Tips & Tricks

"Per Pixel Lighting" display option in CFD-VIEW

When visualizing CFD solutions, it is often of interest to see a particular range of variable values, and it is therefore useful to be able to clip the surface coloring to that range, as to obtain a clearer view of the areas affected by the variable.

Visualizing decomposed model without zonal interface outlines

Running a simulation in parallel allows quicker turn around for larger and complex problems. Such parallel jobs require the computational domain to be decomposed into multiple zones. Such a multiple-zone file may be inconvenient to post-process in CFD-VIEW because zonal interface outlines will be visible and the original surfaces would have been split. As depicted in figure 1 below, these outlines can be numerous and may therefore hinder the clarity of the model.

Using the BC/VC Queries tool in CFD-GEOM

Have you ever whished that you could blank/unblank or pick/unpick only interfaces in a CFD-GEOM model? You can now with the BC/VC Queries tool. This tool allows you to pick, unpick, blank or unblank all the interfaces of the current model based on the interface type (Fluid/Fluid, Fluid/Solid, etc.).

Visualizing particle size effect on Spray particle trajectory

When analyzing flow vectors, one can get a general trend of the direction of the flow and locations of recirculation. But what if you need to specifically know where a particle will end up? Maybe release points need to be studied. Then, the size and mass can make a difference in the path a particle travels.

How to create Pyramid cells on structured-unstructured domain interfaces in CFD-GEOM

CFD-GEOM can be used to construct a variety of cell shapes: quadrilaterals (2D) and hexahedrals (3D) for structured meshes; triangles (2D) as well as tetrahedrals and polyhedral/honeycomb (3D) for unstructured meshes; prisms and pyramids (3D) for semi-structured meshes.

New Exposed Boundaries Visualization tool in CFD-GEOM

One of the various new features introduced in CFD-GEOM V2009.2 is the ‘Exposed Boundaries’ visualization tool. This tool allows users to quickly visualize those areas where closure problems remain in an otherwise closed and “watertight” model.

Using Macros in CFD-VIEW

In some cases, you might have to perform the same task several times to post-process your results in CFD-VIEW. This can happen for example when you are running a parametric study and need to extract the same information from all the solution files. In this case, it might be time-saving to use the Macro option of CFD-VIEW, especially if obtaining the information necessitates many operations.

Repairing Imported CAD Geometries in CFD-GEOM

In most cases, importing CAD files in CFD-GEOM results in a clean geometry that can be directly used for further processing and/or meshing. However, for complex models, it is possible that the imported geometry has missing, untrimmed or defective surfaces that need to be manually repaired.

Using CFD-VIEW Scripting for transient simulations post-processing

With the Python scripting capabilities of CFD-VIEW, you can quickly and easily perform the repetitive tasks you encounter when post-processing transient simulations.

Butterfly Faces Meshing Tool in CFD-GEOM

In CFD-GEOM, a convenient meshing tool called "Butterfly Faces" allows the user to quickly and automatically create a structured mesh for circular topologies. The resulting mesh consists of 5 structured faces (4 sides and 1 core) inside a circle. Parameters are available to set the size of the core and the mesh density.