
These best practices help rotating region problems converge and give more accurate results. There are several best practices that go along with working with rotating region problems.
The rotating region cannot intersect with the non-rotating (stator) walls. Such an example cannot be simulated in the closing of a valve. It is assumed the boundary between the rotating geometry and enclosure (rotors/stator) does not change. Only useful in cases where the rotating geometry drives the fluid. Due to the unsteady nature of the flow fields, Sliding Mesh only works in time-dependent analyses. There is no limitation on the direction of gravity if it is considered in the analysis. Use only for rotating geometry, translational geometry such as pistons or hydraulic cylinders cannot be analyzed. The following are a few guidelines when it comes to using the Sliding Mesh method: This can be very useful in both traditional rotating components that resemble fans as well as non-traditional components such as Archimedes screw or helixes. This is useful in situations where the flow field is non-uniform along the circumferential direction. The Sliding Mesh method is for more complex applications that do not fall under the specific requirements for the Averaging method. The Averaging method assumes a steady state solution within the rotating region even for transient analyses. This approach cannot be used with high Mach number flow fields. Important to mention are a couple of limitations also associated with the averaging approach: If gravity needs to be considered in the analysis, it needs to be along the axis of rotation. The inlet and outlet flow fields should be axisymmetric with respect to the rotational axis this simply means the fluid needs to enter and exit the blades along their center axis. It is important to be aware of the following requirements when using the Averaging method: It’s important to be aware that using this method for anything other than geometry that reassembles a hub with axisymmetric blades may result in data that does not match reality this includes things like helixes or geometries with holes. It does a good job of producing results that correlate well with experimental data for these types of applications. The Averaging method, also sometimes called the Mixing Plane method, is an approach developed in order to approximate the flow of rotating blades such as fans, propellers, etc. The characteristics of the rotating components and the type of flow analyzed will determine which of these methods is appropriate. There are two additional formulations that can be used for a local rotating region, the Averaging method and the Sliding Mesh method. Solidworks flow simulation matrix software#
The software will calculate the flow fields outside of the rotating reference frame and then transfer them to the rotating region at the boundary. The local rotating region requires that you specify a separate component that includes all the rotating components. This greatly increases the amount of applications where rotating reference frames within SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation can be used.
The local rotating region is very similar to the global except here you can specify a subset of components within the assembly that can be part of the rotating region. If the case comes up where all components are symmetric about the rotational axis but there is a stator (components that are not rotating), stator faces can be specified through the use of a moving wall boundary condition. The global rotating region assumes you have a model that is completely symmetric about the rotating axis and all the components within the computational domain are rotating at the speed of the rotating reference frame.ĭue to the fact this type of rotating region has such narrow requirements, this type is often not suitable for most applications because most industrial applications have components that are not rotating or are not symmetric about the rotational axis.
Both of these types are available for all fluid types Newtonian and Non-Newtonians fluids. There are two main types of rotating regions in Flow Simulation global and local rotating regions. This article is meant to be a comprehensive guide to everything related to rotating region problems within SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. This will include explaining the different types of rotating region problems as well as the best practices associated with each one of them. There are a lot of capabilities within the tool but, often times, there isn’t a lot of information about these capabilities. SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation offers some great tools for analyzing rotating region problems.