SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation is a powerful, general-purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package that integrates directly into the SOLIDWORKS CAD environment.
Flow Simulation's base package includes the ability to model fluid flow, heat transfer, multi-fluid mixing, and rotation. This combination of features makes it ideal for analyzing a wide range of industrial equipment.
Mixed issues
The mixing of fluids can be handled by a static mixer that defines several different inlet flow conditions, or by a rotary agitator that defines a "rotation zone".
In the mixing tank example below, two fluids are included in the analysis and are initially separated in the tank.
The analysis is run in a "time-correlated" fashion, so fluid concentrations can be monitored over time, and the torque and power of the agitator can be measured to compare motor requirements under various designs.
For more complex problems involving free surfaces, multiple agitators, or reciprocating motion, SIMULIA XFflow is a stand-alone tool that should be considered.
Heat exchangers
Enable the Conduction option when you create a SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation project to define a heat source and simulate the effects of conjugate heat transfer. A common example is a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The diagram below shows a simple water-gas heat exchanger, but complex models with hundreds of tubes can also be analyzed.
The definition of "fluid subdomain" allows for different fluid regions to be represented. In this case, the default fluid is air, and a fluid subdomain of water is applied within the copper pipe.
The heat transfer rate as well as the pressure drop across the heat exchanger can be extracted quickly.
Air Treatment
The air handling equipment and range hood are shown in the following diagram and can be analyzed using the core functionality of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. The "porous media" definition allows for simplified representations of filters, grilles, and other complex media.
Flow Simulation's optional HVAC add-on module allows tracking of human comfort parameters and provides a "tracer study" that allows contaminants to be injected into existing Flow studies.
In the image above, the carbon monoxide tracer is injected from a source close to the range hood. Isosurfaces of carbon monoxide are plotted to visualize areas of high concentration.
Since industrial equipment is often made-to-order, it is critical to streamline analytical procedures to get results quickly. There are a variety of tools available in SOLIDWORKS Flow software to perform a "clone" analysis between multiple configurations, use a Parametric Study to quickly evaluate design changes, or create a custom Project Template to apply standardized settings on a new model.
To learn more about SOLIDWORKS Flow** features and application cases, please contact Dassault's officially authorized genuine SOLIDWORKS ** vendor - [Structure Technology].