Tips & Tricks

The shrinkage method – the first out of three methods to simulate the heat effects of welding

In order to meet different requirements from first design to start of production, three different methods are available in the Virtual Welding & Assembly Suite from ESI. The first one – the shrinkage method – is used in the feasibility and planning phase. Goal is to get as fast as possible an estimation. Compare it with a one-step method in sheet metal forming.

Boundary layer meshing with CFD-ACE+ [video format]

The accuracy of a CFD solution is strongly dependent on how well the mesh resolves geometry and flow features. This is especially true for near wall regions (boundary layer) where viscous forces are not negligible compared to inertial forces.

CFD-VIEW: Working with cell-center data in batch mode

Many improvements have been made in CFD-VIEW that allows the manipulation of cell-center data. The latest cell-center data additions implemented in CFD-VIEW V2011.0 include, for example, support for the MinMax Probe and the Calculator.

"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.

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 check what software version you are running

There is a very fast and easy way to verify what software version you are running for your ESI CFD applications. You most likely know that this information is available for the GUI by clicking on 'Help → About ...', and for solvers by looking in the output file.

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.

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.

Always Make Sure You Have a Good Mesh Quality

The mesh has a great influence on the solver convergence and solution of every CFD Simulation. The user is strongly advised to check the quality of a numerical mesh.