Tips & Tricks

Chemical-kinetic Model for Mars Atmosphere Re-entry Applications

The shock layer flow over a blunt body entering a planetary atmosphere at a hypersonic speed will dissociate and partially ionize. A reliable prediction of the flow-field for such application requires a chemical-kinetic model. For Mars atmosphere, the five species Park'94 is considered [1]. The dissociation of CO2 is producing C, CO, CO2, O and O2.

Improvements to Parallel Simulation Setup in CFD-FASTRAN

Setting up and launching a parallel simulation has become much simpler and easier in FASTRAN. This note discusses some of these developments. Let’s start with things that have not changed. There are still two versions of CFD-FASTRAN solvers for parallel cases. The difference between the two versions is the underlying parallel communication mechanism, the choice of which is decided by the type of mesh used.

Simulation of the Hypersonic Flow Past a Blunted Cone-cylinder-flare (HB-2) using CFD-FASTRAN

Study of supersonic flows is of high interest for a wide variety of problems including design of high speed planes and other related applications [1]. This user tip presents a validation of numerical methods against experimental data.

Making it Easy to Add a Box Source in CFD-VisCART

Sources are used in CFD-VisCART to refine the grid in localized regions of the domain. One of the many types of sources available is the Box Source where the user specifies a cuboid box around the region a finer grid is required. In the earlier versions, the user would have to add a Box Source and then specify its X, Y and Z extents to position the box in the desired location.

Hole Detection Feature in CFD-VisCART

CFD-VisCART can handle geometries with small gaps, cracks and overlapping parts, but what if there is a big hole or opening in one of the parts that the user is not aware of? The grid will flow through this opening and the result will be a mesh that has cells both inside and outside the model. This leaves the user with the near impossible task of finding this opening. In CFD-VisCART, a Hole Detection feature has been introduced that performs this task for the user.

Distance Measuring Tool in CFD-VisCART

CFD-VisCART has a simple and easy-to-use tool for measuring the distance between two points in a geometry. This tool can be found under the Geom tab.

Using "Visual Scaling" for Models with Drastically Varying Length Scales

For models that have drastically varying length scales, it can be difficult to create the grid, setup a model, and post-process the results. CFD-GEOM, CFD-ACE-GUI and CFD-VIEW have a "Visual Scale" capability that can significantly help when working with these types of models.

Parametric Studies Using SimManager

Parametric studies are an important aspect of CFD analysis. Parametric studies are used to perform trend base analyses, optimize the deign of a device, and/or to study the affect of different parameters on a process (What if? type analysis).

How to Compare the Model Setup Between Two DTF Files

Have you ever wanted to find the differences between two DTF files? If you have, then you will probably be interested in a DTF utility included in your ESI Software installation. The utility is called dtf_diff and can be found in your UTILS_2009.0/bin directory.

CFD-ACE+ and CFD-TOPO Coupling

There is a growing demand and challenge in different industries, especially semiconductor and MEMS areas, to have increased wafer size with reduced feature size, i.e. high quality process uniformity.