[george85]

Hi,

Up until now, I have been using a simple initial vector input for my Solid Works FlowSimulation cfd simulations. The intensity and vector direction is defined, and that is it.
I've seen this photo from an Ansys Fluent CFD analys:

http://postimg.org/image/7og2d5w0r

It seems that Ansys is capable of conducting a cfd analysis based on wind boundary profile?

Does anyone know if this is possible to be done in Solid Works Flow Simulation?

Thank you for the reply.

[Boris_M]

Hi George,

you might get better feedback if you post in the FloEFD & FloTHERM forum as FloEFD is the foundation of SWFS.

Yes, you can describe a certain flow profile for the inlet or in an external case. If you use the vector definition you often have the buttons "f(x)" behind the values or there is a button "dependency" where you can specify a velocity profile as a curve via a table for the velocity in a certain coordinate axis direction.

Regards,
Boris

[george85]

Thank you for the reply Boris, and my apologies for the disturbance.

I will definitely post in the "FloEFD & FloTHERM forum" section from now on.

I currently have a problem. Since today the IT center at my university is closed due to 1st of October. In there they have Solid works 2011 installed.
I do not own Solid works myself.

So at the moment I can not check the answer you gave me (I do not doubt that it is incorrect, I just can't check whether or not I correctly understood you).

Instead of that I googled, and found a screenshot from Solid Works FS Dependency window:

http://postimg.org/image/fpcetszl7

How could I define that velocity profile you mentioned?
These are the wind speed values that I need, depending on the height:

wind speed intensity = 7.9316 * (height/370)^0.22

Thank you.

[Boris_M]

Hi George,

yes, that is the window that would pop up when you click on dependency (sometimes it is spelled fully and sometimes it is just the f(x) button you can see in the menu). But there are different options. The one you see in the image is the formula definition as you can see in the drop down where you can specify it as an equation if you like but you can also enter it as a table with v(x) for example in x direction and show it in a graph next to it similar to the engineering database material properties.
You can specify it in Excel if you need an use copy/paste. But make sure there are no equations in the fields, otherwise it won't past the values. You can copy it first and paste it in a different column as numbers only and then re-use these to copy/paste into SWFS.
Let's see if the images I created will be attached here...

Yes, so left is the general settings menu with the dependency button below. Make sure you click on the right field first. then select the dependency you like, either equation or F(x) - table or F(y) - table and fill out the values or equation.

[george85]

Thank you Boris.
And the screenshots, they appear without a problem.

But it looks like I definitively have to find some PC with Solid Works FS installed, and try this. At the moment it looks a bit confusing to me.

I hope it will not be a problem if I report back in a couple of weeks.

Again thank you for your time and answers. I can see you have become an invaluable contributor of the cfd-online community.

[Boris_M]

No problem, let me know when you had the chance to look at it yourself and if you have any questions.

But it is very simple. you click on the velocity you want to change such as in my first image "velocity in x direction" and then if you have a value that you can set the dependency the button "dependency" on the bottom of the menu or the f(x) button next to the value field will appear as in the other image of the link you sent.

Then select what type of dependency you want to set. My highlighted one in the second image is just because I was with the mouse over that point when I took the screenshot. If you have for example the z-axis as the vertical and x-axis as the axis in which the flow goes than the profile of the boundary layer would be the f(z) - table with velocity in x direction.

The third image then shows the tabular way of entering the profile with the left column as the distance in z-axis (not x as in my example) and the second column is then of course the velocity at that distance in z-axis. The graph is just flipped as you can see with the velocity vertical and the axis direction (distance) horizontally. Just because the first column is treated as the horizontal axis and the second column is the vertical axis in the graph.

Well I try to help as much as I can besides being too busy. So it might happen that I travel or am too busy and don't find the time to look into the forum. But only for the FloEFD part of it and therefore also SWFS.

Boris

[george85]

Thank you Boris.

Now that I look at it, I am more interested in formula definition than tabular one.

So if we pretend that a wind vector is suppose to lie down in XY plane (parallel to the ground) and it is suppose to be angled by 45 degrees from the X axis, does that mean that I need to define the following formula in the "f(x)" of both "Velocity in X direction" and "Velocity in Y direction":

7.9316 * (f(z)/370)^0.22

?

[Boris_M]

Hi George,

if you specify it into a vector in x and y direction then you can do that. Or you use the Aerodynamic definition. Here you can specify an angle and use the velocity. I'm not sure if that is an option in SWFS or just in FloEFD but if it is than you can select it under the "3D vector" dropdown.
Sorry for the different window style but that is from the Catia Version of FloEFD.

Boris

[george85]

Thank you Boris.
I would have to try this on my own. Will get back once I have a chance.

Again I am very grateful on free support you are giving to us users in here.