Blog How to Define Fluids in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation
Flow Simulation allows you to analyze the flow of up to ten fluids of different types (Liquids, Gases/Steam, Non-Newtonian Liquids and Compressible Liquids) in the same project. Fluids mixing can be analyzed as well, but mixing fluids must be of the same type (All gases, for example). In the Default Fluid dialog box, you can specify the default fluids and default fluid type to be assigned for all fluid regions. After the project is created, you can specify different fluid types for specific fluid regions using the Fluid Subdomain feature. Fluid regions with different types of fluids must be separated from each other by solid region(s). If there is no appropriate fluid listed in the Fluids list, you can define a new substance in the Engineering Database.
list of fluids of this type available in the Engineering Database. The fluid
types are: Gases, Liquids (Newtonian viscous incompressible
liquids), Non-Newtonian liquids, Compressible liquids, Real
Gases and Steam. If you discover
that the required fluid is not available, click New and add the new
fluid to the Engineering Database.
– OR –
Select a fluid from the Fluids list and click Add.
the Project fluids list, you must select the Default Fluid Type.
Only fluids of this type will be available to be assigned as default project
fluids. The selected fluid type is assigned by default for all fluid regions in
the analysis. After the project is created, you can then specify another fluid type
for a specific fluid region using the Fluid Subdomain feature.
type to the Project fluids list, you again can select which of them will
be assigned as the default fluid for all fluid regions. After the project is
created, you then have two options: You
can assign other fluids for a specific fluid region using the Fluid Subdomain feature OR you can define the fluids’ different Substance
Concentrations (For when you have a gas that is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, and
1% Argon for example). For these multiple
fluids, the relative concentrations can be specified either by Mass
fractions or Volume fractions of the different fluids.
the Initial Conditions section of the Wizard, or the Boundary Condition
Property Manager near the bottom.
turbulent or with transition (depending on the flow characteristics). Under Flow
type, you can consider the flow as laminar only in the entire Computational
Domain by selecting Laminar Only. You can also consider the Flow as Turbulent
Only. If you have specified Non-Newtonian liquids or Compressible
liquids as the project’s fluid type, the Laminar Only flow type will
be selected automatically to consider the flow in all fluid regions as laminar.
After the project is created, you can specify another fluid type and,
therefore, another flow type for a specific fluid region using the Fluid
Subdomain feature.
box if you want to analyze high-velocity gas flows (flow Mach number is greater
than about 3 for steady-state and 1 for transient analyses). The High mach
number option is applied for the entire computational domain and cannot be
changed for an individual fluid region. You cannot select the High Mach
number flow option if some Real Gas is selected as one of the Project
fluids or the calculation of relative Humidity is enabled.
to analyze a flow of gas, or mixture of gases, taking into account its relative
humidity.
analysis, select the Cavitation check box. Two cavitation models are
available in Flow Simulation: engineering model for pre-defined water and
simplified isothermal cavitation model for user-defined liquids with the Cavitation
effects enabled in the Engineering Database. Both cavitation models
consider fluids with a single liquid component only, so Cavitation is
unavailable if more than one liquid is selected as Default fluid. If
you select Cavitation for a user-defined liquid, the flow will be
considered as isothermal and all thermal conditions specified in the project
will be ignored. You cannot select Cavitation for a user-defined liquid
when Heat conduction in solids is enabled.
corresponding dialog box of the Wizard.
After the project is created, you can change the
default project fluids as well as the default fluid type and flow
characteristics under Fluids in the
General Settings dialogue box. Simply
right click on the Input Data folder in the Flow tree.