[Neo_Zeo]

Hello!
I must perform a light reflector analysis and I wonder if is it possible to do it through a fluent radiation study... or do you think it would be more interesting the use of Maxwell or Ansys Mechanical?

Thank you very much!

[LuckyTran]

Woah those are three very different modelling packages. What physical process are you modelling? Btw you posted this in the Fluent forum, so I'm guessing fluid flow effects should be important.

Originally Posted by Neo_Zeo

or do you think it would be more interesting the use of Maxwell or Ansys Mechanical?

It would indeed be very interesting to see someone trying to model thermal radiation using Maxwell or Mechanical... because I'm not sure how you would model radiation at all.

Ansys mechanical is a structural package which has very little to do with light propagation or heat transfer. But if you're analyzing structural loads, then you don't need details of the radiation and heat transfer processes since the solids do not couple strongly to light propagation or fluid dynamics.

Maxwell solves E&M (Maxwell)relations, which is suitable for E&M fields, but not suitable for ray tracing. Fluent is really good at Ray Tracing and surface 2 surface radiation, it has some capabilities to do participating media, but it's not suitable for dealing with electromagnetic induction for example. By itself, Maxwell doesn't solve Navier-Stokes so you're very limited in the fluid flow problems you can model.

[Neo_Zeo]

Originally Posted by LuckyTran

Woah those are three very different modelling packages. What physical process are you modelling? Btw you posted this in the Fluent forum, so I'm guessing fluid flow effects should be important.

I need to study the best way to position a reflector to improve the light reflexion. I need to improve the light flux reflected from a determined geometry.



It would indeed be very interesting to see someone trying to model thermal radiation using Maxwell or Mechanical... because I'm not sure how you would model radiation at all.

Ansys mechanical is a structural package which has very little to do with light propagation or heat transfer. But if you're analyzing structural loads, then you don't need details of the radiation and heat transfer processes since the solids do not couple strongly to light propagation or fluid dynamics.

In Ansys Mechanical, in a thermal analysis I can study radiation:

https://confluence.cornell.edu/displ...erical+Results

But I really dont know the difference between this type of study in Fluent or Mechanical.

Maxwell solves E&M (Maxwell)relations, which is suitable for E&M fields, but not suitable for ray tracing. Fluent is really good at Ray Tracing and surface 2 surface radiation, it has some capabilities to do participating media, but it's suitable for dealing with electromagnetic induction for example. By itself, Maxwell doesn't solve Navier-Stokes so you're very limited in the fluid flow problems you can model.

You are right. I experimented with Maxwell, and it "just" works with magnetic and electrical phenomena. Not radiation.

Thank you very much for your help !

[LuckyTran]

Fluent can certainly do the ray tracing or surface to surface radiation problem for you. But it still may be too complicated a tool. For starters, most of ray tracing and s2s radiation you can do by simple hand-calculations. There's not much benefit you can get out of Fluent except to do these for "complex problems."

In mechanical you don't study radiation, you simply model its effects on your solid. I.e. when I stand in the sun, the radiation heats my face and my face feels warm. Mechanical allows you to model this heating and warmness but it doesn't tell you how the radiation got there or the nature of the radiation. All it cares is that, hmms, there's some heat!

The Maxwell relations are the appropriate governing equations for radiation (E&M), but they are probably way too high order for your need as you don't really care about the distinction between electric and magnetic fields.

[Neo_Zeo]

Originally Posted by LuckyTran

Fluent can certainly do the ray tracing or surface to surface radiation problem for you. But it still may be too complicated a tool. For starters, most of ray tracing and s2s radiation you can do by simple hand-calculations. There's not much benefit you can get out of Fluent except to do these for "complex problems."

In mechanical you don't study radiation, you simply model its effects on your solid. I.e. when I stand in the sun, the radiation heats my face and my face feels warm. Mechanical allows you to model this heating and warmness but it doesn't tell you how the radiation got there or the nature of the radiation. All it cares is that, hmms, there's some heat!

The Maxwell relations are the appropriate governing equations for radiation (E&M), but they are probably way too high order for your need as you don't really care about the distinction between electric and magnetic fields.

Thank you very much again!

If finally my client accept the offer, I`ll tell you how did I perform the study.