SolidWorks Flow Simulation

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) for Flow Analysis and Simulation

Unlike other computational fluid dynamics programs, SolidWorks Flow Simulation combines a high level of functionality and accuracy with ease-of-use. Fully embedded inside of SolidWorks, SolidWorks Flow Simulation is perfect for the engineer who needs flow analysis, but is not necessarily an expert in the field of fluid simulation. A goal-oriented approach allows you to easily gain insight into the performance of your design under real world conditions. SolidWorks Flow Simulation can be used in a diverse array of applications and has been designed to be extremely flexible. Whether you are developing a valve for medical industry, a HVAC duct, an electronic enclosure cooling system, an automobile component, the wing of an airplane, or an exhaust valve, using SolidWorks Flow Simulation early in the product development cycle can help you build a better product in less time. SolidWorks Flow Simulation customers are using the software to build better products in the following industries - Valve/Regulator, Medical, Electronics, HVAC, Automotive, Defense, Aerospace, Oil and Gas, Plastic Extrusion and Food Processing.

Features and Benefits

SolidWorks Flow Simulation provides the following benefits:

Complete Integration with SolidWorks: SolidWorks Flow Simulation is fully embedded within the SolidWorks Windows®-native environment. There is no need to modify your SolidWorks designs for fluid flow and heat transfer analysis.

Configuration based analysis: Each SolidWorks Flow Simulation analysis is tied to a SolidWorks configuration thereby making it easy to analyze design variants and do "What-If" scenarios.

Fully automatic and innovative meshing technology: SolidWorks Flow Simulation can automatically capture the geometry and resolve it to accurately compute the boundary layer. This technology handles very thin geometry well and results in a significant reduction in the number of computational cells. Simulations which take several hours for traditional CFD programs can be solved in fraction of the time.

Wizard mode for analysis setup: SolidWorks Flow Simulation uses a wizard interface to setup the analysis thereby making it easy and intuitive to solve the problem. The toolbars and dialog boxes are very similar to SolidWorks interface thereby making the experience of using SolidWorks Flow Simulation very similar to SolidWorks.

Engineering goal based analysis: SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a goal based CFD program. You simply tell the program what you are interested in like Max temperature in the component, Max velocity in my flow, Flow rate at opening, Pressure drop across my model etc... and it will calculate these goals and present to the user after the completion of the analysis. This functionality helps you to get better engineering insight into your designs.

Expanded CFD analysis capability: SolidWorks Flow Simulation can solve a wide range of problems including conjugate heat transfer, subsonic, supersonic and compressible flows, mixing of gases, flow around rotating geometry, porous media, cavitation, humidity and climate control and fluid structure interaction. See below for a complete list.

Physical Features

• Internal and/or external flow
• Incompressible (liquid) and compressible (gas)
• Ideal and Real gases
• Subsonic, transonic, and supersonic regimes
• Viscous, pure laminar, and turbulent flow
• Automatic laminar/turbulent flow with transition
• Steady state and transient analysis
• Conjugated heat transfer
• Forced and natural convection
• Radiation to ambient
• Mixing of multiple fluids
• Porous media
• Pure conduction
• Compressible liquid flow
• Non newtonian liquids
• Surface to surface radiation
• Solar radiation
• Rotating frame of reference
• Moving walls

Usability

• Multiple configurations, "what if scenarios"
• Flow calculator
• Customizable database of materials (liquids, gases, materials, fan curves, units)
• Predefined fan curves for standard fans
• Batch run feature
• Engineering goals
• Parametric study tool to perform optimization

Environments (Boundary Conditions)

• Inlet/Outlet:- velocities, mass/volume flow rate, static pressure, total pressure, temperature, mass/volume fraction, fan
• Heat generation rate, Volume heat generation rate
• Convection heat transfer coefficient
• Ideal wall, Real wall
• Radiative surface
• Transferred boundary condition (Zooming technique)

SolidWorks Flow Simulation Animator

• SolidWorks Flow Simulation Animator
• Pressure, velocity, temperature, vorticity plots
• Vector, Dynamic section, Isosurface plots
• Flow trajectories
• Particle tracking
• XY plots, Surface/Volume parameters
• Goal plots

Engineering Collaboration

• Microsoft Word based report
• Animation and save as AVI
• Customizable report templates
• Save as eDrawings, BMP, JPEG, VRML
• Flow/Structure interaction: Export loads to SolidWorks Simulation Software