Initializing or patching cell zones
 

Hey guys,

I have a tricky question. Here is a picture to define problem clearly and btw, the drawing is symmetric at the x-axis:

http://s29.postimg.org/9p08dw2lz/piston_cylinder.png


The piston-cylinder mechanism works like a jellyfish. It propels itself working back and forth. In reality, during power stroke water fill the gap behind the piston through an inlet. Then the check valve is open during return stroke. So water flows from behind to front of the piston. This is a bit tricky to model.

What I thought is to model the piston without the valve and run the analysis only for a power stroke. Then I save the data and start a new analysis by initializing it with the saved data.

But there is a problem. Outer flow and the whole domain will have an initial value except the fluid mass inside the cylinder. Does the Fluent initialize it anyway or it gives an error?

And the second question is whether initializing or patching the whole domain and the inner part of the cylinder separately is possible?

Hope I made myself clear guys. Thank you.