Solving Thermofluids on MATLAB
 

Hi all,

I have a cold room maintained at low temperature (As you know, at low temperature the condensation/frosting of moisture are more likely to happen). there is a dry air inlet to prevent condensation of water vapour and a relief outlet to avoid pressurizing the room. Given inlet and outlet properties, what is the best way to estimate the moisture content as a function of time and its distribution in the room? I'm thinking Multi-component Gas model would be probable for this issue. What do you think?

Do you think it's better to define the equations and solve it using MATLAB or to use Fluent directly? I'm an academic and don't have access to a commercial version of Fluent, but I do for MATLAB. I'm kinda beginner in CFD and my whole research would be done on CFD first before conducting any real experiments, that's why i'm more likely going to consider MATLAB becasue it's avaiable and i have experience using it and all my study would be one dimensional analysis. Therefore, I'd appreciate your advice here, should I solve the CFD mathematical modelling on MATLAB or ? Are there any advantages and disadvantages related?

You are talking about phenomena but no mention of what equations you like to solve exactly. Start by stating what equations you want to solve. If magically these are the same equations as the ones in Fluent, then Fluent would be a good choice. If not-magically they are completely different than the ones in Fluent, then Fluent is a horrible choice.

Academic version of Fluent is free. Fluent doesn't do 1D, only 2D and 3D.

The advantage of Fluent is you don't have to code anything. The disadvantage of Fluent is you cannot code anything. The disadvantage of matlab is you have to code everything. The advantage of matlab is you can code anything you can code.

But back to my original point, you need to state precisely what equations you are solving first. Only then can anyone make any recommendation. Right now you are just asking a magic eight ball.


You said 1D, but I can think of a few examples of a 0D model that can give you an answer which might be the one you are looking for.