We now have an inlet flow (aka volumetric flow rate) defined as 40 ft3/min. If the lid face is not coincident with the fluid, there will be an error applying the boundary condition.
#SOLIDWORKS FLOW SIMULATION 2012 TUTORIAL SOFTWARE#
The software assigns those lid surface conditions to the fluid in contact with that face (see Figure 9). We are not able to select the fluid directly. The face that we select for the boundary is the interior of the lid we added to seal the model. Right-clicking on the Boundary Conditions item brings up the dialog box in Figure 11.įigure 11. Figure 10 shows the explorer pane for the Flow Simulation environment.įigure 10. For our problem, we know the flow rate and are interested in flow distribution and overall pressure drop. It does not participate in the analysis but serves as a reference to define boundary conditions, as we will see next.īoundary conditions are where we define inlets and outlets for the flow.
![solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial](https://s3.manualzz.com/store/data/022017089_1-758261f0df36a14457c602b353f1a14f-360x466.png)
The next step is to bring this model to the flow environment. It’s nothing exciting but a result I knew I could verify from having done these calculations manually and from other technical references (first rule of simulation, trust but verify!).įigure 1 shows a simple solid model of a hollow cylinder to represent our pipe. It is a 100-ft horizontal length of 4-in-diameter pipe. This is a model I used when I was evaluating various CFD packages.
![solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial](https://static.sdcpublications.com/images/covers/300/9781630570101.jpg)
We will start with a simple model of water flow in a pipe. So I write this article using the approach and models that introduced me to CFD and the eventual selection of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation as my CFD package. However, as I more recently evaluated CFD software and its integration graphical interfaces, I came to realize its power not only in flow, but also in thermal analysis, which was my main area of interest at the time. Initially, I did not see many practical industrial applications for CFD and stuck with custom code, rules of thumb and spreadsheets to get the job done.
![solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial solidworks flow simulation 2012 tutorial](https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/Jo0Q6FK35xc/hqdefault.jpg)
I had been a finite element user for many years before entering the world of flow simulation/computational fluid dynamics (CFD).