How to set-up and run
a 2D Flow Simulation
in Simcenter NX11
[Ulg – FSA - Dimitri Arendt]
- 12 December 2016 -
How to set-up and run a 2D Flow Simulation in Simcenter NX11
Summary
This document explains the workflow to set-up and run a 2D Flow Simulation in
Simcenter NX11. Its targeted audience is anyone without any particular prior
knowledge of NX Simcenter Environment.
It explains in details the basic actions in order to perform a simple fluid simulation. It is
meant to be used as a quick-guide to lead rapidly to a first solution. The reader can off
course refer to the official NX help for any required further explanation or when his
needs deviate from the simple example presented in this document.
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How to set-up and run a 2D Flow Simulation in Simcenter NX11
0 Work-Flow
This chapter explains in brief the workflow and main steps needed to perform a flow
simulation in SimCenter NX11.
✔ Step1 : Create the fluid domain
➔ The fluid domain for the simulation has to be created by using the internal
CAD within Simcenter NX.
➔ Basically, for a 2D simulation, the geometry is completely defined with the
sketcher. A solid body is then created by extruding the sketch to an arbitrary
small thickness.
➔ In order to prepare the meshing, the solid body can be split into multiple
simple geometric shapes.
➔ At the end of this step, you shall have a saved [Link] file.
✔ Step 2 : Mesh the body
➔ The fluid domain is meshed using the internal mesher of Simcenter NX.
➔ First, meshing constraints have to be set on the edges of the bottom face of
the body : number on edge, size on edge or biasing on edge (for a boundary
layer).
➔ Then “2D mapped meshes” have be created on all polygon faces of the
bottom face of the body.
➔ The 2D meshes are then copied onto the other face and swept along the
thickness of the part in order to generate 3D meshes with only one element
along the thickness.
➔ At the end of this step, you shall have a saved yourproject_fem.fem file
✔ Step 3 : Specify material properties and set the simulation constraints
➔ Different simulation objects have to be created: fluid materials, boundary
conditions, initial conditions.
➔ At this stage, some measurements of interest for the simulation analysis
have to be defined : force on a face, min/max velocity/pressure within a
given area,...
➔ At the end of this step, you shall have a save yourproject_sim.sim file, ready
to be “solved”.
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✔ Step 4 : Solve the simulation
➔ The solution attributes have to be set : steady state or transient, turbulence
model, use wall function or not, data fields to be retrieved,...
➔ The solver parameters have to be set : relaxation time step, convergence
criteria, number of iteration limits,...
➔ Finally the simulation can be run.
➔ At the end of this step, you shall have run the simulation and the solution
shall have converged (or not) to a result after some iterations.
✔ Step 5 : Analyse the simulation results
➔ The solution verbose and the convergence graph should be reviewed within
the “Solution Monitor” window.
➔ The results can be loaded in order to plot the field of interest : velocity,
pressure maps, 2D graph along a path, streamlines, ...
➔ A html report with extra results (force on a face for instance) is also
generated if it was defined at step3.
➔ At the end of this step, you can save again your working .sim file as a
reference before experimenting with different meshes, constraints or solver
parameters.
Each step will be explained with more details using a practical example in the
following chapters.
Extra documentation about workflow for Flow simulation can be found here :
[Link]
advanced:id1245911:id629501
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1 Create the fluid domain
1.1 Create an empty model
File>New>under tab “Model” select “Model”>OK
You shall have this view and you are ready to create your part.
1.2 Create a 2D sketch
Click “Sketch” in the upper left corner
You can keep the default coordinate axis>OK
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1.3 Draw the fluid domain
Draw the fluid domain and eventual obstacles using the tools under Direct Skecth :
Rectangle, Line, Arc,...
You can add dimensional constraints by double clicking the informative dimensions
and forcing them to a given value. You can also add more complex constraints, like
parallelism, same length, perpendicularity, etc.. by selecting successively different
elements and then choosing suggested constraints.
For instance, if you want the vertical legs of the rectangle to be symmetrically located
with respect to the coordinate axis, you select first the mid-point of a vertical leg (with
left mouse click), then the x-axis arrow (no need to hold down CTRL or SHIFT key) and
then a suggestion of constraint automatically appears “point on curve” and you can
click it. You can also find these constraints under Direct Skecth>More>Skecth
Constraints
Ideally when you are done with your sketch, it shouldn't contain any grey dimensions
(auto dimensions free to be moved) but only dark blue constraints (px=...) set by you.
This means the sketch is fully constrained. The constraint status also appear in the
status bar (bottom of the window).
An example of fully constrained sketch is shown in the figure at the next paragraph.
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TIP : The different elements are selected just by clicking them successively, there is
not need to hold down CTRL key. To deselect all : press ESC. To deselect one item
only : click it with left mouse holding down SHIFT
TIP : How to navigate
• Clicking the central mouse button and dragging will rotate the view.
• Clicking the central mouse button, then the right mouse button and dragging
will move the view. You can do the same more easily by holding down the SHIFT
key and clicking only the central mouse button and dragging.
• Rolling the mouse wheel will zoom in/out.
• As you work in a sketch plane, if you unintentionally moved the view out of
plane, you can use short-cut SHIFT+F8 to get back to the top view.
• Other usefull shortcut are available when holding down the right mouse button.
1.4 Finish the sketch
When you are done with the skecth, Click Finish Sketch in the upper left
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1.5 Extrude the part
Select your sketch>Click Extrude under Feature toolbox>Choose a extrusion length of
100mm (for instance)>OK
By rotating the view with the middle mouse button you can verify that you have now a
solid body.
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1.6 Split the body to prepare the meshing
Boundary layers have to be defined as split bodies. The rest of the fluid domain shall
be divided in simple geometric shapes (triangles or quadrilaterals, possibly with
curved edges) in order to have more controls later on when meshing.
Under Feature toolbox>More>Trim>Split body
Select your body and then under Tool>Section>Select Curve>Click on Sketch Section
Just click OK on the next dialog box to select the same system coordinate (CSYS) you
already used.
Proceed similarly to the sketch you made for the main body. You should also fully
constrain this new sketch, ideally by having your dimensions referring to the first
sketch, such that if you change a dimension in the first sketch, this second one will
follow and adapt automatically.
TIP : For boundary layer a nice tool is the “offset curve”.
Click finish.
Make sure to tick the box for “Keep Imprinted Edges” under Settings.
By doing so, the software automatically creates Glue Coincident type mesh mating
conditions between the bodies when you switch to the FEM file. You should inspect
these mating conditions and ensure that they were created at all appropriate
locations.
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Repeat the operations as many time as needed to be able to create a sound mesh
later on. In the example here-below, 7 extra split bodies were created with simple
geometric shapes.
Make sure your save your model as a [Link] file.
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Sketch tutorials can be found here :
[Link]
[Link]
sketcher:id188016:id771117
Sketch video examples can be found here :
[Link]
sketcher:id1389302
2 Mesh the body
2.1 Create a mesh file
File>New>under tab “Simulation” select “Simcenter Thermal/Fow” with type
“Fem”'>OK
Keep the box “Associate to Master Part” ticked.
In the field “Part”, you shall select the part you just
created.
Untick the box “Create Idealized Part”.
This option is used when working in team on the same
part or if the part has to be simplified for the simulation
but the original design has to kept unaltered.
Select Solver “Simcenter Thermal/Flow” and Analysis
Type “Flow”.
Click OK.
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2.2 Verify that the different split bodies are connected
First thing to do, is to verify that the different polygons created by the “split body”
command are correctly connected to each other. Check the MMC (Mesh Mating
Conditions).
If it appears that two polygon bodies have common face but are not connected, you
can add the connection manually by clicking Mesh Mating under Connections toolbox.
TIP : When you are sure about the connections, you can hide the symbols by
unclicking the Connection Collectors in the arborescence tree to keep the visualisation
more clear.
TIP : You can change the colour of your polygons by double clicking the small color box
next to it in the arborescence and rename them to make identification easier later on.
2.3 Add the meshing constraints on the body edges
Mesh Control>chose in the dropbox Number on Edge/Size on Edge/Biasing on edge
>Select all edges for which you want to apply the constraints > Click the preview
button > OK.
You can set a constraint on multiple edge at a time. For the biasing on edge (especially
usefull for boundary layer), you have to select the orientation (start of start, end of
edge) and it varies from edges to edges depending on the edge natural direction.
You shall also set the short edges along the thickness to have one single element, as
the simulation is 2D.
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Remark : A matching edge between two polygons should be specified once only.
TIP : When setting mesh constraints on edge, you should rotate the view to an out of
plane view angle to differentiate between the edge on the lower face and on the upper
face. You should constraint only the edge on one face, for instance all edges on the XY
plane.
TIP : You can set the view to wireframe to view all your constraints at once. An edge
density is shown with a diamond, see here-under.
2.4 Create 2D meshes
You can now mesh the face of this first polygon by using 2D mapped mesh.
Mesh>More>2D Mapped Mesh>Click the face where you set the edge constraints
You might have to rotate the view to get the face on top.
You can select either QUAD4 or TRI3 elements.
When working with quadrilaterals mesh, if you have correctly set the edge constraints,
the “element size” parameter should have no effect and can be left to a default value.
You can click the icon next to “show results” to get the preview before clicking OK.
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Mesh all the other polygon faces of the plane similarly.
Make sure not to over-constrain. Every time you generate a 2D mapped mesh with
quadrilateral elements, the constraint of one edge is reported to the opposed edge.
This constraint appears as “Mapped Mesh Edge Density” in the arborescence and as
blue diamond in the main view (see image here-above). This also means there might
be a logical order on how to mesh the different faces.
Here-below you can see the example with all faces in XY plane mapped with
quadrilateral elements.
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2.5 Create 2D dependent meshes on the other face
In order to have a pure bidimensional problem, the mesh has to be identical on both
top and bottom faces of the solid.
For every single 2D mesh, a dependant 2D mesh on the opposite side has to be
created.
Mesh> More > 2D dependent> Select the master face with the mesh > Select the
corresponding face on the opposite side > OK.
Repeat the process for all 2D meshes. You might try to map more than one polygon
face at a time to speed up the process if you have many of them. This could also save
time for the next step.
2.6 Create 3D swept mesh
The 3D mesh can now be created by sweeping the 2D mesh.
Mesh>More>3D Swept Mesh>Click the top face with the 2D mapped mesh, then click
in the dialog box to select the target face and click on the bottom face of your
polygon>OK
You should use HEXA8 if you have 2D map with QUAD4 elements.
Here again, the “Source Element Size” parameter should have no effect if you
correctly set a constraint of 1 single element on the edges along thickness.
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You shall have only a single element on the thickness for a pure bidimensional
simulation.
Proceed similarly for all the polygon bodies.
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Verify that you have only one element for the whole thickness and that the top and
bottom meshes match such that the elements are vertical prisms. You can again use
the wireframe view.
Here-under is an example of non-matching top and bottom 2D mesh, generating
oblique 3D elements. The reason is that the bias on edge constraint was wrong on one
of the edge. You can verify this by locking the view on the X-Y plane and using the
wireframe view mode.
Do not forget to save your project as yourproject_fem.fem
Remark : Even if the extension changes from the [Link], it seems it can't have
the same name and you should append _fem to the file name.
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3 Specify material properties and set the
simulation constraints
3.1 Create a sim file
File>New>under tab “Simulation” select “Simcenter
Thermal/Fow” with type “Sim”'>OK
In the field “Associated FEM”, you shall select the fem
file you just created.
At this stage under Solver Environment\Analysis type,
it appears “Thermal” instead of “Flow” but you will be
able to change it on the next dialog box.
After changing the Analysis Type to Flow, Click OK, as it will still be possible to change
all these solution attributes before running the simulation.
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3.2 Set the materials
In the left arborescence, expend the 3D meshes and double-click every single mesh
(1) collector; then double click next to propert\type (2) and then select the material
substance within the catalogue (3): air for instance.
2
1
Repeat the same for every single 3D mesh.
3.3 Set the boundary conditions
Define the inlet and outlet.
Loads and Conditions>Simulation Object Type>Flow Boundary Conditions>
• Inlet Flow : to impose a velocity (input)
• Opening : to impose a pressure (output)
On the top and bottom face of the, you can impose symmetry plane to ensure a pure
bidimensional problem. You can select all faces on one side simulataneously, but make
sure not to select upper and lower faces together.
Loads and Conditions>Simulation Object Type>Symmetry
On the remaining lateral faces, you can select either Boundary Flow surface\slip wall
or non-slip wall, or symmetry depending on the problem. At the end every single face
should have a boundary condition. When you use non-slip boundary surface, make
sure to tick “Wall function”.
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You can visualize the boundary conditions and untick the box later in the arborescence
for more clarity.
3.4 Set the initial conditions
Loads and Conditions > Constraint Type > Initial Conditions
Setting the initial conditions should speed up the convergence to the solution.
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3.5 Prepare report for forces on faces.
Simulation Object Type > Report > Type = Lift & Drag
Click the surfaces of interest.
In the subpanel “Axes” you should select the coordinate system as previously defined
and chose the correct axis for Drag and Lift.
You can also enter some data to compute directly the aerodynamic coefficient if
applicable.
Do not forget to save your project as yourproject_sim.sim
Remark : Even if the extension changes from the [Link], it seems it can't have
the same name and you should append _sim to the file name.
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4 Solve the simulation
4.1 Set the solution attributes
Solution> Solve > Edit Solution Attributes
Make sure Analysis Type is “Flow”
Under Solution Details :
• you can select the Solution Type “Steady state” or “Transient”
• you can the turbulence model
Under 3D Flow, you should enable Use Wall Function.
Under Results Option, you should tick any data field you want to retrieve.
4.2 Set the solver parameters
Solution> Solve > Edit Solver Parameters
In some cases, you might need to play with the “steady-state Relaxation Time Step”
and “Time Step” under the 3D Flow Solver tab.
You can also change the Maximum residuals. In order to study the convergence of the
solution based on the mesh refinement, you could put a smaller “Maximum Residuals”.
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4.3 Solve the simulation
Solution>Solve>OK
During the computation, in the Solution Monitor window, you can click
Graph>Convergence to check the progress of the computation in real time And/or
watch the verbose in real-time.
Under Graph>Track Results > You can also track in real-time min/max/average
velocity/pressure convergence.
Once, you could run the simulation and it converged, do not forget to save before
analysing the results and trying different configurations.
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5 Analyse the simulation results
5.1 Review the verbose
Click Yes to review all the solver verbose. There is very valuable information to
understand better the solution and how worked the solver.
The logging remain available under a yourproject_sim-Solution_1.log file created in the
main directory.
5.2 Check the created files
If you have defined a report with Lift&Drag for instance, an html file should have been
created. The same info is available in .csv file.
The convergence graphs are also available afterwards as png image in the main
directory.
5.3 Set-up key measurements for rapid analysis
Once you have solved at least one time the simulation, you can add some key
measures of interest. These values are handy for a quick look on the solution when
varying different solver parameters or trying different mesh configuration.
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Solution> Result Measures>Lower left corner NEW
Pick up values of interest to evaluate validity and convergence of the solution : like
minimum pressure over a surface or maximum velocity over the entire model.
5.4 Plot the results
On the very left tool bar click the second icon to go to post-processing navigator.
Right click on Solution\Flow > Load
In the arborescence under flow you can access the different data field: velocity,
pressure,...
To plot the velocity for instance, right click velocity > Plot
You can edit the plot by right-clicking the active Post-view>Edit. You can plot iso-
curves, or streamlines, etc..
Once you have plotted a data field, like pressure for instance, you can also create 2D
graph under Post-processing toolbox.
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A tutorial on how to plot the solution is available here (steps 6 to 9):
[Link]
ing/en_US/advanced_sim_tutorial/[Link]
6 Extra Resources
NX 11 help menu :
[Link]
Many tutorials are available here :
[Link]
ning/en_US/advanced_sim_tutorial/[Link]?goto=[Link]
The Simcenter Flow Solver Reference Manual is available here :
[Link]
mon/en_US/graphics/fileLibrary/nx/tdoc_advanced_simulation/[Link]
A community forum for SimCenter 3D simulation is available here :
[Link]
Forum/bd-p/Simcenter_3DSimcenter_forum
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