area, since all necessary commands are available in the CommandManager. To hide a toolbar, click its name again in the View, Toolbars menu.
1 Click Generate goal plot on the Results Main toolbar or CommandManager. The Goal Plot dialog box appears. 2 Select the goals of the project (actually, in our case
created. You can view the average temperature of the tube on the Summary sheet.
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Plane3.
3 In the Cut Plot dialog, in addition to displaying Contours
, select Vectors
box,
velocity
. The cut plot is created but the model overlaps it.Click the Right view on the Standard Views toolbar. icon on the Flow Simulation Display toolbar to hide the model.
8 Click Geometry
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. This will update the current cut plot in accoradance with the specified temperature range.
To see how the water flows inside the exchanger we will display the Flow Trajectories. Click the bottom pane to make it the active pane. Let us now display how the flow develops inside the exchanger. Flow Simulation allows you to display results in all four possible panes of the SolidWorks graphics area. Moreover, for each pane you can specify different View Settings.
3 Click Window, Viewport, Two View - Horizontal. 4 To restore the view orientation in the top pane, click Right view on the Standard Views toolbar. 5 Click the bottom pane and select the Isometric view on the Standard Views toolbar.
The gray contour around the pane border indicates that the view is active.
6 On the Flow Simulation Display toolbar,
click Geometry to show the model, then on the View toolbar click Hidden
Lines Visible Lines Visible
to show the face outlines. Click the top pane and set the same display mode for it by clicking Hidden again.
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dialog appears.
2 Click the Flow Simulation Analysis tree tab and select
the Inlet Mass Flow Cold Water item. This will select the inner face of the Water Inlet Lid to place the trajectories start points on it.
3 Under Appearance, in the Color by Parameter list, select Velocity. 4 Click the Adjust Minimum/Maximum and Number of
velocity to
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By default the trajectories are colored in accordance with the distribution of the parameter specified in the Color by Parameter list. Since you specified velocity, the trajectory color corresponds to the velocity value. To define a fixed color for flow trajectories click
Color
Notice that in the top pane the temperature contours are still displayed.
Since we are more interested in the temperature distribution, let us color the trajectories with the values of temperature.
1 In the velocity palette bar click the caption with the name of the current visualization parameter and select Temperature
in a dropdown list.
2 Click
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The water temperature range is less than the default overall (Global) range (293 600), so all of the trajectories are the same blue color. To get more information about the temperature distribution in water you can manually specify the range of interest. Let us display temperatures in the range of inlet-outlet water temperature. The water minimum temperature value is close to 293 K. Let us obtain the values of air and water temperatures at outlets using Surface Parameters. You will need these values to calculate the heat exchanger efficiency and determine the appropriate temperature range for flow trajectories visualization.
Surface Parameters allows you to display parameter values (minimum, maximum,
average and integral) calculated over the specified surface. All parameters are divided into two categories: Local and Integral. For local parameters (pressure, temperature, velocity etc.) the maximum, minimum and average values are evaluated.
select the Environment Pressure - Warm Water item to select the inner face of the Water Outlet Lid.
3 Select Consider entire model to take into account
the Symmetry condition to see the values of parameters as if the entire model, not a half of it, was calculated. This is especially convenient for such parameters as mass and volume flow.
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4 Under Parameters, select All. 5 Click Show. The calculated parameters values are
displayed on the pane at the bottom of the screen. Local parameters are displayed at the left side of the bottom pane, while integral parameters are displayed at the right side.
parameters. You can see that the average water temperature at the outlet is about 300 K. Now let us determine the temperature of air at the outlet.
7 Click the Environment Pressure - Air item to
parameters at the left side of the bottom pane. You can see that the average air temperature at the outlet is about 585 K.
10 The values of integral
parameters are displayed at the right side of the bottom pane. You can see that the mass flow rate of air is 0.046 kg/s. This value is calculated with the Consider entire model option selected, i.e. taking into account the Symmetry condition.
11 Click OK
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fluid with the minimum capacity rate (C= mc ). In this example the water mass flow rate is 0.02 kg/s and the air mass flow rate is 0.046 kg/s. The specific heat of water at the temperature of 300 K is about five times greater than that of air at the temperature of 586 K. Thus, the air capacity rate is less than the water capacity rate. Therefore, according to Ref.2, the heat exchanger efficiency is calculated as follows:
inle out T hot t Thot let = ------------------------------ , i nl inle Thotet T c ol dt
where
inlet outl Thot is the temperature of the air at the inlet, Thot et is the temperature of the inlet air at the outlet and T cold is the temperature of the water at the inlet.
We already know the air temperature at the inlet (600 K) and the water temperature at the inlet (293.2 K), so using the obtained values of water and air temperatures at outlets, we can calculate the heat exchanger efficiency:
inle out T hot t Thot let 600 586 = ------------------------------ = --------------------------- = 0.045 i nl et i nl et 600 293.2 Thot T c ol d
As you can see, Flow Simulation is a powerful tool for heat-exchanger design calculations. Ref. 2 J.P. Holman. Heat Transfer Eighth edition.
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B4
Mesh Optimization
The goal of this tutorial example is to demonstrate various meshing capabilities of Flow Simulation allowing you to perform manual adjustment of the computational mesh. Although the automatically generated mesh is usually appropriate, intricate problems with thin and/or small, but important, geometrical and physical features can result in extremely high number of cells, for which the computer memory may be too small. In such cases we recommend you trying the Flow Simulation options allowing you to manually adjust the computational mesh to the solved problem's features to resolve them better. This tutorial teaches you how to do this. The considered Ejector in Exhaust Hood example aims to:
Settle the large aspect ratio between the minimum gap size and the model size by adjusting the initial mesh manually. Resolve small features by specifying local mesh settings.
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Problem Statement
The ejector model is shown in the picture below. Note that the ejector orifices diameter is more than 1000 times smaller than the characteristic model size determined as the computational domains overall dimension.
Exhaust
Opening
Baffles
Ejector
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When you enable gravitation, pay attention that the hydrostatic pressure is calculated
with respect to the global coordinate system, as follows: Phydrostatic = (gx*x + gy*y+ g z*z), where reference density, gi - component of the gravitational acceleration vector and x, y, z - coordinates in the global coordinate system.
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faces where boundary conditions (as well as sources, fans) and goals are specified. Thus, it is recommended to set all conditions before you start to analyze the mesh.
The first two boundary conditions are imposed on the exhaust hood's inlet and outlet. Inlet Boundary Condition
Environment Pressure: Default values (14.6959 lbf/in2, gas substance Air) of the Environment pressure and Temperature (68.09 F) at the boxs Lid for Face Opening;
Outlet Volume Flow: Outlet volume flow rate of 1000 ft3/min at the boxs Exhaust Lid.
Open the Initial Mesh dialog box (click Flow Simulation, Initial Mesh) and select the Manual specification of the minimum gap size option. You will see that the current automatic minimum gap size is 0.5 ft, which is the width of the outlet opening. Click Cancel to close this dialog box.
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The next inlet volume flow rate condition defines the gas ejected from the bottom of the Ejector component. Inlet Boundary Condition
Inlet Volume Flow: Inlet chlorine (Substance concentrations: Chlorine 1; Air 0) volume flow rate of 0.14 ft3/min at the lid that closes the orifice (make sure that you have selected the upper face of the lid).
If you now look at the automatic minimum gap size value (click Flow Simulation, Initial Mesh, Manual specification of the minimum gap size), you will notice that it is now changed to approximately 0.00446 ft, which is close to the orifice diameter.
The Minimum gap size is a parameter governing the computational mesh, so that a
certain number of cells per the specified gap should be generated. To satisfy this condition the corresponding parameters governing the mesh are set by Flow Simulation (number of basic mesh cells, small solid features refinement level, narrow channel resolution, etc.). Note that these parameters are applied to the whole computational domain, resolving all its features of the same geometric characteristics (not only to a specific gap).
Since the minimum gap size value influences the mesh in the entire computational domain, the large aspect ratio between the model and the minimum gap size value will produce a non-optimal mesh: not only will all small gaps be resolved, but there will also be many small cells in places where they are not necessary. As a result, an extremely large mesh will be produced, which may result in overly large computer memory requirements exceeding the computers' available resources. Moreover, if the aspect ratio between the model and the minimum gap size is more than 1000, Flow Simulation may not adequately resolve such models with the automatically generated mesh anyway. Finally, let us create the ejectors porous media and apply it to the ejectors top and side screens. The material you are going to create is already defined in the Engineering Database under the Pre-Defined folder. You can skip the definition of the porous material, then when creating the porous condition, select the pre-defined "Screen Material" from the Engineering database.
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Porous Media
Screen material: Porosity: 0.5, Permeability type: Isotropic, Dependency on velocity: A = 0.07 kg/m4, B = 3e-008 kg/(s*m3). Components to apply: Top Screen Side Screen
To see advantages of using the local mesh and refinement options, let us first try to generate the computational mesh governed by the automatic mesh settings. The resulting mesh will consist of more than 1000000 cells, and may be not processed by some computers due to the computer memory restriction (you may get a warning message about insufficient memory)
Boundary conditions; The passages connecting the ejectors internal volume with the models cavity; The narrow flow passages between the baffles.
After reviewing the model we can accept the width of the gap between the middle and upper baffles as the minimum gap size. To avoid excessive mesh splitting, we will specify the same value for the minimum wall thickness.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Initial Mesh. 2 Use the slider to set the Level of the initial mesh to 5. 3 Select the Manual specification of the minimum gap size checkbox and enter 0.067 ft in the Minimum gap size box. 4 Select the Manual specification of the minimum wall thickness checkbox and enter 0.067 ft in the Minimum wall thickness box.
0.067 ft
5 Click OK.
mesh only.
3 Click Run.
After the mesh generation finishes you can view it by creating a Cut Plot on the CENTERLINE planewith the Mesh option selected.
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The resulting mesh has significantly less cells than the mesh generated automatically with the default values of Minimum gap size and Minimum wall thickness. The total number of cells is about 200 000.
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basic mesh and the initial mesh within the entire computational domain unless local initial mesh settings are specified.
The mesh is named Initial since it is the mesh the calculation starts from and it could
be further refined during the calculation if the solution-adaptive meshing is enabled. The initial mesh is constructed from the Basic mesh by refining the basic mesh cells in accordance with the specified mesh settings. The Basic mesh is formed by dividing the computational domain into slices by parallel planes which are orthogonal to the Global Coordinate Systems axes.
The Initial Meshs parameters are currently set by Flow Simulation in accordance with the previously specified automatic mesh settings, including Minimum gap size and Minimum wall thickness.
2 Go to the Narrow channel tab and set the Narrow channels refinement level to 1. This allows
us to reduce the number of cells in the channels between the baffles and the wall of the Box.
The Narrow channels refinement
level specifies the smallest size of the cells in models flow passages with respect to the basic mesh cells. So if N = 07 is the specified Narrow channels refinement level, the minimum size of the cells obtained due to the mesh refinement is 2N times smaller (in each direction of the Global Coordinate System, or 8N times by volume) than the basic mesh cells size.
To view the resulting mesh, run the mesh generation again (without further problem calculation).
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial B4-9
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Flow Simulation Analysis tree to select the face on which this boundary condition is applied.
3 Clear the Automatic settings check box and switch to the Refining cells tab. 4 Select the Refine all cells checkbox and use the slider to set the Level of refining all cells to 7. 5 Click OK.
To see the resulting mesh, once again run the mesh generation. Now we have specified to refine all cells near the ejectors orifice inlet face up to the maximum level. The locally refined mesh is shown below.
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all refinement levels are set with respect to the basic mesh cell.
You may notice that the mesh resolving the ejectors orifice inlet face is not symmetric. It can has a negative effect on the specified boundary condition. We will add a control plane to shift the boundary between cells so that it will pass through the center of the inlet face.
1 In the Initial Mesh dialog box, go to the Basic Mesh tab. 2 Click Add Plane . The Create Control Planes dialog box
appears.
3 In the Creating mode list select Reference geometry. 4 Under Parallel to select XY. 5 Zoom in to the ejectors orifice area and select edge of the
inlet face in the graphics area. The control plane will pass through the middle of the edge parallel to the Global Coordinate System plane selected in the Parallel to group. Please check that the value of offset along the Z axis, appeared in the Control planes list, is equal to 0.703125 ft. If not, it means that you have mistakenly selected another geometry feature. In this case, right-click on the Control planes list and select Delete All, then try to select the edge of the inlet face again.
6 Click OK . The Z2 control plane appears in the Control intervals table.
You can visualize the basic mesh before solving the problem. To see the basic mesh,
click Show basic mesh in the Initial Mesh dialog box or click Flow Simulation, Project, Show Basic Mesh.
7 Click OK to save changes and close the Initial Mesh dialog box.
Then, generate the initial mesh to check whether the thin walls and the other geometry are resolved.
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1 Click Flow Simulation, Solve, Run. 2 Clear the Solve check box in order to generate the
mesh only.
3 Clear the Load results check box. 4 Click Run.
Prior to visualizing the initial computational mesh, let us switch the Flow Simulation option to use the meshed geometry instead of the SolidWorks model's geometry to visualize the results. By default, Flow Simulation shows the SolidWorks models geometry when displaying the results. Depending on how exactly the model has been resolved with the computational mesh, the SolidWorks models geometry may differ from the geometry used in the calculation. To display the real captured geometry the Use CAD geometry option is reserved.
5 Click Tools, Options, then click Third Party. 6 On the Flow Simulation Options tab, under General Options, select the Display mesh check box. 7 Under View Options clear the Use CAD geometry (Default) check box. 8 Click OK.
Next load the file with the initial computational mesh: right-click the Results icon and select Load Results , then select the 1.cpt file and click Open. Note that the total number of cells is about 75 000.
The calculation results, including
the current computational mesh, are saved in the .fld files, whereas the initial computational mesh is saved separately in the .cpt files. Both of the files are saved in the project folder, whose numerical name is formed by Flow Simulation and must not be changed.
Create a cut plot based on the CENTERLINE planewith the Mesh option selected. Create a second cut plot based on the ejectors orifice inlet face with the Offset of -0.00025 ft relative to the selected face and the same settings as the first cut plot.
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Now you can see that the generated mesh is symmetrical relative to the center of the inlet face.
Next specify the local mesh settings for the ejectors region.
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1 Select the LocalMesh2 component. 2 Click , Insert, Local Initial Mesh. 3 Clear the Automatic settings check box and switch to the Narrow Channels tab. 4 Specify the Characteristic number of cells across a narrow channel equal to 15. 5 Use the slider to set the Narrow channels refinement level to 3. 6 Click OK.
The settings on the Narrow Channels tab controls the mesh refinement in the models
flow passages. Characteristic number of cells across a narrow channel box specify the number of initial mesh cells (including partial cells) that Flow Simulation will try to set across the models flow passages in the direction normal to solid/fluid interface . If possible, the number of cells across narrow channels will be equal to the specified characteristic number, otherwise it will be close to the characteristic number. If this condition is not satisfied, the cells lying in this direction will be split to satisfy the condition.
Rebuild the project and run the mesh generation again. Click Flow Simulation, Results, Display, Geometry to hide the model.
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In the figure below you can see the final mesh. After all the adjustments made to resolve only the regions of interest its number of cells turned out to be about 100 000. The is an order less comparing to the mesh generated using the automatic mesh settings, where the number of cells turned out to be more than 1 000 000.
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C
Advanced Examples
The Advanced Examples presented below demonstrate how to use a wide variety of the Flow Simulation features to solve real-life engineering problems. It is assumed that you successfully completed all First Steps examples before.
C1 - Application of EFD Zooming C2 - Textile Machine C3 - Non-Newtonian Flow in a Channel with Cylinders C4 - Radiative Heat Transfer C5 - Rotating Impeller C6 - CPU Cooler C7 - Oil Catch Can
C-1
Advanced Examples:
C-2
C1
Application of EFD Zooming
Problem Statement
The Flow Simulation capability of EFD Zooming is demonstrated as an engineering tutorial example of selecting a better heat sink shape for a main chip taking into account other electronic components in an electronic enclosure. The assembly model of the electronic enclosure including the main chips heat sink under consideration is shown in the figure below. The fan installed at the enclosure inlet blows air through the enclosure to the outlet slots with the goal of cooling the heated electronic elements (having heat sources inside). The planar main chip is attached to a motherboard made of an insulator. To cool the main chip better, its opposite plane surface is covered by a heat sink cooled by the air stream from the fan.
Heat Sink PCB Small Chips Inlet Fan
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The problems engineering aim is to determine the temperature of the main chip when using one of two heat sink designs considered with the other conditions unchanged within the enclosure. As a result, we will determinethe difference in cooling capability between these two competing shapes.
No.1
As you can see, all components within the electronic enclosure except the main chips heat sink are specified as coarse shapes without any small details, since they do not influence the main chips temperature which is the aim of the analysis (the enclosure model was preliminary simplified to this level on purpose). On the contrary, the heat sink of each shape is featured by multiple thin (thickness of 0.1 in) fins with narrow (gaps of 0.1 in) channels between them. To solve this problem, Flow Simulation offers two possible approaches described below. In the first and more direct way, we compute the entire flow inside the whole electronic enclosure for each heat sink shape using the Local Initial Mesh option for constructing a fine computational mesh in the heat sinks narrow channels and thin fins. Naturally, the Heat conduction in solids option is enabled in these computations. In the other, two-stage way (EFD Zooming using the Transferred Boundary Condition option), we solve the same problem in the following stages:
1 computing the entire flow inside the whole electronic enclosure at a low result
resolution level without resolving the heat sinks fine features (so, the parallelepiped envelope is specified instead of the heat sinks comb shape) and disabling the Heat conduction in solids option;
2 computing the flow over the real comb-shaped heat sink in a smaller computational domain surrounding the main chip, using the Transferred Boundary Condition option
to take the first stages computation results as boundary conditions, specifying a fine computational mesh in the heat sinks narrow channels and thin fins to resolve them, and enabling the Heat conduction in solids option. The first stages computation is performed once and then used for the second stages computations performed for each of the heat sinks shapes.
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The model simplification at this stage allows us to compute the electronic enclosures flow by employing the automatic initial mesh settings with a lower level of initial mesh (we use 4) and accepting the automatic settings for the minimum gap size and the minimum wall thickness. Moreover, at this stage it is also not necessary to compute heat conduction in solids, since we do not compute the main chip temperature at this stage. Instead, we specify surface heat sources of the same (5W) heat transfer rates at the main chip and heat sink (parallelepiped) faces and at the small chips faces (they are heated also in this example) to simulate heating of the air flow by the electronic enclosure. This is not obligatory, but removing the heat conduction in solids at this stage saves computer resources. As a result, the computer resources (memory and CPU time) required at this stage are substantially reduced.
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Project for the First Stage of EFD Zooming Opening the SolidWorks Model
and ensure that the files are not read-only since Flow Simulation will save input data to these filesClick File, Open. In the Open dialog box, browse to the Enclosure Assembly.SLDASM assembly located in the C1 - EFD Zooming folder and click Open (or double-click the assembly). Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Enclosure Assembly.SLDASM file to an empty area of SolidWorks window. Make sure that the Zoom Global - L4 configuration is the active one. Notice that the heat sink (HeatSinkSLDPRT) has its cuts suppressed, so it looks like a parallelepiped.
For this project we use the automatic initial mesh and the default computational domain.
Notice that Level of initial mesh is set to 4 in
accordance with the Result resolution level specified in the Wizard. The Result Resolution defines two parameters in the created project, namely, the Level of initial mesh and the Results resolution level. The Level of initial mesh is accessible from the Initial Mesh dialog box and governs the initial mesh only. The Results resolution level is accessible from the Calculation Control Options dialog box and governs the refinement of computational mesh during calculation and the calculation finishing
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conditions. The Geometry Resolution options, which also influence the initial mesh, can be changed in the Initial Mesh box, and/or their effects can be corrected in the Initial Mesh and Local Initial Mesh dialog boxes.
4 In the Save to Database dialog box, expand the Units group and select the User Defined item. 5 Name the new system of units Electronics. 6 Click OK to return to the Unit System dialog box. 7 Click OK.
Environment Pressure: Default thermodynamic parameters (ambient pressure of 14.6959 lbf/in 2, temperature of 68.09 F) for the Environment pressure at the Outlet Lids.
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components. Flow Simulation automatically selects all faces of the Heat Sink and Main Chip components. Faces that are not in contact with fluid must be removed from list. the Faces to Apply the Surface Source
3 Click Filter Faces . Select Keep outer and fluid-contacting faces, and click Filter.
It is convenient to select all faces of the component by
selecting this component in the Flyout FeatureManager Design Tree, though finding and removing unnecessary faces from the selection manually (one by one) may require excessive time, especially when there are many faces to remove. The Filter allows you to remove unnecessary faces of specified type from the list of selected faces.
4 Under Parameter, set the Heat Generation Rate
to 5 W.
Following the same procedure, create a surface source of 5 W on the fluid-contacting surfaces of small chips.
Specifying Goals
Specify the surface goals of mass flow rate at the inlet and outlet. Run the calculation. After the calculation is finished, you can start the second stage of EFD Zooming to focus on the main chip. Save the model.
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Project for the Second Stage of EFD Zooming Opening the SolidWorks Model
Activate the Zoom - SinkNo1 - L4 configuration Notice that heat sinks cuts are resolved now.
Here, we use the automatic initial mesh by specifying the Result resolution level (Level of initial mesh) of 4, but in contrast to the first stages computation, we specify manually the minimum gap size of 0.1 in to resolve the fine features of heat sink. Next, we will reduce the computational domain to focus on the main chip, i.e. perform EFD Zooming.
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were not resolved at the first stages computation. The computational domain must be large enough not to receive influence from more complex features of the newly added object;
3 the boundary conditions transferred to or specified at the boundaries must be consistent
with the problems statements (e.g., if in the problem under consideration the mother board is made of a heat-conducting material, then it is incorrect to cut the mother board with computational domain boundaries, since this will yield an incorrect heat flux from the chip through the mother board). In this project we specify the following computational domain boundaries satisfying the above-mentioned requirements. Click Flow Simulation, Computational Domain to adjust the computational domain size as follows:
Xmax = 0.7 in (the boundary conditions in the fluid region of this boundary are transferred from the first stages computation results, the same boundary conditions as at Xmin = -2.95 in are automatically specified at this boundarys upper solid part lying in the electronic enclosures aluminum wall, and the same boundary conditions as at Zmin = -1 in are automatically specified at the lower solid part lying in the mother board), Xmin = -2.95 in (entirely lies inside the electronic enclosure side wall made of aluminum, this material does not influence the main chips temperature since it is insulated from the chip by the heat-insulating mother board and the air flow, its boundary condition is automatically specified as the 68.09 F temperature specified as the initial condition for all solids), Ymax = 4 in, Ymin = -1 in (the boundary conditions at these boundaries are specified in the same manner as at Xmax = 0.7 in, as well as at the boundaries side parts also lying in the aluminum wall), Zmax = 1.2 in (entirely lies inside the electronic enclosures aluminum upper wall, therefore the same boundary condition, as at Xmin = -2.95 in, are automatically specified at this boundary). Zmin = -1.1 in (entirely lies inside the mother board specified as a heat insulator, therefore the adiabatic wall boundary condition is automatically specified at this boundary),
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double-click a boundary.
3 Click Next. 4 At Step 2, click Browse to select the
Flow Simulation project whose results will be used as boundary conditions for the current Zoom SinkNo1 - L4 project.
You can select a calculated project of any
of specifying (by taking results of a previous calculation) flow parameters at the boundary's section lying in the fluid, so they will act during the calculation in nearly the same manner as ambient
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial C1-9
conditions in an external analysis. If Heat Conduction in Solids is enabled, then the solid temperature is specified at this boundary's section lying in the solid (by taking results of a previous calculation). The heat flux at this boundary, which will be obtained as part of the problem solution, can be non-zero.
8 Click Finish .
b) MotherBoard and Enclosure are made of insulator (Pre-Defined/Glasses & Minerals); c) all other parts (e.g. the heat sink) are made of aluminum.
Specifying Goals
Specify the Volume Goals of maximum and average temperatures of the main chip and the heat sink.
Run the calculation. The obtained computational results are presented in tables and pictures below. These results were obtained with the heat sinks shape N.1.
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If you look at the computational mesh you can see that it has two cells for each of the heat sinks channels, and two cells for each of the sinks fins.
The mesh cut plot obtained for the heat sink No.1 at Y=-0.3 in.
The Minimum gap size and Minimum wall thickness influence the same parameter,
namely, the characteristic cell size. By default, Flow Simulation generates the basic mesh in order to have a minimum of two cells per the specified Minimum gap size. The number of cells per the Minimum gap size depends non-linearly on the Level of initial mesh and cannot be less than two. In turn, the Minimum wall thickness condition induces Flow Simulation to create the basic mesh having two cells (two cells are enough to resolve a wall) per the specified Minimum wall thickness (regardless of the specified initial mesh level). Thats why, if the Minimum wall thickness is equal to or greater than the Minimum gap size, then the former does not influence the resulting mesh at all.
L4.
Click OK. After clicking OK, two warning messages appear asking you to reset the computational domain and to rebuild the computational mesh. Select No to ignore the resizing of computational domain, and Yes to rebuild the mesh.
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After cloning the project you can start the calculation immediately. The obtained results are presented in tables and pictures at the end of this tutorial. It is seen that due to the new shape of the heat sink the main chips temperature is reduced by about 15 F. That is caused by both the increased area of the heat sinks ribs and streamlining the flow in the heat sinks narrow channels between the ribs (in heat sink No.1 about half of the channel is occupied by a counterflow vortex).
The electronic enclosure configuration with the additional part for applying the Local Initial Mesh op
Flow Simulation Project for the Local Initial Mesh Approach (Sink No1)
To create the project in this case, we clone the Zoom SinkNo1 - L4 to the existing LocalMesh SinkNo1 - N2 configuration, but in contrast to the previous cloning, we reset the computational domain to the default size so the computational domain encloses the entire model. Activate Zoom SinkNo1 - L4 configuration. Open the Clone Project dialog, click Add to existing and, in the Existing configuration list select the LocalMesh SinkNo1 - N2 as the configuration to which Flow Simulation will attach the cloned project. After clicking OK, confirm with Yes both messages appearing.
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Specifying Goals
Keep the cloned volume goals of maximum and average temperatures of the main chip and the heat sink.
box.
4 Clear the Automatic settings check box. 5 Go to the Narrow Channels tab and set the Characteristic number of cells across a narrow channel = 2 and Narrow channels refinement level = 4.
The Narrow Channels term is conventional
and used for the definition of the models flow passages in the normal-to-solid/ fluid-interface direction. The procedure of refinement is applied to each flow passage
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within the computational domain unless you specify for Flow Simulation to ignore the passages of a specified height with the Enable the minimum height of narrow channels and Enable the maximum height of narrow channels options. The Characteristic number of cells across a narrow channel (let us denote it as Nc) and Narrow channels refinement level (let us denote it as L) both influence the mesh in narrow channels in the following way: the basic mesh in narrow channels will be split to have the specified Nc number per a channel, if the resulting cells satisfy the specified L. In other words, whatever the specified Nc, a narrow channels cells cannot be smaller in 8L (2L in each direction of the Global Coordinate System) times than the basic mesh cell. This is necessary to avoid the undesirable mesh splitting in superfine channels that may cause increasing the number of cells to an excessive value.
6 Click OK.
In our case, to ensure the 2 cells across a channel criterion, we increased the Narrow
channels refinement level to 4.
We perform these settings for both of the heat sinks under consideration.
Flow Simulation Project for the Local Initial Mesh Approach (Sink No2)
Clone the active LocalMesh SinkNo1 - N2 to the existing LocalMesh SinkNo2 - N2 configuration. While cloning confirm the message to rebuild the mesh. Using the Batch Run , calculate both projects.
Results
The computational results obtained for both of the heat sinks are presented below in comparison with the results obtained with the EFD Zooming approach. It is seen that computations with the local mesh settings yield practically the same results as the EFD Zooming approach.
H e a t sink N o .1 Lo c a lM e s h Zo o m S ink N o 1 S ink N o 1 N2 L4
1 13.07 1 13.44 1 12.92 1 13.38 11 7.33 11 7.58 11 7.18 11 7.51
P a ra me te r t m a x , F M a in c hip t a v e r , F t m a x , F H e a t sink t a v e r , F
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EFD Zooming
Local Mesh
The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.1 at Y=2.19 in (Top plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) and Local Mesh (right) approaches.
The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.1 at Z= -0.32 in (Front plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) and Local Mesh (right) approaches.
The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.1 at X= -1.53 in (Right plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) and Local Mesh (right) approaches.
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The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.2 at Y=2.19 in (Top plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) and Local Mesh (right) approaches.
The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.2 at Z=-0.32 in (Front plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) and Local Mesh (right) approaches.
The temperature cut plots obtained for heat sink No.2 at X= -1.53 in (Right plane) with the EFD Zooming (left) an Local Mesh (right) approaches.
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C2
Textile Machine
Problem Statement
The simplified textile machine used in this tutorial is described as a closed hollow cylinder having a cylindrical stator with a narrow inlet tube (see the figure below). A thin-walled cone rotates at a very high speed. The air flows over the rotating cone before leaving through the outlet pipe. Due to the shear stress, the rotating cone swirls the air. The swirling air motion orients the fibers, for the correct formation of yarn.
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In this example a hollow cylinder with the following dimensions were used: 32 mm inner diameter and 20 mm inner height. Air is injected into an inlet tube of 1 mm diameter at a mass flow rate of 0.0002026 kg/s. The cone thickness is 1 mm and the cone's edge is spaced at 3 mm from the bottom of the main cylinder. The cone rotates at a speed of 130000 RPM. The static pressure of 96325 Pa is specified at the cylinder's outlet tube exit. Flow Simulation analyzes the air flow without any fiber particles. The influence of the fiber particles on the air flow was assumed to be negligible. Small polystyrene particles were injected into the air stream using the results processing Flow Trajectory feature to study the air flows influence on the fibers. A 40 m/s tangential velocity of air is specified as an initial condition to speed up convergence and reduce the total CPU time needed to solve the problem.
Analysis type Physical features Fluid Wall Conditions Initial Conditions Result and Geometry Resolution
default
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Outlet Static Pressure = 96325 Pa: Static pressure of 96325 Pa at the outlet face of the Housing (the other parameters are default).
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, then Real
Design Tree select the Rotor component. All the rotors faces are selected. However, the top face is out of the computational domain and must be excluded.
4 Click Filter Faces
5 Select Wall Motion. 6 Select Y as the rotation Axis. 7 Specify the Angular Velocity 8 Click OK
of 130000 RPM.
button. The
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7 In the Formula box, type the formula defining the velocity in X direction: 40*cos(phi).
Here phi is the polar angle defined as shown on the picture below.
8 Click OK. You will return to the Initial Condition PropertyManager. 9 Click Dependency to the right of the Velocity in Z direction box and specify formula for the Z component of velocity: -40*sin(phi). 10 Click OK. 11 Under Thermodynamic Parameters, change the Pressure 12 Click OK
to 99800 Pa. .
13 Click-pause-click the new Initial Condition1 item and rename it to vel = 40 m\s.
Specifying Goals
Since the rotating cone swirls the air, it make sense to specify the air velocity as a goal to ensure the calculation stops when the velocity is converged. In addition, let us specify the static pressure surface goal at the inlet and the mass flow rate surface goal at the outlet as additional criteria for converging the calculation.
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Average Velocity Mass Flow Rate Outlet face(click the outlet static pressure boundary condition item to select the outlet face) Inlet face(click the inlet mass flow rate boundary condition item to select the inlet face)
Initial Velocity 1 (select the component in the Flyout FeatureManager Design Tree) Initial Velocity 2 (select the component in the Flyout FeatureManager Design Tree)
Surface Goal
Volume Goal
Average Velocity
Volume Goal
Average Velocity
Flow velocity
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It is interesting that the vertical (i.e. along the Y axis) velocity in the region close to the rotating cone's internal and external surfaces is directed to the cylinder bottom. Also, this velocity component is nearly zero in the gap between the rotating cone and the bottom of the cylinder, and positive (i.e. directed to the top) in the vicinity of the cylinder's side walls. As a result, small particles carried by the air into the region between the lower edge of the rotating cone and the bottom of the cylinder cannot leave this region due to the small vertical velocity there. On the other hand, larger particles entering this region may bounce from the cylinders bottom wall (in this example the ideal, i.e. full reflection is considered) and fly back to the region of high vertical velocity. Then they are carried by the air along the cylinder's side walls to the cylinder's top wall where they remain in this region's vortex.
the inlet boundary condition icon (Inlet Mass Flow = 0.73 kg\h) to select the corresponding face.
3 Set the Number of Points
to 10. to
4 Under Appearance, set the Draw Trajectories As Lines with Arrows and change Color by Parameter
to Velocity.
5 Under Constraints. select the Forward
direction and
of trajectories to 15 m.
trajectory to the specified value. We increase this value to show better the flow vorticity.
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6 Click OK
the maximum value in the velocity palette bar and type 70 m/s in an edit box.
To display particles trajectories, we need to specify initial particle properties (temperature, velocity and diameter), particle's material and the wall condition (absorption or reflection).
1 In the Analysis tree, right-click the Particle Studies icon and select Wizard . 2 Keep the default name for the Particle Study and click Next 3 Click the inlet boundary condition icon (Inlet Mass Flow
= 0.73 kg\h) in the tree to select the inlet face from which the particles are injected.
4 Set the Number of Points
to 5. equal
to the Solids to 0.005 mm and change the Material and in the list select the Polystyrene (Materials, Solids, Pre-Defined, Polymers).
We leave unchanged the default zero values of relative
velocity and temperature, which means that the velocity and temperature of particles are equal to those of the incoming flow. We also leave the default value of mass flow rate, since it is used only to estimate mass rates of erosion or accumulation, which we are not going to take into account.
6 Click Next
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twice.
9 Under Default Appearance, set Draw Trajectories as Lines with Arrows. 10 Under Constraints, increase the Maximum Length
of
trajectories to 15 m.
11 Click OK . A new Particle Study 1 item with one sub-item (Injection 1) appear in the Analysis tree. 12 Right-click the created Injection 1 item and select Clone. The Injection 2 item will be created. For this item, increase the particle size by editing the Diameter to 0.015 mm. 13 Right-click the Particle Study 1 item and select Run. 14 Select Injection 1 and click Show to view the particles trajectories. 15 When finished examining the trajectiries from the first injection, hide the Injection 1 trajectories and show the Injection 2 trajectories.
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Flow velocity
roughness = 0 m
roughness = 500 m
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Flow streamlines
Rough wall
Rough wall
Smooth wall
Rough wall
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C3
Non-Newtonian Flow in a Channel with Cylinders
Problem Statement
Let us consider a non-Newtonian liquid's 3D flow through a rectangular-cross-section channel encumbered with seven circular cylinders arranged asymmetrically with respect to the channel's midplane shown in Ref. 1. Following Ref. 1, let us consider the 3% aqueous solution of xanthan gum as a non-Newtonian liquid. Its viscosity approximately
obeys the power law = K ( ) with a consistency coefficient of K = 20 Pasn and a power-law index of n = 0.2, whereas its other physical properties (density, etc.) are the same as in water (since the solution is aqueous).
n 1
The problem's goal is to determine the total pressure loss in the channel. Also, to highlight the influence of the 3% xanthan gum addition to water on the channel's total pressure loss, we will calculate the flow of water using the same volume flow rate within the channel. The Flow Simulation calculations are performed with the uniform liquid velocity profile at the channel inlet, the liquids volume flow rate is 50 cm 3/s. The static pressure of 1 atm is specified at the channel outlet. The calculations goal is the channels resistance to the flow, i.e., the total pressure drop o between the channel inlet and outlet.
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in the toolbar. The blank Item Properties tab appears. Double-click the empty cell to set the corresponding property value.
Name Density Specific heat Thermal conductivity Viscosity Consistency coefficient Power law index Save and exit the database.
XGum 1000 kg/m^3 4000 J/(kg*K) 0.6 W/(m*K) Power law model 20 Pa*sn 0.2
Project Definition
Using the Wizard create a new project as follows: Project name Unit system Analysis type Create new: XGS
CGS modified: Pa ( Pascal) for the Pressure & Stress Internal; Exclude cavities without flow conditions
Physical features
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Adiabatic wall, default smooth walls, default slip condition Default conditions Default result resolution level 3; Minimum gap size=0.25 cm, other options are default
Static Pressure 1: Default value (101325 Pa) for the Static pressure at the face shown in the figure;
Specifying Goals
Specify surface goals for the Average Total Pressure at the inlet and outlet. Specify an equation goal for the total pressure drop between the channels inlet and outlet.
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Run the calculation. When the calculation is finished, create the goal plot to obtain the pressure drop between the channels inlet and outlet.
A r r a y o f C y lin d e r s . S L D P R T [X G S ]
G o a l Na m e S G A v Total P res s ure 1 S G A v Total P res s ure 2 P re s s ure D rop Unit [P a ] [P a ] [P a ] V a lu e A ve r a g e d V a lu e M in im u m V a lu e M a x im u m V a lu e P ro g re ss 10565 1.786 10565 1.376 1 1056 43.48 27 105 654.4 936 10 1329 .3176 10132 9.315 2 1013 29.30 74 101 329.3 176 43 22.46 8356 4322.0 6089 8 4314 .1752 74 432 5.178 958 [%] 1 00 1 00 1 00
Run the calculation. After the calculation is finished, create the goal plot.
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A r r a y o f C y lin d e r s . S L D P R T [w a te r ]
G o a l Na m e S G A v Total P res s ure 1 S G A v Total P res s ure 2 P re s s ure D rop Unit [P a ] [P a ] [P a ] V a lu e A ve r a g e d V a lu e M in im u m V a lu e M a x im u m V a lu e P ro g re ss 10 1403 .5584 10140 3.764 6 1014 03.40 33 101 404.2 022 10 1329 .8163 10132 9.823 9 1013 29.79 15 101 329.8 473 73 .7420 9017 73.940 7841 1 73.5 66857 44 74 .3741 033 [%] 1 00 1 00 1 00
As shown in the results table above, the channel's total pressure loss is about 60 Pa, i.e. 60...70 times lower than with the 3% aqueous solution of xanthan gum, this is due to the water's much smaller viscosity under the problem's flow shear rates.
The XGS (above) and water velocity distribution in the range from 0 to 30 cm/s.
1 Georgiou G., Momani S., Crochet M.J., and Walters K. Newtonian and Non-Newtonian
Flow in a Channel Obstructed by an Antisymmetric Array of Cylinders. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, v.40 (1991), p.p. 231-260.
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C4
Radiative Heat Transfer
Problem Statement
Let us consider a ball with diameter of 0.075 m, which is continuously heated by a 2 kW heat source. The ball radiates heat to a concentrically arranged hemispherical reflector with the inner diameter of 0.256 m, and through a glass cover of the same inner diameter to a circular screen with the diameter of 3 m arranged coaxially with the reflector at the 1 m distance from the ball. All parts except the glass cover are made of stainless steel. The ball surface and the screen surface facing the ball are blackbody. The other side of the screen side is non-radiating. The goal of the simulationl is to see how the presence of reflector and its emissivity influence the ball and screen temperatures. To do that, the following three cases are considered: Case 1: the reflector inner surface is whitebody; Case 2: all reflector surfaces are blackbody; Case 3: the reflector is removed. The steady-state problem is solved with the Heat conduction in solids option selected, so that conduction within all parts is calculated. Considering the convective heat transfer negligibly low (as in highly rarefied air), we also select the Heat conduction in solids only option. With this option, we do not need to specify a fluid for the project, and it is calculated without considering any fluid flow at all, thus saving the CPU time and limiting the heat transfer between parts to radiation only. The initial temperature of the parts is assumed to be 293.2 K. Let us consider the solutions obtained with Flow Simulation for each of the cases under consideration.
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Glass Cover
Screen 3
Reflector
Heated Ball
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Default Solid Wall conditions Initial and Ambient Conditions Result and Geometry Resolution
Default result resolution level of 3; Minimum wall thickness = 0.007 m; other options are default.
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1 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Radiative Surface. 2 Under Type , expand the list of Pre-Defined radiative surfaces and select Blackbody wall.
Heated Sphere component. Next, select the surface of Screen facing the Heated Sphere.
4 Click OK . Rename the new Radiative Surface 1 item to Blackbody Walls.
component.
3 Under Solid expand the list of Pre-Defined solid materials and select Glass under Glasses and Minerals.
solar radiation and transparency to thermal radiation from all other sources, including heated bodies. Since there are no sources of solar radiation in the project, we can select Thermal only to make the material fully transparent to all radiation in the project.
5 Click OK. Flow Simulation now treats this solid material and all bodies it is applied to
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Sphere component.
3 Select Heat Generation Rate
Specify surface goals of the maximum, average, and minimum temperatures at the Heated Sphere surface and the blackbody surface of Screen . In addition, specify the volume goal of the Heated Sphere average temperature. (In all cases you should select Temperature (Solid ) as the goal parameter). You can rename the goals as shown to make it easier to monitor them during the calculation. Save the model and run the calculation. If you take a look at the goals convergence, you can see that the spheres temperature at the start of the calculation is high. This happens because the initial spheres temperature (293.2 K) is too low to take away by radiation the heat produced by the 2000 W heat source . To illustrate this better, in cases number 2 and 3 we will increase the initial temperature of the heated sphere to 1000 K, thus providing the greater amount of heat being lost by the sphere starting from the very beginning of the calculation.
tree in order to select all its surfaces. The surfaces are added to the list.
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4 Click OK
Specifying Goals
Specify the additional surface goals of the maximum, average, and minimum temperature of solid for the Reflector inner and outer surfaces.
Results
In Case 1, due to the radiation returned by the reflector, the ball surface facing the reflector is hotter than the ball surface facing the screen (see pictures below). Therefore, the screen temperature in Case 1 is higher than in the other cases.
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In Case 2, radiation coming from the ball to the reflector heats up the reflector and heat is radiated from the reflector outer surface to ambient, therefore being lost from the system. Since less heat is returned to the ball by the radiation from the reflector , the ball temperature is lower, although it is distributed over the ball in the same manner as in Case 1. Less heat is also coming from the reflector to the screen. As a result, the screen temperature is lower than in Case 1. Since the reflector is removed in Case 3, there is no noticeable heat radiated back to the ball. The ball temperature is lower than in Case 2 and mostly uniform (the non-uniformity is lower than 1 K). Since in the abscence of reflector the screen is only exposed to the radiation from the side of the ball facing the screen, the screen temperature is the lowest among all the cases.
The ball temperature distribution (front plane cross-section) in CASE 1 (left), CASE 2 (center) and CASE 3 (right) in the range from 1200 to 1220 K (the reflector is arranged at the left).
The screen temperature distribution (surface plot of solid temperature) in CASE 1 (left), CASE 2 (center) and CASE 3 (right) in the range from 295 to 340 K.
P arame ter M aximum T he b alls te mp era ture , K A ve rage M inimum M aximum T he scre ens te mp erature , K A ve rage M inimum
C ase 1 1 2 5 4 .7 4 1 2 3 0 .3 6 1 2 1 2 .2 8 3 4 0 .8 4 3 1 7 .8 1 3 0 7 .8 2
C ase 2 1 2 3 3 .5 4 1 2 1 1 .9 1 1 2 0 0 .1 4 3 2 2 .1 2 3 0 8 .9 7 3 0 3 .1 4
C ase 3 1 2 2 4 .6 3 1 2 0 4 .0 6 1 1 9 4 .5 0 3 1 1 .8 4 3 0 3 .5 8 2 9 9 .8 6
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C5
Rotating Impeller
Problem Statement
Let us consider the air flow through a centrifugal pump having a rotating impeller (see below). This pump has a stationary axial inlet (an eye), a pipe section of 92 mm radius with a central body of circular arc contour, which turns the flow by 90o from the axial direction. At the inlet's exit the radial air flow is sucked by a rotating impeller, which has seven untwisted constant-thickness backswept blades with wedge-shape leading and trailing edges. Each blade is cambered from 65o at the impeller inlet of 120 mm radius to 70o at the impeller exit of 210 mm radius, both with respect to the radial direction. These blades are confined between the impeller shrouding disks rotating with the same (as the blades) angular velocity of 2000 rpm. Downstream of the impeller the air enters a stationary (non-rotating) radial diffuser. To complete the problem statement, let us specify the following inlet and outlet boundary conditions: inlet air of 0.3 m3/s volume flow rate having uniform velocity profile with vectors parallel to the pump's axis; at the radial-directed outlet a static pressure of 1 atm is specified.
= 2000 rpm
Outlet Static Pressure
Default fluid Wall Conditions Initial Conditions Result and Geometry Resolution
Adiabatic wall, default smooth walls Default conditions Set the Result resolution level to 4; Minimum gap size = 0.04 m, Minimum wall thickness = 0.01 m, other options are default
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Inlet Volume Flow Inlet Volume Flow 1 the inner face of the Inlet Lid
of 0.3 m^3/s, with the Uniform profile, in the absolute frame of reference (the Absolute option is selected)
Relative to rotating frame. When the Relative to rotating frame option is selected, the
specified velocity (Mach number) is assumed to be relative to the rotating reference frame (Vr): V specified = V r = V abs r Here, r is the distance from the rotation axis and is the angular velocity of the rotating frame. The mass or volume flow rate specified in the rotating reference frame (the Relative to rotating frame option is selected) will be the same in the absolute (non-rotating) frame of reference if the tangential velocity component is perpendicular to the openings normal, thus not influencing the mass (volume) flow rate value, e.g. when the opening's normal coincides with the rotation axis. Type Name Faces to apply Environment Pressure Environment Pressure 1 the inner face of the Outlet Lid
Thermodynamic Parameters: Default values (101325 Pa and 293.2 K) in the absolute frame of reference (the Pressure potential option is not selected)
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Pressure potential. If you enable a rotating reference frame, you can select the
Pressure potential check box. When the Pressure potential check box is selected, the specified static pressure is assumed to be equal to the rotating frame pressure (Pr) and may be calculated using following parameters: absolute pressure, density, angular velocity and radius:
Pspecified = Pr = Pabs 1 2 r 2 2
When the Pressure potential check box is unchecked, the specified static pressure is assumed to be a pressure in terms of the absolute frame of reference (Pabs). When you specify a rotating reference frame, it is assumed that all model walls are rotated with the reference frame's angular velocity unless you set a specific wall to be stationary. To specify a non-rotating wall, the Stator moving wall boundary condition can be applied to this wall. Specifying the stator boundary condition is the same as specifying the zero velocity of this wall in the absolute (non-rotating) frame of reference. Note that stator face must be axisymmetric with respect to the rotation axis.
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( Poutlet Pinlet ) Q
M
where Pinlet is the static pressure at the pumps inlet, Poutlet is the bulk-average static pressures at the impellers outlet (Pa), Q is the volume flow rate (m3/s), is the impeller rotation angular velocity (rad/s), and M is the impeller torque (Nm). To obtain Poutlet, an auxiliary Measure component was placed where the flow exits the impeller. The Measure component is only used for the pressure measurement (the corresponding goal will be specified at the inner face of the Measure thin ring), thus it should be disabled in the Component Control dialog box.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Component Control. 2 Select the Measure item and click Disable. 3 Click OK to close the dialog.
The inner face of the Inlet Lid The inner face of the Outlet Lid
The inner face of the Inlet Lid The inner face of the Measure ring at the impeller's outlet.
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Surface Goal
Torque (Z)
To avoid manual selecting of all impellers faces in contact with air (more than 150) we will use the Filter Faces feature.
1 Select the Impeller component by clicking on it in the graphic area or in the
faces (including those we do not actually need) appear in the Faces to Apply the Surface Goal list.
3 Click Filter Faces
options to exclude certain faces are combined with the use of logical AND, so that the combination of Remove outer faces and Keep outer faces and fluid-contacting faces leads to the removal of all faces but those in contact with fluid.
4 Click Filter.
Pressure Drop
Efficiency
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To add inlet volume flow value to the equation goals expression, click the Inlet Volume Flow 1 item in the Analysis tree and then click Volume flow rate normal to face in the Parameter list.
Results
The velocity vectors and static pressure distribution are shown below. To display vectors in the rotating reference frame, select the Velocity RRF parameter under the Vectors tab of the Cut Plot definition window.
The flow velocity vectors in the frame rotating with the impeller (left) and in the stationary frame (right) at the impeller flow passage midsection (Front cross-section, position Z = - 0.02 m, vector spacing = 0.02 m, arrow size = 0.03 m).
The flow static pressure at the impeller flow passage midsection. Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial C5-7
For the impeller under consideration the obtained efficiency is about 0.75.
Goal Name Efficiency Unit [] Value Averaged Value Minimum Value Maximum Value 0.742827891 0.742843676 0.742800631 0.742902152
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C6
CPU Cooler
Problem Statement
Let us consider a CPU cooler consisting of a copper core and an aluminum heat sink with 62 fins. An eight-blade propeller generates a constant flow of air through the heat sink. The CPU is mounted on a socket installed on a PCB. Heat produced by the CPU is transferred through the core to the heat sink and then released into the air flow. To calculate the problem using Flow Simulation, it is convenient to use the concept of local rotating regions. In order to simplify the problem statement, we do not consider the thermal interface layer between the processor and the cooler. Also, we neglect the thermal conduction through the processor socket and PCB. A quantitative measure of the cooler efficiency is the thermal characterization parameter CA = ( T C T A ) P D , where Tc is the temperature of the CPU cover, TA is the surrounding air temperature, and PD is the thermal design power (TDP) of the CPU. An exploded view of the CPU cooler assembly.
Fan
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Physical features
Default fluid Default solid Wall Conditions Initial and Ambient Conditions
conditions are default Result and Geometry Resolution Set the Result resolution level to 5; Minimum gap size = 0.001 m, other options are default
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that the Disable solid components check box is automatically selected to treat the Rotating Region as a fluid region.
A component to apply a rotating region must be a body of revolution whose axis of
revolution is coincident with the rotation axis. This component must be disabled in the Component Control. When specifying the rotating region, make sure that its boundaries do not coincide with the boundaries of other surrounding solid components, because the mesh will not resolve this region. However these components may intersect in some way, but in this case the surrounding components must be also symmetrical relatively to the axis of revolution. Since the flow on the boundary of the rotating region must be axisymmetrical as well, we must provide a reasonable gap between the rotating region boundary and the outer edges of the propeller blades in order to minimize the influence of local non-axisymmetrical perturbations. Due to the same reason, it is preferable to put the rotating region boundary inside the solid bodies whenever possible, rather than putting them in the narrow flow passages. Also, the supposed direction of the flow at the rotating region boundary should be taken into account when defining the shape of the rotating region. You should choose such shape of the rotating region that the flow direction will be as much perpendicular to the
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rotating region boundary as possible. The picture below provides an additional insight into how the rotating region shape was adapted to the actual geometry of the CPU cooler in this tutorial example (the rotation region boundary is denoted by red).
These gaps are necessary for flow to be more axisymmetrical at the rotating region boundary
By placing the rotating region boundary within a solid instead of putting it into a narrow channel between the fan and the attach clip we avoid the additional mesh refinement and the negative effects of the non-axisymmetrical flow in this narrow channel
Here the rotating region boundary is placed within a solid to avoid unnecessary and non-realistic calculation of a swirled flow within the closed cavity, which may yield inaccurate results
to -4400 RPM.
arrows denoting the rotation axis and the positive direction of rotation speed can be seen in the graphics area. Since we want to define the rotation in the direction opposite to the arrow, we specify negative value of the angular velocity.
4 Click OK
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When you specify a rotating region, it is assumed that all model walls within this region rotate with the region's angular velocity unless you set a specific wall to be stationary. To specify a non-rotating wall, the Stator real wall boundary condition should be applied to the wall. Specifying the stator boundary condition is the same as specifying the zero velocity of this wall in the absolute (non-rotating) frame of reference. Note that the stator face (or a part of the face that is located inside the rotating region in the case when the given face intersects with the rotating region boundary) must be axisymmetric with respect to the rotation axis.
. Keep the default Real Wall condition type and select Stator option.
complex shape with fine features, so it is preferable to select the whole component and then use the faces filter, rather than selecting manually each face we need.
5 Click Filter Faces faces
Since we have specified the Exclude internal space option in the Wizard, the faces in
contact with the cavity between the Fan Attach and the Copper Core are considered outer faces. Therefore we need to select the Remove outer faces option in Filter Faces in order to exclude them.
6 Click OK
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5 Click Add plane. In the Create Control Planes window make sure that Creating mode is set to Click on screen and Parallel to is set to YZ,
click anywhere in the graphic area and enter manually -0.05 as a new value for X. Click OK to return to the Initial Mesh window.
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6 Following the same procedure, add one more plane at X = 0.05. By default, Flow Simulation creates six control planes on the computational domain
boundaries and a number of planes inside it. We now want to tune the set of control planes to our needs by removing the default planes inside the computational domain and adding new ones.
7 Click the Ratio cell of the X1 interval and enter the value of 2. In the same manner enter the values 1 and -2 for the intervals X2 and X3. Ratio is the ratio of cell sizes on the given interval. The cell sizes are changed
gradually along the selected direction so that the proportion between the first and the last cells of this interval is close (but not necessarily equal) to the entered value of the Ratio. Negative values of the ratio correspond to the reverse order of cell size increase.
8 Delete any existing inner control
planes perpendicular to Y and add new planes at Y = 0.042 m and Y = 0.047 m. Specify the Ratio values for Y1, Y2 and Y3 intervals as 1.5, 1 and -1.4, respectively.
9 Delete the existing inner control
plane perpendicular to Z and add new planes at Z = -0.05 m and Z = 0.05 m. Specify the Ratio values for Z1, Z2 and Z3 intervals as 2, 1 and -2, respectively.
10 Check that the Numbers of cells per X, Y and Z are 26, 12 and 26, respectively. If the numbers are different, please
refinement at the edges of the heatsink fins, go to the Solid/fluid Interface tab and set Small solid features refinement level to 3, Tolerance refinement level to 2, and Tolerance refinement criterion to 0.001 m, while leaving other options default.
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12 Go to the Narrow Channels tab and set Characteristic number of cells across a narrow channel to 4 and Narrow channels refinement level
to 1, leaving default values for other options. This will prevent the unnecessary mesh refinement in the narrow channels between heatsink fins.
13 Click OK .
Surface Goal
Top face of the CPU cover. To set this goal you may need to hide the Heat Sink and Copper Core components. Top and side surfaces of the Rotation Region component.
Surface Goal
Surface Goal
Bottom face of the Rotation Region component. To set this goal you may need to hide the PCB component.
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Equation goal
({SG Mass Flow Rate 1}+{SG Mass Flow Rate 2})/{SG Mass Flow Rate 1}
The disbalance of the inlet and outlet mass flow rates. We are using the "+" operand since the inlet and outlet mass flow rate values have opposite signs. Select No units for Dimensionality.
To calculate the thermal characterization parameter we will need the temperature of the center of the CPU cover. To get more accurate value of the parameter we will specify a separate point goal.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Point Goals. 2 Click Point Coordinates
Click OK
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Results
Use the goal plot tool to obtain the value of the temperature of the center of the CPU cover. Now we can calculate the thermal characterization parameter of the heat sink: CA = ( T C T A ) P D = (330-311.15)/75 = 0.25 C/W. The second most important characteristic of the CPU Cooler is the velocity of the flow above PCB. We can assess the value of this parameter as well as the distribution of the temperature by looking at the cut plots made in the Front and Right planes (see below).
Temperature field and velocity vectors distribution (Front plane, no offset, vector spacing = 0.003 m, arrow size = 0.015 m).
Temperature field and velocity vectors distribution (Right plane, no offset, vector spacing = 0.003 m, arrow size = 0.015 m).
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C7
Oil Catch Can
Problem Statement
Here we consider the motion of motor oil droplets in the air flow inside the oil catch can installed in the car. The presence of the droplets in this flow is caused by the rotating crankshaft that churns up oil inside the crankcase. As oil catch can traps these droplets, it eliminates the possibility of oil suction into the engine and its subsequent combustion with fuel and oxidizer (air) that produces a lot of smoke in the exhaust. For this tutorial we consider the geometry of oil catch can shown on the picture right. The dividing wall is placed so that most of the droplets entering through the inlet nipple along with the air flow collide to it. Once the collision occurs, the oil droplet adheres to the wall and then trickles down. However some particular smaller-sized droplets may evade collision with the wall due to their small inertia and escape the can through the outlet nipple. The objective of the simulation is to estimate the probability of trapping oil droplets in the oil catch can considering the following droplet sizes: 8, 13 and 18 m. Quantitatively, we can calculate this probability value for each individual droplet size with the following expression: P = moutl et m i nl et , where m i nlet, m outl et is the mass flow rate of oil droplets in the inlet and in the outlet correspondingly. The value of m inlet is set to equal to 0.5% of air mass flow rate. We assume that oil droplets do not influence the air flow because of their small size and mass (~10-13 kg). Therefore, we also neglect the impact of oil accumulation on the flow inside the oil catch can.
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Adiabatic wall with zero roughness Default conditions Default Result resolution level of 3; other options are default
Inlet Volume Flow Inlet Air Volume Flow the inner face of the Inlet Lid
Thermodynamic Parameters:
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. This goal will be an intermediate one to calculate pressure drop through the oil catch can.
5 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Equation Goal. 6 In the Analysis tree , select the created SG Av Static Pressure 1 goal. It will appear in the Expression box. 7 Click the minus "-" button in the calculator. 8 In the Analysis tree , select the
Drop.
13 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Global Goals. 14 Under Parameter, select Torque (Y), and click OK
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5 To edit the table of refinements, first expand the Refinement Strategy item and make
sure that the value of Units is set to Travels. Then, click the
refinements field. 6 In the opened window, click Add Row. A single blank row will
appear.
7 Enter the value of 2 in the created row. This means that mesh
refinement will occur during the calculation when the value of travels reaches 2.
8 Click OK . Go to the Finish tab. 9 Under the Finish Conditions, make sure that the Minimum refinement number is set On. Edit its value to 1. 10 Set Off the Maximum travels. 11 Click OK .
Save the model and run the calculation. During the calculation you can preview the velocity field in the Front Plane or other plane and see how mesh refinement improves the final solution.
in the toolbar. The blank Item Properties tab appears. Double-click the empty cell to set the corresponding property value.
Tutorial Motor Oil 900 kg/m^3 0.01 Pa*s 1900 J/(kg*K) 0.2 W/(m*K)
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to 200.
5 Under the Particle Properties, set the Diameter equal to 8e-06 m and change the Material to the created Tutorial Motor Oil ( Materials, Liquids, User Defined). 6 Change the Mass flow rate value to 1e-05 kg/s. This
value is obtained once we take the 0.5% of inlet air mass flow rate (the product of volume flow rate and density) in accordance with the problem statement.
The value set for the Number of points reflects the number
of different possible trajectories of the considered particles used for tracing. Obviously the larger this value is, the more accurate information about possible particle trajectories can be obtained. As a result, you can obtain a more detailed picture of the particles distribution in the considered domain and, if necessary, calculate their mass flow rate in the outlet with a higher precision.
7 Click Next
8 Under the Default Wall Condition, make sure that Absorption is selected. Click Next
For the Particle Study, there are three types of boundary conditions that can be assigned to the walls: Ideal reflection, Absorption and Reflection. The first two indicate perfectly elastic and
inelastic collision respectively. In the third type, you have to specify the restitution coefficients that define the ratios of normal and tangential (to the wall) velocity components after and before the collision.
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9 Under Physical Features , select Gravity. Click Next 10 Under Default Appearance , set Draw Trajectories as Lines.
11 Click OK
. A new Particle Study 1 item with one sub-item (Injection 1) appear in the Analysis tree. this way Injection 2 and Injection 3 items.For the Injection 2 and Injection 3, edit the Diameter to 1.3e-05 m and 1.8e-05 m respectively.
Results
You can see the trajectories of each droplet size (injection), by right-clicking on the Injection of interest and selecting Show. The resulting trajectories colored by the Velocity parameter are presented below.
8m droplets
13m droplets
18m droplets
For each particular droplet size, we can obtain the precise amount of particles flown out of the Oil Catch Can by evaluating the integral parameter Number of Particles on the outlet face using the Surface Parameters feature. With these values, we can conclude that the probability of trapping the 18m droplets is 100%; 13m is about 97%; 8m is about 90%.
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D
Examples for HVAC Module
The examples for HVAC Module presented below demonstrate how to use capabilities and features of this module to solve real-life Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning problems. This functionality is available for the HVAC module users only. D1 - 150W Halogen Floodligh D2 - Hospital Room
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D-2
D1
150W Halogen Floodlight
This feature is available for the HVAC module users only.
Problem Statement
This tutorial demonstrates the capability of Flow Simulation to simulate heat transfer by convection and radiation, including the radiation absorption in semi-transparent solids and the radiation spectrum. It is shown how to define a project, specify the radiation properties of semi-transparent solid materials, radiation conditions and calculation goals. Here we consider a halogen floodlight with an aluminum housing, which contains a quartz glass front window, a silicone gasket, an aluminum internal reflector, a ceramic lampholder and a 150W linear halogen lamp. The linear halogen lamp consists of a quartz glass bulb, a straight-line tungsten filament, molybdenum pinch pins and ceramic base sockets. The lamp is filled with argon at 2 atm and 293.2 K. The lamp operates in typical indoor conditions at the room temperature (~20 C) and without any forced cooling. Components of the floodlight and the halogen lamp are shown at the figures below.
Pinch pins Bulb
Filament
Base sockets
D1-1
Case
Cover
Lamp
Reflector Gasket
In the table below, you can see the typical values of the maximum allowable operating temperatures for some of these components. The objective of the simulation is to ensure that the pinch pins, the lamp bulb and the front glass are not overheated. Component Pinch pins Bulb glass Maximum permissible temperature 350 C 900 C
D1-2
Default zero roughness Initial Conditions Result and Geometry Resolution Default conditions
Result resolution level of 4
Only one semi-transparent solid material, the quartz glass, is used in this device. Its
absorption properties are specified as dependent on the wavelength with an abrupt change in absorption at 2500 nm. The UV radiation from the tungsten filament is neglegible at 2900K. Thus, a two-bands spectrum with the bands edge at 2500 nm allows to simulate the radiation absorption in the glass components of the lamp accurately enough.
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the Lamp\Lamp - Bulb component. Immediately the fluid subdomain you are going to create is displayed in the graphics area as a body of blue color.
3 Under Fluids make sure that Gases/ Real Gases/Steam is selected in the Fluid type list and clear the Air (Gases) check box in the list of fluids below, so that only Argon
remains selected.
4 Under Thermodynamic parameters
in the Pressure
5 Click OK
define a heat source with the temperature specified, then define a radiation source with the power specified.
To do this, we specify a Volume Heat Source with the temperature of 2900K. The value of the convective heat transfer rate is determined as a Surface Goal and the Radiation Source power is defined as 150 Watt minus the convective heat transfer rate. And finally, the absorption of radiation by the filament must be excluded from the calculation, so the filament surface must be defined as a whitebody surface.
D1-4
Specify the volume heat source as shown in the table below: Type Name Components to apply Parameter:
Temperature of 2900 K
The true temperature of the filament can be estimated from its color temperature. The
typical values of the filament color temperature are specified by the lamp manufacturer. For the filament temperature of about 3000 K the color temperature of tungsten is 2-3 % higher than its equivalent true temperature. Specify the goal necessary for calculating the convective heat transfer rate:
GOAL TYPE GOAL PARAMETER FACE
Surface Goal
The faces of the Lamp\Lamp - Wire component located within the computational domain. Select the Lamp\Lamp - Wire component in the Flyout FeatureManager Design tree and use Filter with the option Remove out of domain faces .
D1-5
select the Lamp\Lamp - Wire component. All the filament faces are selected as Faces
to Apply the Radiation Source
However, the side face is out of the computational domain and must be excluded.
3 Click Filter Faces of domain faces
4 Select Diffusive
6 In the Dependency Type list select Formula Definition. In the Formula box, type the formula for the total heat power
emitted by the source. To add a goal to the formula, select the goal in the Dependent on goal list and click goal in the input panel. The resulting expression must be the following:
150/2-{SG Heat Transfer Rate 1} We used a Volume Heat Source to define the heat transferred
from the filament by the convection. To specify the remaining heat power, transferred by the radiation, the calculated heat transfer rate of the volume source must be subtracted from the total heat power.
7 Click OK to return to the Radiation Source dialog. 8 Under Spectrum select Blackbody Spectrum and enter 2900 K in the Blackbody Temperature 9 Click OK
box.
. The new Diffusive Radiation source 1 item appears in the Analysis tree.
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9 Save the created radiative surface and exit the Engineering Database. 10 Under Type, expand the list of User-Defined radiative surfaces and select Tutorial Aluminum, polished. 11 Select the inner faces of Reflector
. Change the name of the new radiative surface to Radiative Surface Reflector.
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.
Absorptive body is semi-transparent. It means that it
absorbs the heat radiation within its volume. This option is available only if the absorption coefficient is specified in the solid material definition in the Engineering Database and the Absorption in solids check box is selected under Radiation in the Wizard or
General Settings. The Absorption Coefficient and Refractive Index values are specified in the Engineering Database and are provided here just for reference. 5 Click OK
. Flow Simulation now treats this solid material and all solid bodies it is assigned to as semi-transparent to the thermal radiation.
D1-8
Specifying Goals
Specify surface goals of the maximum and average temperatures at the outer surface of the Glass component. In addition, specify volume goals of the Glass, Lamp\Lamp - Bulb and Lamp\Lamp - Pinch<1> maximum and average temperatures. (you must select Temperature (Solid) as the goal parameter). You can rename the goals as shown to make it easier to monitor them during the calculation.
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appropriate for the given conditions and allows to obtain an acceptable accuracy in the case of compact radiation sources.
The Discretization level controls the discretization of the whole directional domain into
equal solid angles or directions. The higher the discretization level, the better the accuracy, but the more CPU time and memory resources are required for the calculation.
4 Click OK .
Results
In accordance with the obtained results, we can say that the glass cover and the lamp bulb operate at permissible temperatures.
Goa l Na m e Unit S G Heat Transfer Rate 1 [W ] S G A v Tem perature of Fron [K ] S G Max Temperature of Fro [K ] V G A v Tem perature of Fron [K ] V G Max Temperature of Fro [K ] V G A v Tem perature of B ulb [K ] V G Max Temperature of B u [K ] V G A v Tem perature of P inc [K ] V G Max Temperature of P in [K ] V a lue Ave ra ge d Va lue Minim um Va lue M a x im um V a lue P rogre ss [%] 8.721428463 8.727580369 8.717889859 8.737026601 100 412.384966 411.1346174 409.3971595 412.384966 100 465.428311 463.569023 460.9968718 465.428311 100 414.2004285 412.9358877 411.1827422 414.2004285 100 468.8906105 467.0358562 464.4303868 468.8906105 100 716.2479984 715.196375 713.7749115 716.2745334 100 912.6794703 912.009111 910.9425318 912.7472728 100 489.5586685 488.7493109 487.0186254 490.6339404 100 512.3509967 511.2211429 509.6762805 512.7591063 100
The glass temperature distribution (surface plot of solid temperature) in the range from 293 to 900 K.
The temperature distribution in the symmetry plane (cut plot of temperature) in the range from 293 to 700 K.
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D2
Hospital Room
Some of the features used in this tutorial are available for the HVAC module users only.
Problem Statement
This tutorial demonstrates the capability of Flow Simulation to predict the performance of a building ventilation system and to estimate air quality and general thermal sensation by calculating comfort criteria. It is shown how to define a project, i.e. specify the heat sources, boundary conditions and calculation goals, and how to obtain values of comfort criteria. Here we consider a hospital isolation room and estimate the ventilation system effectiveness with respect to the contaminant removal and thermal satisfaction of people in the room. A typical patient room includes standard features such as a patient bed, exhausts, lightening, equipment. The overhead ventilation system contains an overhead ceiling supply diffuser, the ceiling and the washroom exhausts. The contaminant source is assumed to be the patient breathing. The heat sources are lights, a medical equipment, a TV, a patient and a caregiver.
D2-1
The ventilation system and the patient room features are shown at the figure below.
Washroom exhaust vent grille Ceiling lights Forced air removal
Caregiver
Hospital equipment
Patient
TV set
The following parameters are used to estimate the ventilation system effectiveness with respect to contaminant removal: Contaminant Removal Effectiveness (CRE) and Local Air Quality Index (LAQI). The following parameters are used to estimate the ventilation system effectiveness with respect to thermal satisfaction of people: Air Diffusion Performance Index (ADPI), Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD).
Model Configuration
Copy the D2 - Hospital Room folder into your working directory. Open the Hospital room.SLDASM assembly.
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Project Definition
Using the Wizard create a new project as follows: Project Configuration Unit system Analysis type Physical features Default fluid Use current
SI, units for Temperature: C (Celsius)
Internal
Exclude cavities without flow conditions Gravity: Y component of -9.81 m/s^2 Gases / Air Gases / Expired Air (user-defined) Click New and in the Engineering Database create a new item named Expired Air by copy-pasting
the pre-defined Air, available under Materials\Gases\Pre-Defined, to the Materials\Gases\User Defined folder Wall Conditions Initial Conditions Default
Thermodynamic parameters: Temperature of 19.5C Concentration: Mass fraction of Air is 1 Mass fraction of Expired air is 0
Boundary Conditions
Specify the inlet and outlet boundary conditions as shown in the tables below: Type Name Faces to apply Inlet Volume Flow Inlet Volume Flow 1 the inner face of the Room component (the one above the hospital equipment table)
of 4.8 m^3/min
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Outlet Volume Flow Outlet Volume Flow 1 the inner face of the Room component (the one near the window)
of 2.6 m^3/min
Environment Pressure Environment Pressure 1 the inner face of the Room component, as shown
Inlet Volume Flow Inlet Volume Flow 2 a face of the Patient component, representing the patients mouth, as shown
D2-4
the component are selected as Faces to Apply the Surface Source . However, the Patient component is partially submerged into the bed and some faces are not in contact with the fluid, so we need to remove such faces with filter.
2 Click Filter Faces
and
click Filter.
3 Manually remove the face representing the
patient mouth by selecting it in the graphics area. We have to exclude this face since there is a boundary condition already specified on it.
4 Under Parameter specify Heat Transfer Rate of 81 W . 5 Click OK
Rename the created heat sorce to Patient. In the same way specify the surface heat source of 144 W at all faces of the Caregiver component. Use the Filter Faces tool to only select faces which are in contact with the fluid. Since there is no boundary condition specified at the Caregiver component, you do not need to manually exclude any faces. Rename the created heat sorce to Caregiver.
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Other sources of heat are not represented by separate components, but by cuts and extrudes made on the Room component. Use the tables below as a reference to specify the remaining heat sources: Type Name Faces to apply Surface Heat Source Ceiling Lights both inner faces of the Room component representing the ceiling lights
Parameters:
Heat Transfer Rate of 120 W
Surface Heat Source TV Set all inner faces of the Room component representing the TV set
Parameters:
Heat Transfer Rate of 50 W
Surface Heat Source Hospital Equipment all inner faces of the Room component representing the hospital equipment
Parameters:
Heat Transfer Rate of 50 W
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boxes.
Selecting Calculate Local Mean Age (LMA)
Specifying Goals
Specify global goals of Av Mean Radiant Temperature, Av Operative Temperature, Av Velocity and Av Volume Fraction of Expired Air.
You can use Mean Radiant Temperature and Operative Temperature as the goal
parameters only after you enable calculation of comfort parameters in the Calculation Control Options dialog.
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check box. You can see that Flow Simulation determined the Minimum gap size value as 0.012 m, which is equal to the width of the face representing the patients mouth (12 mm).
3 Select the Manual specification of the minimum gap wall thickness
check box. You can see that the value of Minimum wall thickness, determined by Flow Simulation, is too small, which can lead to unnecessary mesh refinement and increased amount of memory required for calculation. To avoid this, specify the value of Minimum wall thickness equal to Minimum gap size of 0.012 m.
4 Click OK to save the initial mesh
Run the calculation. During the calculation proccess you may notice that the Av Volume Fraction of Expired Air goal converges slower than the other goals specified. Since this is a tutorial example, there may be not need to wait before the solution fully converges. To save the CPU time, you can stop the calculation earlier, for example when all the other specified goals converge.
D2-8
Results
Overview of Comfort Parameters
It is a common practice to assess the performance of a ventilation system by some standard criteria, named comfort parameters. With Flow Simulation you can simulate various environments and get the values of comfort parameters, determining whether the air quality and temperature are safe and comfortable for people working or living in these environments. Later we will use Flow Simulation results processing tools to see and analyze the values of comfort parameters obtained in the calculation. The following two parameters are used to assess the ventilation system effectiveness in contaminated air removing: Contaminant Removal Effectiveness (CRE). This parameter is an index that provides information on the effectiveness of a ventilation system in removing contaminated air from the whole space. For a perfect mixing system CRE = 1. Values above 1 are good, values below 1 are poor. Local Air Quality Index (LAQI) is an index that provides information on the effectiveness of a ventilation system in removing contaminated air from a local point. The following several parameters are used to estimate the ventilation system effectiveness with respect to the thermal satisfaction of people in the ventilated area: Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) is the uniform surface temperature of an imaginary black enclosure in which an occupant would exchange the same amount of radiant heat as in the actual non-uniform space. Operative Temperature is the uniform temperature of an imaginary black enclosure, in which an occupant would exchange the same amount of heat by radiation plus convection as in the actual non-uniform environment. Draft Temperature is the difference in temperature between any point in the occupied zone and the control condition. "Draft" is defined as any localized feeling of coolness or warmth of any portion of the body due to both air movement and air temperature, with humidity and radiation considered constant. Air Diffusion Performance Index (ADPI) is the percentage of the space in which the air speed is less than 0.35 m/s and the Draft Temperature falls between -1.7 C and 1.1 C.
Note:If Draft Temperature or ADPI is calculated as Volume Parameters, the
reference space or zone is the specified volume region. In all other cases the whole computational domain is considered.
Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) is an index that predicts the mean value of the votes of a large group of persons on the 7-point thermal sensation scale, based on the heat
Flow Simulation 2012 Tutorial D2-9
balance of the human body. Thermal balance is obtained when the internal heat production in the body is equal to the loss of heat to the environment.
cold cool slightly cool neutral slightly warm warm hot
-3
-2
-1
+1
+2
+3
Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD) is an index that provides information on thermal discomfort or thermal dissatisfaction by predicting the percentage of people likely to feel too warm or too cool in a given environment.
Volume Parameters
We can obtain the values of thermal satisfaction parameters with the Volume Parameters results processing feature. However, we need to define the volume, in which the parameters will be calculated. In our case, this volume is the entire fluid region within the computational domain. We can easily create a component representing the entire fluid region with the Check Geometry tool.
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1 Click Flow Simulation, Tools, Check Geometry. 2 Select the Create fluid body assembly check box
to create a new assembly including all fluid regions of the model as solid components. The fluid body assembly is stored in the Directory for temporary geometry, specified in the Flow Simulation Options dialog under General Options, available by clicking Flow Simulation, Tools, Options.
3 Click Check to create the fluid body assembly. When the operation is completed, close the Check Geometry dialog. 4 Save the Part1 component from the newly created
We also need to check the values of reference parameters: metabolic rate, external work, closing thermal resistance and relative humidity, used to calculate comfort parameters such as PMV and PPD. These reference parameters define the approximate heat power produced by a human body depending on the activity and health condition, insulating properties of the closing and humidity of the air.
1 Click Flow Simulation, Results, Default Reference Parameters. 2 Specify Metabolic rate of 100 W/m^2. Keep the other values default. The closing thermal resistance of 0.11
Km2/W corresponds to a light working ensemble: light underwear, cotton work shirt with long sleeves, work trousers, woolen socks and shoes. The definition of clothing insulation relates to heat transfer from the whole body and, thus, also includes the uncovered parts of the body, such as head and hands.
The relative humidity of 55% is typical for indoor conditions. If the relative humidity is
considered in the analysis (the Humidity option is selected in the General Settings), the actual calculated value of the relative humidity is used as the reference parameter.
3 Click OK.
Now we can use the Volume Parameters feature to see the values of comfort parameters.
D2-11
1 In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree right-click the Volume Parameters icon and select Insert. 2 In the Flyout FeatureManager Design tree, select the Fluid Volume component. 3 Under Parameters click More Parameters. The Customize Parameter List dialog
appears.
4 Expand the Comfort Parameters item and select the following parameters:
Mean Radiant Temperature, Operative Temperature, PMV, PPD, Draft Temperature LAQI of Air, LAQI of Expired Air.
5 Click OK to close the Display Parameters dialog. 6 In the Volume Parameters dialog make sure that the selected parameters are also selected as the Parameters to Evaluate under Parameters. Additionally select the ADPI parameter. 7 Click Export to Excel. A spreadsheet with the selected parameters values appears.
Parameter Mean Radiant Temperature [C] Operativ e Temperature [C] PMV [ ] PPD [%] Draf t Temperature [K] Average Bulk Average Volume [m^3] 23.9847308 23.9811646 41.8581029 23.4965288 23.4930785 41.8581029 0.721211205 0.720537619 41.8581029 17.0303015 17.0086269 41.8581029 0.721984015 0.718661076 41.8581029
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The isosurfaces of PMV at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 allows us to estimate the level of thermal comfort through the room - from 0 (normal) to +1 (slightly warm).
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D2-14
E
Examples for Electronics Cooling Module
The examples for Electronics Cooling Module presented below demonstrate how to use capabilities and features of this module to simulate a wide variety of electronic components. This functionality is available for the Electronics Cooling module users only. E1 - Electronic components
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E-2
E1
Electronic Components
Some of the features used in this tutorial are available for the Electronics Cooling module users only.
Problem Statement
This tutorial demonstrates the capabilities of Flow Simulation to simulate cooling of electronic components in an embedded industrial computer by using various features implemented in the Electronics module. Here we consider a single board computer with a case, which contains, among other components, CPU, chipset (Northbridge and Southbridge), heat sink with two heat pipes, PCI and ISA slots for a PC104 expansion board, SODIMM slot with memory installed and peripheral connectors. Air at room temperature enters the case through the vents located at the side and bottom panels and exits through the vents located at the back panel, where an exhaust fan is installed. The resulting flow inside the case removes the heat produced by electronic components (CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge and DDR RAM chips). The heat pipes also transfer the heat produced by CPU and Northbridge to the heat sink, which dissipates it into the air. In the considered model, this heat sink is placed near the exhaust fan. The objective of the simulation is to ensure that under these conditions, electronic components operate at moderate temperatures. In the table below, you can see the typical values of maximum operating temperatures of the electronic components under consideration. Electronic component CPU Northbridge Southbridge DDR RAM chip Maximum operating temperature 85 C 80 C 100 C 85 C
E1-1
Exhaust Fan
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EPIC PC Mainboard
Simulation model To simplify the problem for this tutorial and, therefore, to save your computer resources, we neglect some particular components and features, which do not affect the flow and heat exchange much. These include holes in PCI and ISA slots, screws and peripheral connectors. The model geometry of exhaust fan is also excluded from the simulation and is replaced by an appropriate boundary condition. In the simulation, we consider CPU, Northbridge, Southbridge and DDR RAM chips as Two-Resistor simplified thermal models, each consisting of two parallelepiped components. To set the boundary conditions for the inlet and outlet flows, we close the vents by placing a single lid on the inner side of each panel. Thus, we neglect some phenomena, which occur in the flow entering and exiting the case thought the vents. However, we take into account the value of the pressure loss coefficient reflecting the resistance to the flow in accordance with the specific shape and arrangement of the vent holes.
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In the Simulation Model configuration you can see that the vents on the back panel are suppressed . This is done in order to define the exhaust fan boundary condition correctly. If you examine the original model geometry, you will see that the exhaust fan is placed close to the vents on the back panel, and there is no air flow through some of them. Actually, the air flow exits the case through a ring-shaped array of the vent holes (see the picture), so in the Simulation Model configuration we place a lid to close only these vent holes without considering other vent holes on the back panel at all. As resolving of each vent hole can be rather time-consuming and they are not the part of the flow simulation anyway, we suppress them. Instead, we specify an External Outlet Fan boundary condition on the inner surface of the ring-shaped lid. In addition, on the same lid we specify the Perforated Plate condition to define the pressure loss due to the resistance of the vent holes to the flow.
Default conditions Default Result resolution level of 3; other options are default
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Environment Pressure Environment Pressure 2 the inner face of the Inlet Lid 2
External Outlet Fan External Outlet Fan 1 the inner face of the Outlet Lid
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You can specify the Hole shape as Rectangular, Round, Regular Polygon or Complex. To define the holes arrangement (for nonComplex holes), in the Coverage you can select either Pitch or Checkerboard distance (for non- Rectangular holes). Depending on
Pitch
the selected option, you can specify the size of a single hole and either the distance between two adjacent holes in two mutually perpendicular directions (X - Pitch and Y - Pitch) or the Distance between centers. The specified values are used to calculate Free area ratio, which denotes the ratio of the holes total area to the total
Checkboard distance
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area of the perforated plate. The automatically calculated Free area ratio value appears at the bottom of the table. Alternatively, you can select the Free area ratio option in the Coverage, and specify this value directly.
3 Save and exit the Engineering Database. 4 In the Analysis tree , select the Environment Pressure 1 boundary condition. 5 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Perforated Plate. 6 Under Perforated Plate select the created Tutorial rectangular holes. 7 Click OK
. The new Perforated Plate 1 item, which corresponds to the side vents of the case, appears in the Analysis tree.
8 For the bottom vents, select the Environment Pressure 2 boundary condition, and repeat steps 5-7. 9 For the back panel vents, select the External Outlet Fan 1 condition, and repeat steps 5-7, selecting the Tutorial round holes item under User Defined. The Perforated Plate feature is used in Flow Simulation simulation to define additional
parameters for the already specified Environment Pressure or Fan conditions. It doesnt make any changes in the model geometry itself. So, when you delete the boundary condition or fan from your project, the corresponding Perforated Plate (if specified) becomes useless.
JC JB
Junction
Board (PCB)
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An extensive set of pre-defined two-resistor components is provided in the Engineering Database. Each item corresponds to a specific package type.
1 Click Flow Simulation , Insert, Two-Resistor Component. 2 Select the CPU 2R Case component as Case Body
3 Under Component select the PBGAFC_35x35mm_2R 4 In the Source, enter the value of Heat Generation Rate
equal to 12 W.
5 Click OK
. The new Two-Resistor Component 1 item, which corresponds to CPU, appears in the Analysis tree.
8 For each of the four considered DDR RAM chips, specify the same way RAM chip N
item (with N being the chip number) by selecting its corresponding Case and Junction parts under the SODIMM assembly:
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If you specify some package as Two-Resistor Component in the project, make sure that
its dimensions in the Engineering Database totally match (or are very close to) the dimensions of the package model geometry (its Case and Junction components). If the dimensions do not match, you must either make changes in the model geometry or select a different Two-Resistor Component in the Engineering Database.
3 Select the face of the CPU Heat Pipe component contacting with the top face of CPU as Heat In Faces
.
4 Select the face of the CPU Heat Pipe contacting with the
5 Type the Effective Thermal Resistance value of 0.3 C/W. This value models the real efficiency
of heat pipe.
6 Click OK
. The new Heat Pipe 1 item, which corresponds to the CPU heat pipe, appears in the Analysis tree. the Northbridge Heat Pipe component with the same value of Effective Thermal Resistance.
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Northbridge Heat Pipe components contacting with the top faces of CPU and Northbridge correspondingly. We selected these faces earlier as Heat In Faces when specifying the heat pipes.
3 Under Thermal Resistance, select Bond-Ply 660 @ 10 psi (Pre-Defined\Interface Materials\Bergquist\Bond-Ply\Bond-Ply 660 @ 10 psi). 4 Click OK
. The new Contact Resistance 1 item appears in the Analysis tree. Northbridge Heat Pipe components in the flyout FeatureManager design tree. All the faces of both these components appear in the Faces to Apply the Contact Resistance list.
5 Repeat step 1, then hold down the Ctrl key and click the CPU Heat Pipe and
, and click
7 Under Thermal Resistance, expand the Pre-Defined list, and select Infinite resistance. We use Infinite resistance here to reflect the qualitative difference
between the intensity of heat transfer inside and outside the considered heat pipes.
8 Click OK
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As you specify the parameters, at the bottom of this table you can see the calculated
As you specify the layers structure, you can see the graphical representation of this
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5 Click Flow Simulation , Insert, Printed Circuit Board. 6 Select SODIMM PCB in the graphic area. 7 Under Printed Circuit Board select the created 4s2p PCB item. 8 Click OK
To exclude the Inlet Lid, Inlet Lid 2 and Outlet Lid from the heat conduction analysis, specify them as insulators (Pre-Defined\Glasses and Minerals\Insulator).
list, make sure that both Case (CPU 2R Case) and Junction (CPU 2R Junction) components are added.
4 Under Parameter select both Max and Av Temperature (Solid). 5 Edit the Name Template to: CPU - VG <Parameter>. 6 Click OK
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7 Repeat the same steps separately for each heat source: Chipset - Northbridge,
Chipset Southbridge, RAM Chip 1, 2, 3, 4 (select all these four RAM chips at once) and the Heatsink. Edit the Name Template in a similar way.
8 When finished, in the Analysis tree select all
specified boundary conditions (Environment Pressure 1, Environment Pressure 2 and External Outlet Fan 1), holding down the Ctrl key.
9 Click Flow Simulation, Insert, Surface Goals. 10 Select the Separate goal for each surface option to create a separate goal for each of
tab.
3 Click Add Plane. 4 In the Create Control Planes dialog box make sure that Creating mode is set to Click on Screen. In the Parallel to, click ZX. 5 In the graphic area, click anywhere, and then type 0 for the Y. 6 Click OK to return to the Initial Mesh window. 7 Click the Ratio cell of the Y1
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Results
Goal Name CPU - VG Av Temperature of Solid CPU - VG Max Temperature of Solid Northbridge - VG Av Temperature of Solid Northbridge - VG Max Temperature of Solid Southbridge - VG Av Temperature of Solid Southbridge - VG Max Temperature of Solid RAM Chips - VG Av Temperature of Solid RAM Chips - VG Max Temperature of Solid Heat Sink - VG Av Temperature of Solid Heat Sink - VG Max Temperature of Solid Unit [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] [C] Value Averaged Value Minimum Value Maximum Value Progress [%] 76.04009883 76.02547602 75.97384443 76.05618825 100 77.06642395 77.05155353 76.999677 77.08249315 100 53.25349146 53.23652283 53.21320237 53.25634008 100 53.54419743 53.52734811 53.50387365 53.54738057 100 83.38513852 83.4089748 83.34319753 83.56873862 100 85.23808444 85.25830062 85.20264652 85.39432901 100 61.33987199 61.32696305 61.29606427 61.3581971 100 65.01419206 64.98404831 64.92812102 65.03801717 100 44.23211097 44.21233041 44.17754165 44.23211097 100 44.64912687 44.62917775 44.59419449 44.64912687 100
In accordance with the obtained results, we can say that electronic components operate at moderate temperatures, and there is no need to introduce any additional design features in order to improve the efficiency of heat exchange inside the considered case.
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