#PIPENET AND PIPEFLO SOFTWARE#

#PIPENET AND PIPEFLO SOFTWARE#

The software assigns those lid surface conditions to the fluid in contact with that face (see Figure 9).

We are not able to select the fluid directly. The face that we select for the boundary is the interior of the lid we added to seal the model. Right-clicking on the Boundary Conditions item brings up the dialog box in Figure 11.ДЇigure 11. Figure 10 shows the explorer pane for the Flow Simulation environment.ДЇigure 10. For our problem, we know the flow rate and are interested in flow distribution and overall pressure drop. It does not participate in the analysis but serves as a reference to define boundary conditions, as we will see next.Д«oundary conditions are where we define inlets and outlets for the flow.

This is the lid that we added to close the ends of the pipe.

They do not participate in the flow simulation. The solid bodies (pipe wall and lids) are there as a convenient way of defining boundary conditions. It is important to note that this is the only volume in the model that the analysis is concerned with.

This is the fluid region/volume that the software recognized.

At a minimum, it must envelop the fluid volume. For internal flow, it closely, if not identically, corresponds to the fluid volume. It represents the mathematical boundary of the flow problem.

This is the boundary referred to as the computational domain.

Referring to Figure 9, we make the following definitions: We can also enable a Show Fluid option, which gives us the graphic shown in Figure 9. This checks that the model has valid geometry to proceed with the analysis. However, prior to defining them, we will perform a model check using the Tools в†’ Flow Simulation в†’Tools в†’ Check Geometry command. The model requires boundary conditions to define the inlets and outlets. Prior to placing boundary conditions, we basically have a water bottle. The purpose of the lids and closing the model will be clearer when we discuss boundary conditions. We are then asked to select the open ends that we need to close, and lids are created as shown in Figure 8. All flow simulation must happen over some contained volume-the вЂњfluid volume.вЂќ The software does not know where to end the problem if we donвЂ™t cap the ends, so we select вЂњYesвЂќ in the dialog box. Yes, the pipe must actually have its ends вЂњsealedвЂќ and be watertight to be able to simulate flow through it. Error message due to nonwatertight model. Selecting water in Figure 6 adds it to the project fluids section as the default fluid.ДЄfter completing the wizard, we are greeted with our first error, as seen in Figure 7.ДЇigure 7. We then add the fluid we are simulating to the project. An external flow example would be airflow over an airplane wing. Our current model is internal and the fluid is bound by the pipe walls. Internal flow is bound by a solid at the flow outer boundary. The type of analysis can usually be determined intuitively. The next dialog is the analysis type, as shown in Figure 5. We will continue with the default IPS units. This is particularly useful when performing a flow/thermal simulation using U.S. Conveniently, we can mix and match units. Flow Simulation Wizard dialog box.Д¬licking вЂњNext,вЂќ the dialog box in Figure 4 appears for unit system selection. Selecting the wizard option from the menu brings up the dialog box shown in Figure 3.ДЇigure 3. With the SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation add-in activated, the display should appear similar to Figure 2.

The easiest way of doing this is to use the Flow Simulation Wizard.

The next step is to bring this model to the flow environment. ItвЂ™s nothing exciting but a result I knew I could verify from having done these calculations manually and from other technical references (first rule of simulation, trust but verify!).ДЇigure 1 shows a simple solid model of a hollow cylinder to represent our pipe. It is a 100-ft horizontal length of 4-in-diameter pipe. This is a model I used when I was evaluating various CFD packages. We will start with a simple model of water flow in a pipe. So I write this article using the approach and models that introduced me to CFD and the eventual selection of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation as my CFD package. However, as I more recently evaluated CFD software and its integration graphical interfaces, I came to realize its power not only in flow, but also in thermal analysis, which was my main area of interest at the time. Initially, I did not see many practical industrial applications for CFD and stuck with custom code, rules of thumb and spreadsheets to get the job done. I had been a finite element user for many years before entering the world of flow simulation/computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

Pipenet and pipeflo