defining fluid flow in a packed bed of spheres
 

so, I've created a geometry in solidworks containing a number of spherical basll(fuel elements). the purpose of this model is to act as a heat storage system. the solving mode on fluent would be solidification-melting.

think of it like tennis balls filled in a bucket. fluid(water) is supposed to flow in between and contact every spherical body for ease of fluid flow, I have modelled the balls with gap of 1mm.though the tet mesh is generated without any issues,i am finding it hard to define the fluid flow domain. I tried creating a Boolean element(cylinder) and subtracting the balls to create the flow domain. but alas! as much a I tried, I keep failing to define flow domai. please, any help to define this fluid flow domain would be much appreciated .thanks in advance!... please find the link for the geometry here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmU...ew?ts=5e711598

Clarity
 

Your statements are slightly ambiguous. First, you have mentioned solidification and melting along with heat storage system; pointing towards PCMs. Later on you mention about water flow through packed bed and issues with meshing and domain creation. Do note that the domain is created before the meshing is done. It can be done later but that's not the usual way. Could you clarify

1. What is the objective of the simulation?
2. What issue are you facing currently? If it is related to Meshing and domain creation, I'd recommend posting it in relevant forum.

Hi, thanks for the spontaneous response and sorry if my description was not clear

(1) yes, you are right. The purpose of this simulation is to check the outlet temperature of a pcm based packed bed latent heat storage system

(2) the issue that i am facing currently occurs whilst trying to create a boolean and subtract the spherical balls from a cylindrical enclosure(for fluid flow). The boolean simply fails to create and the balls are not subtracted from the enclosure.


Asked the same question here.:

https://studentcommunity.ansys.com/t...ostbadges=true


Problem similar to(but my geometry is much complex, i have even give the file's drive link up above in the main question):
https://studentcommunity.ansys.com/t...ed-of-spheres/

*few clarifications: gap is 0.1mm and i am able to mesh it without issues..i simply want to define fluid flow domain..eithet by creating boolean and subtracting or by any other method

CAD Issue
 

This appears to be a CAD issue. Please post it in CAD related forum.