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SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation

Easily simulate fluid flow, heat transfer, and fluid forces that are critical to the success of your design with SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. Fully embedded with SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation intuitive CFD (computational fluid dynamics) tool enables you to simulate liquid and gas flow in real world conditions, run “what if” scenarios, and efficiently analyze the effects of fluid flow, heat transfer, and related forces on immersed or surrounding components. You can compare design variations to make better decisions to create products with superior performance. Driven by engineering goals, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation enables Product Engineers to use CFD insights for making their technical decision through a concurrent engineering approach. Additional HVAC and Electronic Cooling modules offer dedicated fluid flow simulation tools for detailed analysis.

Add-on modules for Flow Simulation:

  • HVAC Module - evaluate gas movement and temperature in working and living environments as well in lighting applications.

  • Electronic Cooling Module - evaluate thermal properties and cooling requirements for electronic components.

 
 

Simulate Liquid and Gas Flow with Ease, using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation.

 
 

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation solutions include:

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis to enable quick, efficient simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer. You can easily calculate fluid forces and understand the impact of a liquid or gas on product performance.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, CFD analysis using SOLIDWORKS Simulation takes the complexity out of flow analysis and can be a regular part of your design process, reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework and delays, and saving time and development costs.

CFD Analysis Overview

CFD simulates fluid (either liquid or gas) passing through or around an object. The analysis can be very complex—for example, containing in one calculation heat transfer, mixing, and unsteady and compressible flows. The ability to predict the impact of such flows on your product performance is time consuming and costly without some form of simulation tool.

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation offers a wide range of physical models and fluid flow capabilities so you can obtain better insight into product behavior that is critical to your design success covering a broad range of applications:

  • Liquid and gas flow with heat transfer

  • External and internal fluid flows

  • Laminar, turbulent, and transitional flows

  • Time-dependent flow

  • Subsonic, transonic, and supersonic regimes

  • Gas mixture, liquid mixture

  • Conjugate heat transfer

  • Heat transfer in solids

  • Incompressible and compressible liquid

  • Compressible gas

  • Real gases

  • Water vapor (steam)

  • Non-Newtonian liquids (to simulate blood, honey, molten plastics)

Engineers across a wide range of industries can benefit from CFD—such as automotive, aerospace, defense, life science, machinery, and high tech. Indeed, almost every design encounters fluid dynamics at some point, whether heat or liquids, internal or external.

Understand and evaluate thermal comfort levels for multiple environments using thermal comfort factor analysis with SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation and the HVAC Application Module.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, thermal comfort factor analysis using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework or delays, and saving time and development costs.

Thermal Comfort Factors Analysis Overview

When designing an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system, it is crucial to understand the level of thermal comfort for people in their environments (for example, home, office, bus, plane) as early as possible in the development cycle. However, thermal comfort is subjective. So, the realistic aim is to create a thermal environment that satisfies the maximum possible percentage of people taken as a group in a given environment.

Assessment of the thermal environment in the occupied zone requires knowing what are called Thermal Comfort Parameters, such as:

  • Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)

  • Predicted Percent Dissatisfied (PPD)

  • Operative Temperature

  • Draft Temperature

  • Air Diffusion Performance Index (ADPI)

In addition to thermal comfort level, HVAC engineers can also review factors which give them information about air quality, such as:

  • Contaminant Removal Effectiveness (CRE)

  • Local Air Quality Index (LAQI)

Evaluate and compare design alternatives with the visualization and reporting capabilities of SOLIDWORKS Simulation. Increase your ability to make informed design decisions while you ensure product performance and safety.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, SOLIDWORKS Simulation analysis visualization and reporting can be a regular part of your design process—helping to reduce the need for costly prototypes, eliminate rework or delays, and save time and development costs.

Simulation Visualization and Reporting

The ultimate objective of virtual simulation is to get valuable information so you can quickly compare design alternatives—and identify the best.

SOLIDWORKS Simulation and SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation offer a wide range of powerful and intuitive post processing tools, so you can get full value and understanding from your simulation data:

  • Visualize the stress and displacement of your assembly with customizable 3D plots

  • Animate the response of your assembly under loads to visualize:

    • Deformations

    • Vibration modes

    • Contact behavior

    • Optimization alternatives

    • Flow trajectories

  • Understand the fluid flow inside your products using the section plots, simply defined with any SOLIDWORKS plane

  • Get values quickly and easily for critical parameters, such as pressure drop, using the Engineering Goals

  • Investigate your design performance and isolate critical areas by results values, using the Isosurfaces plot

  • Communicate your simulation results and collaborate easily with eDrawings® software

  • Create and publish customized reports in Microsoft® Word or HTML format, including all your favorite plots

Determine the impact of a liquid or gas on product performance during the design phase using CAD-embedded SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies provide meaningful insight into the impact of fluid flow, so you can address problems early, reduce the need for costly prototypes, and eliminate rework.

Fluid Flow Simulation Overview

CFD simulates fluid (either liquid or gas) passing through or around an object. The analysis can be very complex—for example, one calculation can contain heat transfer, mixing, and unsteady and compressible flows. The ability to predict the impact of such flows on your product performance can be time consuming and expensive without some type of simulation tool.

SOLIDWORKS CFD analysis for liquid flow, gas flow, or heat transfer can help you deliver innovative designs and greater product efficiency. Typical problems solved include:

  • Pressure drop for a valve to calculate its efficiency

  • Airflow inside a home or office environment to calculate thermal comfort factors

  • Temperature distribution for an electronic component to calculate electronic thermal models

  • Aerodynamic simulation to calculate lift and drag forces

Quickly perform complete component thermal analysis on designs incorporating printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronics with easy-to-use SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation and the Electronic Cooling Module.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, electronics thermal management analysis using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation can be a regular part of your design process, ensuring product performance and safety—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework or delays, and saving time and development costs.

Electronics Thermal Management Analysis Overview

To optimize the thermal performance of electronic components and ensure their operation, designers and engineers need to simulate both the environment and heat loads in and around components, PCBs, and complete products. SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, augmented with the Electronic Cooling Module, enables you to easily perform complete thermal analysis and test design changes during the design phase.

The Electronic Cooling Module features a comprehensive set of intelligent models In addition to the core SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation models to enable a broad range of electronic cooling applications to be built quickly and accurately. The models included for electronic thermal simulations are:

  • Fans model

  • Thermoelectric cooler (TEC)

  • Heat sink simulation

  • Two-Resistor Component Compact Model (JEDEC standard)

  • Heat Pipe Compact model

  • PCB generator tool

  • Electrical contact condition

  • Joule Heating calculation

  • Extensive library of electronic models

Electronic thermal management analysis enables designers to easily investigate the impact of cooling and design changes on component temperatures. Temperature fields can be exported to SOLIDWORKS Simulation for further thermal stress analysis.

Easily investigate the impact of cooling and design changes on component temperatures using thermal fluid analysis in SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation. You can quickly determine the impact of fluids flowing in and around the design to ensure correct thermal performance, product quality, and safety.

Tightly integrated with SOLIDWORKS CAD, thermal fluid analysis using SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation can be a regular part of your design process—reducing the need for costly prototypes, eliminating rework or delays, and saving time and development costs.

Thermal Fluid Analysis Overview

Thermal fluid analysis enables analysis of conjugate heat transfer (thermal conduction in solids, convection between fluid and solid, and radiation) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) so you can:

  • Detect hot spots in their designs

  • Reduce overheating challenges

  • Improve thermal isolation

  • Leverage thermal performance in their products

SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation calculates either the steady state or transient temperature fields due to:

  • Heat transfer in solids (conduction)

  • Free, forced, and mixed convection

  • Radiation

  • Heat sources (heat generation rate, heat power, temperature)

Temperature fields can be exported to SOLIDWORKS Simulation for a thermal stress analysis.

 

Request a trial of SolidWorks Flow Simulation

 

 

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