AcuSolve 2019 Tutorial Manual

Altair AcuSolve 2019
Tutorials
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AcuSolve Tutorials
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AcuSolve Tutorials
Technical Support p.vi
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Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials
This guide contains a collection of simulation cases with explicit instructions for setting up, solving
and post-processing. A range of tutorials are included to illustrate the basic AcuSolve workflow and to
provide guidance for setting up a variety of problems.
Some tutorials can be completed with a choice of pre-processor. Therefore, two sets of tutorials are
provided here are, one for AcuConsole and the other for HyperMesh.
AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.viii
Objectives
The objectives of the AcuSolve tutorials are to:
• Present the basic AcuSolve workflow
• Introduce the capabilities of AcuSolve to new users
• Provide guidance for the use of AcuSolve with industrial applications

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.ix
Prerequisites
No experience with AcuSolve is needed prior to running through the tutorials included in this guide.
It is expected that you have some exposure to basic principles of engineering and computer-aided
engineering.
For AcuConsole tutorials, it is strongly recommended that you complete ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow
in a Mixing Elbow prior to running any of the other tutorials. This tutorial walks you through the basic
simulation workflow and the use of AcuConsole.
For HyperMesh based tutorials, the introductory tutorial ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction
provides the instructions for setting up CFD simulations in HyperMesh starting from geometry import
through post-processing. The subsequent tutorials do not have the steps related to geometry import
and mesh generation. For these tutorials, you will be provided with the model HyperMesh database (.hm
file), which has the meshed geometry. The tutorials then provide instructions related to CFD set up and
post-processing.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.x
Basic Workflow
AcuConsole Based Tutorials
The basic workflow for AcuConsole based tutorials consists of the following tasks:
1. Analyze the problem and identify the important attributes that need to be provided to AcuSolve.
2. Start AcuConsole and create the simulation database.
3. Set general simulation attributes.
4. Set solution strategy attributes.
5. Set material model attributes.
6. Import the geometry for the simulation.
7. Apply attributes to volumes.
8. Create surfaces, such as inlet, outlet and wall, and apply boundary conditions.
9. Set global meshing attributes.
10. Set user-defined zones for mesh refinements to areas not linked to a particular surface.
11. Set surface meshing attributes.
12. Generate the mesh.
13. Run AcuSolve to calculate the solution.
14. Post-process results with AcuProbe (to visualize data related to the progress of the calculations)
and/or with AcuFieldView to visualize simulation data with contours, vectors, streamlines, and the
like.
While all steps needed to complete these tutorials are explicitly mentioned, default values, initial
conditions, and discussions of other turbulence models are intentionally left out of the tutorials.
HyperMesh based tutorials

The basic workflow for HyperMesh based tutorials consists of the following tasks:
1. Problem Description.
2. Start HyperMesh and import the model database.
3. Set up the general simulation parameters.
4. Specify the solver settings.
5. Define the body force, material models, multiplier functions, emissivity models, reference frame
and mesh motion, etc.
6. Set up the surface boundary conditions such as inlet, outlet, wall etc., and assign material model
parameters to volume regions.
7. Specify the nodal initial conditions, reference pressure, etc (if needed).
8. Compute the solution using AcuSolve.
9. Post-process results with AcuProbe (to visualize data related to the progress of the calculations)
and/or with AcuFieldView to visualize simulation data with contours, vectors, streamlines, and the
like.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.xi
Note: Validation (comparison with experimental results) and verification (determination of

a mesh independent solution) approaches are not covered in this manual. Please refer to the
AcuSolve Validation Manual for validation cases.
For tutorials that illustrate more complicated problems, such as those involving transient physics or
mesh motion, details of additional tasks are provided in the tutorial.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.xii
Supporting Files
Supporting files are provided for use in completing the tutorials. These files are located in a compressed
.zip archive located in the <hwcfdsolvers installation directory>\acusolve\win64 (or
linux64)\model_files\tutorials\AcuSolve directory.
For AcuConsole based tutorials, copy AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip to a directory and expand it to

a location of your choice. You will need to know this location in order to load files for any given tutorial.
For HyperMesh based tutorials, copy HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip to a directory and expand it to

a location of your choice. You will need to know this location in order to load files for any given tutorial.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials p.xiii
Typographical Conventions Used in this Manual

Different type styles are used to indicate workspace items and inputs, for example:
Set the Turbulence equation to Spalart Allmaras.
Enter Symmetry as the name of the surface.
A mini flow chart is used to indicate menu selections that lead to a specific command or dialog box, for
example,
Open View > Defined Views and set the view to +Z.
This indicates that the View menu is clicked, then the Defined Views menu item is selected, and that
the button labeled +Z is clicked on the dialog box that is opened.
A mini flow chart is also used to indicate items in the Data Tree to be expanded, for example,
Expand the Model > Surfaces > Small Inlet tree item.
This indicates that first the Model tree item is expanded, then the Surfaces item underneath it is
expanded, and finally, the Small Inlet item under Surfaces is expanded.

Contents
Intellectual Property Rights Notice.............................................................................i
Technical Support............................................................................................................v
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials........................................................................... vii
1 User Interface Introduction..................................................................................... 17
1.1 ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction..................................................................... 18

1.1.1 HyperMesh..................................................................................................... 18
2 Turbulence.................................................................................................................... 55
2.1 ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow..............................................................56

2.1.1 AcuConsole.....................................................................................................56
2.1.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................103
2.2 ACU-T: 2100 Turbulent Flow Over an Airfoil Using the SST Turbulence Model.................... 113
2.2.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 113
2.3 ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow over an Airfoil Using the SA Transition Models......................150
2.3.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 150
2.4 ACU-T: 2201 Transition Flow over an Airfoil using the SST Transition Models.................... 193
2.4.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 193
3 Heat Transfer............................................................................................................. 236
3.1 ACU-T: 3000 Enclosed Hot Cylinder: Natural Convection............................................... 237

3.1.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 237
3.2 ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow............................................... 277
3.2.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 277
3.2.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................327
3.3 ACU-T: 3101 Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow..................................339
3.3.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 339
3.3.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................373
3.4 ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation
and Porous Media.......................................................................................................... 386
3.4.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 386
3.4.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................440
3.5 ACU-T: 3201 Greenhouse Daytime Climate Simulation – Solar Radiation and
Thermal Shell................................................................................................................ 454
3.5.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 454
3.6 ACU-T: 3203 Heat Transfer Between Concentric Spheres – P1 Radiation Model................. 498
3.6.1 HyperMesh....................................................................................................498
3.7 ACU-T: 3204 Heat Transfer Between Concentric Spheres – Discrete Ordinate
Radiation Model............................................................................................................. 511
14
3.7.1 HyperMesh....................................................................................................511
3.8 ACU-T: 3300 Modeling of a Heat Exchanger Component................................................525
3.8.1 HyperMesh....................................................................................................525
3.9 ACU-T: 3400 AcuSolve-Flux Integration...................................................................... 535
3.9.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 535
4 Multiphase................................................................................................................... 569
4.1 ACU-T: 4000 Dam Break Simulation...........................................................................570

4.1.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 570
4.1.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................594
4.2 ACU-T: 4001 Water Filling in a Tank.......................................................................... 606
4.2.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 606
4.2.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................635
4.3 ACU-T: 4002 Sloshing of Water in a Tank................................................................... 647
4.3.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 647
4.3.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................673
4.4 ACU-T: 4100 Multiphase Flow using Algebraic Eulerian Model.........................................686
4.4.1 HyperMesh....................................................................................................686
4.5 ACU-T: 4200 Humidity – Pipe Junction....................................................................... 701
4.5.1 HyperMesh....................................................................................................701
5 Moving Body............................................................................................................... 714
5.1 ACU-T: 5000 Blower - Steady (Rotating Frame)...........................................................715

5.1.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 715
5.1.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................748
5.2 ACU-T: 5001 Blower - Transient (Sliding Mesh)........................................................... 759
5.2.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 759
5.3 ACU-T: 5002 Brake Disc Cooling in an Automotive Disc Brake System............................. 794
5.3.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 794
5.4 ACU-T: 5100 Modeling of a Fan Component: Axial Fan..................................................836
5.4.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 836
5.4.2 HyperMesh....................................................................................................866
5.5 ACU-T: 5200 Rigid-Body Dynamics of a Check Valve.................................................... 876
5.5.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 876
5.6 ACU-T: 5201 Coupled Simulation of a Check Valve using AcuSolve and MotionSolve.......... 925
5.6.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 925
5.7 ACU-T: 5202 Flow Closing Valve................................................................................ 974
5.7.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 974
5.8 ACU-T: 5300 Ship Hull Static.................................................................................... 995
5.8.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................... 995
5.9 ACU-T: 5301 Ship Hull Dynamics............................................................................. 1029
5.9.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................. 1029
5.10 ACU-T: 5400 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure
Interaction (P-FSI)....................................................................................................... 1049
15
5.10.1 AcuConsole............................................................................................... 1049
5.11 ACU-T: 5401 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester - PFSI & IMM.................................. 1093
5.11.1 AcuConsole............................................................................................... 1093
5.12 ACU-T: 5402 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester with Rigid Body Rotation................... 1137
5.12.1 AcuConsole............................................................................................... 1137
5.13 ACU-T: 5403 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction............ 1160
5.13.1 AcuConsole............................................................................................... 1160
6 AcuTrace.....................................................................................................................1195
6.1 ACU-T: 6000 Static Mixer Simulation - AcuTrace........................................................ 1196

6.1.1 AcuConsole................................................................................................. 1196
7 Optimization.............................................................................................................. 1214
7.1 ACU-T: 7000 Parametric Optimization with AcuSolve...................................................1215

7.1.1 HyperMesh..................................................................................................1215
7.2 ACU-T: 7001 Shape Optimization using HyperMorph................................................... 1246
7.2.1 HyperMesh..................................................................................................1246
8 AcuFieldView Tutorials......................................................................................... 1268
8.1 AFV-T: 1000 Biomedical Device Data........................................................................ 1270

8.2 AFV-T: 2000 Polymer Processing Data...................................................................... 1289
8.3 AFV-T: 3000 Transient Data.................................................................................... 1314
9 Appendix A................................................................................................................ 1335
9.1 AcuConsole Database (*.acs)...................................................................................1336

9.2 Files Generated During Meshing............................................................................... 1337
9.2.1 Export Mesh Settings................................................................................... 1337
9.2.2 Mesh Generation......................................................................................... 1338
9.3 Files Generated During Solving................................................................................ 1342
9.3.1 Export Solution Input Files........................................................................... 1342
9.3.2 Run AcuSolve..............................................................................................1343
9.4 Files in ACUSIM.DIR............................................................................................... 1346
9.4.1 Manage Files in ACUSIM.DIR.........................................................................1346
9.4.2 AcuCleanDir................................................................................................ 1347
Index............................................................................................................................... 1349
16
User Interface Introduction 1
1 User Interface Introduction
This chapter covers the following:
• 1.1 ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction (p. 18)

AcuSolve Tutorials
1 User Interface Introduction p.18
1.1 ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction

Perform this tutorial using the following user interface(s):
HyperMesh
1.1.1 HyperMesh
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation
making use of the HyperWorks package. HyperWorks is a comprehensive suite of various Computer-
Aided Engineering (CAE) products, each specialized in a certain aspect of the CAE process. These
include HyperMesh as a generic, powerful geometric modeling and pre-processing tool, and HyperView
as a post-processing and visualization tool. Bridging these two applications is a complete range of
solvers for a gamut of engineering applications. Among these solvers is AcuSolve, which is Altair’s
offering for fluid flow and thermal analysis simulations.
HyperMesh’s inbuilt geometric modeling and finite element meshing capabilities will allow you to
create the geometry for your problem and generate excellent quality meshes in a single tool. Meshes
generated in HyperMesh can be exported in the format that AcuSolve will recognize. Moreover,
HyperMesh’s integration with AcuSolve also allows you to complete the pre-processing steps in
HyperMesh itself, including the problem setup. Once you have completed setting up your simulation in
HyperMesh, you can directly generate the AcuSolve input files. You can also choose to directly launch
AcuSolve from within HyperMesh. This integration is expected to be especially beneficial for you if you
happen to be a traditional user of HyperMesh for your modeling and meshing requirements.
The HyperWorks package has a powerful tool for post-processing and visualizing the results of your CFD
simulations, called HyperView. HyperView enables you to visualize data interactively as well as capture
and standardize your post-processing activities using process automation features. HyperView combines
advanced animation and XY plotting features with window synching to enhance results visualization.
HyperView also saves 3D animation results in Altair's compact H3D format so you can visualize and
share CAE results within a 3D web environment using HyperView Player. HyperView has a rich feature
set that you might find beneficial to your post-processing activities and are useful to explore. HyperView
has inbuilt direct-reading capabilities for AcuSolve results and does not require any conversion steps.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to use HyperMesh for importing a geometric model and generating
a mesh. You will then set up and launch the simulation from within HyperMesh. Following that, you will
learn how to use HyperView for post-processing AcuSolve results.
In this tutorial you will do the following:

• Analyze the problem
• Start HyperMesh and create a model database
• Import the geometry for the simulation
• Generate and organize the mesh using the Mesh Controls Browser
• Set general problem parameters
• Set solution strategy parameters

AcuSolve Tutorials
• Set the appropriate boundary conditions

• Run AcuSolve
• Monitor the solution with AcuProbe
• Post-process with HyperView
Prerequisites
To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve. This tutorial
introduces you to HyperMesh and HyperView so no prior experience is expected.
Prior to running through this tutorial, copy HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip from

<AcuSolve_installation_directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuSolve to a local directory. Extract
manifold.x_t from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
The file manifold.x_t stores the geometry information for the fluid portion of the model for this
problem in Parasolid ASCII format.
The color of objects shown in the modeling window in this tutorial and those displayed on your screen
may differ. The default color scheme in HyperMesh is "random," in which colors are randomly assigned
to groups as they are created. In addition, this tutorial was developed on Windows. If you are running
this tutorial on a different operating system, you may notice a slight difference between the images
displayed on your screen and the images shown in the tutorial.
Analyze the Problem

An important step in any CFD simulation is to examine the engineering problem at hand and determine
the important parameters that need to be provided to AcuSolve. Parameters can be based on
geometrical elements, such as inlets, outlets, or walls, and on flow conditions, such as fluid properties,
velocity, or whether the flow should be modeled as turbulent or as laminar.
The system being simulated here is a manifold pipe, analogous to an inlet manifold in an engine. An
inlet manifold distributes the incoming flow to multiple outputs. As can be seen in the image below,
the pipe has a single inlet and multiple outlets, thus distributing a fraction of the flow among each
outlet. Ideally in an inlet manifold used in an engine, the manifold design is such that it ensures near-
equal distribution of flow among all the outlets. However, the geometry being used here is purely a
demonstration case and not an optimized manifold geometry.
Figure 1: Schematic of the Problem

AcuSolve Tutorials
Introduction to HyperMesh
HyperMesh is a generic tool offering a combination of geometric modeling and pre-processing
capabilities.
HyperMesh supports a number of commonly used solvers used in simulating various engineering
applications, providing direct interfaces to most of them. This offers you flexibility to use HyperMesh as
a single tool for most, if not all, of your modeling and pre-processing activities.
AcuSolve is among the solvers that are closely integrated with HyperMesh. In order to simplify the
interfaces associated with each solver, HyperMesh uses user profiles to automatically manage the
templates for a given solver. Each user profile has an associated pre-defined set of menus, options
and toolbars visible. User profiles ensure that the solver setup is in accordance with the options and
requirements of the solver associated with the profile in which it is generated. It is advised that you
make sure you are using the correct user profile when setting up a model. Also, it is recommended that
the active user profile is not to be changed while the current HyperMesh database is populated.
In this tutorial, you will be working in a user profile associated with AcuSolve. Once you begin the
tutorial you will change the active user profile to the AcuSolve user profile. HyperMesh remembers the
last active user profile when it is restarted. If the last HyperMesh user on your machine was working in
the AcuSolve user profile when you launch HyperMesh it will start with the AcuSolve user profile.
A HyperMesh session loaded with the AcuSolve user profile looks like the image below.
Figure 2: HyperMesh Interface with Active AcuSolve User Profile
1. Menu bar: Located at the top of the window, just under the title bar. Like the pull-down menus in
many applications, these menus drop-down a list of options when clicked.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Toolbars: Located around the modeling window. These have icons that provide quick access to
commonly-used functions, such as changing display options. They can be dragged and placed as
per the user preference.
Below are some of the commonly used toolbars.
Figure 3: Standard Toolbar
Provides the options for creating, opening or saving the database, import/export options and
changing user profiles.
Figure 4: Checks Toolbar
On the Checks toolbar, you can access various checks and calculations tools that are commonly
used in the model building process.
Figure 5: CFD Toolbar
The CFD toolbar has options for creating, deleting and organizing entities, accessing meshing
panels and launching AcuConsole or AcuSolve.
Figure 6: Display Toolbar
On the Display toolbar, you can control what entities HyperMesh displays, primarily by masking
entities to hide or display. This toolbar is usually located along the left edge of the modeling
window.
Figure 7: Visualization Toolbar
Options available on the Visualization toolbar control how HyperMesh visualizes entities in the
modeling window.
3. Tab area: The two areas marked 3 and 4 in the image make up the tab area. The tab area is
so named because various specialized tools display on tabs in this area of the interface. One of

AcuSolve Tutorials
these tabs is the Model tab, which you will be using most frequently. Model tab will also be the tab
active by default when you start an HyperMesh session. The top half of the tab area, marked 3 in
image 2, is the browser area. Depending on the selected tab, you will be able to see the various
options or entities which belong to the active HyperMesh database. For example, when the Model
tab is selected, the Model Browser will display the entities present in the model, each of which
carry some information about the model. This information may be related to the geometrical
components that make up the model, the material information, the load information, and so on.
The model structure is viewed as a flat, listed tree structure within the browser.
4. Tab area: The bottom half, marked 4 in the image 2, is the Entity Editor. In the Entity Editor you
will be able to view and edit the information associated with the different entities available in the
browser. Clicking on an entity in the browser area will display the entity related information in this
area.
5. Main Menu: The main menu displays the available functions. You access these functions by clicking
on the button corresponding to the function you want to use. Clicking on the button will open the
panel associated with the function in the menu area.
6. Modeling Window: The modeling window is the display area for your model. You can interact with
the model in three-dimensional space in real time. In addition to viewing the model, entities can
be selected interactively from the modeling window.
7. Status bar: The status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. The four fields on the right side
of the status bar display the current include file, current part, current component collector and
current load collector. As you work in HyperMesh, any warning or error messages also display in
the status bar, on the left side.
Introduction to HyperView
HyperView is a generic post-processing and visualization environment for finite element analysis (FEA),
CFD, multi-body system simulation, digital video and engineering data.
HyperView offers direct-reading capabilities for AcuSolve generated results. AcuSolve results can be
directly opened in HyperView. HyperView also has process automation features, which can enable you
to expedite and standardize your post-processing activities.
The image below shows the HyperView interface when it is started.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 8: HyperView
1. Menu bar: Located at the top of the window, just under the title bar. Like the pull-down menus in
many applications, these menus drop-down a list of options when clicked.
2. Toolbars: Located around the modeling window. These have icons that provide quick access to
commonly-used functions, such as changing display options. They can be dragged and placed as
per the user preference. Below are some of the commonly used toolbars.
Figure 9: Standard Toolbar
Provides the options for creating or opening a model, saving an HyperView session and import/
export options.
Figure 10: Results Toolbar
On the Results toolbar you can access various options related to displaying the results, for
example, contours, vectors and streamlines.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 11: Display Toolbar
The Display toolbar provides you with quick access to the Mask panel, Section Cut panel and
Display Controls.
Figure 12: Visibility Controls Toolbar
The Visibility Controls toolbar provides you quick access to the visibility controls of the entities in
the Results Browser.
Figure 13: Image Capture Toolbar
The Image Capture toolbar provides you quick access to the image and video capturing
capabilities.
3. Tab area: The two areas marked 3 and 4 in the image make up the tab area. The tab area is
so named because various specialized tools display on tabs in this area of the interface. In
HyperView, one of these tabs is the Results tab, which you will be using most frequently. Results
tab will also be the tab active by default when you start an HyperView session. The top half of the
tab area, marked 3 in image 3, is the browser area. Depending on the selected tab, here you will
be able to see the various options or entities which are part of the active HyperView model, in a
listed tree structure similar to HyperMesh.
4. Tab area: The bottom half, marked 4 in the image 3, is the Entity Editor. In the Entity Editor you
will be able to see and edit the information associated with the different entities available in the
browser. Clicking on an entity in the browser area will display the entity related information in the
Entity Editor.
5. Panel area: The panel area displays the function panel associated with the active function
selection. You can access these functions by clicking on the icon on a toolbar corresponding to the
function you want to use. Clicking on the icon will open the panel associated with the function in
the panel area. When you launch HyperView, you will see the Load Model panel in this region.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 14:
6. Modeling window: The modeling window is the display area for your model. You can interact with
the model in three-dimensional space in real time. In addition to viewing the model, entities can
be selected interactively from the modeling window.
7. Status bar: The status bar is located at the bottom of the screen. As you work in HyperView, any
warning or error messages also display in the status bar, on the left side.
Define the Simulation Parameters and Import the Geometry
Start HyperMesh and Create a Model Database

In this tutorial, you will begin by creating a model database in HyperMesh, loading the geometry
and generating and organizing the mesh. Next you will set up the problem parameters, component
parameters, and boundary conditions and then launch AcuSolve to solve for the number of time steps
specified. Finally, you will visualize some characteristics of the results using HyperView.
In the next steps you will start HyperMesh and create the database for storage of the simulation
settings.
1. Start HyperMesh from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
HyperWorks <version> > HyperMesh.
A User Profiles dialog opens.
Note: If it does not show up for you, click Preferences on the menu bar and select
User Profiles.
2. Select HyperMesh from the Application drop-down menu.

3. Select AcuSolve from the list of applications.
4. Click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 15:
Traditional HyperMesh users will be able to tell the difference between the default HyperMesh
profile and the CFD (AcuSolve) profile. There will be an additional CFD toolbar visible. Also, the
Model Browser will be populated with some entities relevant to a CFD simulation setup.
Figure 16:
5. Click File > Save to open the Save Model dialog.

Save the model database frequently as you proceed through the tutorial steps.
6. Browse to the location that you would like to use as your working directory.

AcuSolve Tutorials
This directory is where all files related to the simulation will be stored. When you are setting
up the problem, there will be a file with extension hm in this directory, which corresponds to an
HyperMesh model database. Once the mesh and solution are generated, additional files and
directories will be added by HyperMesh and AcuSolve.
7. Create a new directory in this location. Name it ACU1000_HyperWorks and navigate into this
directory.
8. Enter ACU1000_HyperWorks as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.
Note: In order for other applications to be able to read the files written by
HyperMesh, the database path and name should not include spaces.
9. Click Save to create the database.
Import the Geometry

You will import the geometry in the next part of this tutorial. You will need to know the location of
manifold.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
Parasolid ASCII format.
1. Click File > Import > Geometry.
Tip: Alternatively, click the arrow next to the Import Solver Deck icon on the
standard toolbar and select Import Geometry.
2. Select Parasolid as the File type.
Note: In general, if you are not sure about the geometry file type, leave the File type
option as Auto Detect.
Figure 17:
3.
Click .

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: If you see anything in the list of import files, clear the list before this step by
clicking .
4. In the Select Parasolid file dialog, select manifold.x_t and click Open.
5. Make sure that the selected file is in the list of import files and click Import.
6. Click Close.
7.
Click on the Visualization toolbar to display the surfaces.
Figure 18:
Tip: Use the following controls for visualizing the model:

1. Control + Left-Click: Rotate the model
2. Control + Scroll: Zoom in/out
3. Control + Right Click: Pan the model
Define Mesh Controls and Generate the Mesh

In the following steps you will set up the mesh controls and generate the mesh for the model. You will
be introduced to the Mesh Controls Browser for this purpose.
Select Mesh > Mesh Controls from the menu bar.
The Mesh Controls Browser opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 19:
The Mesh Controls Browser lets you access all of the different meshing technologies in the single
browser. As you can see in the image above there are options to generate the surface mesh, volume
mesh, refinement zones, and so on. Within these options there are associated model, local, feature, and
refinement controls available. The model controls apply to the entire model. The local controls apply to
a specific entity in the model, such as surfaces and elements.
You will start by creating a surface mesh control followed by a volume mesh control with active
boundary layers. You will then add a volume mesh local control for the surfaces that do not require a
boundary layer.
Set up the Surface Mesh Controls and Generate Surface Mesh
1. Right-click on Surface Mesh in the Mesh Controls Browser. From the context menu that appears,
select Create > Model > Size and Bias > Surfaces.
2. Optional: In the Entity Editor, set the entity name to Surface_Mesh_Control.
3. Set the Element Size to 0.003.
4. Set the Element Type to Trias.
5. Under the Entity Selection group, click in the field next to Entities then click the Surfaces
collector.
Figure 20:
The surface entity selector menu opens in the menu area.

6. In the menu area, click the surfs collector and select all.
7. Click proceed.
8. Expand the Advanced group and verify the following settings:
a) Destination Component: Original
b) Mesh Connectivity: Keep

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 21:
9. In the Mesh Controls Browser, right-click on Surface Mesh and select Mesh.
Surface mesh is generated on the model.
Organize the Surfaces Elements

In this step, you will create component collectors for the surface elements and move the surface mesh
elements on the Inlet and Outlet surfaces into the respective components. Organizing the surface
mesh elements will help you in specify boundary conditions at the surfaces. Use the following figure as
reference:
Figure 22:
1. From the menu bar, select BCs > Components > CFD.

AcuSolve Tutorials
The Create CFD Components dialog opens.

2.
In the dialog, click the Check none icon then activate the Inflow and Outflow fields.
3. Click Create then Close.
Figure 23:
4. Close the dialog and go to the Model Browser and expand the list of components. Right-click on
Part 1 and select Rename.
5. Type Wall as the new component name and press Enter.
6. Open the Organize panel by doing one of the following:
a) Click organize in the panel area.
Figure 24:
b) Click BCs > Organize from the menu bar.

c)
Click on the CFD toolbar.
7. In the modeling window, zoom in on the inlet surface region and select any mesh element on the
inlet surface.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 25:
8. In the panel area, click the elems collector and select the by face option.
All the elements on the inlet surface are selected in the modeling window.
9. Click dest component = and select Inflow.
10. Click move.
All the inlet surface mesh elements are colored in the Inflow component color.
11. Similarly, select a mesh element on each of the Outflow surfaces then click on the elems collector
and select the by face option. Verify that all the surface elements on the three outlet surfaces are
now highlighted then set the dest component = to Outflow and click move.
The model should now look similar to the figure below.
Figure 26:
12. Click return to exit the panel.
Set up the Volume Mesh Controls

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. Go to the MeshControls tab and right-click on Volume Mesh. From the context menu that
appears, select Create > Model > BL + Tetra.
Selecting BL + Tetra will show options for the boundary layer specification in addition to tetra
volume meshing options.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the entity name to Volume_Mesh_Control.
3. Under the Entity Selection group, click in the value field next to Entities then click the
Components collector.
Figure 27:
The Select Components dialog opens.

4. Select all three components in the dialog and click OK.
Figure 28:
You can click the icon in the dialog to quickly select all of the components.
5. Click OK to close the dialog.
6. Expand the Boundary Layer group and set the boundary layer parameters as follows:
a) Change the Method to Advanced
b) Set First Layer Thickness to 0.0005
c) Select Acceleration as the BL Growth Rate Method.
d) Set Initial Growth Rate to 1.3
e) Set the Number of Layers to 5
f) Change Hexa Transition Mode to All Prism

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 29:
When generating boundary layer meshes in HyperMesh, it is recommended to use All Prism
as the boundary layer meshing mode for superior element quality. The prism elements
can later be split into tetrahedral elements, which is the recommended element type for
AcuSolve.
This completes the boundary layer mesh control. You will now add a local control for surfaces
that do not require a boundary layer.
7. Right-click on Volume Mesh in the Mesh Controls Browser. From the context menu that appears,
select Create > Local > No BL.
8. Optional: In the Entity Editor, set the entity name tono_BL_control.
Figure 30:

10. Select Inflow and Outflow from the list and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 31:
11. Expand the Boundary Layer group and set Base Surface Mesh Treatment to Float.
Figure 32:
12. Finally, add a volume selector control to put the boundary layer and the core tetra mesh in the
same component.
a) Right-click on Volume Mesh in the Mesh Controls Browser. From the context menu that
appears, select Create > Volume Selector.
b) In the Entity Editor, activate the check box for BL and Tetras in One Component.
Figure 33:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Generate the Volume Mesh

In the previous steps, you created some model and local mesh controls. Your Mesh Controls Browser
should look like the figure below.
Figure 34:
When you set up the mesh controls, at least one active model control should be present before you
generate the mesh. You can create multiple model controls, but only one model control can be active at
a time. Surface and volume mesh however have different mesh controls.
Local controls are optional. You can create multiple local mesh controls, however only the ones which
are selected at the time of mesh generation will be applied.
1. In the Mesh Controls Browser, make sure that both the Model and Local volume mesh controls are
enabled.
2. Right-click on Volume Mesh and click Mesh.
The generated volume mesh is placed in a single collector called CFD_tetcore001 under the list
of components. This collector will be visible in the Model Browser. Once the meshing is complete,
observe the mesh using the visualization controls.
Figure 35:

AcuSolve Tutorials
You can turn off the surface display to view the mesh more clearly. On the Visualization toolbar,
click the icon to display the geometry as wire frame. This will turn off the surface display. To
turn on the surface display, click the icon. Zoom in to observe the boundary layer generated.
Figure 36:
3. In the Model Browser rename the collector CFD_tetcore001 to Fluid. In the Entity Editor, change
the Type to FLUID.
This collector will hold all of the 3D volume elements.

AcuSolve Tutorials
The mesh generated has prismatic elements in the boundary layer. These elements will be split to
create tetrahedral elements.
4. Click Mesh > Edit > Elements > Split Elements.
The Split Elements panel opens.
5. Select the solid elements sub-panel.
6. Click the elems collector and select all.
7. Change the split pattern to split into tetras.
This is the optimized mode for splitting elements into tetras for a CFD simulation.
8. Click split.
Observe the mesh after the splitting process is complete.
Figure 37:
Set up Simulation Parameters for AcuSolve

The next step after creating the mesh is to set up the simulation parameters. You will use the Solver
Browser for this purpose. The Solver Browser provides a solver perspective view of the model structure
in flat, listed tree structure.
Set General Simulation Parameters

In next steps you will set parameters that apply globally to the simulation.
1. Click View > Solver Browser to open the Solver Browser.

AcuSolve Tutorials
The Solver Browser lists every entity mapped to the active solver profile within the session and
places those entities into their respective entity group folders.
Figure 38:
2. Expand 01.Global and then expand 01.PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION.

3. Click PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION to open the Entity Editor.
4. Type Manifold for the Title.
5. Change the Turbulence model from Laminar to Spalart Allmaras.
Figure 39:
Specify the Solver Settings
1. In the Solver Browser, expand the 02.SOLVER_SETTINGS group then click SOLVER_SETTINGS
to open it in the Entity Editor.
2. Verify that the Convergence tolerance is set to 0.001.
3. Change the Relaxation factor to 0.4.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Check that Flow and Turbulence are set to On.
Figure 40:
Set Nodal Initial Conditions
1. In the Solver Browser, expand the 03.Nodal_Initial_Condition group then click

Nodal_Initial_Condition to open it in the Entity Editor.
2. Set the X velocity to 2 m/sec.
2
3. Set the Eddy viscosity to 1e-05 m /sec.
Figure 41:
Apply Volume Parameters

Volume groups are containers used for storing information about a volume region. This information
includes solution and meshing parameters applied to the volume and the geometric regions that these
settings are applied to.

AcuSolve Tutorials
There is one volume collector in this model, fluid. In the next steps you will set the material properties
for it.
1. In the Solver Browser, expand 11.Volumes then expand the FLUID volume group and click
Fluid.
The fluid collector entity opens in the Entity Editor.
2. Click in the value field for Material (it is Unspecified by default).
3. Click Material.
The Select Material dialog opens.
4. Select Water_HM and click OK.
Figure 42:
Apply Surface Parameters

Surface groups are containers used for storing information about a surface, including solution and
meshing parameters, and the corresponding surface in the geometry that the parameters will apply to.
1. In the Solver Browser, expand 12.Surfaces then expand the WALL surface group. Click Wall to
open it in the Entity Editor. Verify that the Type is set to WALL.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 43:
2. Expand the OUTFLOW surface group then click Outflow to open it in the Entity Editor. Verify that
the Type is set to OUTFLOW.
Figure 44:
3. Expand the INFLOW surface group then click Inflow to open it in the Entity Editor. Verify that
the Type is set to INFLOW. Set Inflow type to Average velocity. Set the Average velocity to 2
m/sec.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 45:
4. Save the model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Compute the Solution and Review the Results
Run AcuSolve
In this step, you will launch AcuSolve directly from HyperMesh and compute the solution.
1. In the Model Browser, ensure that the visibility of the mesh for all collectors to be exported to
AcuSolve is activated. In this case, Fluid, Wall, Inflow and Outflow should be activated.
Figure 46:
The display of the mesh icon beside the component name indicates that the visibility of mesh for
that component is on. The display of the mesh of a component can be turned on/off by clicking on
that icon.
2.
The Solver job Launcher dialog opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 47:
For this case, the default settings will be used. You may choose to change the number of
processors to allow AcuSolve to run using more processors (4 or 8), if available. HyperMesh will
generate the required solver input files and launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the steady
state solution for this problem.
3. Verify that Auto run AcuProbe is On.
This will open an AcuProbe dialog which will let you monitor the solution progress.
4. Click Launch to start the solution process.
As the solution progresses, an AcuTail and an AcuProbe dialog will open. Solution progress is
reported in the AcuTail dialog. An AcuSolve Control dialog will also open from which you can
control the solution process. In this dialog you have options to stop the solution or generate the
output files at the end of the current time step.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 48:
A summary of the run printed in the AcuTail dialog indicates that AcuSolve has finished running
the solution.
Figure 49:
Monitor the Solution with AcuProbe

AcuProbe can be used to monitor various variables over solution time.
1. In the AcuProbe dialog, expand Residual Ratio.
2. Right-click on Final and select Plot All.
Note: You might need to click on the toolbar in order to properly display the plot.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 50:
The plot above shows the residuals of the equations as the solution progresses through each time
step. You can see the residuals dropping smoothly. Once the pressure and velocity residual ratios
reach a value less than the specified convergence tolerance (0.001), the solution is considered to
be converged. By default, the eddy viscosity convergence tolerance is set to a magnitude of one
order higher than the specified convergence tolerance (0.01).
3. You can also save the plots as an image.
a) From the AcuProbe dialog, click File > Save.
b) Enter a name for the image and click Save.
4. The time series data of the variables can also be exported as a text file for further post-
processing.
a) Right-click on the variable that you want to export and click Export.
b) Enter a File name and choose .txt for the Save as type.
c) Click Save.
Post-Process the Results with HyperView

Once the solution has converged, close the AcuProbe and AcuTail windows. Go to the HyperMesh
window and close the AcuSolve Control tab.
Open HyperView
In the main menu area, click Applications > HyperView to open HyperView.
Load Model and Results

Once the HyperView window is loaded, the Load model and results panel should be open by default. If
you do not see the panel, click File > Open > Model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. In the Load model and results panel, click next to load model.
2. In the Load Model File dialog, navigate to your working directory and select the AcuSolve .Log
file for the solution run that you want to post-process. In this example, the file to be selected is
ACU1000_HyperWorks.1.Log
3. Click Open.
4. Click Apply in the panel area to load the model and results.
The model is colored by geometry after loading.
Apply Pressure Contours on the Boundary Surfaces
1. Click the icon on the Results toolbar.

2. On the Contour panel, select Pressure (s) as the Result type.
Figure 51:
3. Click Apply.
Figure 52:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Save Plots as Image Files
1.
On the Image Capture toolbar toggle the / icons so that it shows the icon to save to
file.
2.
Click the icon on the Image Capture toolbar.
3. Provide a name for the image in the dialog and click Save.
If you want to use the image in a presentation you can copy them to the clipboard by toggling
the Save Image to File/Clipboard icon to instead of . Then paste the image in your
presentation.
Create Pressure and Velocity Contours on a Cut Plane
1. To create a new cut plane, right-click in the Results Browser and select Create > Section Cut >
Planar from the context menu.
A new entity, Section 1, is created in the Results Browser.
2. Right-click Section 1 and select Edit from the context menu.
3. In the Section Cut panel verify that Define plane is set to Y Axis.
4. Verify that Display options has the Cross section check box activated.
5. Verify that the Clip elements check box is activated.
Figure 53:
6. Move the Define plane slider bar to choose a desired position for the section cut plane.
7. Click on Gridline in the panel area.
8. In the dialog, uncheck the Show option under Gridline then click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 54:

10. On the Contour panel select Velocity as the Result type.
11. Click Apply.
Figure 55:
Create a Clipping Plane

The section cut plane can be used as a clipping plane as well. In this step you will create a clipping
plane.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. Right-click Section 1 under Section Cuts in the Results Browser and select Edit from the context
menu.
2. In the Section Cut panel change the selection under Display options from Cross section to
Clipping plane.
Figure 56:
3. Click Reverse to toggle the clipping direction to your choosing.
Figure 57:
Create Velocity Vectors
1. In the Section Cut panel under Display options set the selection back to Cross section.
3. On the Vector panel, make sure that the Result type is set to Velocity (v).
4. Set the Selection mode to Sections by selecting from the drop-down menu.
5. Click Sections to open the Extended Entity Selection dialog.
6. Click Displayed.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 58:
7. Select the X and Z components.
Figure 59:
8. Click Apply.
Figure 60:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Display Streamlines
1. In the Results Browser expand the Section Cuts folder.

2. Click the icon next to Section 1 to turn off its display.
3. In the Results Browser turn off the display for all components, except inflow and outflow.
4.
Click the icon on the Results toolbar to open the Streamlines panel.
5. Click Add to add a new set of streamlines.
6. Set the Rake type to Line, if not already selected.
7.
Click the icon.
The Reference point dialog opens.
8. Enter the reference points as:
a) X1: 0.4293, Y1: 0.0, Z1: 0.09208
b) X2: 0.4293, Y2: 0.0, Z2: 0.03492
Figure 61:
9. Type 20 for the Number of seeds.

10. Set the Integration mode to Downstream from drop-down menu, if not already selected.
11. Make sure that the Source is set to Velocity.
12. Click Create Streamlines.
13. Enter the Streamline Size as 3.
Figure 62:

AcuSolve Tutorials
14. Press Enter on the keyboard.
Figure 63:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to carry out a CFD simulation and post-processed
the results using HyperWorks products, namely HyperMesh and HyperView. You started by importing
and meshing the model in HyperMesh. You also set up the model and launchedAcuSolve directly from
within HyperMesh. Upon completion of solution by AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the
results. You learned how to create contours on the boundary surfaces and the section cuts, velocity
vectors, and streamlines.

Turbulence 2
2 Turbulence
• 2.1 ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow (p. 56)

• 2.2 ACU-T: 2100 Turbulent Flow Over an Airfoil Using the SST Turbulence Model (p. 113)
• 2.3 ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow over an Airfoil Using the SA Transition Models (p. 150)
• 2.4 ACU-T: 2201 Transition Flow over an Airfoil using the SST Transition Models (p. 193)
AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.56
2.1 ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow

AcuConsole
HyperMesh
2.1.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results of a simulation of 3D
turbulent flow in a mixing elbow. It is designed to introduce you to the AcuSolve tool set with a simple
problem.
Prerequisites
In order to run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of AcuSolve. As this is the
first tutorial in the introductory tutorial sequence, no prior experience with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, or
AcuFieldView is expected.
Prior to running through this tutorial, copy AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip from

mixingElbow.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.
may differ. The default color scheme in AcuConsole is "random," in which colors are randomly assigned

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.57
Analyze the Problem

An important first step in any CFD simulation is to examine the engineering problem to be analyzed
and determine the settings that need to be provided to AcuSolve. Settings can be based on geometrical
components (such as volumes, inlets, outlets, or walls) and on flow conditions (such as fluid properties,
velocity, or whether the flow should be modeled as turbulent or as laminar).
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 64. This is a typical
industrial example for mixing in a pipe by injecting high-velocity fluid from a small inlet into relatively
low-velocity fluid in the main pipe. It consists of a 90° mixing elbow with water entering through two
inlets with different velocities. The geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane of the pipe, as shown
in the figure. This symmetry allows the flow to be modeled with the use of a symmetry plane. The use
of a symmetry plane leads to reduced computation time while still providing an accurate solution.
Figure 64: Schematic of Mixing Elbow
Details of the problem characteristics are shown in the following images extracted from a sample
worksheet that was created prior to setting up the case for AcuSolve.
The diameter of the large inlet is 0.1 m, and the inlet velocity (v) is 0.4 m/s. The diameter of the small
inlet is 0.025 m, and the inlet velocity is 1.2 m/s.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.58
Figure 65:
The fluid in this problem is water, with the following properties that do not change with temperature; a
3 -3
density (ρ) of 1000 kg/m , a molecular viscosity (μ) of 1 X 10 kg/m-sec, a conductivity (k) of 0.598
W/m-K, and a specific heat (cp) of 4183 J/kg-K, as shown in the worksheet.
Figure 66:
Based on mass conservation, the combined flow rate (Q) yields a velocity of 0.475 m/s downstream of
the small inlet. This value is useful in determining the Reynolds number, which in turn can be used to
determine if the flow should be modeled as turbulent, or if it should be modeled as laminar.
Figure 67:
In order to determine whether the modeled flow would be turbulent or whether it would be laminar, the
Reynolds number (Re) should be calculated. The Reynolds number is given by:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.59
where ρ is the fluid density, V is the fluid velocity, D is the diameter of the flow region, and μ is the
molecular viscosity of the fluid. When the Reynolds number is above 4,000, it is generally accepted that
flow should be modeled as turbulent.
The Reynolds numbers of 40,000 at the large inlet, 30,000 at the small inlet, and 47,500 for the
combined flow indicate that the flow is turbulent throughout the flow domain.
Figure 68:
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow.
Figure 69:
In addition to setting appropriate conditions to capture the physics of the simulation, it is important
to generate a mesh that is sufficiently refined to provide good results. In this tutorial the global mesh
size is set to provide at least 30 mesh elements around the circumference of the large inlet. For this
problem, the global mesh size is 0.0106 m. This mesh size was chosen to provide a quick turnaround
time for the model. For real-world simulations, you would modify your mesh settings after an initial
solution until a mesh-independent solution is reached (that is, a solution that does not change with
further mesh refinement).

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Figure 70:
AcuSolve allows for mesh refinements in a user-defined region that is independent of geometric
components of the problem such as volumes, model surfaces, or edges. It is useful to refine the mesh
in areas where gradients in pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and the like are steep.
Figure 71:
Once a solution is calculated, results of interest are the steady state velocity contours on the symmetry
plane, velocity vectors on the symmetry plane, and pressure contours on the symmetry plane.

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Define the Simulation Parameters
Start AcuConsole
AcuConsole is the workspace that is used for building simulations and running them with AcuSolve.
Start AcuConsole from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
HyperWorks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuConsole.
Start AcuConsole on Linux by entering AcuConsole in a terminal window that has the AcuSolve
environment configured. Please refer to the HyperWorks Installation Guide for instructions on
configuring AcuSolve on Linux.
The main AcuConsole window is comprised of eight major components.
• menu bar
• Toolbar
• Data Tree
• Data Tree Manager
• View Manager toolbar
• modeling window
• Detail panels
• Information window
When AcuConsole is first opened, the Data Tree, detail panel, modeling window and Information window
are empty. The following figure from a partially defined case is used to illustrate the parts of the
workspace.
Menu Bar Toolbar
View
Data Tree Manager
Manager Toolbar
Data Tree
Graphics
Window
Detail
Panel
Information
Window
Figure 72:

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The items in the Data Tree are separated into two main areas, Global and Model. The Global tree item
contains geometry independent settings that apply to the AcuSolve simulation, such as the physics to
be modeled, the solution strategy, material properties and geometry independent mesh controls. The
Model branch in the Data Tree contains settings that apply to specific portions of the geometry of the
model, such as boundary conditions, material used for a volume region and meshing attributes that
apply to a specific component of the model geometry.
In this tutorial, you will begin by creating a database, populating the geometry-independent settings,
loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group attributes, adding geometry components to groups
and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you will generate a mesh
and run AcuSolve to converge on a steady state solution. Finally, you will visualize the results using
AcuFieldView.
Create the Simulation Database

In the next steps you will create a database for the storage of AcuConsole settings and set the location
for saving mesh and solution information for AcuSolve.
1. Click the File menu, then click New to open the New data base dialog.
Tip: You can also open the New data base dialog by clicking on the toolbar.
This directory is where all files related to the simulation will be stored. The AcuConsole database
file (.acs) is stored in this directory. Once the mesh and solution are created, additional files and
directories will be created within this directory.
3. Create a new folder named Mixing_Elbow and open this folder.
4. Enter Mixing_Elbow as the File name for the database.
AcuConsole, the database path and name should not include spaces.

In the next steps you will set parameters that apply globally to the simulation. To simplify this task, you
will use the BAS filter in the Data Tree Manager. The BAS filter limits the options in the Data Tree to
show only the basic settings.
The physical models that you define for this tutorial correspond to steady state, turbulent flow. You will
also provide some general information about the AcuSolve case, such as a title and subtitle.
1. Click BAS in the Data Tree Manager to switch to basic view in the Data Tree.

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Figure 73:
2. Double-click the Global Data Tree item to expand it.
Tip: You can also expand a tree item by clicking next to the item name.
Figure 74:
3. Double-click Problem Description to open the Problem Description detail panel.
Tip: You can also open a panel by right clicking a tree item and clicking Open on the
context menu.
4. Enter Introductory Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Mixing Elbow – Turbulent as the Sub title.
6. Accept the default Analysis type.
Note: By default, AcuSolve cases are run as steady state simulations.
7. Set the Turbulence equation to Spalart Allmaras.

a) Click the Turbulence equation drop-down.
b) Click Spalart Allmaras from the list.
The robustness and accuracy of the Spalart Allmaras turbulence model makes it an excellent
choice for simulation of steady state flows.
Figure 75:

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Note: The detail panel can be resized by dragging the right frame of the panel.
Set Solution Strategy Parameters

In the next steps you will set parameters that control the behavior of AcuSolve as it progresses during
the solution.
1. Double-click Auto Solution Strategy to open the Auto Solution Strategy detail panel.
2. Enter 0.4 for the Relaxation factor.
The relaxation factor is used to improve convergence of the solution. Typically a value between
0.2 and 0.4 provides a good balance between achieving a smooth progression of the solution and
the extra compute time needed to reach convergence. Higher relaxation factors cause AcuSolve
to take more time steps to reach a steady state solution. A high relaxation factor is sometimes
necessary in order to achieve convergence for very complex applications.
Figure 76:
Set Material Model Parameters

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum, and Water.

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In the next steps you will verify that the pre-defined material properties of water match the desired
properties for this problem.
Figure 77:
1. Double-click Material Model in the Data Tree to expand it.
Figure 78:
2. Double-click Water in the Data Tree to open the Water detail panel.
The Material type for water is Fluid.
3
3. Click the Density tab. Verify that the density of water is 1000.0 kg/m .
4. Click the Specific Heat tab. Verify that the specific heat of water is 4183.0 J/kg-K.
5. Click the Viscosity tab. Verify that the viscosity of water is 0.001 kg/m-sec.
6. Click the Conductivity tab. Verify that the conductivity of water is 0.598 W/m-K.
Figure 79:
7. Save the database to create a backup of your settings. This can be achieved with any of the
following methods.

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• Click the File menu, then click Save.

• Click on the toolbar.
• Click Ctrl+S.
Note: Changes made in AcuConsole are saved into the database file (.acs) as they
are made. A save operation copies the database to a backup file, which can be used to
reload the database from that saved state in the event that you do not want to commit
future changes.

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Import the Geometry and Define the Model
Import the Mixing Elbow Geometry

mixingElbow.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
1. Click File > Import.
2. Browse to the directory containing mixingElbow.x_t.
3. Change the file name filter to Parasolid File (*.x_t *.xmt *X_T...).
a) Click the drop-down button to the right of the File name field.
b) Click Parasolid File (*.x_t *.xmt *X_T...) from the drop-down list.
4. Select mixingElbow.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 80:
For this tutorial, the default values for the Import Geometry dialog are used to load the
geometry. If you have previously used AcuConsole, be sure that any settings that you might have
altered are manually changed to match the default values shown in the figure. With the default
settings, volumes from the CAD model are added to a default volume group. Surfaces from the
CAD model are added to a default surface group. You will work with groups later in this tutorial to
create new groups, set flow parameters, add geometric components, and set meshing parameters.

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5. Click Ok to complete the geometry import.
Figure 81: Mixing Elbow Case with Geometry Imported
At this point, your modeling window should look similar to what is shown in Figure 81.
The color of objects shown in the modeling window in this tutorial and those displayed on your
screen may differ. The default color scheme in AcuConsole is "random," in which colors are
randomly assigned to groups as they are created. In addition, this tutorial was developed on
Windows. If you are running this tutorial on a different operating system, you may notice a slight
difference between the images displayed on your screen and the images shown in the tutorial.
Manipulate the View in the Modeling Window

In the next steps you will do some basic manipulations of the mixing elbow view to help you become
familiar with the mouse actions in the modeling window. The mouse buttons that are used for rotating,
panning, and zooming are shown in the following table:
Action Mouse Button
rotate left
move (pan) middle
zoom right
1. Rotate the view.

a) Left-click in the modeling window.
b) Drag the cursor to the right and observe the display.
The model should rotate to the right.
c) Drag the cursor to the left to rotate the model to the left.
d) Drag the cursor up or down to rotate the model up or down.

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Note: You will only see half of the pipe when you manipulate the view. As this
geometry is symmetric around the midplane only half of the geometry needs to
be modeled, which reduces computation time.
e) Restore the initial view by clicking on the View Manager toolbar.
Figure 82:
2. Pan the view.

a) Middle-click in the modeling window.
b) Drag the cursor to the right to move the model to the right.
c) Drag the cursor to the left to move the model to the left.
d) Restore the initial view by clicking on the View Manager toolbar.
3. Zoom in on and out from the view.
a) Right-click in the modeling window.
b) Drag the cursor up to zoom out from the view.
c) Drag the cursor down to zoom in on the view
d) Restore the initial view by clicking on the View Manager toolbar.
Note: You can also fit the model to the window by clicking on the View
Manager toolbar.

When the geometry was imported into AcuConsole, all volumes were placed into the "default" volume
container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group, toggle the display, and assign the material
for the volume as water.
1. Expand the Model tree item by clicking .

2. Expand the Volumes tree item.
3. Toggle the display of the default volume container by clicking and next to the volume name.

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Note: You may not see any change when toggling the display if Surfaces are being
displayed, as surfaces and volumes may overlap.
4. Rename the default volume group.

a) Right-click default under Volumes and click Rename on the context menu.
Figure 83:
b) Type Mixing Elbow and press Enter.
Note: When an item in the Data Tree is renamed, the change is not saved until
you press Enter on your keyboard. If you move the input focus away from the
item without entering it, your changes will be lost.
5. Set the material model used for the fluid in the simulation.
a) Expand the Mixing Elbow tree item.
Note: By default, when an item in the Data Tree is specified, the corresponding
geometric elements are highlighted in the modeling window.
b) Double-click Element Set to open the Element Set detail panel.

c) Click the Material model drop down arrow.
d) Click Water.
Figure 84:

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For the next set of steps, it is useful to turn off the display of Elbow Volume by clicking so that
it is in the off ( ) state.
Create Surface Groups and Apply Surface Boundary Conditions

Surface groups are containers used for storing information about a surface. This information includes
the list of geometric surfaces associated with the container, as well as attributes such as boundary
conditions, surface outputs, and mesh sizing information.
In the next steps you will define surface groups, assign the appropriate attributes for each group in the
problem, and add surfaces to the groups.
Set Inflow Boundary Conditions for the Large Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the large inlet, set the inlet velocity, and add the
main inlet from the geometry to the surface group.
Figure 85:
1. Create a new surface group.

a) Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree.
b) Click New.
2. Rename the surface to Large Inlet .
a) Right-click Surface 1 under Surfaces and click Rename from the context menu.
b) Enter Large Inlet and press Enter.
3. Expand the Large Inlet surface in the tree.
4. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Large Inlet to open the Simple Boundary
Condition detail panel.
5. Change the Type to Inflow.
6. Change the Inflow type to Average Velocity.
This type of boundary condition is used by AcuSolve to approximate a fully developed flow with a
given average velocity.
7. Set the Average velocity to 0.4 m/sec.

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Figure 86:
8. Add a geometry surface to the Large Inlet group.

a) In the Data Tree, right-click Large Inlet and click Add to.
The Add to dialog is used in conjunction with the modeling window to select geometry items
to associate with model groups such as volumes, surfaces, or edges. When using the Add
to capability, zoom, pan, and rotate actions are performed by holding down the Ctrl key and
using the mouse buttons.
b) If needed, expose the modeling window, by dragging the Add to dialog to the side.
c) Rotate the model to expose the large inlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the left side of the
geometry and dragging the cursor to the right.
d) Click on the large inlet face.
Figure 87:

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At this point, the inlet should be highlighted.

e) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Large Inlet surface group.
Note: You can also use the middle mouse button to complete the addition of
geometry components to a group.
Set Inflow Boundary Conditions for the Small Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the small inlet, assign the appropriate attributes,
and add the small inlet from the geometry to the surface group.
Figure 88:

2. Rename the surface to Small Inlet.
3. Expand the Small Inlet surface in the tree.
4. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Small Inlet to open the Simple Boundary
Figure 89:
8. Add a geometry surface to the Small Inlet group.

a) In the Data Tree, right-click Small Inlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the model to expose the small inlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the bottom of the
geometry and moving the cursor toward the top of the window.
Note: If you need to zoom in or out, Ctrl+right-click and drag the cursor down or
up. You can also restore the initial view by clicking .
c) Left-click on the small inlet face.

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Figure 90:
At this point, the small inlet should be highlighted.

d) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Small Inlet group.
Figure 91:

b) Click New.
2. Rename the surface to Large Inlet .
a) Right-click Surface 1 under Surfaces and click Rename from the context menu.
b) Enter Large Inlet and press Enter.

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Figure 92:

a) In the Data Tree, right-click Large Inlet and click Add to.
The Add to dialog is used in conjunction with the modeling window to select geometry items
to associate with model groups such as volumes, surfaces, or edges. When using the Add
to capability, zoom, pan, and rotate actions are performed by holding down the Ctrl key and
using the mouse buttons.
b) If needed, expose the modeling window, by dragging the Add to dialog to the side.
c) Rotate the model to expose the large inlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the left side of the
geometry and dragging the cursor to the right.
d) Click on the large inlet face.
Figure 93:

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e) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Large Inlet surface group.
Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Small Pipe
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the side pipe wall, assign the appropriate
attributes, and add the side pipe wall from the geometry to the surface group.

2. Rename the surface to Small Pipe.
3. Expand the Small Pipe surface in the tree.
4. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Small Pipe to open the Simple Boundary
As with the large pipe, the default boundary condition Type is Wall. The default is appropriate for
this group and no other changes are needed.
5. Add geometry surfaces to this group.
a) Right-click Small Pipe and click Add to.
b) Click on the pipe near the side inlet.
Figure 94:
At this point, the side pipe wall should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Small Pipe surface container.

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Set Outflow Boundary Conditions for the Outlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the outlet, assign the appropriate attributes and
add the outlet from the geometry to the surface group.
2. Rename the surface to Outlet.
3. Expand the Outlet surface in the tree.
4. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Outlet to open the Simple Boundary
5. Change the Type to Outflow.
6. Add a geometry surface to the Outlet surface container.
a) In the Data Tree, right-click Outlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the model to expose the outlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the top of the geometry and
moving the cursor toward the bottom of the window.
c) Click on the outlet face.
Figure 95:
At this point, the outlet should be highlighted.

d) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the Outlet group.

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Set Symmetry Boundary Conditions for the Symmetry Plane
This geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane, and can therefore be modeled with half of the
geometry. In order to take advantage of this, the midplane needs to be identified as a symmetry plane.
The symmetry boundary condition enforces constraints such that the flow field from one side of the
plane is a mirror image of that on the other side.
In the next steps you will rename the default surface and apply appropriate settings.
When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all geometry surfaces were placed in the default
surface group. In the previous steps, you selected geometry surfaces to be placed in the groups that
you created. At this point, all that is left in the default surface group is the symmetry plane. Rather than
create a new container, add the symmetry surface in the geometry to it, and then delete the default
surface container, you will rename the existing container.
1. Rename the default surface to Symmetry

2. Expand the Symmetry surface in the tree.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Symmetry to open the Simple Boundary
4. Change the Type to Symmetry.
Figure 96:

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Assign Mesh Controls
Set Global Meshing Parameters

Now that the simulation has been defined, parameters need to be added to define the mesh sizes that
will be created by the mesher.
AcuConsole supports three levels of meshing control, global, zone and geometric.
• Global mesh controls apply to the whole model without being tied to any geometric component of
the model.
• Zone mesh controls apply to a defined region of the model, but are not associated with a particular
geometric component.
• Geometric mesh controls are applied to a specific geometric component. These controls can be
applied to volume groups, surface groups, or edge groups.
In the next steps you will set global meshing parameters. In subsequent steps you will create zone and
surface meshing parameters.
Figure 97:
1. Click MSH in the Data Tree Manager to filter the settings in the Data Tree to show only the
controls related to meshing.
2. Expand the Global Data Tree item.
3. Double-click Global Mesh Attributes to open the Global Mesh Attributes detail panel.
4. Change the Mesh size type to Absolute.
5. Enter 0.0106 m for the Absolute mesh size.
This absolute mesh size is chosen to ensure that there are at least 30 mesh elements around the
circumference of the main pipe.
6. Turn off the Curvature refinement parameters option.
Figure 98:

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Set Zone Meshing Parameters

In addition to setting meshing characteristics for the whole problem, you can assign meshing
parameters to a zone within the problem where you want to be able to resolve flow with a mesh that
is more refined than the global mesh. A zone mesh refinement can be created using basic shapes to
control the mesh size within that shape. These types of mesh refinement are used when refinement is
needed in an area that does not correspond to a geometric item.
In the next steps you will define mesh controls for a region around the small pipe and extending into
the main pipe by using a zone mesh control. The region of interest for this refinement is a cylinder that
encloses the small pipe and extends into the main pipe.
Figure 99:
1. Turn off the display of volumes.

2. Turn off the display of all surfaces except Symmetry.
3. Restore the initial view by clicking on the View Manager toolbar.
4. Right-click Zone Mesh Attributes under the Global branch in the Data Tree and click New.
5. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Small pipe refinement.
6. Double-click Small pipe refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
7. Change the Mesh zone type to Cylinder.
8. Set the location of the mesh refinement by defining the center points of the end faces of the
cylinder.
a) Click Open Array to open the Array Editor dialog.
b) Enter 0.143 for X-coordinate 1 and 2.
c) Enter -0.232 for Y-coordinate 1.
d) Enter -0.025 for Y-coordinate 2.
e) Enter 0.0 for Z-coordinate 2.
f) Click OK.

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Figure 100:
9. Enter 0.0254 m for the Radius.

This radius is used to define a cylinder that is larger than the small inlet.
10. Enter 0.0053 m for the Mesh size.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size is half of the mesh size in the rest of the pipe.
Note: When setting mesh size for refinement zones, the best practice is to choose a
1 1 1
value that is the global mesh size divided by a power of two, that is, /2, /4, /8, and
the like.
Figure 101:

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Figure 102:
Set Meshing Parameters for Surface Groups

In the following steps you will set meshing parameters that will allow for localized control of the mesh
size on surface groups that you created earlier in this tutorial. Specifically, you will set local meshing
parameters that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal to the surfaces of the main pipe
and of the side pipe.
Set Meshing Parameters for the Large Pipe
In the next steps you will set parameters that control the mesh size normal to the large pipe wall
(boundary layer mesh controls).
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Large Pipe tree item.
2. Click the check box next to Surface Mesh Attributes to enable the settings and open the Surface
Mesh Attributes detail panel.
3. Change the Mesh size type to None.
This option indicates that the mesher will use the global meshing parameters when creating the
mesh on the surface of the pipe walls.
4. Turn on the Boundary layer flag option.
This option allows you to define how the meshing should be handled in the direction normal to the
walls.
5. Set the Resolve option to Total Layer Height.

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Mesh elements for a boundary layer are grown in the normal direction from a surface to allow
effective resolution of the steep gradients near no-slip walls. The layers can be specified using a
number of different options. In this tutorial you will specify the height of the first layer, a stretch
ratio for successive layers (growth rate), and the total number of layers to generate. AcuConsole
will resolve the total layer height from the attributes that you provide. That is, total layer height
will be computed based on the height of the first element, the growth rate, and the number of
layers that you provide in the next few steps.
6. Keep the default value, 0.001 m, for First element height.
7. Enter 1.3 for the Growth rate.
8. Enter 4 for the Number of layers.
Figure 103:
Set Meshing Parameters for the Small Pipe
size near the walls of the small pipe.
1. Expand the Small Pipe tree item.
Note: You will set the same attributes as for the large pipe.

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Figure 104:
8. Save the database to create a backup of your settings.
Generate the Mesh

In the next steps you will generate the mesh that will be used when computing a solution for the
problem.
1. Click on the toolbar to open the Launch AcuMeshSim dialog.

2. Click Ok to begin meshing.
During meshing an AcuTail window opens. Meshing progress is reported in this window. A
summary of the meshing process indicates that the mesh has been generated.

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Figure 105:
3. Display the mesh on surfaces.

a) Right-click Zone Mesh Attributes under Global in the Data Tree and click Display off.
b) Right-click Volumes in the Data Tree and click Display off.
c) Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree and click Display on.
d) Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree, select Display type and click solid & wire.
4. Rotate, move, or zoom the view to examine the mesh.
Details of the mesh on the side pipe are shown in Figure 106. The view was obtained by turning
off the display of all surfaces except Symmetry, then zooming in on the regions where the side
pipe joins the main pipe.

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Figure 106: Mesh Details Around the Pipe Intersection Viewed on the Symmetry Plane
Note that the mesh size in the main pipe decreases from left to right in the transition from a
region where global settings determine the size to the zone around the small pipe where the
settings are for a finer mesh.

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Run AcuSolve
In the next steps you will launch AcuSolve to compute the solution for this case.
1. Click on the toolbar to open the Launch AcuSolve dialog.
Figure 107:
For this case, the default values will be used.
Based on these settings, AcuConsole will generate the AcuSolve input files, then launch the solver.
AcuSolve will run on four processors to calculate the steady state solution for this problem.
2. Click Ok to start the solution process.
While computing the solution, an AcuTail window opens. Solution progress is reported in this
window. A summary of the solution process indicates that the run has been completed.
The information provided in the summary is based on the number of processors used by AcuSolve.
If you use a different number of processors than indicated in this tutorial, the summary for your
run may be slightly different than the summary shown.

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Figure 108:
3. Close the AcuTail window and save the database to create a backup of your settings.
View Results with AcuFieldView

Now that a solution has been calculated, you are ready to view the flow field using AcuFieldView.
AcuFieldView is a third-party post-processing tool that is tightly integrated to AcuSolve. AcuFieldView
can be started directly from AcuConsole, or it can be started from the Start menu, or from a command
line. In this tutorial you will start AcuFieldView from AcuConsole after the solution is calculated by
AcuSolve.
In the next steps you will start AcuFieldView, manipulate the view of the model, display velocity
contours and vectors on the symmetry plane, and display pressure contours on the symmetry plane.
Start AcuFieldView
1. Click on the AcuConsole toolbar to open the Launch AcuFieldView dialog.
2. Click Ok to start AcuFieldView.
When AcuFieldView is started from AcuConsole, the main window and the Boundary Surface
dialog are displayed. The main window is comprised of six components as shown in Figure 109.
• menu bar
• Main toolbar
• Transform Controls toolbar
• Viewer toolbar
• modeling window

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• Side toolbar
When you start AcuFieldView from AcuConsole, the results from the last time step of the solution
that were written to disk will be loaded for post-processing.
Menu Bar Transform Controls Main Toolbar

Toolbar
Viewer
Toolbar
Graphics
Side
window
Toolbar
Figure 109: AcuFieldView GUI with Mixing Elbow Loaded
Manipulate the Model View in AcuFieldView
When AcuFieldView is started directly from AcuConsole, the model will be displayed in an isometric view
with a Boundary Surface dialog open. The initial view is shown in perspective, with an outline around
the model. You will manipulate the view in the next steps, and in later steps will view different flow
characteristics using the Boundary Surface dialog.

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Figure 110:
1. Change the background color to white.

a) Click on the View menu.
b) Click Background Color.
Figure 111:

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c) Click the white swatch, then click Close.
Figure 112:
2.
Turn off the display of the outline around the model by clicking on the toolbar.
3. Change the view from perspective to orthographic.
b) Click Perspective to disable this option.

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Figure 113:
4. Orient the model to view it from the positive Z direction (+Z).

a)
Click on the toolbar to open the Defined Views dialog.
b)
Click .
You will see the view change as soon as you click a button in the Defined Views dialog.

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Figure 114:
c) (Optional) Close the dialog.

You can move, zoom, and rotate the view in AcuFieldView in a similar fashion as in AcuConsole.
AcuFieldView uses a different mapping for mouse-button actions.
Action Mouse Button
move (pan) left
rotate middle
zoom right

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Display Contours of Velocity Magnitude on the Symmetry Plane
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of velocity magnitude on the
symmetry plane.
1.
Click to open the Boundary Surface dialog.
Note: The dialog may already be open. This step will put the focus on the dialog.
2. Disable the Show Mesh option.

3. Set velocity_magnitude as the scalar field to display.
a) Click Select in the Scalar Function control group to open the Function Selection dialog.
b) Select velocity_magnitude from the list.
Note: You may need to scroll down in the list to find velocity_magnitude.
c) Click Calculate.
4. Set the symmetry plane as the location for display of the contours.
a) Click OSF: Symmetry in the list of BOUNDARY TYPES.
b) Click OK.

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Figure 115:
The contours reflect the velocity profiles at the inlets, and show that at the elbow there is a
momentum transfer between the high-velocity side inlet flow and the flow in the main pipe,
represented by the change in the velocity magnitude.
5. Add a legend to the view.
a) In the Boundary Surface dialog, click the Legend tab .
b) Enable the Show Legend option.
c) Enable the Frame option.
d) In the Color group, next to Geometric, click the white color swatch, and then select the black
color swatch to set the color for the legend values to black.
e) Click the white color swatch next to the Title field and set the color for the title to black.
f) Move the legend by Shift+left-clicking and dragging the legend to the left.

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Figure 116:
Add Velocity Vectors to the View
In the next steps you will create a new boundary surface and display velocity vectors on that surface.
1. In the Boundary Surface dialog, in the Surface tab, click Create.

The new Surface ID will be 2.
2. Click the Geometric radio button in the COLORING group.
This sets the color of the vectors to a constant color. By default, the color is black.
3. Set vector options.
a) Click the Vectors radio button.
b) Click Options next to Vectors to open the Vector Options dialog.
c) Enable Head Scaling and set it to 0.5.
This option determines the size of the arrow head compared to the vector.
d) Set the Length Scale to 2.
The length scale determines the length of the vectors.

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e) Enable the Skip option and set it to 37.5%.

The Skip option determines the percentage of vectors to skip from being displayed. The
setting of 37.5% will result in 62.5% of the vectors being displayed.
f) Close the dialog.
4. Set the symmetry plane as the location for display of the vectors.
a) Click OSF: Symmetry in the BOUNDARY TYPES list.
b) Click OK.
Figure 117:
5. Zoom in on the junction of the small inlet with the main pipe to view details of velocity vectors.
a)
Click on the toolbar.
b) Draw a box around the junction of the two pipes.

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Figure 118:
Note: The Show Legend option for the velocity contour (Surface ID 1) is disabled in
order to capture this image.
The velocity vectors indicate the direction of flow. Notice that the velocity vector length
corresponds with the velocity contours. The vectors in the high-velocity region (red) are longest,
and those in the low-velocity region (blue) are shortest.
Display Contours of Pressure on the Symmetry Plane
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface and display contours of pressure on the symmetry
plane.

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1. In the Boundary Surface dialog, in the Surface tab, click Create.

2. Enable the Smooth option in the DISPLAY TYPE control group.
3. Enable the Scalar option in the COLORING control group.
4. Set pressure as the scalar property to display.
b) Select pressure from the list.
c) Click Calculate.
a) Click OSF: Symmetry in the list of BOUNDARY TYPES.
b) Click OK.
6. Turn off the visibility of the vectors and velocity contours.
a) Change the Surface ID to 2 or by clicking .
b) Disable the Visibility option to hide the velocity vectors.
c) Change the Surface ID to 1.
d) Disable the Visibility option to hide the velocity contours.
Note: Click on the Transform Controls toolbar to resize and center the view.

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Figure 119:
7. Change the color mapping to better resolve differences in the pressure contours.
When the scalar function for pressure is calculated by AcuFieldView, minimum and maximum
values are calculated for use in a colormap for the contour display. You can edit the coloring to
better resolve differences in the pressure distribution.
a) Set the Surface ID in the Boundary Surface dialog to 3.
Note: You could also make this the current surface by double-clicking the surface
in the modeling window.
b) Click the Colormap tab.

c) Enable the Local option.
d) Enter 200 for the upper SCALAR COLORING value.
e) Enter -60 for the lower SCALAR COLORING value.
Note: Decimal entries for values will be converted to scientific notation.

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Figure 120:
Notice that the Min: value for the Function Range changes when the Local option is toggled.
Notice also that the contours, especially near junction of the small pipe and the inside of the
bend in the main pipe, change as the option is toggled.
a) Click the Legend tab in the Boundary Surface dialog.
b) If needed, change the Surface ID to 3.
c) Enable the Show Legend option.
d) Enable the Frame option.
e) Move the legend by Shift+left-clicking and dragging the legend to the left.

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Figure 121:

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Summary
In this tutorial you worked through a basic workflow to set up a simulation of flow through a mixing
elbow. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and computed a solution using AcuSolve.
Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour and vector views along the
symmetry plane of the model. In other tutorials, this basic workflow will be reinforced while additional
modeling capabilities are introduced.
2.1.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI
Introduction. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU2000_MixingElbow.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. This is a typical
industrial example for mixing in a pipe by injecting high-velocity fluid from a small inlet into relatively
low-velocity fluid in the main pipe. It consists of a 90° mixing elbow with water entering through two
inlets with different velocities. The geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane of the pipe, as shown
in the figure
Figure 122: Schematic of Mixing Elbow

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Import the HyperMesh Model Database

1. Start HyperMesh and load the AcuSolve user profile.
Refer to the HM introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, to learn how to
select AcuSolve from User Profiles.
2.
Click the Open Model icon located on the standard toolbar.
The Open Model dialog opens.
3. Browse to the directory where you saved the model file. Select the HyperMesh file
ACU2000_MixingElbow.hm and click Open.
4. Click File > Save As.
The Save Model As dialog opens.
5. Create a new directory named MixingElbow_Turbulent and navigate into this directory.
This will be the working directory and all the files related to the simulation will be stored in this
location.
6. Enter MixingElbow as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.
Set the General Simulation Parameters

1. Go to the Solver Browser, expand 01.Global > 01.PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION, then click
PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Turbulence Model to Spalart Allmaras.

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Figure 123:
Set Up Boundary Conditions and Material Model Parameters

In this step, you will define the Boundary Conditions (BCs) for the problem and assign material
properties to the fluid volume.
Set Up Boundary Conditions

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 12.Surfaces > WALL.
2. Click Large_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,
a) Change the Type to INFLOW.
b) Set the Inflow type to Average velocity.

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c) Set the Average velocity to 0.4 m/s.
Figure 124:
3. Click Small_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,

a) Change the type to INFLOW.
4. Click Outlet. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to OUTFLOW.
Figure 125:
5. Click Symmetry. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SYMMETRY.

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Figure 126:
6. Click Wall. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Type is set to WALL.
Figure 127:
7. Click Fluid. In the Entity Editor,

a) Change the Type to FLUID.
b) Select Water_HM as the Material.

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Figure 128:
8. Save the model.
Compute the Solution

Run AcuSolve
1. Turn on the visibility of all mesh components.
For the analysis to run, the mesh for all active components must be visible.
2.
3. Optional: For a faster solution time, set the number of processors to a higher number (4 or 8)
based on availability.
4. The Output time steps can be set to All or Final. Since this is a steady state analysis, the final time
step output is sufficient.
5. Leave the remaining options as default as click Launch to start the solution process.

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Open HyperView

MixingElbow.1.Log
3. Click Open.

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Create Contour Plots of Pressure and Velocity

In this step, you will create pressure and velocity contour plots on the symmetry plane.
1. In the Results Browser, expand the list of Components.

2.
Click the Isolate Shown icon then click the Symmetry component to turn off the display of all
components in the graphics window except the Symmetry component.
Figure 129:
3. Orient the display to the xy-plane by clicking on the Standard Views toolbar.
4. Click on the Results toolbar.
5. Under result type, verify that Velocity(v) and Mag are selected.
6. Click the Components entity collector and select Displayed.
7. Click Apply.
8. In the panel area, under the Display tab, turn off the Discrete color option.
Figure 130:
9. Click the Legend tab then click Edit Legend. In the dialog, change the Numeric format to Fixed
and click OK.

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Figure 131:
10. Change the result type to Pressure(s) then click Apply to view the pressure contour on the
symmetry plane.

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Figure 132:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a CFD model, carry out a CFD
simulation, and post-process the results using HyperWorks products, namely AcuSolve, HyperMesh,
and HyperView. You started by importing the model in HyperMesh. Then you defined the simulation
parameters and launched AcuSolve directly from within HyperMesh. Upon completion of solution by
AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the results and create contour plots.

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2.2 ACU-T: 2100 Turbulent Flow Over an Airfoil

Using the SST Turbulence Model
AcuConsole
2.2.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up and using the SST and K-Omega turbulence models
in AcuSolve. The application that is investigated is the flow over a NACA0012 airfoil at an angle of
attack of 5 degrees. AcuSolve is used to extract the lift and drag forces on the airfoil. This tutorial
is designed to introduce you to the modeling concepts necessary to perform external aerodynamic
simulations using the SST and K-Omega turbulence models.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow. The
following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this tutorial:
• Use of the SST and/or K-Omega turbulence models
• Use of the farfield boundary condition type
• Use of the Variable Manager to store variables and expressions
• Entry of expressions into the panel area.
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing
Elbow. It is assumed that you have some familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, and AcuFieldView. You
will also need access to a licensed version of AcuSolve.

NACA0012.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem

The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in the figure below. It consists of
a cylindrical bounding region containing air that flows past a NACA0012 airfoil profile. The simulation
is performed as 2D by including only a single layer of extruded elements in the airfoil span direction.
The velocity vector at the far field boundary of the domain is specified to yield an angle of attack of
5 degrees and a Reynolds Number of 1.0e6. The airfoil chord is 1 meter, and standard air material
properties are used for the simulation.
Figure 133:
The diameter of the cylindrical bounding volume for the airfoil is set to 500 times the airfoil chord. This
large bounding volume is selected to ensure that the farfield boundaries are sufficiently far from the
airfoil to prevent any influence of blockage of the domain on the solution.
The initial simulation of this airfoil will be considered fully turbulent and use the SST turbulence model.
These simulation conditions correspond to a scenario where the boundary layer on the leading edge of
the airfoil is tripped with some type of roughness elements to produce a fully turbulent boundary layer
over the length of the airfoil.

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Start AcuConsole and Create the Simulation Database

In this tutorial, you will begin by creating a database and loading some predefined variables, populating
the geometry-independent settings, loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group attributes,
adding geometry components to groups and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the
groups. Next you will generate a mesh and run AcuSolve to converge on a steady state solution. Finally,
you will review the results using AcuFieldView and AcuProbe.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, create the database for storage of AcuConsole settings and
set the location for saving mesh and solution information for AcuSolve.
1. Start AcuConsole from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
Note: You can also open the New data base dialog by clicking on the toolbar.
4. Create a new folder named TurbulentAirfoil_SST and open this folder.
5. Enter Turbulent_Airfoil_SST as the File name for the database.
Note: In order for other application to be able to read the files written by AcuConsole,
the database path and name should not include spaces.
Define Expressions and Variables Using the Variable Manager

In this step, you will use the Variable Manager in AcuConsole to create a list of expressions that will be
used during the model setup process.
The Variable Manager is a useful utility that allows you to define variables and expressions that can later
be referenced as inputs to the various settings used throughout the process of building your model.
When a model is constructed in terms of variables, it is very easy to update the entire model with a
simple change of a single parameter from the Variable Manager. This process will be illustrated in this
tutorial.
The AcuConsole expression syntax has two different types of entry methods. The first entry method is
known as immediate evaluation, and uses the = sign to perform assignments of values to a variable.
For example, consider an inlet boundary to a model with an area of 2 m and an average velocity of

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2 m/s. If you want to create a variable called volumeFlowRate, you can enter the expression into the
Variable Manager as follows:
Name Expression
volumeFlowRate =2*2
When using the = syntax, the expression is immediately evaluated when you click out of the text entry
area and the equation used to compute that expression is not stored in the database. However, if
you wish to store the expression as a relationship, you can use the relational expression definition by
replacing the = with :=. In that case, AcuConsole stores the expression and evaluates it when needed.
This means that you can define expressions that are functions of other expressions and changes to one
will be propagated to all other dependent expressions. For example, if you want to redefine the inlet
flow rate using a relational expression, you can do that as follows:
Name Expression
inletArea 2.0
averageVelocity 2.0
volumeFlowRate :=inletArea*averageVelocity
Using this syntax, the formula for volumeFlowRate is stored in the database and will automatically
update whenever the inletArea or averageVelocity are updated. Any variables that are defined in the
Variable Manager can be referenced when specifying an integer or floating point value in the panels
area. The same expression syntax can be used.
1. Click the Variable List icon from the main toolbar:
Figure 134:
The Variable Manager opens.

2. To create new variables in the Variable Manager, click Add.
To create new variables in the Variable Manager, you will need to click Add, then populate the
columns of the table with appropriate inputs. The columns in the table represent the name of the
variable, the expression that defines it, the current value, and a description of the expression.
3. For Name, enter ReynoldsNumber.
4. For Expression enter 1000000.
5. For Description, enter Target Reynolds number for the simulation.
6. Repeat this process for the remaining variables shown in the table below:

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Name Expression Description
ReynoldsNumber 1000000 Target Reynolds number for the

simulation
rho 1.225 Density of air
mu 1.781e-5 Molecular viscosity of air
chord 1.0 Airfoil chord
alpha 5.0 Angle of attack (degrees)
windSpeed :=ReynoldsNumber*mu/ Velocity of air (m/s)

(rho*chord)
xVelocity :=windSpeed*cos(alpha*deg) X component of velocity
yVelocity :=windSpeed*sin(alpha*deg) Y component of velocity
turbIntensityPercent 0.025 Turbulence intensity

percentage
viscosityRatio 0.03 Viscosity ratio (turbulent

viscosity / molecular viscosity)
globalMeshSize :=200*chord Global maximum element size
surfaceMeshSize :=.02*chord Maximum surface element size
firstLayerHeight 1.2e-5 Boundary layer first layer

height
stretchRatio 1.2 Boundary layer element growth

rate
totalLayerHeight 0.004 Total height of boundary layer

element stack
sweepAngle 7.0 Sweep angle for boundary

layer blends at sharp edges
Once the expressions are entered, the Variable Manager should appear similar to what is shown
below:

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Figure 135:
7. At this point all variables and expressions are defined and you can close the Variable Manager by
selecting Close.

The general attributes that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, and steady state time
analysis.

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Figure 136:
Figure 137:

4. Enter NACA0012 Airfoil as the Title for this case.
5. Enter Fully turbulent as the Sub title for this case.
6. Change the Analysis type to Steady State.
7. Change the Turbulence equation to SST
The SST and K-Omega models both require the same set of inputs, so the steps in this tutorial
also apply to the K-omega model. If you wish to use the K-Omega model instead of SST, you can
select it from this menu.

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Figure 138:

In the next steps you will set the parameters that control the behavior of AcuSolve as it progresses
during the transient solution.
2. Enter 0.4 for Relaxation factor.
This value is used to improve convergence of the solution. Typically a value between 0.2 and 0.4
provides a good balance between achieving a smooth progression of the solution and the extra
compute time needed to reach convergence. Higher relaxation factors cause AcuSolve to take
more time steps to reach a steady state solution. A high relaxation factor is sometimes necessary
in order to achieve convergence for very complex applications.
Figure 139:

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In the next steps you will modify the pre-defined material properties of air using an expression that was
created in the Variable Manager.
Figure 140:
2. Double-click Air in the Data Tree to open the Air detail panel.
3. Click the Density tab and in the Density value field, enter :=rho.
This sets the value of density to be equal to the value entered in the Variable Manager.
4. Click the Viscosity tab and enter :=mu in the Viscosity field.
This sets the value of viscosity to be equal to the value entered in the Variable Manager.
Save the Database

Save the database to create a backup of your settings.
Save the database to create a backup of your settings. This can be achieved with any of the following
methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
Note: Changes made in AcuConsole are saved into the database file (.acs) as they are
made. A save operation copies the database to a backup file, which can be used to reload
the database from that saved state in the event that you do not want to commit future
changes.

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Import Airfoil Geometry

NACA0012.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing NACA0012.x_t.
3. Change the file name filter to Parasolid File (*.x_t *.xmt *X_T …).
4. Select NACA0012.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 141:
6. Rotate and zoom in the visualization to view the entire model.

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Figure 142:
Create a Volume Group and Apply Volume Parameters

Volume groups are containers used for storing information about volumes. This information includes the
list of geometric volumes associated with the container, as well as parameters such as material models
and mesh sizing information.
When the geometry was imported into AcuConsole, all volumes were placed into the default volume
container.
In the next steps you will rename the default group to Fluid, set the material for that group and add the
volume from the geometry to that volume group.
1. Expand the Model Tree.

2. Expand Volumes.
4. Rename the default group.

a) Right-click default.
b) Click Rename.
c) Enter Fluid.

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5. Expand Fluid in the Data Tree.

6. Double-click Element Set to open the Element Set detail panel.
7. Ensure that the Material model is set to Air.
Figure 143:
Create Surface Groups and Apply Surface Parameters

the list of geometric surfaces associated with the container, as well as parameters such as boundary
conditions, surface outputs and mesh sizing information.
In the next steps you will define surface groups, assign the appropriate parameters for each group in
the problem and add surfaces to the groups.
Set Farfield Boundary Conditions
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the farfield boundary, set the inlet velocity and add
the corresponding surface from the geometry to this group.
1. Add a new surface group by right-clicking Surfaces and click New.

2. Rename Surface 1 to Far Field.
3. Expand the Far Field surface in the tree.
4. Right-click Far Field in the Model Tree.
5. Select Add to.
6. Select the edge surface in the visualization window (highlighted in gray below) and then select
Done.

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Figure 144:
7. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Far Field to open the Simple Boundary
8. Change the Type to Far Field.
When using the Far field boundary condition, you need to enter the vector direction of the flow
velocity. Based on this direction, AcuSolve determines whether each element face should be
acting as an inlet or an outlet. Using this direction vector, in conjunction with the outward facing
normal at each element, it applies the appropriate boundary conditions to the faces of the
model. For faces where the flow is entering the model, a nodal boundary condition for velocity
and turbulence variables is assigned. For faces where the flow is exiting the model, an element
boundary condition for pressure is assigned, that is, an outflow condition.
To facilitate ease in changing the angle of attack for this simulation, you will set the inlet velocity
vector at the far field boundary using the variables that were previously defined. Set the values
using the following inputs.
9. For X Velocity, enter :=xVelocity.
10. For Y Velocity, enter :=yVelocity.
When using the SST or k-omega turbulence models, you need to provide values for the Kinetic
energy and Eddy frequency at inflow/farfield boundaries. AcuConsole supports various options of
doing this. You can specify the values directly using turbulence input type = Direct, or you can
have AcuConsole compute the values based on an estimation of the Turbulence Intensity and
Length Scale, or based on an estimation of the Turbulence Intensity and Viscosity Ratio. Besides
these options, AcuConsole can also automatically set the values for turbulence inputs to simplify
this task for the user. This automatic selection of inputs is based on parameters like flow type, etc.
While using the automatic option to compute the values is convenient for generic cases, users are
advised to use the other available options if they have suitable input data available.
For this case, you will make use of the auto option to allow AcuConsole to calculate the kinetic
energy and eddy frequency values on the farfield boundary.

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11. Set Turbulence input type to Auto.

12. Set Turbulence intensity type to Auto.
Figure 145:
You can see the value of Percent turbulence intensity is set to 0.5. This value is automatically
selected by AcuConsole based on parameters like the turbulence model selected, flow type, etc.
Set Remaining Boundary Conditions
In the next steps you will define surface groups for slip and wall boundaries.
1. Add a new surface group by right-clicking Surfaces and click New.

2. Rename Surface 1 to +z slip.
3. Expand the +z slip surface in the tree.
4. Right-click +z slip.
5. Select Add to.
Done.

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Figure 146:
7. Click Simple Boundary Condition.

8. Set Type to Symmetry.
9. Add another new surface group by right-clicking Surfaces and click New.
10. Rename Surface 1 to -z slip.
11. Expand the -z slip surface in the tree.
12. Right-click -z slip in the Model Tree.
13. Select Add to.
Done.
Figure 147:

16. Set Type to Symmetry.
17. In the tree, rename the default surface to airfoil.
18. Expand the airfoil surface in the tree.
19. Turn off the display of the other surfaces in the Model Tree and then zoom into the remaining
surface.
20. Right-click airfoil in the Model Tree.

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21. Select Add to.

22. Select the edge surface in the visualization window (shown below) and then select Done.
Figure 148:

24. Set Type to Wall. Leave all the default settings.
Define Nodal Initial Conditions

In the next steps you will define the nodal initial conditions.
1. In the Data Tree, double-click Nodal Initial Conditions.

2. Set the X velocity to :=xVelocity.
3. Set the Y velocity to :=yVelocity.
This will set the X and Y velocities equal to the values specified in the Variable Manager.
For the SST and K-Omega turbulence models, you need to enter the initial values for Kinetic energy
and Eddy frequency. If you have a reasonable estimate of these values, you can enter them directly in
the fields. One option is to use the same values that are assigned at the inlet boundary. In the absence
of good estimates for the initial conditions, it is also possible to let AcuSolve perform an automatic
initialization of the turbulence variables. By leaving these values set to zero, AcuSolve will trigger an
automatic initialization of these variables.
4. Set the Kinetic energy and Eddy frequency to 0.0 to trigger the automatic initialization.

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Figure 149:

AcuSolve Tutorials
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the model.
applied to volume groups, surface groups or edge groups.
5. Set Absolute mesh size to :=globalMeshSize.
6. Set the Curvature refinement parameters to Off.
7. Set the Mesh growth rate to 1.2.
When this option is set, the mesher will ensure that the mesh grows smoothly when transitioning
between different size. Note that the growth rate of 1.2 does not directly corresponds to a change
in length scale of adjacent elements of 1.2, but rather a gradual expansion. The mesh growth rate
can be adjusted between a value of 1 and 2. Values closer to 1.0 indicate a smoother transition,
whereas a value closer to 2.0 indicates a faster transition. A value of 1.0 disables this setting
and reverts to the default meshing behavior. It should be noted that this option can significantly
increase the time necessary to produce the mesh as well as the total number of nodes/elements
created by the mesher.
8. Set Maximum sweep angle to :=sweepAngle.
This setting instructs the mesher to use the sweepAngle parameter to define the maximum angle
between radial element lines when creating radial edge blends during the boundary layer meshing
process.

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Figure 150:
Set Mesh Process Parameters

Due to the large range of mesh sizes that will be created on the surface of the airfoil, you will need to
instruct the boundary layer mesher how to resolve poor quality elements that result from the requested
boundary layer controls. For example, you request the boundary layers to grow to a constant height
across the airfoil surface, but the local surface element size varies drastically. So, in some areas this will
lead to boundary layer elements that are much taller than they are wide. The mesher views this as a
poor quality element and needs to resolve this in some manner. There are two mechanisms by which to
resolve this:
• Locally reduce the number of layers in the boundary layer stack to maintain high quality boundary
layer elements.
• Locally reduce the height of the boundary layer stack, but keep the total number of layers constant.
Using this approach, the height of each layer is scaled by a constant factor to reduce the total
height of the stack and avoid the creation of the poor quality boundary layer elements.
For this simulation, the mesher will locally reduce the height of the boundary layer stack.
1. Under the Global Tree, double-click on Mesh Process Attributes.

2. In the detail panel, set the Shrink mixed flag to On.
3. Set the 2D Boundary layer adjacent height smoothing ratio to 0.25.
This parameter controls how smoothly the local boundary layer heights vary from one element to
the next after the layers height are adjusted locally to resolve poor quality elements. A low value
of this parameter smooths the variation in height over a large distance, while a value closer to 1.0
enforces a more abrupt change in height. Note that there are separate values of this setting for
2D and 3D boundary layers. For this application, you will be creating a 2D mesh and extruding it
in the third direction to create the volume. Therefore, the 2D setting will control the behavior of
the mesh in this case.

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Figure 151:
Set Surface Mesh Parameters

The surface mesh size on the airfoil is controlled through a combination of the mesh size set on the
perimeter edges of the airfoil and the mesh size applied directly to the surface. In this tutorial you
will also use the region of influence option of the surface mesh to create a refined mesh at a specified
distance from the airfoil surface.
1. Expand Model > Surfaces > Airfoil.

2. Activate the Surface Mesh Attributes option.
3. Select Absolute as the Mesh size type.
4. Enter :=surfaceMeshSize as the Absolute mesh size.
This assigns a constant mesh size on the surface that corresponds to the value created in the
“surfaceMeshSize” variable.
5. Set the Region of influence parameters to On.
6. Set the Influence type to Simple.
When using a region of influence type = Simple, the mesh size that was assigned on the surface
is maintained for a specified distance from the surface. The distance from the surface at which
the surface mesh size is retained is defined by the "Influence distance”. It is also possible to scale

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the mesh size as a function of distance from the surface. This can be achieved by setting the
influence size factor. When this value is set, the local mesh size is linearly interpolated from the
size specified on the surface to the scaled value at the furthest extent of the refinement distance.
Note that the size used by the “region of influence” meshing is the absolute mesh size that is
defined in the surface mesh attributes parameter. It does not take into account any local variation
of the mesh size due to curvature refinement, and so on. Therefore, the current settings on the
airfoil surface are only used to drive the region of influence sizing. The desired element size on the
surface to resolve the shape of the airfoil will be controlled with edge meshing.
7. Set the Influence size factor to 1.0.
8. Set the Influence distance to :=chord*0.1.
9. Set Boundary layer flag to On.
10. Set the Boundary layer type to Full Control.
11. For the Resolve field, select Number of Layers.
With this setting, you will specify the first layer height of the boundary layer elements, the total
layer height and the growth rate. The total number of layers required to satisfy these settings will
be computed by AcuConsole.
12. For First element height, enter :=firstLayerHeight.
13. For Total layer height, enter :=totalLayerHeight.
14. For Growth rate, enter :=stretchRatio
15. Set the Boundary layer blends flag to On.
16. Set the Boundary layer element type to Tetrahedron.
17. For Maximum sweep angle, enter :=sweepAngle.
With these settings, the boundary layer mesher will create radial edge blends with a maximum
angle defined by the sweepAngle variable.

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Figure 152:
Set Edge Mesh Parameters

To create an optimum mesh on the surface of the airfoil, it is necessary to have high levels of
refinement near the leading and trailing edges and a large element size near the mid chord. Since the
surface mesh size was set to constant to serve as the size that is propagated into the volume for the
region of influence refinement, you will use an edge mesh parameter to control the placement of nodes
along the airfoil surface. To accomplish this, you will first need to create an edge group that contains
the perimeter edges of the airfoil.
1. Add a new edge by right-clicking Edges and click New.

2. Rename Edge 1 to Perimeter Edges.
3. Select the two perimeter edges of the airfoil to add them to this group.
a) Right-click Perimeter Edges and click Add to.
b) Select the two perimeter edges of the airfoil shown below.

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Figure 153:
c) Select Done.
4. Activate Edge Mesh Attributes and then double-click on it.
5. Set the Mesh size type to Absolute Expression.
Figure 154:
6. Click on the Absolute mesh size expression button to open a text editor where you can write
an expression for the mesh size.
This expression will be evaluated by the mesher to determine the local mesh size that should be
used at each location on edges in the edge set.
7. Enter the following expression:
sizeMin = 0.0025
sizeMax = 0.1
xMin =(0.0)
xMax =(1.0)
xCenter =((xMin+xMax)/2.0)
dx = ((xMax-xMin)/2.0)
fac = ((dx - abs(x-xCenter) )/dx )
power = (ln(sizeMax/sizeMin))
expVal = sizeMin*exp(power*fac)
linVal = sizeMin+(sizeMax-sizeMin)*fac
value = expVal

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This expression takes the min and max surface mesh size (sizeMin and sizeMax) along with the
location of the leading and trailing edge (xMin and xMax) and computes a logarithmic expansion
of the surface mesh size as a function of distance from the leading and trailing edges. The mesh
size at the leading and trailing edge corresponds to sizeMin and the size at the mid chord location
corresponds to sizeMax.
Figure 155:
8. Click Ok to close this text editor area and accept the expression.
Set Mesh Extrusion Parameters

The final step in the setup of the meshing for the airfoil is the creation of a mesh extrusion attribute.
This extrusion will be defined such that a single element is created across the span of the airfoil.
1. Create a new Mesh Extrusion.

a) Right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New.
b) Right-click Mesh Extrusion 1 and select Rename.
c) Rename it to Z extrusion.
2. Double-click Z extrusion to open the settings dialog.
Two types of extrusion are supported with the mesh extrusion attributes. The first type is surface.
When selecting this type, the input to the mesher is a set of two surfaces for which the mesh
will be extruded between. The resulting mesh is an extruded volume mesh. The second type
of extrusion that is supported is an edge extrusion. Using this type of extrusion, two edges are
chosen and the resulting mesh is an extruded surface mesh that lies between the two edges. For
this application, you will set Geometry type to surface to generate an extruded volume mesh.
3. Ensure the Geometry type is set to surface.
4. For Side 1, from the drop down, select +z slip.
5. For Side 2, from the drop down, select –z slip.

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6. Set the Extrusion type to Number of layers.

7. Enter 1 for the total number of layers.
8. Under Extrusion options, select Mixed elements to create a single layer of extruded prism
elements across the span of the airfoil.
9. Click OK to accept these settings.
Figure 156:
Generate the Mesh

problem.

2. Leave the default settings and select OK.
3. Inspect the mesh around the surface of the airfoil.
Note the refinement at the leading and trailing edge of the airfoil that resulted from the
expression that was used for edge mesh attributes. Also note the refinement of the mesh around
the airfoil surface. This was caused by the region of influence meshing.
4. Zoom in on the trailing edge of the airfoil to see the impact of setting the boundary layer blends
flag to on. The radial edge blend at the trailing edge of the airfoil is clearly evident.

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Figure 157:

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Run AcuSolve and Examine the .log File

In the next steps, you will launch AcuSolve to compute the solution for this case.

2. Enter 4 for Number of processors, if your system has 4 or more processors.
The use of multiple processors can reduce solution time.
3. Ensure the Restart radio button is set to Off.
4. Accept all other default settings.
AcuSolve will run on four processors to calculate the transient solution for this problem.
5. Select Ok to start the solution process.
6. Once the analysis is complete, scroll up to the top of the file and look for the message about
initializing turbulence field values.
This is because the nodal initial conditions were set to 0. Notice that it reports the min, max and
average values of the initialized variables.

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Figure 158:
7. Review a single time step.

One thing to notice is that eddy frequency and kinetic energy are solved for three times in each
time step. This is the most efficient way to get a converged solution when using the SST and k-
omega turbulence models.

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Figure 159:

While AcuSolve is running, you can monitor the kinetic energy using AcuProbe.
1.
Click on the toolbar to open the AcuProbe dialog.
2. Clear the plot by right-clicking on Residual Ratio and selecting Plot None.
3. Expand Residual Ratio > All.
4. Right-click kinetic_energy and select Plot.

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Figure 160:
5. Right-click kinetic_energy and select Don’t Plot to clear the plot.

Figure 161:
7. Close the AcuProbe dialog.
Start AcuFieldView
2. Click OK to start AcuConsole.

that were written to the disk will be loaded for post-processing.

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Display Square Root of the Eddy Period

In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of a new variable, called
the square root of the eddy period. When solving for the SST and k-omega turbulence models,
AcuSolve introduces three new variables to the output; kinetic_energy (k), eddy_frequency (ω) and
sqrt_eddy_per ( ). The sqrt_eddy_per variable is useful for visualizing the turbulent time scale
since the eddy_frequency variable has such a large range of values, it is often times easier to visualize
sqrt_eddy_per.
These steps are provided with the assumption that you are able to manipulate the view in AcuFieldView.
If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to Manipulate the Model View in
AcuFieldView.
1.
Click on the side toolbar to open the Boundary Surface dialog.
2. Under Scalar Function, click Select.

3. Select sqrt_eddy_period and then select Calculate.
Note: You may have to scroll down to find sqrt_eddy_period. This is a new variable
and it represents one over the square root of omega. It has been added as it is a more
well bounded variable to plot, as compared to the eddy frequency.
Figure 162:

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4. Zoom into the airfoil to view the sqrt_eddy_period around the airfoil.
Figure 163:
Post-Process to Calculate Flow Coefficients
AcuSolve is shipped with a number of utility scripts to facilitate the pre and post-processing of a
problem solved using the solver. You will be introduced to two of these scripts, AcuLiftDrag and
AcuGetCpCf in this section, and their usage. These two scripts are focused on aerodynamic simulations
as the ones solved in this tutorial.
Run AcuLiftDrag
AcuLiftDrag is a utility script used to calculate the lift and drag coefficients for an airfoil. The following
options are required as input to run this script.
Option Name Description
-pb problem name
-dir working directory. The default working

directory is ACUSIM.DIR, which contains
all the solution files for the problem.
-run run number (0, use last)
-osis comma separated list of surface outputs

to use for force computation (all for all)
-angle_of_attack / aoa angle of attack of the wing (in degrees)
-reference_velocity / ref_vel reference velocity

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-wing_chord / chord chord of the wing
-wing_span / span span of the wing
-density / rho density of the air
-drag_direction / drag_dir direction of drag at zero angle of attack:

x, y, z. The default drag direction is x.
-lift_direction / lift_dir direction of lift at angle of attack: x,

y, z. The default drag direction is y.
-x_axis_vars / x_vars x axis variable for the exported data:

step, time, both. The default is step.
In the Analyze the Problem section, it was described that the simulation is performed as 2D by including
only a single layer of extruded elements in the airfoil span direction. When solving a problem in such a
way, the span of the airfoil should be set equal to the thickness of the domain in the extrusion direction.
When solving a 3D problem, the actual span of the airfoil should be used.
To execute the AcuLiftDrag script for this position, follow the steps below:
1. Start AcuSolve Command Prompt from the Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
HyperWorks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt.
2. Change the directory to the present problem directory using the 'cd' command.
3. Enter the following command at the prompt:
acuLiftDrag -osis airfoil -aoa 5 -ref_vel 14.54 -chord 1 -rho 1.225

-span 50
The output of the command should look like the image below:

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Figure 164:
The value C_l corresponds to the lift coefficient, and C_d corresponds to the drag coefficient. The
final keyword refers to the respective coefficient values at the last time step of the simulation. The
rest of the values provide the basic statistics for these coefficients over all the time steps of the
simulation. These statistics are more meaningful if the simulation is transient.
The script also creates the file Turbulent_Airfoil_SST.liftDrag.dat in the problem directory.
The file contains the lift and drag data for all the available time steps in a determined tabular
arrangement. The first column is the time step, the second column is the lift coefficient, and the
third column is the drag coefficient.
Run AcuGetCpCf
AcuGetCpCf is another utility script used to calculate the pressure coefficient (Cp) for the airfoil. The
following options are required as input to run this script.
-pb problem name

-ts time step to extract (0=use last)

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-osis comma separated list of surface outputs

-type type of data to generate: cp, cf
-point_type method used to generate the

points for the curve: file, auto
-points_file / pts comma separated list of files to read

points from (used with type=file)
-radial_locations / rad_locs list of radial locations
-z_direction / z_dir direction of iso-cut: x, y, z. Default is z.
-reference_pressure / ref_pres reference pressure
-normalize_chord / nc normalize the local chord to unity. Default is True.
-chord_scale_fac / csf chord scale factor
-cp_scale_fac / cpsf c_p / c_f scale factor
-pressure_type / ptype pressure field to use: standard, time_ave,

running_ave. Default is standard.
To execute the AcuGetCpCf script for this problem, follow the steps below:
acuGetCpCf -osis airfoil -type cp -ref_vel 14.54 -rho

1.225 -no_nc

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Figure 165:
The script prints the minimum and maximum values for the pressure coefficient. It also creates a
file, cp.1.dat, in the problem directory. The file contains the pressure coefficient data along the
chord of the airfoil. The first column is the x-coordinate along the chord, and the second column is
the pressure coefficient. You can use an external plotting utility to the plot the data. The resulting
plot is shown below.
Figure 166:
Change the Angle of Attack and Compute the Solution

Because this database was set up using variables and expressions, it is easy to re-run the simulation
again using a different angle of attack. To accomplish this, open the Variable Manager, and set “alpha”
to 0.0. Because the xVelocity and yVelocity variables that were defined for the initial and boundary
conditions are a function of this parameter, the database will automatically be updated to reflect the

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new settings. You can simply write the input again and run the solver to obtain a different angle of
attack solution.

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2.3 ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow over an Airfoil

Using the SA Transition Models
AcuConsole
2.3.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a steady simulation
of transition flow over a S809 airfoil using the SA transition models. AcuSolve is used to compute the
intermittency and predict the point where the boundary layer transitions from the laminar mode to
turbulence mode. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to the modeling concepts necessary to
perform simulations using the transition models coupled with the SA Turbulence model.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and
the steps to set up external turbulent flow are shown in ACU-T: 2100 Turbulent Flow Over an Airfoil
Using the SST Turbulence Model. The following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this
tutorial:
• Use of the Gamma transition model
• Use of the Gamma-ReTheta transition model

• Start AcuConsole and create a simulation database
• Create a volume group and apply volume parameters
• Create surface group and apply volume parameters
• Set global and local meshing parameters
• Generate the mesh
• Run AcuSolve
• Post-processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView
Prerequisites

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s809_blunt.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem
An important step in any CFD simulation is to examine the engineering problem and determine the
important parameters that need to be provided to AcuSolve. Parameters can be based on geometrical
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. It consists of a

cylindrical bounding region containing air that flows past a S809 airfoil profile. The simulation is
performed as the two-dimensional problem by including only a single layer of extruded elements in the
airfoil span direction. The velocity vector at the far field boundary of the domain is specified to yield
an angle of attack of one degree and a Reynolds Number of ~250000. The airfoil chord is 1 m, and
standard air material properties are used for the simulation.
Figure 167: S809 Airfoil in the Flow Domain
The simulation will be carried out by activating the turbulence transition models. The underlying
turbulence model used will be the one-equation Spalart-Allmaras model. The problem will be solved
with the transition models available in AcuSolve – the one-equation Gamma and the two-equation
Gamma-ReTheta transition models. As the name suggests, the transition models predict the point
where the boundary layer transitions from the laminar mode to turbulence mode. When in the
turbulence regime, the underlying turbulence model, SA in this case, will be used to determine the flow
characteristics.

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Introduction to Theory
Transition and Transition Models

In the real world, laminar flow and turbulent flow coexist when obstacles are located inside of a
fluid flow. Transition flows from laminar to turbulent flow regimes can be found in many industrial
applications including turbomachinery, vehicles, drones, and wind turbines.
A transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow occurs due to various external factors such as
freestream turbulence level (vertical disturbances), sound waves (acoustic disturbances), temperature
fluctuations (entropy disturbances), streamwise pressure gradients, surface roughness, surface
curvature, and vibration. Depending on the external factor or factors, the development of various
transition (instability) mechanisms cause the flow to trip from laminar to turbulent. Here are three main
mechanisms responsible for transition:
1. Natural Transition: In the laminar flow regime, viscous forces usually damp out the disturbances.
However, when the free stream turbulence is low (below 1 percent) and the Reynolds number
is higher than the critical Reynolds number, viscous forces destabilize the shear layer, causing
the fluid to transition to a turbulent regime via the development of the three initial disturbances
(waves, vorticity and vortex breakdown). This mechanism is called the Natural Transition. It is
usually very subtle and progresses very slowly, over a long distance scale.
2. Bypass Transition: When the initial disturbances are high (due to surface roughness or freestream
turbulence levels higher than 1%), turbulence are generated without development of the three
initial disturbances (T-S waves, spanwise vorticity, and vortex breakdown) observed in the natural
transition.
3. Separated-Inducted Transition: When a laminar flow experiences adverse pressure gradients
(such as airfoil suction surfaces and flow over a sphere), the fluid flow detaches from the wall
surface. If the disturbances are low, separation can cause the generation of structures found in
natural transition. Larger disturbances generate Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, where vortices roll
up before breaking down into turbulence. The process involved in separation-induced transition
depends on the size of the adverse pressure gradient and the presence of additional disturbances
(for example, obstacles).
Since transition affects the flow development, lift, drag, heat transfer, and others, it is important to
predict the transition phenomena properly. It is known that conventional turbulence models over-predict
the wall-shear stress for transitional flows. Thus, transition models can be used to improve the accuracy
of CFD solutions when flows encounter transition in the boundary layer.
Transition Models in AcuSolve

AcuSolve has two transition models (Gamma-ReTheta and Gamma) coupled with the Spalart-Allmaras
(SA) and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence models, resulting in total of four choices of the
transition modelling, including: SA-Gamma, SA-Gamma-ReTheta, SST-Gamma, and SST-Gamma-
ReTheta.
1. Gamma-ReTheta Transition Model: The Gamma-ReTheta ( ) model is a correlation-based
intermittency model that predicts natural, bypass, and separation-induced transition mechanisms.
It is based on two transport equations for intermittency ( ) and transition momentum thickness
Reynolds number ( ). The intermittency is a measure of the flow regime that varies between
zero (laminar) and one (fully turbulent). It is used to turn on the turbulent kinetic energy

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production in the turbulent kinetic energy equation, while the transition momentum thickness
Reynolds number is used as the transition onset criteria. The Gamma-ReTheta model is more
suitable for cases when freestream turbulence intensity may be high or adverse pressure
gradients are present in the flow. Most internal flows and some external flows fall in this category.
2. Gamma Transition Model: The Gamma ( ) transition model is a one-equation transition model
and follows Galilean invariance by modifying the correlations. The Gamma transition model is well
suited for the external aerodynamic cases where freestream turbulence intensity is low.
Transition Model Usage Guidelines

1. Meshing Guidelines
a. Generate boundary layer meshes on surfaces where transition onset occurs
b. The first layer height of the boundary layer mesh should be y+ < 5
c. The stretch ratio of the boundary layer mesh should be in the range between 1.1 and 1.2
d. The transition between the boundary layer mesh and the freestream mesh should be smooth
e. The streamwise surface mesh spacing should be small enough to capture separation bubbles
2. Convergence Monitoring
a. The residual and solution ratios of the transition simulations are sometimes stagnated
(commonly seen when the bubble forms near the leading-edge of an airfoil)
b. Despite the appearance of residual and/or solution ratio stagnations, the integrated
force and moment over the airfoil could be converged to the satisfactory level. Thus, the
monitoring of quantities such as lift, drag, thrust, power, torque, etc. is highly suggested.
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide the instructions for setting up the steady transition simulation
of the S809 airfoil using the SST transition models. To keep the total computing time within 5 minutes,
some of the meshing guidelines described above have not been followed. However, you must follow
these guidelines when solving a problem if a high accuracy in results is desired.
This tutorial consists of two parts. In the first part, you will setup and solve the problem, using the
Gamma transition model. After successfully having run the problem with the Gamma model, you will
modify the database setup to use the Gamma-ReTheta transition model, and generate the solution
again.

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loading the geometry, creating volume and surface groups, setting group attributes, adding geometry
components to groups and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you
will generate a mesh and run AcuSolve to solve for the number of time steps specified. Finally, you will
review some characteristics using AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and create the database for storage of the simulation
settings.
4. Create a new folder named SA_Transition_Models and open this folder.
5. Enter sa_transition as the File name for the database.

Figure 168:


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3. For Name, enter Uinf.
4. For Expression, enter 4.0.
5. For Description, enter Free Stream Velocity of Air.
Uinf 4.0 Free Stream Velocity of Air
xVelocity :=Uinf * cos(alpha*deg) X component of velocity
yVelocity :=Uinf * sin(alpha*deg) Y component of velocity
below:
Figure 169:
selecting Close.

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In the next steps you will set attributes that apply globally to the simulation. To simplify this task, you
Figure 170:
Figure 171:

4. Enter S809 as the Title for this case.
5. Enter SAS Transition as the Sub title for this case.
6. Ensure the Analysis type is set to Steady State.
7. Click Turbulence equation and select Spalart Allmaras.
8. Click Turbulence Transition model and select Gamma.

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Figure 172:
2. Check that the Analysis type is set to Steady State.
3. Set the Max time steps to 100.
4. Set the Convergence tolerance to 0.0001.
6. Ensure that both the Turbulence and Turbulence transition flags are set to On.
Figure 173:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined standard materials, Air, Aluminium, and Water, with standard
parameters defined. In the next steps you will check and if needed modify the material characteristics
of the predefined "Air" model to match the desired properties for this problem.

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Figure 174:
The Material type for air is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created in
AcuConsole.
3. In the Density tab check the following.
a) The Type is set to Constant
3
b) The Density value is set to 1.225 kg/m
4. Click the Viscosity tab.
-5
The viscosity of air is 1.781 x 10 kg/m - sec
The remaining thermal and other material properties are not critical to this simulation. However, you
may browse through the tabs to check the complete material specification.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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s809_blunt.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing s809_blunt.x_t.
4. Select s809_blunt.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 175:
5. Click OK to complete the geometry import.

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Figure 176:

When a new geometry is imported, by default AcuConsole will place all volumes from a geometry in a
single volume container named "default". You should be able to see it in the data tree upon successful
import of your model in the last step, under Model > Volumes > default.
Since the model for this tutorial has only a single volume, it will be the only volume in the default
volume group when the geometry is imported. Even when there is a single volume in the model, it is
advisable to rename the volume for ease of identification in future. In the next steps you will rename
the default volume group container, and set the material and other properties for it.
1. Minimize Global in the Data Tree Manager and expand the Model tree item by clicking .
2. Right-click on Surfaces and select Display off to turn off the display of surfaces
5. Rename the default volume group to Fluid.

b) Click Rename from the context menu.
c) Enter Fluid as the new name, and click Enter.

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you press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you move the input focus away from
the item without entering it, your changes will be lost.
6. Set up the fluid volume element set.

a) Expand the Fluid volume group in the tree.
b) Double-click Element Set under fluid to open it in the detail panel.
c) Check that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, click on the drop-down selector
next to Medium and select Fluid.
Note: The default Medium for a volume in AcuConsole is Fluid.
d) Click on the drop-down selector next to Material model and select Air.
Figure 177:
Create Surface Groups

problem and add surfaces to the groups.
In the process of setting up a simulation, you need to move into different panels for setting up the
boundary conditions, mesh parameters, etc. which can sometimes be cumbersome (especially for
models with too many surfaces). To make it easier, less error prone, and for saving time two new
dialogs are provided in AcuConsole which you can use to verify and provide the information for all
surface or volume entities at once. They are the Volume Manager and Surface Manager. In this section
some features of Surface Manager are exploited.
1. Right-click on Volumes and select Display off to turn off the display of Volumes.
2. Right-click Surfaces and select Surface Manager.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New 3 times to create 3 new surface groups.
4. Turn display off for all surfaces except for default surface.
5. Rename Surface Names (column 1) for Surface 1 to Surface 3, and set the Simple BC Active and
Simple BC Type columns as per the table shown below.

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Figure 178:
6. Assign the surfaces to the z_pos and z_neg surface groups.

a) In the z-pos row, click Add to.
b) Select the planar surface with the maximum z-coordinate as shown in figure below and click
Done.
c) Similarly assign the surface with the minimum z-coordinate to the z_neg surface group.
Figure 179:

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7. Assign the outer peripheral surface of the domain to the farfield surface group. Use the following
figure as the reference for selecting the required surfaces.
Figure 180:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to airfoil. In the previous steps,
you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created. At this point, all
that is left in the airfoil surface group are the surfaces which make up the airfoil.
8. Close the Surface Manager dialog.
Assign the Surface Parameters

1. Set up the airfoil surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the airfoil surface group.
b) Double-click Simple Boundary Condition to open the detail panel.
c) Ensure the Type is set to Wall.
2. Set up the z_pos and z_neg surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the z_pos surface group.
c) Ensure the Type is set to Symmetry.
d) Similarly, check that the Simple Boundary Condition type for z_neg is also set to Symmetry.
3. Set up the farfield surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the farfield surface group.
c) Ensure the Type is set to Far Field.

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When using the Far field boundary condition, you need to enter the vector direction of the
flow velocity. Based on this direction, AcuSolve determines whether each element face should
be acting as an inlet or an outlet. Using this direction vector, in conjunction with the outward
facing normal at each element, it applies the appropriate boundary conditions to the faces
of the model. For faces where the flow is entering the model, a nodal boundary condition for
velocity and turbulence variables is assigned. For faces where the flow is exiting the model,
an element boundary condition for pressure is assigned (that is, an outflow condition).
To facilitate ease in changing the angle of attack for this simulation, you will set the inlet
velocity vector at the far field boundary using the variables that were previously defined. Set
the values using the following inputs.
d) For X Velocity, enter :=xVelocity.
e) For Y Velocity, enter :=yVelocity.
f) Set the Turbulence intensity type to Auto.
Figure 181:
selected by AcuConsole based on parameters like the turbulence model selected, flow type, and so
on.
Set Initial Conditions
1. Under Global in the Data Tree, double-click Nodal Initial Condition to open the dialog in the
detail panel.
For the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, you need to provide the initial value for Eddy viscosity. For
the Gamma transition model, you need to provide the initial value for Intermittency, or . If you have
a reasonable estimate of these values, you can enter them directly in the nodal initial condition fields.

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One option is to use the same values that are assigned at the inlet boundary. In the absence of good
estimates for the initial conditions, it is also possible to let AcuSolve perform an automatic initialization
of the turbulence and transition variables. By setting these values to zero, AcuSolve will trigger an
automatic initialization of these variables.
4. Set the Eddy viscosity and Intermittency to 0.0 to trigger the automatic initialization.
Figure 182:

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Now that the flow characteristics have been set for the whole problem, a sufficiently refined mesh has
to be generated.
Global mesh attributes are the meshing parameters applied to the model as a whole without reference
to a specific geometric volume, surface, edge, or point. Local mesh attributes are used to create mesh
generation controls for specific geometry components of the model.
In the next steps you will set the global mesh attributes.
a) Click the drop-down control next to Mesh size type.
b) Click Absolute.
5. Set Absolute mesh size to 200.0 m.
7. Set Maximum sweep angle to 5.0 degrees.
Figure 183:

For this simulation, the mesher will locally reduce the height of the boundary layer stack but will
keep the total number of layers constant. Using this approach, the height of each layer is scaled by
a constant factor to reduce the total height of the stack and avoid the creation of the poor quality
boundary layer elements.

2. Set Shrink mixed flag to On.

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Figure 184:

Surface mesh attributes are applied to a specific surface in the model. It is a type of local meshing
parameter used to create targeted mesh controls for one or more specific surfaces.
Setting local mesh attributes, such as surface mesh attributes, is not mandatory. When a local mesh
attribute is not found for a component, the global attributes are used as the mesh generation control for
that component. If a local mesh attribute is present, it will take precedence over the global setting.
In the next steps you will set the surface meshing attributes.

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1. Expand Model, Surfaces and then Airfoil.

2. Double click Surface Mesh Attributes to open the detail panel.
3. Click the Surface Mesh Attributes check box to activate it.
The detail panel is populated with more options.
4. Set the Mesh size type to Absolute.
5. For Absolute mesh size, enter 0.01 m.
Mesh controls related to influence region from the surface are now visible.
Region of influence is a size control that allows you to control the size and growth rate of the
surface and volume mesh surrounding a surface based on the distance from the surface.
7. Set the Influence parameters as follows:
a) Influence type: Simple
b) Influence size factor: 2.0
c) Influence distance: 0.1
Mesh controls related to boundary layer meshing will be visible now.
10. For Resolve, select Number of Layers.
11. Set the remaining parameters as follows:
a) First element height: 0.0004
b) Total layer height: 0.04
c) Growth rate: 1.2
d) Boundary layer elements type: Tetrahedron
Figure 185:

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refinement near the leading and trailing edges and a large element size near the mid chord. Since our
region of influence refinement, you will use an edge mesh attribute to control the placement of nodes
1. Add a new edge by right-clicking Edges > New.

A new entity, Edge 1, is created under Edges in the data tree.
c) Click Done.
Figure 186:

6. Click Absolute mesh size expression to open a text editor where you can write an expression
for the mesh size.
This expression will be evaluated by the mesh engine to determine the local mesh size that should
be used at each location on the edges in the edge set.
7. Enter the following expression in the text area editor:
sizeMin = 0.002
sizeMax = 0.05
xMin = (0.0)
xMax = (1.0)

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xCenter = ((xMin+xMax)/2.0)
fac = ((dx - abs( x-xCenter) )/dx )
power = (ln( sizeMax/sizeMin))

value = expVal
8. Select Ok to close this text editor area and accept the expression.
Define Mesh Extrusion

The present simulation is equivalent to a representation of a 2D cross section of the model. In AcuSolve
2D models are simulated by having just one element across the faces of the cross section. Thus when
these faces are set up with a similar boundary condition, it coerces the corresponding nodes across the
faces to have same results. In this problem, these faces are the negative and positive z-surfaces. This
kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with mesh extrusion process. In the following steps you will define
the process of extrusion of the mesh between these surfaces.
1. Right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New.

2. Right-click Mesh Extrusion 1, select Rename and enter Z extrusion.
3. Double-click z extrusion to open the settings dialog.
4. Verify that Geometry type is set to surface.
5. For Side 1, from the drop down, select z_neg.
6. For Side 2, from the drop down, select z_pos.
7. Set Number of Layers to 1.
8. Under Extrusion options, select All tets.

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Figure 187:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 188:
Note: The actual number of nodes and elements, and memory usage may vary
slightly from machine to machine.
3. Visualize the mesh in the modeling window. Turn on the display of surfaces and set the display
type to solid and wire.
4. You can rotate and zoom in the model to analyse the various mesh regions.

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Figure 189:

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Run AcuSolve

For this case, the default settings will be used. AcuSolve will run using four processors (if
available, higher number of processors may be specified) and AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve
input files and will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolvewill calculate the steady state solution for this
problem.
Figure 190:

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Post-Process with AcuProbe

1.
Open AcuProbe by clicking on the toolbar.
2. Double-click on Residual Ratio to expand the tree.
This will plot the residuals for all the variables, pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and
intermittency, in the plot area.
Figure 191:
4. Right-click Final and click Plot None.

5. Expand Surface Output > airfoil > Forces and Moments.
6. Right-click on x-traction and y-tractionand select Plot to plot both of them.

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Figure 192:
The traction values on the airfoil surface have nearly converged. When using correlation-based
transition models, it is always a good practice to examine not only the residuals but also the
actual solution quantities of interest for convergence before accepting the solution. In some other
cases, it is also possible that the flow field has converged even while the residuals show minor
oscillations. The user thus should observe both in tandem before taking an informed decision
about the validity of the solution.

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Post-Process with AcuFieldView

The tutorial has been written with the assumption that you have become familiar with the AcuFieldView
interface and basic operations. In general, it will be helpful to understand the following basics:
• How to find the data readers in the File menu and open up the desired reader panel for data input.
• How to find the visualization panels either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization panel menu to
create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView
• How to move the data around the graphics window using mouse actions to translate, rotate and
zoom in to the data.
This tutorial shows you how to work with steady state analysis data.

You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all the boundary surfaces
with mesh.
Figure 193:

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Set Up AcuFieldView
1. Click Viewer Options.
Figure 194:
2. In the Viewer Options dialog:

a) Deselect Perspective to turn off the perspective view.
b) Click Axis Markers to disable the axis markers.
c) Click Close.
3.
On the toolbar, click the Colormap icon .
4. In the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog, click Background and select White.
5. Close the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog.
6.
Click the Toggle Outline icon on the toolbar to turn off the outline display.
Your display should look similar to Figure 2.

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Figure 195:
Coordinate the Surface Showing Turbulence Viscosity on the Mid Coordinate

Surface
1. From the Surface tab in the Boundary Surface dialog, turn off the Visibility for the active
boundary surfaces.
2.
Click to open the Coordinate Surface dialog.
3. Click Create to create a new coordinate surface.
4. Select Z as the Coordinate Plane.
This will create a coordinate surface at the mid – Z coordinate plane. The coordinate surface
created is the mid plane between the two side surfaces in the model.
5. Change the Coloring to Scalar.
6. Change the Display Type to Smooth.
7. For Scalar Function, select eddy_viscosity.
8. From the Defined Views list, select +Z as the viewing direction.
Your view should be similar to figure 1.

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Figure 196:
You can clearly see the turbulent flow developing at about halfway through the chord of the airfoil.
Before the onset of turbulence, the boundary layer on the airfoil surface is laminar.
9. For Scalar Function, select Intermittency.
Figure 197:
A closer look at the contour plot of intermittency will show that the value of intermittency
transitions to one at the point where the flow transitions from laminar to turbulent. In the region
where the flow is laminar, from the leading edge of the airfoil to the halfway, the intermittency is
zero.

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Run AcuLiftDrag
Table 1:
-pb problem name

-osis comma seperated list of surface outputs

-density / rho denisty of the air




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acuLiftDrag -osis airfoil -aoa 1 -ref_vel 4 -chord 1 -rho 1.225

-span 50
The ouput of the command should look like the image below:
Figure 198:
Run AcuGetCpCf

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Table 2:
-pb problem name

-ts timestep to extract (0=use last)


-points_file / pts comma seperated list of files to read

-z_direction / z_dir direction of iso-cut: x, y, z. Defualt is z.


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acuGetCpCf -osis airfoil -type cp -ref_vel 4 -rho

1.225 -no_nc
Figure 199:
The script prints the minimum and maximum vlaues for the presure coefficient. It also creates a

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Figure 200:
Set Up the Gamma-ReTheta Transition Model

At this stage you have successfully setup and ran the S809 airfoil problem with the Gamma transition
model and Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. In this part of the tutorial you will modify your open
database to setup the problem so as to use the Gamma-ReTheta transition model.
1. Close the open AcuFieldView window and return to the open AcuConsole window.
2. Save the database to retain the setup for the Gamma transition model.
3. Create a new directory within your existing working directory, or at any other location of your
choice, and name it SA_Gamma_Re_Theta.
4. Click File > Save As
5. Navigate into the SA_Gamma_Re_Theta directory. Enter sa_transition_gammaretheta as the File
name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.
Update General Simulation Attributes

4. Enter SA Transition Gamma Re-Theta as the new Sub title for this case.

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5. Change the Turbulence transition model from Gamma to Gamma-Re Theta.
Figure 201:
Update the Nodal Initial Conditions

The Gamma-Re Theta transition model is a two equation model and introduces a new variable,
transition Re-theta, or . Like other variables, an initial value for this variable also needs to be
provided. As before, you will set it to zero to trigger the automatic initialization of by AcuSolve.
1. Double-click Nodal Initial Condition in the data tree to open the detail panel.
2. Set the Transition re theta to 0.0 to trigger the automatic initialization.

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Figure 202:
The remaining settings in the setup need not be modified. You can now launch AcuSolve to get the
solution of the S809 airfoil problem with the Gamma-Re-theta transition case. Follow the same
steps as in the previous case to post-process the results.
Figure 203:

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Figure 204: Gamma-Re Theta - Residuals Plot
Figure 205: Gamma-Re Theta - X and Y Traction Plot

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Results from running AcuLiftDrag and AcuGetCpCf on the Gamma-Re Theta database are shown
below:
Figure 206:

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Figure 207:
Figure 208:
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a turbulence transition problem. The
underlying turbulence model employed was the Spalart-Allmaras model. The problem simulated a
S809 wind turbine airfoil in an external flow field. You started the tutorial by creating a database

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in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the geometry, and setting up the simulation parameters.
The database was initially set up with the one-equation Gamma transition model. Once the case
was setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuProbe and
AcuFieldView. In AcuFieldView, you observed the inter-relation between onset of turbulence viscosity
and intermittency. After successfully getting a solution for the Gamma transition model, you modified
the database to use the two-equation Gamma-Re-Theta as the transition model.

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2.4 ACU-T: 2201 Transition Flow over an Airfoil

using the SST Transition Models
AcuConsole
2.4.1 AcuConsole
of transition flow over a S809 airfoil using the SST (Shear Stress Transport k-ω) turbulence model with
transition models (Gamma or Gamma-ReTheta). AcuSolve is used to compute the intermittency and
predict the point where the boundary layer transitions from the laminar mode to turbulence mode. This
tutorial is designed to introduce you to the modeling concepts necessary to perform simulations using
the transition models coupled with the SST Turbulence model.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and
the steps to set up external turbulent flow are shown in ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow over an Airfoil
Using the SA Transition Models. The following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this
tutorial:
• Use of the SST turbulence model with the Gamma transition model
• Use of the SST turbulence model with Gamma-ReTheta transition model

• Create surface group and apply volume parameters
• Run AcuSolve
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the tutorials, ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and
ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow over an Airfoil Using the SA Transition Models. It is assumed that you have

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some familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, and AcuFieldView. You will also need access to a licensed
version of AcuSolve.

s809_blunt.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem
cylindrical bounding region containing air that flows past a S809 airfoil profile. The simulation is
performed as the two-dimensional problem by including only a single layer of extruded elements in the
airfoil span direction. The velocity vector at the far field boundary of the domain is specified to yield
an angle of attack of one degree and a Reynolds Number of ~250000. The airfoil chord is 1 m, and
standard air material properties are used for the simulation.
Figure 209: S809 Airfoil in the Flow Domain
The simulation will be carried out by activating the turbulence transition models. The underlying
turbulence model used will be the two-equation SST turbulence model. The problem will be solved with
the transition models available in AcuSolve – the one-equation Gamma and the two-equation Gamma-
ReTheta transition models. As the name suggests, the transition models predict the point where the
boundary layer transitions from the laminar mode to turbulence mode. When in the turbulence regime,
the SST turbulence model will be used to determine the flow characteristics.

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Transition and Transition Models

In the real world, laminar flow and turbulent flow coexist when obstacles are located inside of a
fluid flow. Transition flows from laminar to turbulent flow regimes can be found in many industrial
applications including turbomachinery, vehicles, drones, and wind turbines.
A transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow occurs due to various external factors such as
freestream turbulence level (vertical disturbances), sound waves (acoustic disturbances), temperature
fluctuations (entropy disturbances), streamwise pressure gradients, surface roughness, surface
curvature, and vibration. Depending on the external factor or factors, the development of various
transition (instability) mechanisms cause the flow to trip from laminar to turbulent. Here are three main
mechanisms responsible for transition:
1. Natural Transition: In the laminar flow regime, viscous forces usually damp out the disturbances.
However, when the free stream turbulence is low (below 1 percent) and the Reynolds number
is higher than the critical Reynolds number, viscous forces destabilize the shear layer, causing
the fluid to transition to a turbulent regime via the development of the three initial disturbances
(waves, vorticity and vortex breakdown). This mechanism is called the Natural Transition. It is
usually very subtle and progresses very slowly, over a long distance scale.
2. Bypass Transition: When the initial disturbances are high (due to surface roughness or freestream
turbulence levels higher than 1%), turbulence are generated without development of the three
initial disturbances (T-S waves, spanwise vorticity, and vortex breakdown) observed in the natural
transition.
3. Separated-Inducted Transition: When a laminar flow experiences adverse pressure gradients
(such as airfoil suction surfaces and flow over a sphere), the fluid flow detaches from the wall
surface. If the disturbances are low, separation can cause the generation of structures found in
natural transition. Larger disturbances generate Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, where vortices roll
up before breaking down into turbulence. The process involved in separation-induced transition
depends on the size of the adverse pressure gradient and the presence of additional disturbances
(for example, obstacles).
Since transition affects the flow development, lift, drag, heat transfer, and others, it is important to
predict the transition phenomena properly. It is known that conventional turbulence models over-predict
the wall-shear stress for transitional flows. Thus, transition models can be used to improve the accuracy
of CFD solutions when flows encounter transition in the boundary layer.
Transition Models in AcuSolve

AcuSolve has two transition models (Gamma-ReTheta and Gamma) coupled with the Spalart-Allmaras
(SA) and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence models, resulting in total of four choices of the
transition modelling, including: SA-Gamma, SA-Gamma-ReTheta, SST-Gamma, and SST-Gamma-
ReTheta.
1. Gamma-ReTheta Transition Model: The Gamma-ReTheta ( ) model is a correlation-based
intermittency model that predicts natural, bypass, and separation-induced transition mechanisms.
It is based on two transport equations for intermittency ( ) and transition momentum thickness
Reynolds number ( ). The intermittency is a measure of the flow regime that varies between
zero (laminar) and one (fully turbulent). It is used to turn on the turbulent kinetic energy

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production in the turbulent kinetic energy equation, while the transition momentum thickness
Reynolds number is used as the transition onset criteria. The Gamma-ReTheta model is more
suitable for cases when freestream turbulence intensity may be high or adverse pressure
gradients are present in the flow. Most internal flows and some external flows fall in this category.
2. Gamma Transition Model: The Gamma ( ) transition model is a one-equation transition model
and follows Galilean invariance by modifying the correlations. The Gamma transition model is well
suited for the external aerodynamic cases where freestream turbulence intensity is low.
Transition Model Usage Guidelines

1. Meshing Guidelines
a. Generate boundary layer meshes on surfaces where transition onset occurs
b. The first layer height of the boundary layer mesh should be y+ < 5
c. The stretch ratio of the boundary layer mesh should be in the range between 1.1 and 1.2
d. The transition between the boundary layer mesh and the freestream mesh should be smooth
e. The streamwise surface mesh spacing should be small enough to capture separation bubbles
2. Convergence Monitoring
a. The residual and solution ratios of the transition simulations are sometimes stagnated
(commonly seen when the bubble forms near the leading-edge of an airfoil)
b. Despite the appearance of residual and/or solution ratio stagnations, the integrated
force and moment over the airfoil could be converged to the satisfactory level. Thus, the
monitoring of quantities such as lift, drag, thrust, power, torque, etc. is highly suggested.
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide the instructions for setting up the steady transition simulation
of the S809 airfoil using the SST transition models. To keep the total computing time within 5 minutes,
some of the meshing guidelines described above have not been followed. However, you must follow
these guidelines when solving a problem if a high accuracy in results is desired.
This tutorial consists of two parts. In the first part, you will setup and solve the problem, using the
Gamma transition model. After successfully having run the problem with the Gamma model, you will
modify the database setup to use the Gamma-ReTheta transition model, and generate the solution
again.

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loading the geometry, creating volume and surface groups, setting group attributes, adding geometry
components to groups and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you
review some characteristics using AcuFieldView.
settings.
4. Create a new folder named SST_Transition_Models and open this folder.
5. Enter sst_transition as the File name for the database.

Figure 210:


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3. For Name, enter Uinf.
4. For Expression, enter 4.0.
5. For Description, enter Free Stream Velocity of Air.
Uinf 4.0 Free Stream Velocity of Air
xVelocity :=Uinf * cos(alpha*deg) X component of velocity
yVelocity :=Uinf * sin(alpha*deg) Y component of velocity
below:
Figure 211:
selecting Close.

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In next steps you will set parameters that apply globally to the simulation. To make this simple,
the basic settings applicable for any simulation can be filtered using the BAS filter in the Data Tree
Manager. This filter enables display of only a small subset of the available items in the data tree and
makes navigation of the entries easier.
Figure 212:

4. Enter S809 Airfoil as the Title for this case.
5. Enter SST Transition as the Sub title for this case.
6. Ensure that the Analysis type is set to Steady State.
7. Change the Turbulence equation from Laminar to SST.
8. Change the Turbulence transition model from None to Gamma.
Figure 213:

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6. Ensure that both the Turbulence and Turbulence transition flags are set to On.
Figure 214:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined standard materials, Air, Aluminium, and Water, with standard
parameters defined. In the next steps you will check and if needed modify the material characteristics
of the predefined "Air" model to match the desired properties for this problem.
Figure 215:
The Material type for air is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created in
AcuConsole.

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3. In the Density tab check the following.

a) The Type is set to Constant
3
b) The Density value is set to 1.225 kg/m
4. Click the Viscosity tab.
-5
The viscosity of air is 1.781 x 10 kg/m - sec
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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s809_blunt.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing s809_blunt.x_t.
4. Select s809_blunt.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 216:
5. Click OK to complete the geometry import.

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Figure 217:

When a new geometry is imported, by default AcuConsole will place all volumes from a geometry in a
single volume container named "default". You should be able to see it in the data tree upon successful
import of your model in the last step, under Model > Volumes > default.
2. Right-click on Surfaces and select Display off to turn off the display of surfaces
5. Rename the default volume group to Fluid.

b) Click Rename from the context menu.
c) Enter Fluid as the new name, and click Enter.

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c) Check that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, click on the drop-down selector
next to Medium and select Fluid.
d) Click on the drop-down selector next to Material model and select Air.
Figure 218:
Create Surface Groups

problem and add surfaces to the groups.
boundary conditions, mesh parameters, etc. which can sometimes be cumbersome (especially for
models with too many surfaces). To make it easier, less error prone, and for saving time two new
some features of Surface Manager are exploited.
1. Right-click on Volumes and select Display off to turn off the display of Volumes.
4. Turn display off for all surfaces except for default surface.

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Figure 219:

Done.
Figure 220:

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7. Assign the outer peripheral surface of the domain to the farfield surface group. Use the following
figure as the reference for selecting the required surfaces.
Figure 221:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to airfoil. In the previous steps,
that is left in the airfoil surface group are the surfaces which make up the airfoil.

1. Set up the airfoil surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the airfoil surface group.
3. Set up the farfield surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the farfield surface group.
c) Ensure the Type is set to Far Field.

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When using the Far field boundary condition, you need to enter the vector direction of the
flow velocity. Based on this direction, AcuSolve determines whether each element face should
be acting as an inlet or an outlet. Using this direction vector, in conjunction with the outward
facing normal at each element, it applies the appropriate boundary conditions to the faces
of the model. For faces where the flow is entering the model, a nodal boundary condition for
velocity and turbulence variables is assigned. For faces where the flow is exiting the model,
an element boundary condition for pressure is assigned (that is, an outflow condition).
To facilitate ease in changing the angle of attack for this simulation, you will set the inlet
velocity vector at the far field boundary using the variables that were previously defined. Set
the values using the following inputs.
d) For X Velocity, enter :=xVelocity.
e) For Y Velocity, enter :=yVelocity.
f) Set Turbulence input type to Auto.
g) Set the Turbulence intensity type to Auto.
Figure 222:
selected by AcuConsole based on parameters like the turbulence model selected, flow type, etc.
detail panel.
4. Ensure all initial condition types in this panel are set to Constant.

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For the SST turbulence model, you need to provide the initial value for kinetic energy and eddy
frequency. For the Gamma transition model, you need to provide the initial value for Intermittency,
or . If you have a reasonable estimate of these values, you can enter them directly in the nodal
initial condition fields. One option is to use the same values that are assigned at the inlet boundary.
In the absence of good estimates for the initial conditions, it is also possible to let AcuSolve perform
an automatic initialization of the turbulence and transition variables. By setting these values to zero,
AcuSolve will trigger an automatic initialization of these variables.
5. Set the Kinetic energy, Eddy frequency and Intermittency to 0.0 to trigger the automatic
initialization.
Figure 223:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.210

to be generated.
b) Click Absolute.
7. Set Maximum sweep angle to 5.0 degrees.
Figure 224:

For this simulation, the mesher will locally reduce the height of the boundary layer stack but will
keep the total number of layers constant. Using this approach, the height of each layer is scaled by
a constant factor to reduce the total height of the stack and avoid the creation of the poor quality
boundary layer elements.

2. Set Shrink mixed flag to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.211
Figure 225:


AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.212
1. Expand Model, Surfaces and then Airfoil.

2. Double click Surface Mesh Attributes to open the detail panel.
3. Click the Surface Mesh Attributes check box to activate it.
The detail panel is populated with more options.
4. Set the Mesh size type to Absolute.
Mesh controls related to influence region from the surface are now visible.
7. Set the Influence parameters as follows:
a) Influence type: Simple
b) Influence size factor: 2.0
c) Influence distance: 0.1
Mesh controls related to boundary layer meshing will be visible now.
10. For Resolve, select Number of Layers.
11. Set the remaining parameters as follows:
b) Total layer height: 0.04
c) Growth rate: 1.2
Figure 226:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.213

refinement near the leading and trailing edges and a large element size near the mid chord. Since our
region of influence refinement, you will use an edge mesh attribute to control the placement of nodes
1. Add a new edge by right-clicking Edges > New.

A new entity, Edge 1, is created under Edges in the data tree.
c) Click Done.
Figure 227:

6. Click Absolute mesh size expression to open a text editor where you can write an expression
for the mesh size.
This expression will be evaluated by the mesh engine to determine the local mesh size that should
be used at each location on the edges in the edge set.
7. Enter the following expression in the text area editor:
sizeMin = 0.002
sizeMax = 0.05
xMin = (0.0)
xMax = (1.0)

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.214
xCenter = ((xMin+xMax)/2.0)
fac = ((dx - abs( x-xCenter) )/dx )
power = (ln( sizeMax/sizeMin))

value = expVal
8. Select Ok to close this text editor area and accept the expression.


3. Double-click z extrusion to open the settings dialog.
5. For Side 1, from the drop down menu, select z_neg.
6. For Side 2, from the drop down menu, select z_pos.
7. Check that the Extrusion type is set to Number of layers.
8. Set Number of layers to 1.
9. For Extrusion options, select All tets.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.215
Figure 228:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.216
Figure 229:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.217
Figure 230:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.218
Run AcuSolve

input files and will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the steady state solution for this
problem.
Figure 231:


AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.219
1.
2. Double-click Residual Ratio to expand the tree.
3. Right-click Final and click Plot All.
This will plot the residuals for all the variables, pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and
intermittency, in the plot area.
Figure 232:
4. Right-click Final and click Plot None.

5. Expand Surface Output > airfoil > Forces and Moments.
6. Right-click on x-traction and select Plot then right-click on y-traction and select plot Plot.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.220
Figure 233:
The traction values on the airfoil surface have nearly converged. When using correlation-based
transition models, it is always a good practice to examine not only the residuals but also the
actual solution quantities of interest for convergence before accepting the solution. In some other
cases, it is also possible that the flow field has converged even while the residuals show minor
oscillations. The user thus should observe both in tandem before taking an informed decision
about the validity of the solution.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.221


with mesh.
Figure 234:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.222
Set Up AcuFieldView
Figure 235:

c) Click Close.
3.
6.
Your display should look similar to Figure 2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.223
Figure 236:
Coordinate the Surface Showing Turbulence Viscosity on the Mid Coordinate

Surface
boundary surfaces.
2.
7. For Scalar Function, select kinetic_energy.
8. Close the Coordinate Surface dialog.
9. From the Defined Views menu, select +Z as the viewing direction.
Your view should be similar to Figure 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.224
Figure 237:
You can clearly see the turbulent flow developing at about halfway through the chord of the airfoil.
Before the onset of turbulence, the boundary layer on the airfoil surface is laminar.
10. Open the Coordinate Surface dialog, click Select next to Scalar Function and select
Intermittency.
Figure 238:
A closer look at the contour plot of intermittency will show that the value of intermittency
transitions to one at the point where the flow transitions from laminar to turbulent. In the region
where the flow is laminar, from the leading edge of the airfoil to the halfway, the intermittency is
zero.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.225
Run AcuLiftDrag
-pb problem name


-density / rho denisty of the air



acuLiftDrag -osis airfoil -aoa 1 -ref_vel 4 -chord 1 -rho 1.225

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.226
-span 50
The ouput of the command should look like the image below:
Figure 239:
Run AcuGetCpCf
-pb problem name

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.227

-ts timestep to extract (0=use last)


-points_file / pts comma seperated list of files to read

-z_direction / z_dir direction of iso-cut: x, y, z. Defualt is z.

acuGetCpCf -osis airfoil -type cp -ref_vel 4 -rho

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.228
1.225 -no_nc
Figure 240:
The script prints the minimum and maximum vlaues for the presure coefficient. It also creates a

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.229
Figure 241:
Set Up the Gamma-ReTheta Transition Model

At this stage you have successfully setup and ran the S809 airfoil problem with the Gamma transition
model and SST turbulence model. In this part of the tutorial you will modify your open database to
setup the problem so as to use the Gamma-ReTheta transition model.
1. Close the open AcuFieldView window and return to the open AcuConsole window.
2. Save the database to retain the setup for the Gamma transition model.
3. Create a new directory within your existing working directory, or at any other location of your
choice, and name it SST_Gamma_ReTheta.
4. Click File > Save As
5. Navigate into the SST_Gamma_Re_Theta directory. Enter sst_transition_gammaretheta as the
File name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.
Update General Simulation Parameters


AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.230
Figure 242:

4. Enter SST Transition Gamma ReTheta as the new Sub title for this case.
5. Change the Turbulence transition model from Gamma to Gamma-ReTheta.
Figure 243:
Update the Nodal Initial Conditions

The Gamma-ReTheta transition model is a two equation model and introduces a new variable, transition
ReTheta, or . Like other variables, an initial value for this variable also needs to be provided. As
before, you will set it to zero to trigger the automatic initialization of by AcuSolve.
1. Double-click Nodal Initial Condition in the data tree to open the detail panel.
2. Set Transition re theta to 0.0 to trigger the automatic initialization.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.231
Figure 244:
The remaining settings in the setup need not be modified. You can now launch AcuSolve to get
the solution of the S809 airfoil problem with the Gamma-ReTheta transition case. Follow the same
steps as in the previous case to post-process the results.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.232
Figure 245:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.233
Results from running AcuLiftDrag and AcuGetCpCf on the Gamma-Re Theta database are shown
below:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.234
Figure 246:
Figure 247:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2 Turbulence p.235
Figure 248:
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a turbulence transition problem. The
underlying turbulence model employed was the SST model. The problem simulated a S809 wind turbine
airfoil in an external flow field. You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing
and meshing the geometry, and setting up the simulation parameters. The database was initially set up
with the one-equation Gamma transition model. Once the case was setup, the solution was generated
with AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuProbe and AcuFieldView. In AcuFieldView you
observed the inter-relation between onset of turbulence viscosity and intermittency. After successfully
getting a solution for the Gamma transition model, you modified the database to use the two-equation
Gamma-ReTheta as the transition model.

Heat Transfer 3
3 Heat Transfer
• 3.1 ACU-T: 3000 Enclosed Hot Cylinder: Natural Convection (p. 237)
• 3.2 ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow (p. 277)
• 3.3 ACU-T: 3101 Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow (p. 339)
• 3.4 ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous
Media (p. 386)
• 3.5 ACU-T: 3201 Greenhouse Daytime Climate Simulation – Solar Radiation and Thermal
Shell (p. 454)
• 3.6 ACU-T: 3203 Heat Transfer Between Concentric Spheres – P1 Radiation Model (p. 498)
• 3.7 ACU-T: 3204 Heat Transfer Between Concentric Spheres – Discrete Ordinate Radiation
Model (p. 511)
• 3.8 ACU-T: 3300 Modeling of a Heat Exchanger Component (p. 525)
• 3.9 ACU-T: 3400 AcuSolve-Flux Integration (p. 535)
AcuSolve Tutorials
3 Heat Transfer p.237
3.1 ACU-T: 3000 Enclosed Hot Cylinder: Natural

Convection
AcuConsole
3.1.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a simulation of a
hot cylinder contained within another air-filled cylinder. In this simulation, an internally heated cylinder
is surrounded by air which heats up as it comes in contact with the surface of the inner cylinder. The
localized heating near the surface induces a buoyancy driven flow in the air, generating convection
currents. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to modeling concepts related to natural convection
simulations.
• Creating and specifying a new custom material in AcuConsole
• Specifying a volume group as a heat source
• Using the Boussinesq density model in buoyancy driven flows, such as cases involving natural
convection
• Set up periodic boundary conditions

• Create a new custom material model in AcuConsole and assign material properties to it
• Create surface groups and apply surface parameters
• Set periodic boundary conditions
• Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites

twin_cylinder.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

geometrical elements (such as inlets, outlets, or walls) and on flow conditions (such as fluid properties,
The system being simulated contains an internally-heated cylinder, which is surrounded by a cylindrical
ring of a larger diameter. The annular volume between the two cylinders is filled with a fluid (air). The
inner cylinder thus acts a heat source, and the fluid in contact with the surface of this heat source is
heated up. This hot fluid, being lower in density than the cold fluid, then rises up to the upper part of
the annulus due to buoyancy effects, and displaces the cold fluid at top. At the same time, the film of
fluid which was in contact with the heating surface is replaced by the surrounding cold fluid. This new
film of cold fluid goes through the same process until eventually a steady state convection current is
achieved, or the inner cylinder ceases to generate heat and slowly the whole system achieves an equal
temperature.
The system being simulated can be considered similar to a heat exchanger wherein the inner cylinder is
akin to a tube through which a hot fluid passes by, and the air which surrounds this inner tube extracts
heat from the inner tube. Another analogy can be of a wire carrying high current enclosed in an air
cooled chamber. As the current heats up the wire due to resistance, the air around the wire keeps the
wire temperature within control by extracting heat from the wire surface.
The schematics of the problem which will be addressed in this tutorial is shown in Figure 249. The inner
cylinder is a solid volume with internal heat generation, and the outer cylinder is a fluid volume with air
as the fluid. Both cylinders are assumed to be infinitely long and the system will be modeled using half
symmetry and periodicity. The cylinders are infinite in z-direction and hence periodicity will be applied
along this direction.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Natural Convection
Convection is a heat transfer mechanism where the transfer of heat energy happens through the motion
of matter. Since the definition of convection involves motion of matter a fluid state is usually present in
convection. Usually this type of heat transfer takes place between a hot or a cold surface and a fluid.
The film of fluid in contact with the surface absorbs heat from or transfers heat to the surface and is
then replaced by a new film. This movement of fluid may either be governed by an external source,
such as a fan or pump, or due to internal changes in the fluid properties. When no external sources are
responsible for the fluid motion the heat transfer mechanism at work is called the Natural Convection.
The driving force for motion of the fluid in a natural convection is density changes in the fluid due to
temperature gradients induced in the fluid by heat transfer.
The natural convection mechanism works similarly as described above, whilst discussion of the problem.
The fluid which is in contact with the surface absorbs or transfers heat from the surface and becomes
hotter or colder than the surrounding fluid. Driven by buoyancy forces due to difference in densities
caused by the temperature gradient, the fluid is displaced upwards or downwards. Surrounding fluid
fills in the void created by the displaced fluid, which then undergoes the same process again. This gives
rise to a convection current which drives the hot fluid to the top and cold fluid to the bottom of the
convection cell. Buoyancy effects are driven by gravity, therefore natural convection requires presence
of a gravitational force to work. It must be noted, however, that gravity is not the driving force behind
the fluid movement. Presence of gravity only enables displacement of the fluid due to the density
changes caused by temperature gradients.
Mathematical determination of the onset of natural convection is done through a dimensionless number
called the Rayleigh number (Ra). The Rayleigh number is defined as:
where:
• x is the characteristic length (m)
• is the Rayleigh number for characteristic length x
2
• is acceleration due to gravity (m/s )
• is the surface temperature (K)
• is the quiescent temperature (fluid temperature far from the surface of the object) (K)
2
• is the kinematic viscosity (m /s)
2
• α is the thermal diffusivity (m /s)
• β is the thermal expansion coefficient (equals to for ideal gases where is absolute
temperature).
The fluid properties , α and β are evaluated at the film temperature, , which is defined as:

AcuSolve Tutorials
When the Rayleigh number is below a critical value for the fluid heat transfer is primarily in the form of
conduction. When it exceeds this critical value the dominant heat transfer mechanism is convection.
Boussinesq Density Model

The Boussinesq density model is an approximation method applied to buoyancy driven flows, such as
natural convection flows. In the Boussinesq approximation, the density variation terms are neglected
everywhere except when multiplied by acceleration due to gravity, . The basis of this approximation
is that since temperature changes are small, the resultant changes in density are small as well and
thus can be neglected. However, when multiplied by , the resultant term gives rise to forces which no
longer are negligible. The Boussinesq approximation is:
where
3
• is the instantaneous density at temperature (kg/m )
3
• is the density at reference temperature (kg/m )
• is change in temperature (K)
As stated in the approximation, the Boussinesq density model is only applicable when density variations
are small. A general guideline is to check for the condition to be true. This indirectly puts a
limitation on this model to be used to only for cases where expected temperature differences within the
fluid are not large.

AcuSolve Tutorials

loading the geometry, creating volume and surface groups, setting group parameters, adding geometry
components to groups, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next, you
visualize some characteristics of the results using AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, and create the database for storage of the simulation
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Natural_convection and navigate into this
directory.
5. Enter NaturalConvection as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.

Manager. This filter enables display of only a small subset of the available items in the data tree and

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 250:
Figure 251:
Tip: You can also open a panel by right-clicking a tree item and clicking Open on the
context menu.
4. Enter AcuSolve Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Natural Convection as the Sub title.
7. Change the Temperature equation to Advective Diffusive.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 252:

during the solution.
1. Double-click Auto Solution Strategy in the Data Tree to open the Auto Solution Strategy
detail panel.
2. Check that Analysis type is set to Steady State.
4. Change the Convergence tolerance to 0.0001.
6. Check that Flow and Temperature are set to On.
7. Change the Temperature flow to On.
Changing the Temperature flow flag to On will instruct the solver to solve thermal-flow problems
in fully coupled mode. Otherwise these problems are solved with a staggered strategy. In
fully-coupled mode, the flow and temperature equations are solved simultaneously, while in
the staggered approach, the flow equation will usually be solved first considering constant
temperature, and then the temperature equation will be solved as the next step.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 253:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum and Water, with standard parameters
defined. In the next steps you will check and modify the material characteristics of the predefined Air
model to match the desired properties for this problem. Since this a natural convection problem the
density type for air will be set to use the Boussinesq approximation. Subsequently, you will create a new
custom material and assign relevant material properties to it.
Figure 254:
The material type for air is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created in
AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. Change the density type to Boussinesq.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 255:
-5
4. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of air is 1.781 x 10 kg/m – sec.
5. Click the Specific Heat tab and make sure the Specific heat value is 1005.0 J/kg-K.
6. Similarly check the Conductivity tab and make sure the values are as follows:
a) Conductivity: 0.02521 W/m-K
b) Turbulent Prandtl number: 0.91
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.
8. Right-click Material Model in the Data Tree and select New from the context menu that
appears.
A new entry, Material Model 1, will be created in the Data Tree under the Material Model branch.
9. Right-click Material Model 1 and select Rename in the context menu.
10. Type in Stainless Steel as the name and press Enter.
11. Double-click Stainless Steel in the Data Tree to open the Stainless Steel detail panel.
The Material type is listed as Fluid. This is the default type for any new material created in
AcuConsole.
12. Change the Material type for Stainless Steel to Solid.
13. Set the material properties for Stainless Steel as follows by navigating through respective tabs in
the detail panel:
3
a) Density: 8000 kg/m .
b) Specific Heat: 500.0 J/kg-K
c) Conductivity: 16.2 W/m-K

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

twin_cylinder.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry
in Parasolid ASCII format.
2. Browse to the directory containing twin_cylinder.x_t.
4. Select twin_cylinder.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 256:
6. Rotate the visualization to view the entire model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 257:
Set the Body Force

The body force commands add volumetric source terms to the governing conservation equations. Two
types of body forces will be used in this tutorial.
The first one is the gravitational force on the fluid due to inertia of the fluid. As discussed in Analyze
the Problem, gravity is an important aspect of the simulation. In fact, for thermal problems solved in
AcuSolve with the Boussinesq approximation, the gravity is scaled by the product of the expansivity
and the temperature minus reference temperature, while density remains constant. This variation in the
gravitational force on fluid regions with different temperatures is what generated convection currents.
2
For this tutorial gravity is defined as equal to standard gravity (g = 9.81 m/s ) along the negative Y-
axis, which is the downward direction in the model.
The second body force which will be used in this model is the volumetric heat source, which specifies
the heat energy source term per unit volume. This will be used to simulate the heat-generating inner
cylinder in our model.
1. Double-click Body Force in the Data Tree to expand it.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Double-click Gravity to open the Gravity detail panel.

The medium for gravity is Fluid. This means that the gravity defined here is applicable only on
material models whose material type is fluid.
3. Click Open Array.
4. In the Array Editor dialog, enter:
• X-component: 0.0
2
• Y-component: -9.81 m/s
• Z-component: 0.0
5. Click OK to complete the definition of gravity.
Note: The definition of gravity here will have no effect on the simulation unless it is
assigned to some volume set in the model.
6. Create a new body force by right-clicking on Body Force in the Data Tree and selecting New in
the context menu that appears.
A new entry, Body Force 1, will be created under the Body Force branch.
7. Right-click on Body Force 1, select Rename in the context menu, and type in Heat Source as
the entity name.
8. Double-click on Heat Source to open it in the detail panel.
9. Change the Medium to Solid.
10. Click on the drop-down selector next to first Type option and select Per unit volume.
This sets the type of heat source to volumetric heat source.
11. Click on the drop-down selector next to the second Type option and select Constant.
3
12. Set the Volumetric heat source value to 20000.0 W/m
Figure 258:

container.

AcuSolve Tutorials
In the next steps you will create volume groups for each volume in the model, assign volumes to the
respective volume groups, rename the default volume group container, and set the materials and other
properties for each volume group.
1. Expand the Model Data Tree item.
2. Create a new volume group for the solid inner cylinder.
a) Right-click on Volumes.
b) Click New.
3. Rename the new volume group to solid.
4. Add the solid component in the geometry to this group.
a) Right-click solid under Volumes in the Data Tree.
b) Click Add to.
c) Click the heating element portion of the geometry in the Visualization Area. Refer to the
following figure to identify the correct portion.
Figure 259:
Follow the instructions in the Add to dialog if you need to manipulate the display to select
the correct portion of the geometry.
d) Click Done to add the selected volume to the solid volume group.
5. Set up the solid volume element set.
The material model for this volume will be set to Stainless Steel, which is the custom material
model you created earlier in this tutorial, specifically for this solid volume. Also the solid volume is
to be set up as the heat source
a) Expand the solid volume group in the tree.

AcuSolve Tutorials

c) Change the Medium to Solid.
d) Change the Material model to Stainless Steel.
e) Change the Body force to Heat Source.
6. In the Data Tree, right-click on default and rename it to fluid.
7. Set up the Fluid volume element set.
a) Expand the fluid volume group in the tree.
b) Double click Element Set under fluid to open it in the detail panel.
c) Ensure that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, change it to Fluid.
d) Change the Material model to Air.
e) Change the Body force to Gravity.

In the next steps you will define surface groups, assign the appropriate settings for the different
characteristics of the problem, and add surfaces to the group containers.
boundary conditions, mesh parameters, and so on, which can sometimes be cumbersome, especially for
models with too many surfaces. To make it easier, less error prone, and to save time, two new dialogs
are provided in AcuConsole. Use the Volume Manager and Surface Manager to verify and provide
the information for all surface or volume entities at once. In this section some features of Surface
Manager are exploited.
1. Turn-off display for Volumes by right-clicking on Volumes and selecting Display off .
2. Right-click on Surfaces in the Data Tree and select Surface Manager.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New six times to create six new surface groups.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 260:
If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click on Columns , select
these two columns from the list and click Ok.
Figure 261:
4. Turn off the display for all surfaces except for the default surface.
5. Rename the default surface to inner_wall.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6. Rename Surface 1 through Surface 6 according to the image below.

7. Set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns as per Figure 262.
Figure 262:
8. Assign the periodic surfaces to the respective surface groups.

As mentioned earlier, the cylinders are assumed to be infinitely extended in z-direction. Hence
periodicity will be applied in this direction.
a) In the solid_pos_z row in the Surface Manager, click Add to .
b) Select the planar symmetry surfaces as shown in Figure 263 and click Done.
c) Follow the procedure to assign all the surfaces that will extend in the z-direction to respective
surface collectors.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 263:
9. Assign the outer wall of the geometry to the outer_wall surface group. Use Figure 264 as the
reference for selecting the required surfaces.
Figure 264:

AcuSolve Tutorials
10. Assign the surface for symmetry_plane.
Figure 265:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to inner_walls. In the previous steps,
you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created. At this point, all that is
left in the inner_walls surface group are the surfaces which make up the contact boundary between the
inner cylinder and the fluid volume.
11. Close the Surface Manager.
Assign Surface Parameters

The modeling for this simulation was done using half symmetry. The model is only a partial
representation of the system, the complete geometry of which is a cylinder. Hence it is appropriate to
set the surface that you chose as symmetry_plane with a symmetry boundary condition to simulate that
effect.
This change was completed using the Surface Manager in the last section. The following steps are
thus optional.
1. Update symmetry_plane.
a) Expand the symmetry_plane surface in the tree.
b) Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under symmetry_plane to open the Simple
Boundary Condition detail panel.
c) Ensure that the Type is set to Symmetry.
2. Update outer_wall.
a) Expand the outer_wall surface group in the tree.

AcuSolve Tutorials
b) Double click Simple Boundary Condition under outer_wall to open the Simple Boundary
c) Ensure that the Type is set to Wall.
d) Verify that the Wall velocity type is set to Match Mesh Velocity.
e) Change Temperature BC type from Flux to Value.
f) Set the Temperature to 25° C.
The default unit for temperature input is K. You can change the unit for temperature by
clicking on the unit button at the right of the input field, and selecting oC from the appearing
menu.
Figure 266:
3. Update inner_wall
The inner walls form the boundary surface of the inner cylinder volume, and enclose the fluid
volume on the inside. Since the inner cylinder is a solid medium, this contact boundary will be a
wall.
a) Expand the inner_wall surface group in the tree.
b) Double click Simple Boundary Condition under inner_wall to open the Simple Boundary
c) Ensure that the Type is set to Wall.
d) Verify Wall velocity type is set to Match Mesh Velocity.
4. Update the periodic surfaces solid_pos_z, solid_neg_z, fluid_pos_z, and fluid_neg_z
Physically the simulation domain is assumed to extend infinitely in the z-direction. However, only
a small section of the cross section is being modelled and the solution is assumed to be consistent
along the z-direction. Thus, these periodic surfaces are not physical boundaries but the solution on
these surfaces is constrained to be equal by periodicity. This is achieved via a periodic boundary
condition in AcuConsole, which links the corresponding pairs of nodes on the two surfaces which
are to be constrained with a periodic boundary condition.
Periodicity can be defined before proceeding with mesh generation. With this workflow, when the
mesh is generated, AcuMeshSim, which is the mesh generation engine for AcuSolve, will read the
defined periodicity constraints and ensure a periodic mesh on the specified surface pairs.
a) Expand the Model Data Tree item, and right-click on Periodics.

b) Select New from the context menu to create a new entity, Periodic 1.
c) Repeat the above step to create a second entity Periodic 2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
d) Rename the two new entities as periodicity_fluid and periodicity_solid.

e) Right-click on periodicity_fluid and select Define from the context menu.
f) In the Periodic BC dialog, make the following settings.
• Use the drop-down arrow to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as fluid_neg_z
and fluid_pos_z, respectively
• Check that the Type is set to Translational.
• Set X, Y and Z-offset as 0.0, 0.0, 0.01 respectively.
Use the following figure for reference for setting up the periodic BC.
Figure 267:
g) Click OK to close the dialog.

h) Using the same figure as reference, similarly define the periodic BC for the entity
periodicity_solid, with only the following changes:
• Use the drop down arrows for Side 1 and Side 2 and select solid_neg_z and
solid_pos_z, respectively.
Create Time History Output Points

Time History Output commands enables you to extract the nodal solution at any point within the
domain.
1. In the tree, double-click on Output, then right-click on Time History Output, and select New.
A new entry, Time History Output 1, will be created in the Data Tree under the Time History
Output branch.
2. Right-click on Time History Output 1, select Rename, and type in Monitor points as the
entity name.
3. Double click Monitor points to open the detail panel. In the detail panel,
a) Change the Type to Coordinates.
b) Click Open Array.

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c) In the Array Editor, add a new row by clicking Add Row.

d) Fill in the values as follows:
Figure 268:
4. Click OK.
5. Set Time step frequency to 1.
This will save the results for the defined time history points at every time step.
6. Save the database.
Set the Initial Conditions
1. Double-click on Nodal Initial Condition in the Data Tree to open the detail panel.
2. Set the Temperature to 80° C.
a) The default unit for temperature input is K. You can change the unit for temperature by
clicking on unit to the right of the input field, and selecting oC from the appearing menu.
b) Alternatively, enter 353.15 K in the temperature field.
Figure 269:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Global Mesh Parameters

to be generated.
Figure 270:


2. Under the Model branch, expand the Surfaces. Under Surfaces, expand the inner_wall surface
group.
3. If necessary, check the box next to Surface Mesh Attributes to activate it. Double-click it to
open the Surface Mesh Attributes detail panel.

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The detail panel should now be populated with options related to the local surface meshing
controls.
4. Ensure that the Mesh size type is set to Absolute.
6. Switch the Boundary layer flag to On.
Mesh controls related to boundary layer meshing become visible.
7. Check the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
8. Set Resolve to Total Layer Height.
This sets the total layer height based on the other settings you provide.
9. Set the remaining settings as follows:
Option Description
First element height 0.0001
Growth rate 1.2
Number of layers 8
Boundary layer elements type Tetrahedron
Figure 271:
Instead of repeating the above steps for the outer_wall surface, you can choose to propagate the mesh
attribute settings for inner_wall surface group to outer_wall surface group.
10. Under the inner_wall surface, right-click Surface Mesh Attributes and select Propagate.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 272:
11. In the Propagate dialog, select the surface outer_wall and click Propagate.
Figure 273:

The present simulation is equivalent to a 2D representation of the model, which actually extends
infinitely in both sides along the z-direction. In AcuSolve, 2D models are simulated by having just one
element across the faces of the cross section. Thus when these faces are set up with a similar boundary
condition, it coerces the corresponding nodes across the faces to have same results. In this problem,
these faces are the negative and positive z-surfaces. This kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with
mesh extrusion process. In the following steps, the process of extrusion of the mesh between these
surfaces is defined.

2. Right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New from the context menu to create a new entity, Mesh
Extrusion 1.
3. Repeat the above step to create a second entity, Mesh Extrusion 2.

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4. Rename the two entities as extrusion_fluid and extrusion_solid.

5. Right-click extrusion_fluid and select Define from the context menu.
6. In the Mesh Extrusion dialog, make the following settings.
a) Check that the Geometry type is set to surface.
b) Use the drop down arrows to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as fluid_neg_z and
fluid_pos_z, respectively.
c) Check that the Extrusion type is set to Number of layers.
d) Set Number of layers equal to 1.
e) Set Extrusion options to All tets.
Use the following figure for reference for setting up the mesh extrusion for extrusion_fluid.
Figure 274:

8. Using the same figure as reference, similarly define the mesh extrusion for the entity
extrusion_solid, with only the following changes:
a) Use the drop down arrows to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as solid_neg_z and
solid_pos_z, respectively
Generate the Mesh

problem.

For this case, the default settings will be used.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 275:

Figure 276:
4. Rotate and zoom in the model to analyze the various mesh regions.
Assign Reference Pressure

The present case does not have any inlet or outlet surfaces to define any boundary condition that
sets the pressure level inside the domain. To make the solution more robust, you will set a pressure
reference point using a nodal boundary condition. The following steps will show how to setup the
reference pressure inside the CFD domain.

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2.
4. Right-click on Nodes and select New to create a new entity, Node 1.
5. Rename Node 1 to Fixed Pressure Node.
6. Right-click Fixed Pressure Node and select Define.
7. In the Node Define Dialog Box, set Selection Type to Pressure Point and Volumes to fluid.
Figure 277:
8. Click OK.
9. Expand Fixed Pressure Node and enable Pressure.
The single node will now act as the pressure reference point for the simulation. The default Type
of Zero sets the nodes in this set to pressure = 0.0.
Figure 278:
10. Examine the location of the reference pressure node and check that it is inside the domain.

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a) Right-click on Fixed Pressure Node and select Display on.

b) Right-click on Surfaces and set Display type to outline.
c) Right-click Periodics and select Display off.
You should be able to see the fixed pressure node as a point, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 279:

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Run AcuSolve

Figure 280:

Note: This solution was obtained by running AcuSolve
with four processors.

1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Residual Ratio. Right-click on Final and select Plot All.
This will plot the residuals for the three variables, pressure, temperature and velocity, in the plot
area.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 281:
3. Right-click on Final under Residual Ratio and select Plot None.

4. Expand Time History > Monitor Points.
5. Expand node 1 and node 2.
6. One node at a time, right-click on temperature and select Plot.
Figure 282:

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The node 1 lies in the bottom half of the model and the node 2 in the upper half. The temperature
distribution in the above plot shows that in steady state upper half of the cylinder annulus is
occupied by the hotter air and lower half has the colder air.
processing.
c) Click Save.

• How to find the visualization panels either from the toolbar or the Visualization panels from the
main menu to create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
• How to move the data around the modeling window using mouse actions to translate, rotate and
Start AcuFieldView
You will see that the temperature contours have already been displayed on all the boundary
surfaces with mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 283:
1. Close the Boundary Surface dialog.

Figure 284:
3. Turn off perspective view by deselecting the Perspective check box.

4. Disable axis markers by clicking on the Axis Markers button.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 285:
5. Close the Viewer Options dialog.

6.
Click on the Colormap Specification icon on the toolbar.
7. Click on Background in the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog and select white from the
color palette that opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 286:
8. Close both dialogs.

9.
Click on the Toggle Outline icon on the toolbar to turn off the outline display.
Your AcuFieldView display should now look like this.
Figure 287:
Create the Boundary Surface Showing Temperature for the Outer Surfaces
with Mesh
1. Orient the geometry as shown in the figure below, so that the symmetry plane and periodic
surfaces are visible.
2.
Click the Boundary Surface icon to open the Boundary Surface dialog.
3. Click the Legend tab and check the Show Legend check box.
4. Change the color of labels to black from the color palette.
5. If desired, change the number of labels to show more labels.
6. Change the Annotation title color to black.

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Note: You can move the legend using Shift + left click, and resize it using Shift +
right click.
Figure 288:
Coordinate the Surface Showing Temperature on the Mid-Coordinate Surface
1. In the Surface tab in the Boundary Surface dialog box, click Visibility to turn it off.
2. Click Create to create a new Boundary Surface set.
3. Check Visibility to turn it on.
4. Set the Display Type to Outlines.

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5. Under Boundary Types, click Select All, and click Ok.

6.
7. Click Create to create a new Coordinate Surface.
8. Set the Coord Plane to Z.
The coordinate surface created is the mid plane between the two periodic surfaces in the model.
10. Set the Display Type to Smooth.
11. In the Scalar Function list, select Temperature as the scalar function to be displayed.
12. In the Colormap tab, change Scalar Coloring to Local.
13. In the Legend tab, check the Show Legend check box to display the temperature values on the
coordinate plane.
14. From the Defined Views, select viewing direction as +Z.
Figure 289:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Coordinate the Surface Showing Vectors of Velocity on the Mid-Coordinate

Surface
1. In the Surface tab in the Coordinate Surface dialog box, click Create to create a new
Coordinate Surface set.
2. Set the Display Type to Vectors.
4. In the Scalar Function list, select Velocity Magnitude as the scalar function to be displayed.
5. Next to Vectors, click Options.
6. Activate Head Scaling and set it at 1.
7. Set the Length Scale to 4.
8. Activate the Skip option, and set the value to 50%.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 290:
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a natural convection problem. The problem
simulated a hot cylinder placed in the center of another air-filled cylindrical volume. Air was modeled
using a Boussinesq density approximation model, which is used for buoyancy driven flows, such as
those involving natural convection. As the film of air in vicinity of the surface of the hot inner cylinder
heated up, it generated convection currents within the annular volume.
You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the geometry and
setting up the basic simulation parameters. The hot inner cylinder was represented by a solid volume
also acting as a heat source. Once the case was setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView where you generated a temperature profile, and a velocity
vector profile, on a cross-section of the model.
New features that were introduced in this tutorial include creating and specifying a new custom material
in AcuConsole, specifying a volume group as a heat source using the Boussinesq density model and
setting up periodic boundary conditions.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.2 ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate Heat Transfer in a

Mixing Elbow
AcuConsole
HyperMesh
3.2.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results for a simulation of 3D
turbulent-flow with conjugate heat transfer in a mixing elbow. It is designed to introduce you to the
AcuSolve tool set with a simple problem.
• Simulating heat transfer within a fluid
• Simulating heat transfer between a fluid and a solid (conjugate heat transfer)
• Creation of a new material model
• Modeling of surfaces shared between solid and fluid volumes
• Propagation (copying) of settings from one surface group to another
Prerequisites

mixingElbowHeat.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

mixing elbow made of stainless steel with water entering through two inlets with different velocities and
with different temperatures. The geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane of the pipe, as shown in
the figure. This symmetry allows the flow to be modeled with the use of a symmetry plane. The use of a
symmetry plane leads to reduced computation time while still providing an accurate solution.
Figure 291: Schematic of Mixing Elbow with Stainless-steel Walls
The diameter of the large inlet is 0.1 m, the inlet velocity (v) is 0.4 m/s and the temperature (T) of the
fluid entering the large inlet is 295 K. The diameter of the small inlet is .025 m, the velocity is 1.2 m/s,
and the temperature of the fluid entering the small inlet is 320 K. The pipe wall has a thickness of 0.005
m.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 292:
3 -3
Figure 293:
3
The pipe walls are made of stainless steel with a density of 8030 kg/m , a conductivity of 16.2 W/m-K,
and a specific heat of 500 J/kg-K.
Figure 294:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 295:
where ρ is the fluid density, v is the fluid velocity, D is the diameter of the flow region, and μ is the
Figure 296:
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow with varying temperature. In
addition, the thermal characteristics of the flow will be modeled using advection and diffusion equations.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 297:
Figure 298:
in areas where gradients in pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and the like are steep. For this problem,
the flow entering the large pipe from the side pipe creates large velocity gradients that need to be
resolved. A mesh refinement zone is used to capture the flow in this region.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 299:
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the steady state temperature contours
on the symmetry plane, velocity vectors on the symmetry plane, temperature contours on the pipe
walls, and temperature contours at the pipe outlet.

AcuSolve Tutorials

loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group attributes, adding geometry components to
groups, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you will generate
a mesh and run AcuSolve to converge on a steady state solution. Finally, you will visualize the results
using AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, create the database for storage of AcuConsole settings and
4. Create a new folder named Mixing_Elbow_Heat and open this folder.
5. Enter Mixing_Elbow_Heat as the File name for the database.

The general parameters that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, steady state time
analysis and for thermal analysis using advection-diffusion equations.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 300:
Figure 301:
context menu.
4. Enter Introductory Tutorial as the Title for this case.

5. Enter Mixing Elbow – Turbulent with conjugate heat transfer as the Sub title for this case.
6. Accept the default Analysis type of Steady State.
7. Set the Temperature equation to Advective Diffusive.
The robustness and accuracy of the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model makes it an excellent
choice for simulation of steady state flows.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 302:

Figure 303:

AcuSolve Tutorials

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum and Water.
properties for this problem. You will also create a new material, stainless steel, and set the desired
material properties.
Figure 304:

The Material type for water is Fluid. The default material type for any new material created in
AcuConsole is Fluid.
3
4. Click the Specific Heat tab. Verify that the specific heat of water is 4183.0 J/kg-K.
6. Click the Conductivity tab. Verify that the conductivity of water is 0.598 W/m-K.
7. Create a new material model for stainless steel.
Figure 305:
a) Right-click Material Model in the Data Tree.

b) Click New.
8. Rename the new material.
a) Right-click Material Model 1 in the Data Tree.

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b) Click Rename.
c) Type Stainless Steel and press Enter.
9. Double-click Steel in the Data Tree to open the Stainless Steel detail panel.
10. Change the Material type to solid.
a) Click the drop-down control next to Material Type.
b) Click Solid.
11. Set the density to be used for stainless steel in this simulation.
a) Click the Density tab.
b) Enter 8030 for Density.
c) Verify that the units are kg/m3.
12. Set the specific heat of steel for this simulation.
a) Click the Specific Heat tab.
b) Enter 500 for Specific heat.
c) Verify that the units are J/kg-K.
13. Set the conductivity of steel for this simulation.
a) Click the Conductivity tab.
b) Enter 16.2 for Conductivity.
c) Verify that the units are W/m-K.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
Note: Changes made in AcuConsole are saved into the database file (*.acs) as they
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

mixingElbowHeat.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
geometry in Parasolid ASCII format.
2. Browse to the directory containing mixingElbowHeat.x_t.
4. Select mixingElbowHeat.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 306:

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Figure 307:
Create a Volume Group and Apply Volume Parameters

list of geometric volumes associated with the container, as well as parameters such as material models
container.

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In the next steps you will create a new group for the steel wall volume; set the material for that group;
add the volumes from the geometry to that volume group; rename the default volume group to Fluid
and set the material for that group; then add the volumes from the geometry to that group.
1. Expand the Model tree item.
2. Expand Volumes.
4. Create a new volume group for the steel pipe walls.

a) Right-click Volumes.
b) Click New.
5. Right-click Volume 1, select Rename and enter Steel Walls .
Note: When an item in the Data Tree is renamed, the change is not saved until you
press Enter. If you move the input focus away from the item without entering it, your
changes will be lost.
6. Set the material model for the volume to use the Stainless Steel.
a) Expand the Steel Walls volume in the tree.
c) Change the Medium to Solid to define this volume as a solid.
d) For Material model, click Stainless Steel.
Figure 308:
7. Add the pipe wall components in the geometry to this volume group.
a) Right-click Steel Walls under Volumes in the Data Tree.
b) Click Add to.
c) Click the outer surface of the pipe wall.
If you rotate the view, by Ctrl+left-clicking, you can see that only the outer volume is
highlighted.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 309:
d) Click Done to add this geometry volume to the Steel Walls volume group.
8. Rename the default volume to Fluid.

When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all geometry volumes were placed in the default
volume group. In the previous steps, you selected a geometry volume to be added to the Steel
volume container that you created. At this point, all that is left in the default volume group is the
fluid volume. Rather than create a new container, add the fluid volume in the geometry to it, and
then delete the default volume container, you will rename the container and modify the attributes
for this group.
a) Expand the Fluid volume in the tree.
c) Click the drop-down control next to Material model.

d) Click Water to set this material model for the fluid.

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Figure 310:
Create Surface Groups and Apply Surface Attributes

Figure 311:

b) Click New.
2. Rename Surface 1 to Large Inlet.

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8. Set the Temperature to 295 K.
Figure 312:

a) Right-click Large Inlet and click Add to.
b) Click on the large inlet face.
Figure 313:

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c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Large Inlet surface group.
Set Inflow Boundary Conditions for the Small Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the small inlet, assign the appropriate attributes,
and add the small inlet from the geometry to the surface group.
Figure 314:
1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Small Inlet.
2. Expand the Small Inlet surface in the tree.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Small Inlet to open the Simple Boundary
7. Set the Temperature to 320 K.
Figure 315:
8. Add a geometry surface to the Small Inlet group.

a) Right-click Small Inlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the model to expose the small inlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the bottom of the

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Note: If you need to zoom in or out, Ctrl+right-click and drag the cursor down or
up. You can also restore the initial view by clicking .
c) Left-click on the small inlet face.
Figure 316:
At this point, the small inlet should be highlighted.

d) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Small Inlet group.
1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Outlet.

3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Outlet to open the Simple Boundary

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 317:

a) Right-click Outlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the model to expose the outlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the top of the geometry and
moving the cursor toward the bottom of the window.
Figure 318:

Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Steel Pipe Outer Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the steel pipe outer walls, assign the appropriate
attributes and add the pipe walls from the geometry to the surface group. In this simulation, you
will not be modeling the air surrounding the pipe. However, you will specify a convective heat
transfer coefficient and reference temperature to account for heat transfer from the pipe walls to the
surroundings.
1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Steel Pipe - Outer Walls.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Steel Pipe - Outer Walls to open the Simple
3. Enter 100 for the Convective heat flux coefficient and verify that the units are J/m2-sec-K.
This convective heat transfer coefficient is chosen to model the heat transfer between the steel
pipe and the surrounding air.
4. Enter 302.594 for the Convective heat flux reference temperature and verify that the units are K.
This temperature value specifies that the surroundings of the pipe are at a constant temperature
of 302.594 K.
Figure 319:
5. Add a geometry surface to the Steel Pipe - Outer Walls group.

a) Right-click Steel Pipe - Outer Walls and click Add to.
Figure 320:
At this point, the outer pipe walls should be highlighted.

AcuSolve Tutorials
b) Click Done to associate these geometry surfaces with the surface settings of the Steel Pipe -
Outer Walls group.
Set Boundary Conditions for the Steel Pipe Inner Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the steel pipe inner wall, assign the appropriate
attributes, and add the pipe walls from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Steel Pipe - Inner Walls.
2. Disable boundary conditions for this surface.
For this simulation, no boundary conditions will be used for the inner surface of the steel pipe.
Where there is an interface between two volumes (fluid/solid or fluid/fluid), AcuConsole treats the
interface as two surfaces. This allows you to set different attributes, such as boundary conditions
or local meshing attributes, on either side of the interface. You will set boundary conditions for the
large pipe wall (the second surface at this interface) later in this tutorial.
a) Expand the Steel Pipe - Inner Walls surface in the tree.
b) Click the check box next to Simple Boundary Condition to disable boundary conditions.
3. Turn off the display of the Steel Pipe - Outer Walls.
• Click next to the surface so that it is in the display off state ( ),
or,
• Right-click Steel Pipe - Outer Walls in the tree, and click Display off.
Turning off the display of the outer walls will make it easier to add geometric surfaces to the inner
wall group.
4. Add geometry surfaces to the Steel Pipe - Inner Walls group.
a) Right-click Steel Pipe - Inner Walls and click Add to.
b) Click the pipe near the main inlet, the pipe near the elbow, the pipe near the outlet, and the
pipe near the side inlet to select the four surfaces that make up the inner surface of the steel
pipe wall.
Figure 321:

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At this point, the inner walls of the steel pipe should be highlighted.
c) Click Done to associate these geometry surfaces with the surface settings of the Steel Pipe -
Inner Walls group.
Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Large Pipe
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the pipe walls, assign the appropriate attributes,
and add the elbow pipe walls from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Large Pipe.
2. Expand the Large Pipe surface in the tree.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Large Pipe to open the Simple Boundary
The default wall settings will be used for the pipe wall.
4. Turn off the display of the Steel Pipe - Inner Walls.
Turning off the display of the inner walls of the steel pipe will make it easier to add geometric
surfaces to the pipe group.
a) Right-click Large Pipe and click Add to.
b) Click on the pipe near the large inlet, the pipe near the elbow, and the pipe near the outlet to
select the three surfaces that make up the main pipe wall.
Figure 322:
At this point, the pipe walls should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to add these geometric surfaces to the Large Pipe group.
Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Small Pipe
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the side pipe wall, assign the appropriate
parameters, and add the side pipe wall from the geometry to the surface group.

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1. Create a new surface group and rename the surface to Small Pipe.
2. Expand the Small Pipe surface in the tree.
As with the large pipe, the default boundary condition Type is Wall. The default is appropriate for
this group and no other changes are needed.
a) Right-click Small Pipe and click Add to.
b) Rotate the model to expose the side pipe by Ctrl+left-clicking near the bottom of the
c) Click on the pipe near the side inlet.
Figure 323:
At this point, the side pipe wall should be highlighted.

d) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Small Pipe surface container.
Set Symmetry Boundary Conditions for the Pipe Symmetry Plane
This geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane, and can therefore be modeled with half of the
geometry. In order to take advantage of this, the midplane needs to be identified as a symmetry plane.
The symmetry boundary condition enforces constraints such that the flow field from one side of the
plane is a mirror image of that on the other side.
In the next steps you will create a surface group for the symmetry plane of the pipe, assign the
appropriate attributes, and add the side pipe wall from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Create a new surface group and rename it to Symmetry.
2. Expand the Symmetry surface in the tree.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Symmetry to open the Simple Boundary

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5. Turn off the display of all surface items except Symmetry and default.
6. Add geometric faces to this group.
a) Right-click Symmetry and click Add to.
b) Click on the Symmetry plane.
Figure 324:
At this point, the symmetry plane should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Symmetry surface container.
Set Boundary Conditions for the Steel Pipe Ends
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the ends of the steel pipe, assign the appropriate
attributes, and add the pipe ends from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Create a new surface group and rename it to Steel Pipe - Ends.
2. Expand the Steel Pipe - Ends surface in the tree.
3. Disable boundary conditions for this surface.
No boundary conditions will be used for the pipe ends for this simulation. AcuSolve will treat the
steel wall as if it continues beyond the regions modeled.
4. Turn off the display of all surface items except Steel Pipe - Ends and default.
a) Right-click Steel Pipe - Ends and click Add to.
b) Click on the pipe ends at the large inlet, the small inlet, and the outlet.

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Note: You may need to rotate the graphic to see that the pipe end at the large
inlet is highlighted.
Figure 325:
At this point, the pipe ends should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to associate these geometry surfaces with the Steel Pipe - Ends surface container.
Set Symmetry Boundary Conditions for the Steel Pipe Symmetry Plane
1. Rename the default surface group to Steel Pipe - Symmetry.

2. Expand the Steel Pipe - Symmetry surface in the tree.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Steel Pipe - Symmetry to open the Simple

AcuSolve Tutorials

AcuConsole supports three levels of meshing control; global, zone, and geometric.
the model.
In the next steps you will set global meshing parameters. In subsequent steps you will create zone and
surface meshing parameters.
Figure 326:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 327:

In addition to setting meshing characteristics for the whole problem, you can assign meshing
parameters to a zone within the problem where you want to be able to resolve flow with a mesh that
is more refined than the global mesh. A zone mesh refinement can be created using basic shapes to
control the mesh size within that shape. These types of mesh refinement are used when refinement is
needed in an area that does not correspond to a geometric item.
In the next steps you will define mesh controls for a region around the small pipe and extending into
the main pipe by using a zone mesh control. The region of interest for this refinement is a cylinder that
encloses the small pipe and extends into the main pipe.
Figure 328:
1. Turn off the display of Volumes.

2. Turn off the display of all surfaces except Symmetry.
5. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Small pipe refinement.
6. Double-click Small pipe refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.

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This radius is used to define a cylinder that is larger than the small inlet.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size is half of the mesh size in the rest of the pipe.
Figure 329:
Note: When setting mesh size for refinement zones, the best practice is to choose a
1 1 1
value that is the global mesh size divided by a power of 2, that is, /2, /4, /8, and the
like.
cylinder.
b) Enter 0.143 for X-coordinate 1 and 2.
c) Enter -0.232 for Y-coordinate 1.
d) Enter -0.025 for Y-coordinate 2.
e) Enter 0.0 for Z-coordinate 2.
f) Click OK.
Figure 330:

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Figure 331:
Set Meshing Attributes for Surface Groups

In the following steps you will set meshing attributes that will allow for localized control of the mesh
attributes that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal to the surfaces of the main pipe
and of the side pipe.
Set Meshing Parameters for the Large Pipe
In the next steps you will set parameters that control the mesh size normal to the large pipe wall
(boundary layer mesh controls).
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Large Pipe tree item.
This option indicates that the mesher will use the global meshing attributes when creating the
walls.

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6. Keep the default value, 0.001 m, for First element height
Figure 332:
Propagate Meshing Parameters to the Small Pipe
The local mesh settings for the small pipe are the same as for the large pipe. AcuConsole has the
capability to propagate, or "copy and paste," settings from one group to another. In the following steps
you will propagate the local mesh settings from the large pipe surface group to the small pipe surface
group.
1. Right-click Surface Mesh Attributes under Large Pipe and click Propagate.
2. Scroll down the list of surfaces and click Small Pipe.

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Figure 333:
3. Click Propagate to paste the settings for the Large Pipe surface to the Small Pipe surface.
If you examine the Surface Mesh Attributes for the Small Pipe, you will see that the settings are the
same as those for the Large Pipe.
Set Meshing Parameters for the Steel Pipe Outer Walls
size near the outer walls of the steel pipe.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Steel Pipe - Outer Walls tree item.
This option indicates that the mesher will use the global meshing parameters when creating the
walls. For the inner and outer walls of the steel pipe, you will set parameters to create a mesh one
layer thick with a height of 0.002 m.
6. Enter 0.002 m for First element height.

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Figure 334:
Propagate Meshing Attributes to the Steel Pipe Inner Walls
The local mesh settings for the inner walls of the pipe are the same as for the outer walls. In the
following steps you will propagate the local mesh settings from the surface group containing the steel
pipe outer walls to the surface group containing the steel pipe inner walls.
1. Right-click Surface Mesh Attributes under Steel Pipe - Outer Walls and click Propagate.
2. Scroll down the list of surfaces and click Steel Pipe - Inner Walls.
3. Click Propagate to paste the settings for the Steel Pipe - Outer Walls surface to the Steel Pipe -
Inner Walls surface.
If you examine the Surface Mesh Attributes for the Steel Pipe - Inner Walls, you will see that the
settings are the same as those for the Steel Pipe - Outer Walls.
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 335:

5. Turn off the display of small pipe refinement under Global > Zone Mesh Attributes by clicking
next to the surface so that it is in the display off state ( ).
Details of the mesh on the side pipe are shown in Figure 336. This view was obtained by turning
off the display of all surfaces except Symmetry and Steel Pipe - Symmetry, then zooming in on the
region where the small pipe joins the large pipe.

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Figure 336: Mesh Details Around the Pipe Intersection Viewed on the Symmetry Plane
Note that the mesh size in the main pipe decreases from left to right in the transition from a
region where global settings determine the size to the zone around the small pipe where the
settings are for a finer mesh.

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Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve will run using four processors to calculate the steady state solution for this problem.
Figure 337:

AcuFieldView is a third-party post-processing tool that is tightly integrated toAcuSolve. AcuFieldView
AcuSolve.
In the next steps you will start AcuFieldView, manipulate the view of the model, display temperature
contours and velocity vectors on the symmetry plane, display temperature contours on the pipe wall
symmetry plane and display temperature contours at the outlet.

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Start AcuFieldView

When AcuFieldView is started directly from AcuConsole, the model will be displayed in an isometric view
with a Boundary Surface dialog open. The initial view is shown in perspective, with an outline around
the model. You will manipulate the view in the next steps, and in later steps will view different flow
characteristics using the Boundary Surface dialog.
Figure 338:

b) Click Background Color.

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Figure 339:
c) Click the white swatch, then click Close.
Figure 340:

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2.
Turn off the display of the outline around the model by clicking on the toolbar.
3. Change the view from perspective to orthographic.
b) Click Perspective to disable this option.
Figure 341:
4. Orient the model to view it from the positive Z direction (+Z).

a)
Click on the toolbar to open the Defined Views dialog.

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Figure 342:
b)
Click .
You will see the view change as soon as you click a button in the Defined Views dialog.
c) (Optional) Close the dialog.
You can move, zoom, and rotate the view in AcuFieldView in a similar fashion as in AcuConsole.
AcuFieldView uses a different mapping for mouse-button actions.
Action Mouse Button
move (pan) left
rotate middle
zoom right
Display Contours of Fluid Temperature on the Symmetry Plane
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of fluid temperature on the
symmetry plane.

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1.

3. Set temperature as the scalar property to display.
b) Select temperature from the list.
c) Click Calculate.
a) Click OSF: Symmetry in the list of Boundary Types.
b) Click OK.
Figure 343:

d) Click the white color swatch next to Geometric in the Color group and set the color for the
legend values to black.

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Figure 344:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 345:
1. Click Create on the Surface tab of the Boundary Surface dialog.

2. Click the Geometric radio button in the Coloring group.
c) Enable Head Scaling and set it to 0.5.

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The Skip option determines the percentage of vectors to skip from being displayed. The
setting of 37.5% will result in 62.5% of the vectors being displayed.
Figure 346:

b) Click OK.

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Figure 347:
5. Zoom in on the junction of the small inlet with the main pipe to view details of velocity vectors.
a)
b) Draw a box around the junction of the two pipes.

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Figure 348:
Note: The Show Legend option for the temperature contour (Surface ID 1) is disabled
in order to capture this image.
The velocity vectors indicate the direction of flow. The vector length indicates the magnitude
of the flow velocity. Adding velocity vectors to a view with temperature contours allows you to
visualize temperature and velocity simultaneously.
Display Contours of Temperature on the Steel Pipe Walls
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of temperature on the stainless
steel pipe walls at the symmetry plane.
1. Click on the Transform Controls toolbar to center the visible surfaces and to fit the view in the
window.

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2.
3. Disable the visibility of the temperature contours on the symmetry plane and of the velocity
vectors.
a) Set the Surface ID to 1.
b) Disable the Visibility option on the Surface tab.
c) Set the Surface ID to 2.
d) Disable the Visibility option on the Surface tab.
5. Enable the Smooth option in the Display Type control group.
6. Enable the Scalar option in the Coloring control group.
c) Click Calculate.
8. Set the stainless-steel pipe symmetry plane as the location for display of the contours.
a) Scroll up in the list of Boundary Types and click OSF:Steel Pipe - Symmetry.
b) Click OK.

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Figure 349:
Display Contours of Temperature at the Outlet
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of temperature at the outlet.
1.
3. Enable the Smooth option in the Display Type control group.
4. Enable the Scalar option in the Coloring control group.
c) Click Calculate.
6. Set the outlet as the location for display of the contours.
a) Click OSF: Outlet in the Boundary Types list.

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b) Click OK.
7. Turn off the Visibility option for surfaces 1, 2, and 3.
8. Orient the view so that you can see the contours on the outlet.
a)
Click on the Transform Controls toolbar.
b) Set the Viewing Direction to -Y.
c) Click on the Transform Controls toolbar to center the visible surfaces and to fit the view in
the window.
Figure 350:
9. Change the color scale to better resolve differences in the temperature contours.
When the scalar function for temperature is calculated by AcuFieldView, minimum and maximum
values are calculated for use in a colormap for the contour display. You can edit the coloring to
better resolve differences in the pressure distribution.
a) Set the Surface ID to 4 in the Boundary Surface dialog.
Note: You could also make this the current surface by double-clicking the surface
in the modeling window.
b) Click the Colormap tab.

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Figure 351:
Notice that the Min: and Max: values for the Function Range change when the Local option is
toggled.
c) Enable the Local option.
Figure 352:

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Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a simulation of conjugate heat transfer
in a mixing elbow. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and generated a solution using
AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour and vector
views along the symmetry plane of the model. New features introduced in this tutorial include: flows of
different temperatures, simulating heat transfer within a fluid, simulating heat transfer between a fluid
and a solid (conjugate heat transfer), creation of a new material model, modeling of shared surfaces
at fluid/solid interfaces, and copying and pasting (propagation) of settings from one surface group to
another.
3.2.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. Although it is
not necessary, it is recommended that you complete ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow prior
to running this simulation. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh
and AcuSolve.

ACU3100_MixingElbowHeatTransfer.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. It consists of a mixing
elbow made of stainless steel with water entering through two inlets with different velocities and at
different temperatures. The geometry is symmetric about the XY midplane of the pipe, as shown in the
figure.

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Figure 353: Schematic of Mixing Elbow with Stainless-steel Walls

2.
ACU3100_MixingElbowHeatTransfer.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named MixingElbow_HeatTransfer and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter MixingElbow_HeatTransfer as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.


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2. In the Entity Editor, set the Turbulence equation to Advective Diffusive.

3. Set the Turbulence Model to Spalart Allmaras.
Figure 354:

In this step, you will start by creating a new material, then you will define the surface boundary
conditions for the problem and assign material properties to the fluid and solid volumes.

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Create a New Material Model

1. Expand the 02.Materials tree.
2. Right-click on SOLID and click Create.
3. In the Entity Editor, change the name to Steel.
3
4. Set the Density to 8030 kg/m .
5. Set the Specific heat to 500 J/kg-K.
6. Set the Conductivity to 16.2 W/m-k.
Figure 355:

2. Click Large_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,
d) Set the Temperature to 295.0 K.

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Figure 356:
3. Similarly, click Small_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,

4. Click Outflow. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to OUTFLOW.
Figure 357:
5. Click Symmetry. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SYMMETRY.

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Figure 358:
6. Similarly, click Pipe_Symmetry and change the Type to SYMMETRY.

7. Click Pipe_OuterWalls. In the Entity Editor,
a) Verify that the Type is set to WALL.
2
b) Set the Convective heat flux coefficient to 100 J/m -sec-K.
c) Enter 302.594 K for the Convective heat flux reference temperature.
Figure 359:
8. Click Pipe_InnerWalls. In the Entity Editor,

b) Turn Show advanced features On.
c) Verify that the Activate Auto Walls option is set to On.
This surface is an interface between the fluid and solid regions. Auto_Wall is an advanced
feature in AcuSolve that automatically detects and splits the internal surface without the user
having to do it manually. Hence in this case, the Pipe_InnerWalls surface set will be split into
two, one on the fluid region and the other on the solid region.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 360:
9. Click Pipe_Ends. In the Entity Editor,

b) Change the Temperature BC type to None.
Figure 361:

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Figure 362:
11. Click Solid. In the Entity Editor, and

a) Change the Type to SOLID.
b) Select Steel as the Material.
Figure 363:
12. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials
2.
Figure 364:

Open HyperView

AcuSolve Tutorials

MixingElbow_HeatTransfer.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create Contours for Temperature Distribution

In this step, you will display temperature contours on the symmetry plane and the outlet surface.
2.
Click the Isolate Shown icon then hold Ctrl and select the Symmetry and Pipe_Symmetry
components to turn off the display of all components in the graphics window except the Symmetry
and Pipe_Symmetry components.
Figure 365:
5. Under result type, select Temperature(s).
7. Click Apply.

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Figure 366:
and click OK.
Figure 367:
Next, you will display temperature contours on the outlet surface.

10. Turn off the display for all components except Outlet.
11. Click on the Standard Views toolbar.
12. In the panel area, click on the Components entity selector and select Displayed.
13. In the panel area, click Apply.
The contour plot on the outlet surface is displayed.

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Figure 368:
Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up a conjugate heat transfer CFD simulation using HyperMesh
and how to create a new material model. You launched AcuSolve directly from HyperMesh to compute
the solution and then post-processed the results using HyperView.

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3.3 ACU-T: 3101 Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer

in a Mixing Elbow
AcuConsole
HyperMesh
3.3.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results of 3D, turbulent flow
with conjugate heat transfer in a mixing elbow. It is designed to introduce you to the AcuSolve tool set
with a simple problem.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow.
Details of the setup for the static simulation of this problem are shown in ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate
Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow. The following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this
tutorial:
• Simulating transient flow characteristics
• Creating and applying multiplier functions
• Using the restart capability
• Decoupling of the flow and temperature simulations ("frozen" flow field for thermal simulations)
• Creating an animation from transient results
Prerequisites

MixingElbow_ColdSlug.acs from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem

The problem is divided into two components, a steady state solution and a transient solution. The flow
and thermal fields that are established in the steady simulation will be used as a starting point for the
transient simulation. The use of these "frozen" flow and thermal fields dramatically reduces the overall
solution time necessary to solve the thermal transient model. This technique of solving temperature
separate from the flow field is a powerful feature that can be applied to a broad class of problems.
Note that this simulation approach relies on decoupling of the thermal and momentum fields. If there is
strong coupling between the flow and thermal fields (that is, through temperature-dependent material
properties), this approach cannot be applied.
Analyze the Steady State Component

The steady state portion of the problem is shown schematically in Figure 369. It consists of a mixing
elbow made of stainless steel with water entering through two inlets with different velocities and with
different temperatures.
This case is the same as the one used in AcuConsole. The geometry is symmetric about the XY
midplane of the pipe, as shown in the figure. This symmetry allows the flow to be modeled with the
use of a symmetry plane. The use of a symmetry plane leads to reduced computation time while still
providing an accurate solution.
Figure 369: Schematic of Mixing Elbow with Stainless Steel Walls

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fluid entering the large inlet is 295 K. The diameter of the small inlet is .025 m, the velocity is 1.2 m/s,
and the temperature of the fluid entering the small inlet is 320 K. The pipe wall has a thickness of 0.005
m.
Figure 370:
3 -3
Figure 371:
3
The pipe walls are made of stainless steel with a density of 8030 kg/m , a conductivity of 16.2 W/m-K,
and a specific heat of 500 J/kg-K.
Figure 372:

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Figure 373:
where ρ is the fluid density, v is the fluid velocity, D is the diameter of the flow region, and μ is the
Figure 374:
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow. In addition, the thermal
characteristics of the flow will be modeled using advection and diffusion equations.
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow. In addition, the thermal
characteristics of the flow will be modeled using advection and diffusion equations. The simulation will
be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow with varying temperature.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 375:
in areas where gradients in pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and the like are steep. For this problem ,
the flow entering the large pipe from the side pipe creates large velocity gradients that need to be
resolved. A mesh refinement zone is used to capture the flow in this region.
Figure 376:
Once a steady state solution is calculated, you will create a transient database, modify settings, and
solve for the transient temperature characteristics of the problem.
Analyze the Transient Component

The starting point for the transient portion of the problem is shown schematically in Figure 377. It
consists of a mixing elbow with a steady state solution for flow and temperature. A cold slug of water is
injected at both inlets during the simulation. The temperature excursion drops the temperature at both
inlets to 283.15 K for a duration of 1.0 s.

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symmetry plane
stainless steel
water
large inlet
flow direction
v = 0.4 m/sec
T0 = 295 K
Tmin = 283.15 K
symmetry plane
small inlet
flow direction
v = 1.2 m/sec
T0= 320 K
Tmin = 283.15 K
Figure 377: Schematic of Initial Conditions of Mixing Elbow
The temperature profile at the inlets is shown in Figure 378. The temperature of the water flowing in
the large inlet at t=0 is 295 K and the temperature of the fluid flowing in the small inlet at t=0 is 320
K. The temperature is held constant for 0.2 s, then is ramped down at both inlets and reaches 283.15
K at 0.4 s into the simulation. The temperature is held constant for 1 s. The temperature is ramped up
beginning at 1.4 s, and by 1.6 s the inlet temperatures are back to their initial states.

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Figure 378: Transient Temperature Profile at Inlets
For this case, the minimum duration would be the time it takes for the cold slug to move completely
through the domain. This minimum period is given by the steady state transit time through the domain
added to the duration of the cold slug.
Transit time can be estimated using the inlet velocity at the large inlet and the estimated length of the
flow path. The flow path is made up of a straight section 0.2 m long (l1), a 90-degree elbow section
with an average radius of 0.15 m (lelbow), and another straight section 0.2 m long (l2).
Figure 379:
The inlet velocity for the large inlet is 0.4 m/s. Given a flow path of 0.6356 m, the transit time will
be approximately 1.6 s. In order to predict the movement of the cold slug through the domain, our
simulation period would be at least 3.2 s.

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Figure 380:
To allow time for the thermal conditions to return to the steady state, additional time can be added to
the simulation. For this case 1.3 s will be added for a total simulation period of 4.5 s.
Figure 381:
Another critical decision in a transient simulation is choosing the time increment. The time increment
is the change in time during a given time step of the simulation. It is important to choose a time
increment that is short enough to capture the changes in flow properties of interest, but does not
require unnecessary computation time.
There are two methods commonly used for determining an appropriate time increment. The first
method involves identification of the time scales of the transient behaviors of interest and setting the
time increment to sufficiently resolve those behaviors. The second method involves setting a limit on
the number of mesh elements that the flow can cross in a given time step. A convenient metric for
the number of mesh elements crossed per time step is the Courant-Friederichs-Lewy number, or CFL
number. With this method, the time increment can be computed from the mesh size, the flow velocity,
and the desired CFL number. In this tutorial, the time increment was calculated using the global mesh
size and a CFL number of 2, ensuring that any portion of the cold slug will not advance past more than
2 mesh elements within a given step. For a real-world problem, you would base your calculations on the
mesh size at in the mesh zone of interest.
Figure 382:
The temperature change at the large inlet is from 295 K to 283.15 K. At the small inlet the temperature
changes from 320 K to 283.15 K. The ratio of the cold slug temperature to the initial temperature of the
large inlet flow is 0.9598. The ratio of the cold slug temperature to the initial temperature of the small

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inlet flow is 0.8848. These values will be used in creating multiplier functions to model the transient
temperatures at the inlets.
Figure 383:
Once a transient solution is calculated, the results of interest are the transient thermal characteristics of
the fluid and pipe walls at different times in the simulation.

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Start AcuConsole and Solve the Steady State Simulation

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and open a database that is set up for a steady state
simulation for flow and conjugate heat transfer. You will then run AcuSolve to calculate a steady state
solution, view the results with AcuFieldView, and save the database for the transient simulation.
2. Open MixingElbow_ColdSlug.acs.
a) Click File > Open.
b) Browse to the directory containing Mixing_Elbow_Cold_Slug\Completed-Steady.
c) Select MixingElbow_ColdSlug.acs and click Open to open the database.
3. Run AcuSolve to solve the steady state problem.
a) Click on the toolbar to open the Launch AcuSolve dialog.
Figure 384:
Based on these settings, AcuConsole will generate the AcuSolve input files, then launch the
solver. AcuSolve will run on four processors to calculate the steady state solution for this
problem.
b) Click Ok to start the solution process.

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Figure 385:
Steady State Results

The steady state flow field was calculated as the starting point for the transient simulation of
temperature. For instructions on visualising steady state results, refer to AcuConsole.
Create the Transient Simulation Database

The transient portion of the simulation will use the same geometry and many of the same attributes
as used in the steady state simulation. As such, you can create a copy of the steady state database
and then modify the settings as needed to set up the transient simulation. You will save the transient
database in a different directory to avoid confusion of the steady and transient runs.
In these steps you will create the transient database.

2. Browse up one level to the ..\Mixing_Elbow_Cold_Slug directory.
3. Enter mixingElbow_ColdSlug as the File name.
4. Click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials

In the next steps you will modify global settings needed for the transient portion of the simulation.
The general attributes that you will modify for the transient simulation are the subtitle and the analysis
type.
Figure 386:
Figure 387:

4. Change the Sub title to read Mixing Elbow - Transient conjugate heat transfer.
5. Change the Analysis type to Transient.

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Figure 388:

In the next steps you will set attributes that control the behavior of AcuSolve as it progresses during
the transient solution.
Figure 389:
2. Enter 0 for Max time steps.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should ignore this setting and calculate the maximum number
of time steps using the final time and the time increment.
3. Enter 4.5 for the Final time.
4. Enter 0.053 for the Initial time increment.
5. Enter 2 for Min stagger iterations.
This setting determines the minimum number of iterations that will be performed within each time
step.
6. Enter 5 for Max stagger iterations.
This setting determines the maximum number of iterations that will be performed within each
time step.
A minimum of 2 indicates that for every time step there will be at least two iterations performed,
even if the convergence tolerance is reached. A maximum of 5 indicates that for every time
step there will be no more than five iterations performed, even if convergence tolerance is not

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achieved. If the convergence tolerance is reached before the fifth iteration, AcuSolve will proceed
to the next time step.
7. Enter 0 for the Relaxation factor.
When solving transient solutions, the relaxation factor should be set to zero. A non-zero relaxation
factor causes incremental updates of the solution, which will impact the time accuracy of the
solution for transient cases.
8. Click Off next to Flow to turn off the solving of flow equations.
9. Click Off next to Turbulence to turn off the solving of the turbulence equation.
By turning these options off, AcuSolve will not update the solution to these equations. Instead, the
current flow and turbulence values (generated from the steady state solution for this tutorial) will
be used throughout the simulation and AcuSolve will only solve for the temperature field.
Figure 390:
Set Nodal Output Frequency

In the next steps you will set an attribute that impacts how often results from the transient simulation
are written to disk. Writing the results every three time steps produces a collection of output states
that can be used to create an animation of the simulation once the run has completed. Note that more
frequent output can be used, but it will result in higher disk space usage.
1. Double-click Output under Global in the Data Tree to expand it.
2. Double-click Nodal Output to open the Nodal Output detail panel.
3. Enter 3 as the Time step frequency.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should write results after every three time steps.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 391:
Create Multiplier Functions for Transient Inlet Temperatures

AcuSolve provides the ability to scale values as a function of time and/or time step during a simulation.
This is achieved through the use of a multiplier function. In this tutorial, the inlet temperature varies as
the simulation progresses. By taking advantage of multiplier functions, you can easily set up functions
to model the temperature changes at the inlets.
In the next steps you will create a multiplier function for the temperature at the large inlet, duplicate
it, and modify the copy to be used with the small inlet. These multiplier functions will be applied to the
large and small inlets later in this tutorial.
Figure 392:
In this tutorial, the inlet temperatures drop from initial conditions to 283.15 K, are held at that
temperature, and then ramp back up to the initial temperatures.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 393:
To make the creation of the multiplier functions as simple as possible, you will use the PB* filter in the
Data Tree Manager.
1. Click PB* in the Data Tree Manager to show all problem-definition settings.
Figure 394:
2. Right-click Multiplier Function under Global in the Data Tree and click New to create a new
multiplier function.
3. Rename the multiplier function.
a) Right-click the newly created Multiplier Function 1 and click Rename.
b) Enter Temp - large inlet and press Enter.
4. Double-click Temp - large inlet to open the detail panel.
5. Set the Type to Piecewise Linear.
This option indicates that you will enter an array of numbers that will be used by AcuSolve to
interpolate the value of the multiplier function at each time step. In this example, the curve fit is a
function of time.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 395:
6. Add the curve-fit values for the large inlet temperature profile.
b) Click Add.
c) Enter 0.2 in the X column and 1 in the Y column.
d) Click Add again and enter 0.4 in the X column and 0.9598 in the Y column.
These entries will be used to indicate the ratio of the initial temperature to temperature at
different times during the simulation.
e) Repeat this process until you have entered all of the values shown in the figure below.
Figure 396:
f) Click Plot to expand the Array Editor dialog to display the plot of the curve fit values.
You may need to expand the dialog by dragging the right edge in order to see the plot.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 397:
g) Click OK.
7. Duplicate the multiplier function.
a) Right-click Temp - large inlet.
b) Click Duplicate.
8. Rename Copy of Temp - large inlet to Temp - small inlet.
9. Revise the multiplier function values for the small inlet.
a) Double-click Temp - small inlet to open the multiplier function detail panel.
Note: The Type of Piecewise Linear is inherited from the multiplier function for
the large inlet.
b) Click Open Array to open the Array Editor dialog.

c) Modify the Y values to match those shown in the following table.
X (sec) Y
0.0 1.0
0.2 1.0
0.4 0.8848
1.4 0.8848
1.6 1.0

AcuSolve Tutorials
X (sec) Y
4.5 1.0
d) Click OK.
Define Transient Inlet Boundary Conditions

In the following steps you will set the inlet boundary conditions that produce the time varying
temperatures at the large and small inlets. This will be achieved by modifying the boundary conditions
to use the multiplier functions that you created earlier in this tutorial.
Set Transient Temperature for the Large Inlet

In the next steps you will associate the Temp - large inlet multiplier function with the large inlet
boundary condition.
1. Click BC in the Data Tree Manager to show only items related to setting boundary conditions.
2. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Large Inlet tree item.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Large Pipe to open the Simple Boundary
4. Click On next to Advanced features to expose additional options.
5. Change Temperature multiplier function to Temp - large inlet.
This instructs AcuSolve to determine the inlet boundary value for temperature by first evaluating
the multiplier function, then multiplying its value by the specified value of temperature. Since the
multiplier-function value changes as a function of time, the inlet temperature will change as a
function of time.
Figure 398:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Transient Temperature for the Small Inlet

In the next steps you will associate the Temp - small inlet multiplier function with the small inlet
boundary condition.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Small Inlet tree item.
3. Click On next to Advanced features to expose additional options.
4. Change Temperature multiplier function to Temp - small inlet.
Figure 399:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve
In the next steps you will modify the AcuSolve settings to run the transient solution. The main feature
that you will use is a restart. A restart allows you to start a solution based on the results of a previous
solution. In this case, the flow and thermal field from the initial solution that you performed in this
tutorial will be used as the starting point. Since the flow and turbulence equations were turned off when
defining the solution strategy, the temperature field is the only one that will be solved.

2. Click On next to Restart on the Main tab.
3. Click the Restart tab.
4. Verify that the value for From Problem is mixingElbow_ColdSlug.
5. Click Browse next to From directory and browse to the location of the steady simulation directory
and select the ACUSIM.DIR directory.
6. Verify that the following restart options are set appropriately:
Note: You can drag the right edge of the dialog to make it wider.
From run 0
From time step 0
Reset time step On
Reset time increment On

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 400:


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 401:
View Transient Results with AcuFieldView

Now that transient results have been calculated, you are ready to review the flow field with
AcuFieldView. AcuFieldView is a third-party post-processing tool that is tightly integrated to AcuSolve.
AcuFieldView can be started directly from AcuConsole, or it can be started from the Start menu, or
from a command line. In this tutorial you will start AcuFieldView from AcuConsole after the solution is
calculated by AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will display the temperature contours for the fluid and for the pipe walls on
the symmetry plane, add velocity vectors to the view, then animate the results.
Start AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Display Contours of Fluid and Solid Temperature on the Symmetry Plane
In the next steps you will create a boundary surface to display contours of fluid and solid temperature
on the symmetry plane at the end, middle, and beginning of the transient simulation. The first
visualization will be for the last time step in the simulation, which is the last set of results loaded from
AcuSolve when AcuFieldView was started.
1.

c) Click Calculate.
4. Set the symmetry plane for the pipes and pipe walls as the location for display of contours.
a) Click OSF: Steel Pipe - Symmetry.
b) Hold the Shift key and click OSF:Symmetry.
c) Click OK.
5.
6. In the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog, click Background and select white.
7. Close the dialog.
8. Set the colormap to cover the range of temperatures used in the simulation.
a) In the Boundary Surface dialog, click the Colormap tab.
b) Enter 323 as the upper value for Scalar Coloring.
c) Enter 282 as the lower value for Scalar Coloring.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 402:

e) Set Decimal Places to 1.
f) Click the white color swatch next to the Title field and set the color for the title to black.
g) Enter transient as the Subtitle.
h) Click the white color swatch next to the Subtitle field and set the color to black.
i) Move the legend by Shift+left-clicking and dragging the legend to the left.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 403:
This image was created with a white background, perspective turned off, outlines turned off, and
the viewing direction set to +Z.
When AcuFieldView is run from a transient AcuSolve case, the results from the final time step are
shown by default.
10. Display contours of temperature at the middle of the transient simulation.
a) Click the Tools menu and then click Transient Data to open the Transient Data Controls
dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 404:
Note: Note that the slider under Solution Time is all the way to the right. The
contours currently displayed are from the end of the simulation.
a) Move the slider control to Time Step 42, or enter 42 in the field, and click Apply.
The resulting contours show the thermal conditions at time step 42.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 405:
11. Display contours of temperature at the start of the transient simulation.

a) Click the Tools menu and then click Transient Data to open the Transient Data Controls
dialog.
b) Move the slider control to the beginning of the range and click Apply.
The resulting contours show the thermal conditions for a time step at the beginning of the
simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 406:
Note that the contours from the beginning of the simulation are similar to those from the end of
the simulation. The conditions changed as the cold slug propagated through the pipe, and then
returned to initial conditions. The contours from the middle of the simulation show that the steel-
wall temperature near the intersection of the small pipe was higher than for the nearby water,
reflecting a lag in the temperature change of the wall compared to the water.
The resulting visualization will be compared to the one created for the steady state solution.

2. Click the Geometric radio button in the Coloring group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 407:
c) Enable Head Scaling and set it to 2.

The Skip option determines the percentage of vectors to skip from being displayed.
A setting of 37.5% will result in 62.5% of the vectors being displayed.
A setting of 87.5% will result in 12.5% of the vectors being displayed.
A setting of 25% will result in 75% of the vectors being displayed.

b) Click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 408:
Display Transient Temperature Contours
In the next steps you will view the transient thermal data for the cold slug.
1. Turn off the display of velocity vectors.

a) Change the Surface ID on the Boundary Surface dialog to 2.
b) Click Visibility to turn this option off.
2. Click the Tools menu and then click Transient Data to open the Transient Data Controls
dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 409:
3. Click Sweep.
As AcuFieldView prepares the sweep, you will see the controls advance on the Transient Data
Controls dialog, and you will see the visualization update at each time step. Once the sweep is
finished, it will play continuously until you change the controls.
4. Change the playback rate.
a) Click the View menu and then click Minimum Time Between Frames.
Figure 410:
b) Set the Minimum Time Seconds to 0.10.

With the Sweep Control options, pause the sweep, advance or reverse frames, and play the
sweep.
5. Close the Transient Data Controls dialog.
6. Click OK to dismiss the Transient Data Controls message dialog.
Animate the Transient Temperature Sweep
In the next steps you will create a transient sweep and save it as an animation that can be viewed
independently of AcuFieldView.

AcuSolve Tutorials
dialog.
2. Click Tools > Flipbook Build Mode.
3. Click OK to dismiss the Flipbook Size Warning dialog.
The Sweep button on the Transient Data Controls dialog will have changed to Build.
Figure 411:
4. Use the slider control to set the Solution Time to the first time step and click Apply.
5. Click Build.
As AcuFieldView builds the flipbook animation, you will see the controls on the Transient Data
Controls dialog advance. Once the flipbook is built, a Flipbook Controls dialog will allow you to
play or save the animation.
Figure 412:
6.
Click to play the animation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 413:
7. Click to pause the playback.

8. Save the flipbook for playback independent of AcuFieldView.
a) Click Save.
b) Browse to the ..\Mixing_Elbow_Cold_Slug directory.
c) Enter cold_slug for the File name.
This animation, cold_slug.avi is now available for viewing by opening it directly.
9. Close the Flipbook Controls dialog and click OK to dismiss the Flipbook Exit Confirmation
warning.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a transient simulation case. You were
provided with a fully set up steady state case to use as initial conditions for the transient simulation.
The transient simulation was carried out using the "frozen flow" methodology to simulate the transient
temperature field without recomputing the velocity field. Once the transient case was set up and solved,
results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour and vector views along the
symmetry plane of the model, and to animate the temperature contours. New features introduced in
this tutorial include transient simulation, multiplier functions, restarts, frozen flow and animation of
transient results.
3.3.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides you instructions for running a transient simulation of a 3D turbulent flow with
conjugate heat transfer in a mixing elbow. You should have already run through the ACU-T: 3100
Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow tutorial and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh,
AcuSolve and HyperView. The HyperWorks Introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI
Introduction, gives a basic introduction to HyperWorks and AcuSolve.

ACU3101_MixingElbowTransient.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
This problem is divided into two components, a steady state solution and a transient solution. The
schematic of the steady state component is shown below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 414:
fluid entering the large inlet is 295 K. The diameter of the small inlet is .025 m, the velocity is 1.2 m/
s, and the temperature of the fluid entering the small inlet is 320 K. The pipe wall has a thickness of
0.005 m. The fluid in this problem is water and the pipe walls are made of stainless steel with a density
of 8030 kg/m3, a conductivity of 16.2 W/m-K, and a specific heat of 500 J/kg-K.
The model file for the steady state part of the problem is provided as the input file. Once the steady
state solution is computed, it is projected on to the mesh and used as the initial state for the transient
simulation. The starting point for the transient portion of the problem is shown schematically in the
figure below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
symmetry plane
stainless steel
water
large inlet
flow direction
v = 0.4 m/sec
T0 = 295 K
Tmin = 283.15 K
symmetry plane
small inlet
flow direction
v = 1.2 m/sec
T0= 320 K
Tmin = 283.15 K
Figure 415:
At 0.2s into the simulation, a cold slug of water is injected at both the inlets and the temperature is
ramped down to 283.15 K starting from 0.2 s to 0.4 s. Then it is maintained constant at 283.15 K for
1 sec and then ramped up to initial states from 1.4s to 1.6s. Given a flow path of 0.6356 m, the transit
time for the slug is approximately 1.6s. Therefore, our simulation time should be at least 3.2 s to factor
in the duration of the slug and transit time. The total simulation time will be 4.5s to allow time for the
thermal conditions to return to a steady state.
The temperature change at the large inlet is from 295 K to 283.15 K. At the small inlet, the
temperature changes from 320 K to 283.15 K. The ratio of the cold slug temperature to the initial
temperature of the large inlet flow is 0.9598. The ratio of the cold slug temperature to the initial
temperature of the small inlet flow is 0.8848. These values will be used in creating multiplier functions
to model the transient temperatures at the inlets.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 416:

2.
ACU3101_MixingElbowTransient.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient and navigate into this
directory.
location.
6. Enter ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient as the file name for the database, or choose any name
of your preference.
Run the Steady State Simulation

In this step, you will run the steady state simulation with the model file provided and then create the
nodal initial condition files needed for the transient simulation. Make sure that the visibility of the mesh
for all the components is on.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1.
3. Once the solution is converged, close the AcuProbe and AcuTail windows. In addition, close the
Solver job Launcher and AcuSolve Control tabs.
4. Start AcuSolve Command Prompt from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All
Programs > Altair HyperWorks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt .
5. In the Command Prompt, change the directory to the working directory by using the cd command.
6. Type the command acuProj -crd HYPERMESH.DIR\ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.crd -
run 1 and press Enter.
7. Verify that the working directory is now populated with the new files.
ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.pres.nic
ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.vel.nic
ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.temp.nic
ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.eddy.nic
8. Move the .nic files in the working directory into the HYPERMESH.DIR folder.
Set the Transient Simulation Parameters
Set the Analysis Parameters

2. Change the Analysis type to Transient in the Entity Editor.
Figure 417:

AcuSolve Tutorials

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 02.SOLVER_SETTINGS then click SOLVER_SETTINGS.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Max time steps to 0.
3. Set the Final time to 4.5 sec.
4. Set the Initial time increment to 0.053 sec.
5. Verify that the Convergence tolerance is set to 0.001.
6. Set the Min stagger iterations to 2 and Max stagger iterations to 5.
8. Turn Off the Flow and Turbulence fields.
Figure 418:
Set the Nodal Output Frequency

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output then click NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Time step frequency to 3 and the Time frequency to 0.
3. Turn On the Output initial condition field.
Figure 419:
4. Save the model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Specify the Transient Inflow Boundary Conditions and Nodal

Initial Conditions
In this step, you will start by creating Multiplier Functions and then specify the transient boundary
conditions for both the inlets. Then you will specify the Nodal Initial Conditions for the flow and thermal
fields.
Create Multiplier Functions

First, you will create curves for the scaling function to be used for the Multiplier Function type.
1. Right-click on empty space in the Model Browser and select Create > Curve.
The Curve editor dialog opens.
2. Click New and enter Large_Inlet as the name in the panel area.
3. Click Proceed.
4. In the Curve editor dialog, enter the following values for the curve array.
Figure 420:
5. Click Update.
6. Click again on New and enter Small_Inlet as the name of the second curve, then click Proceed.
7. In the Curve editor dialog, click on Small_Inlet in the top-left corner and enter the following
values for the array.
Make sure that the Current curves is showing Small_Inlet.
Figure 421:
8. Click Update.
Both the curves should be displayed, as shown in the figure below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 422:
Note: The default color for the curves is grey, which can be changed using the Color
option on the bottom left corner of the Curve editor dialog
Next, you will create the Multiplier Functions for both the Inlets.
9. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 05.Multiplier_Function and select Create.
10. Set the Name of the function to Large_Inlet.
11. Select Piecewise Linear for the Multiplier Function Type.
12. Select the Curve Large_Inlet.
Figure 423:
13. Repeat the previous four steps to create a Multiplier Function named Small_Inlet with
Small_Inlet as the Curve.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Specify the Nodal Initial Conditions

In this step, first you will specify the initial values of Pressure, Velocity, Temperature and Eddy Viscosity
at all nodes and then Transient BCs for both the inlets.
1. In the Solver Browser, expand 01.Global then click 03.NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION.
2. In the Entity Editor, under the Pressure tab, change the Type to Nodal Values and Select nodes
by to NIC file.
3. Click on the select file icon in the value field of NIC file, browse to your working directory, and
select the ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.pres.nic file.
Figure 424:
4. Repeat the steps 2 and 3 for the Velocity, Temperature, and Eddy Viscosity fields and select the
ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.vel.nic, ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.temp.nic,
and ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.eddy.nic files respectively.
Specify the Transient Inlet Boundary Conditions

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 12.Surfaces > INFLOW.
2. Click Large_Inlet. In the Entity Editor, under the Simple Boundary Condition tab,
a) Turn On the Show advanced features field.
b) Click on the entity collector in the Value field of the Temperature multiplier function and
select Large_Inlet. Click OK to close the dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 425:
3. Similarly, click on Small_Inlet component and turn On the Show advanced features field. Select
Small_Inlet as the Temperature multiplier function.
4. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve
2.
4. Set the Output time steps to All if it's not already set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 426:

Open HyperView

ConjugateHeatTransfer_Transient.2.log
3. Click Open.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Create a Temperature Distribution Animation

In this step, you will create an animation of the temperature distribution with time on the Symmetry
surface.
2.
Click the Isolate Shown icon then hold Ctrl and click the Symmetry and Pipe_Symmetry
component to turn off the display of all components in the graphics window except the Symmetry
and Pipe_Symmetry components.
5. Select Temperature (s) as the Result type.
7. Click Apply to display the Temperature contour on the Symmetry plane at the first-time step.
Figure 427:
9. Click the Legend tab then click Edit Legend.

10. In the Edit Legend dialog, change the Type to Dynamic Scale and the Numeric format to Fixed.
11. On the Animation toolbar, click the Animation Controls icon .
12. Drag the Max frame Rate slider to 1 fps.
13. Click the Start/Pause Animation icon to play the animation in the graphics area.
Save the Animation

1. In the menu area, select Preferences > Export Settings > AVI.
2. In the Export Settings AVI dialog, set the Frame rate to 1 fps and click OK.
3. On the ImageCapture toolbar, make sure that the Save Image to File option is On.
4. Click the Capture Graphics Area Video icon .

The Save Graphics Area Video As dialog opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Navigate to the location where you want to save the file, enter a name of your choice, and click
Save.
Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up and run a transient conjugate heat transfer simulation
using HyperMesh and AcuSolve. You learned how to specify Nodal Initial Conditions and how to create
multiplier functions for setting up the transient boundary conditions. Finally, you used HyperView to
create and save an animation of the results of the transient simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.4 ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate

Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous Media
AcuConsole
HyperMesh
3.4.1 AcuConsole
of air flow through a greenhouse using enclosure radiation and porous media. In this simulation,
AcuSolve is used to compute the motion and the resulting pressure drop created due to presence of
a porous media (tomato crops) as well as temperature distributions across the greenhouse due to
radiation. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of modeling concepts necessary to
perform simulations that use porous media and enclosure radiation.
• Modeling porous material medium
• Modeling enclosure radiation and use of radiation symmetry planes
• Post-processing with AcuProbe
• Post-processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView to get velocity and temperature fields from
multiple data sets
Prerequisites

Greenhouse_Enclosure.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 428 and Figure 429. It
consists of a low cost gable type greenhouse with tomato plants modeled as porous media, and four
inlets and outlet vents. Soil heating cables are used under the plants to keep the greenhouse warm
during night time. The fluid enters through the inlet vents, passes through the tomato plants, and then
exits the greenhouse through the outlet vents located on the roof.
Greenhouses are high-tech structures dedicated to the horticultural needs of plants, particularly
flowers, vegetables and fruits. Environmental properties such as temperature, light exposure, irrigation,
fertilization, humidity and ventilation can be precisely controlled for optimal crop growth.
The geometric characteristics of the greenhouse are as follows:

• Total Length: 4 m
• Total Width: 2 m
• Eaves Height: 1.5 m
• Ridge Height: 2 m
• Inlet Vents (4): 0.6 m length X 0.4 m height
• Outlet Vents (4): 1m length X 0.4 m height
Figure 428: Schematic of Greenhouse
The geometry is symmetric about the length and width of the greenhouse, as shown in Figure 429. This
symmetry allows the flow and radiation to be modeled with the use of symmetry planes. The use of a
symmetry plane leads to reduced computation time while still providing an accurate solution.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 429: Schematic of Model
Air enters the inlet vent at an average speed of 0.8 m/s and temperature 293 K which is considered the
temperature of ambient air around the greenhouse. The outlet vent is considered a constant pressure (p
= patm) outlet boundary.
The fluid in this problem is air, which has the following material properties:
3
• Density (ρ): 1.225 kg/m
-5
• Viscosity (µ): 1.781 X 10 kg/m-s
• Specific Heat (Cp): 1005 J/kg-K
• Conductivity (k): 0.0251 W/m-K
The density variation will be calculated according to the Boussinesq model in order to take into account
the natural convection effects.
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow in order to determine the climate
distribution inside the greenhouse at night.
Analyze Porous Media and Heat Transfer Properties of Tomato Plants

The tomato crops inside the greenhouse are modeled as porous media. The air flow for a porous media
is governed by the Darcy-Forchheimer equation given by:
where
• is the permeability of the medium
• is the dimensionless inertial factor
The permeability value for tomato crops is 0.017 and the dimensionless inertial factor is 0.25. The
resulting pressure drop equation is given by:

AcuSolve Tutorials
For greenhouse applications where the permeability of the crops is significant the viscous contribution
due to porous media is negligible, so the pressure gradient depends on the quadratic term alone.
The tomato plant has the following thermal properties:

The thermal properties of the plants are taken into account through the effective value of thermal
conductivity and specific heat using weighted arithmetic mean considering the volume percentage of
solid material to be 60 percent.
The effective thermal conductivity and specific heat can be determined as:
Analyze Enclosure Radiation Properties of the Model

The enclosure radiation inside the greenhouse is modeled using the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The
emissivity values for materials are as follows:
• Air (Outside): 0.05
• Plants: 0.46
• Ground: 0.9
• Walls: 0.7
Analyze Mesh Sizes

In addition to setting appropriate conditions for the simulation, it is important to generate a mesh
that will be sufficiently refined to provide good results. For this problem the global mesh size is set
to provide at least 20 elements along the biggest dimensions of the greenhouse, that is, length and
height.
Note that higher mesh densities are required where velocity, pressure and eddy viscosity gradients are
larger. Local mesh refinements are used for the volume region containing the porous media and the

AcuSolve Tutorials
inlet and outlet surfaces. Proper boundary layer parameters need to be set to keep the y+ near the
wall surface to a reasonable level. The mesh density used in this tutorial is coarse and is intended to
illustrate the process of setting up the model and to retain a reasonable run time. A significantly higher
mesh density is needed to achieve a grid converged solution.
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the temperature distribution between
the ground and roof and the pressure drop across the porous media.

AcuSolve Tutorials

loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group parameters, adding geometry components to
groups, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you will generate a
mesh and run AcuSolve to compute the steady state solution. Finally, you will visualize the results using
AcuFieldView.
settings.
4. Create a new folder named Greenhouse_Enclosure_Night and open this folder.
5. Enter Greenhouse_Enclosure_Night as the File name for the database.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials

In next steps you will set the parameters that apply globally to the simulation. To simplify this task, you
will use the BAS filter in the Data Tree Manager. This filter limits the options in the Data Tree to show
only the basic settings.
The physical models that you define for this tutorial correspond to steady state, turbulent flow.
Figure 430:
Figure 431:

5. Enter Greenhouse- Enclosure Radiation and Porous Media as the Sub title.
9. Set the Radiation equation to Enclosure.
10. Accept the default Mesh type of Fixed.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 432:
Tip:
You may need to widen the detail panel from the default size by dragging the right
edge of the panel frame.

the solution.
4. Check that the Convergence tolerance is set to 0.001 seconds.
5. Set the Relaxation factor to 0.4.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 433:
Set Material Model Properties

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum and Water. You will need to modify the
material properties of Air and create a new material model which would model the properties of tomato
plants as porous media. AcuConsole has a porosity option under material properties to model porous
medium.
In the next steps you will modify the density of air to model natural convection using Boussinesq
approximation. Additionally, you will create a new material model named Porous_Plants and assign the
material properties associated with it.
Figure 434:
2. Double-click Air to open the detail panel.

3. Click the Density tab.
4. Set Type as Boussinesq.
5. Right-click Air in the Data Tree and select Duplicate to make a copy of the Air material model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
The Material type for air is Fluid. The default material type for any new material created in
AcuConsole is Fluid. The material type for porous media is set as fluid in AcuConsole. Resize the
detail panel region of AcuConsole, if needed, by dragging the right frame of the panel.
6. Right-click Copy of Air and select Rename. Enter Porous_Plants as the new name.
7. Double-click Porous_Plants to open the material properties detail panel.
3
9. Set Type as Boussinesq and ensure that density of plants is 1.225 kg/m .
10. Click the Specific Heat tab. The specific heat of plants is 1326 J/kg-K.
-5
11. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of plants is 1.781 x 10 kg/m-sec.
12. Click the Conductivity tab. The conductivity of plants is 0.1139 W/m-K.
13. Click the Porosity tab.
14. Set the Type to Constant. This will enable the porosity properties to be modeled in the material.
15. Check that the Permeability type is set as Cartesian.
16. Check that the Input method is set as Direct.
17. Check that the Porosity is set as 1.0.
18. Click Open Array next to Permeability direction and check that it is set to the default value, that
is (1,0,0); (0,1,0); (0,0,1).
Figure 435:
19. Close the Array Editor.

20. In the detail panel, enter 0.017 as Direction 1, Direction 2 and Direction 3 permeability values.
21. Set the Darcy coefficient as 0.0.
22. Set the Forchheimer coefficient as 0.25.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 436:
Create New Emissivity Models

The emissivity model option specifies an ideal grey-surface emissivity model for the radiation equation.
AcuConsole has a pre defined emissivity model for a black body. You will need to create additional
emissivity models for the ambient air outside, greenhouse walls, plants and the floor surface covered by
soil.
In the next steps you will create new emissivity models and then assign the emissivity values
associated with them.
1. Click RAD in the Data Tree Manager to filter all but the radiation settings in the Data Tree.
Figure 437:

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Double-click Emissivity Model in the Data Tree to expand it.

3. Right-click Emissivity Model > New to make a new emissivity model.
A new emissivity model will be created with the name Emissivity Model 1.
4. Right-click Emissivity Model 1 > Rename. Enter Air_Out as the new name.
5. Double-click Air_Out to open the emissivity properties detail panel.
6. Check that Type is set as Constant.
7. Enter 0.05 as the Emissivity value.
Figure 438: Air_Out
8. Similarly, create three more emissivity models named Ground, Plants and Walls and set their
emissivity values as 0.9, 0.46 and 0.7, respectively.
Figure 439: Ground
Figure 440: Plants
Figure 441: Walls

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Greenhouse Enclosure Geometry

Greenhouse_Enclosure.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing Greenhouse_Enclosure.x_t.
4. Select Greenhouse_Enclosure.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 442:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 443:
Define Radiation Symmetry Planes

Radiation symmetry planes can be used to compute enclosure radiation heat transfer on geometrical
models that are a half, quarter, or eighth of the corresponding full models. The radiation facets are
reflected across each symmetry plane to create the full model. All planes must be mutually orthogonal.
In the next steps you will define the number of symmetry planes, their orientation and a coordinate
point on which the symmetry planes intersect.
1. Double-click Radiation Parameters to open the detail panel.

2. Enter 2 for the Num symmetry planes to set the number of symmetry planes as 2.
3. Press Enter to display the symmetry center and symmetry direction options.
Figure 444:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Click Open Array next to Symmetry center to open the Array Editor for the symmetry center.
5. Enter the coordinates of center as (2.0, 0.0 and 1.0).
Figure 445:
6. Click Show to see the center point. You may need to increase the width to see the point.
7. Click Open Array next to Symmetry direction-1 to open the Array Editor for the first symmetry
direction.
8. Enter the directions as (0,1,0).
9. Click Show to see the direction on the geometry.
10. Similarly set the second symmetry direction as (1,0,0).

includes the list of geometric volumes associated with the container, as well as attributes such as
material models and mesh size information.
container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group, create a new volume group and assign the
material for that group.
3. Expand Volumes. Toggle the display of the default volume container by clicking and next to
the volume name.
4. Right-click Volumes > New to create a new volume group.

5. Rename the volume group to Greenhouse_Main.
6. Add the volume to the Greenhouse_Main group.
a) Right-click Greenhouse_Main > Add to.
b) Click on the greenhouse.

AcuSolve Tutorials
At this point, the greenhouse should be highlighted in the color gray.
Figure 446:
7. Rename the default group to Greenhouse_Plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 447:
volume group container. At this point, all of the volume in the default volume group is the flow
region. Rather than create a new container, add the flow volume in the geometry to it, and then
delete the default volume container, you will rename the container and modify the parameters for
this group.
a) Right-click default under Volumes.

b) Click Rename.
c) Enter Greenhouse_Plants.
8. Check that the material model for the volume Greenhouse_Main is set as Air.
a) Expand the Greenhouse_Main volume in the Data Tree.
b) Double-click Element Set under Greenhouse_Main to open the Element Set detail panel.
c) Check that the Material model is set as Air.
When items in the Data Tree are renamed, the change is not saved until you press Enter. If
you move the input focus away from the item without entering it, your changes will be lost.
9. Set the material model for the volume Greenhouse_Plants to Porous_Plants.
a) Expand the Greenhouse_Plants volume.
b) Double-click Element Set under Greenhouse_Plants to open the Element Set detail panel.
c) Set the Material model as Porous_Plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials

conditions, surface outputs and mesh sizing information.
• Inlet
• Outlet
• Greenhouse_Walls
• Plant_Cover_Upstream
• Plant_Cover_Downstream
• Plant_Cover_Sides
• Symmetry_1
• Symmetry_2
• Ground
Set Parameters for the Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the inlet, assign the appropriate settings, and add
the inlet from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Right-click Surfaces > New to create a new surface group.

2. Rename the surface to Inlet.
a) Right-click Surface 1 under Surfaces and click Rename.
b) Enter Inlet.
3. Expand the Inlet surface in the Data Tree.
4. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Inlet to open the Simple Boundary Condition
detail panel.
7. Set the Average velocity value to 0.8 m/s.
8. Set the Temperature as 293.0 k.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 448:
9. Click RAD in the Data Tree Manager.

10. Under Inlet, double-click the Radiation Surface check box to activate and open the Radiation
Surface detail panel.
11. Change the Type to Opening.
12. Change the Emissivity model to Air_Out.
13. Set the Opening temperature value to 293 K.
Figure 449:
14. Add a geometry surface to the Inlet group.

a) Right-click Inlet > Add to.
b) Click on the inlet face.
At this point, the inlet should be highlighted by the color gray. If it is difficult to find the inlet
surface, change the display type to outline to see where the inlet is located.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 450:
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Inlet surface group.
You can also use the middle mouse button to complete the addition of geometry components
to a group.
Set Parameters for the Outlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the outlet, assign the appropriate settings and add
the outlet from the geometry to the surface group.
2. Rename Surface 1 to Outlet.
3. Expand the Outlet surface group in the Data Tree.
5. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition to open the detail panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Under Outlet, activate the Radiation Surface check box and double-click it to open the detail
panel.
9. Change the Type to Opening.
10. Change the Emissivity model to Air_Out.
a) Right-click Outlet > Add to.
b) Click the outlet face.
At this point, the outlet should be highlighted by the color gray.
Figure 451:
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the Outlet group.
Set Parameters for the Greenhouse_Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the walls, assign the appropriate settings and add
the faces from the geometry to the surface group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Rename Surface 1 to Greenhouse_Walls.

3. Expand the Greenhouse_Walls surface in the Data Tree.
5. Under Greenhouse_Walls, double-click Simple Boundary Condition and check that the Type is
set to Wall.
7. Under Greenhouse_Walls, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
Figure 452:
8. Change the Type to Wall.

9. Change the Emissivity model to Walls.
a) Right-click Greenhouse_Walls > Add to.
b) Select all of the wall surfaces.
At this point, the wall surfaces should be highlighted by the color gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 453:
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Greenhouse_Walls surface container.
Set Parameters for the Ground
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the ground, assign the appropriate settings and add

2. Right-click Surface 1 > Rename and enter Ground to rename the surface.
3. Expand the Ground surface.
6. Check that the Type is set to Wall.
7. Set the Temperature BC type to Value.
8. Enter the Temperature as 323.0 K.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 454:

10. Under Ground, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
12. Change the Emissivity model to Ground.
a) Right-click Ground > Add to.
b) Select the ground surface.
At this point, the ground surface should be highlighted by the color gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 455:
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Ground surface group.
Set Parameters for Symmetry Planes
In the next steps you will define surface groups for the symmetry planes, assign the appropriate
settings and add the symmetry plane surfaces from the geometry to the surface.
1. Turn off the visibility for the Inlet, Outlet, Greenhouse_Walls and Ground surfaces.
3. Rename Surface 1 to Symmetry 1.
4. Expand the Symmetry_1 surface in the Data Tree.
6. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Symmetry_1 to open the detail panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Add the geometry surface to the Symmetry_1 group.

a) Right-click Symmetry_1 > Add to.
b) Click the symmetry surface in the +X direction.
At this point, the symmetry surface should be highlighted by the color gray.
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Symmetry_1 surface group.
Figure 456:
9. Similarly, create another surface group named Symmetry_2 with simple boundary condition of
Type Symmetry and assign the symmetry surface in the +Y direction.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 457:
Set Parameters for Plant Cover Surfaces
In the next steps you will define surface groups for the plant cover, assign the appropriate settings and
add the plant cover surfaces from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Turn off the visibility for the Symmetry_1 and Symmetry_2 surfaces.
3. Rename the surface to Plant_Cover_Upstream.
4. Turn off the simple boundary condition for this surface by unchecking the box next to Simple
Boundary Condition.
5. Add the geometry surface to the Plant_Cover_Upstream group.
a) Right-click Plant_Cover_Upstream > Add to.
b) Click the surface in the -X direction closer to the inlet.
If it is difficult to find the surface, turn on the visibility for the volume group and set the
display type to Outline.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 458:
At this point, the Plant_Cover_Upstream surface should be highlighted by the color gray.
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Plant_Cover_Upstream surface group.
d) Turn off the display for the surface.
There are two sets of surfaces for the plant surfaces which belong to different volume sets.
In this case they can be moved into the same surface group.
e) Right-click Plant_Upstream_Cover > Add to.
f) Select the remaining Plant_Cover_Upstream surface.
g) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the
Plant_Cover_Upstream group.
Note that no boundary conditions are applied to this surface at this point. The grouping
operation was performed to identify that these surfaces are internal and that flow will be
allowed to pass through them freely. These surfaces can still be used for output purposes,
however.
7. Under Plant_Cover_Upstream, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
9. Change the Emissivity model to Plants.
10. Similarly create another surface group named Plant_Cover_Downstream with simple boundary
condition turned off.
11. Assign the surface opposite to Plant_Cover_Upstream as Plant_Cover_Downstream.
Note that you will need to assign the surface group again after turning off the visibility.
12. Rename the default group to Plant_Cover_Sides.
13. Turn off the simple boundary condition for this surface by unchecking the box next to Simple
Boundary Condition.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 459:
14. Assign plant emissivity models to Plant_Cover_Downstream and Plant_Cover_Sides surfaces using
the Radiation Surface option.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Global Meshing Attributes

Now that the flow characteristics have been set for the whole problem and for the individual surfaces,
attributes need to be added to make sure that a sufficiently refined mesh is generated.
the model.
In the next steps you will set global meshing attributes. In subsequent steps you will set the volume
and surface meshing attributes.
4. Check that the Mesh size type to Absolute.
This absolute mesh size is chosen to ensure that there are at least 33 mesh elements on the inlet.
This option is used to control the rate at which the mesh transitions between regions of different
surface and volume size. By default, the mesher will increase in size at a rate of approximately
2:1 between regions of adjacent size within the mesh. By setting this option to a value between
1.0 and 2.0, the mesh transition will be smoother across the size transitions.
Figure 460:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Volume Meshing Parameters

In the following steps you will set the meshing attributes that will allow for localized control of the mesh
size on the volume groups that you created earlier. Specifically, you will set local meshing attributes that
control the size of elements inside the Greenhouse_Plants volume group.
1. Expand the Model > Volume > Greenhouse_Plants Data Tree item.
2. Click the check box next to Volume Mesh Attributes to enable the settings and open the Volume
3. Enter 0.05 as the Absolute mesh size.
Figure 461:
Set Surface Meshing Parameters

size on the surface groups that you created earlier. Specifically, you will set local meshing attributes for
inlet and outlet. You will also set attributes that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal
to the surfaces of the greenhouse walls and ground.
• Inlet
• Outlet
• Ground
Set Surface Meshing Parameters for the Inlet
size near the inlet.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Inlet Data Tree item.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 462:
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Outlet
size near the outlet.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Outlet Data Tree item.
Figure 463:
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Greenhouse Walls
size near the greenhouse walls. The mesh size on the wall will be inherited from the global mesh size
that was defined earlier. The settings that follow will only control the growth of the boundary layer from
the walls.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Greenhouse_Walls Data Tree item.
mesh on the surface of the walls.
walls.

AcuSolve Tutorials

6. Set Resolve to First Element Height.
efficient resolution of the steep gradients near no-slip walls. The layers can be specified using a
number of different options.
When Boundary layer type is set to Full Control and the First Layer Height is resolved, the Total
layer height, Number of layers and the Growth rate are specified. Boundary layer elements will
be grown until the mesh size of the top layer matches the mesh size of the volume into which the
boundary layer elements are grown.
7. Enter 0.05 m for the Total layer height.
Figure 464:
Set Surface Meshing Parameters for the Ground
size near the fan blades.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Ground Data Tree item.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 465:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 466:
3. Examine the mesh in the modeling window. For the purposes of this tutorial, the following steps
lead to the display of inlet, outlet and greenhouse walls.
a) Right-click Volumes > Display off.
b) Right-click Surfaces > Display on.
c) Right-click Surfaces > Display type > solid & wire.
4. Rotate, move or zoom the view to examine the mesh.
5. Right-click on the model and select cut plane visualization to view the mesh near the plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 467: Mesh Details of the Geometry

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 468: Mesh Details Near the Plants

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve
In the next steps you will run AcuSolve to compute the solution for this case.

2. Enter 4 for Number of processors, if your system has four or more processors.
Figure 469:

AcuSolve Tutorials

While AcuSolve is running you can monitor the results using AcuProbe.
1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Residual Ratio.
The residual ratio measures how well the solution matches the governing equations.
Figure 470:

The pressure drop between the upstream and downstream surfaces of the plant cover can be viewed
using a user function at the end of the simulation using AcuProbe.
1.
In the AcuProbe dialog, double-click .
2. Enter the name in the User Function dialog as Pres_Drop.
3. In the dialog, type P_1 =.
4. Expand Surface Output > Plant_Cover_Upstream tri3 Greenhouse_Plants tet4 >
Pressure.
5. Right-click on pressure and select Copy Name.
6. Paste the value in the User Function dialog for Plant_Cover_Upstream pressure.
7. Type P_2 = on a new line.
8. Repeat the above steps to copy and paste Plant_Cover_Downstream tri3 Greenhouse_Plants tet4
pressure.
9. Type value = P_1 – P_2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 471:
Note: The word “value” is case sensitive and should always be in lower case. If you
use a capital letter, an error window appears.
10. Click Apply to display the plot.
Figure 472:

AcuSolve Tutorials

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView, use multiple data sets to display velocity magnitude
and temperature on the full geometry at the mid-plane surfaces and boundary surfaces of the
greenhouse.
Start AcuFieldView

Figure 473:
Create Boundary Surface Showing Temperature for the Outer Surfaces with
Mesh
1. Disable perspective view from viewer options by clicking Viewer Options and unchecking the
Perspective check box.
2. Disable the axis markers from the viewer options.
3. Orient the geometry so you can see inlet, outlet and greenhouse wall surfaces, as shown in the
figure.
4. Click boundary surfaces. Temperature will already be selected as the scalar function.
5. Select the inlet, outlet, ground and greenhouse wall surfaces from boundary types.
6. Click the Colormap tab and then select the check box for Local to display the local range of
values of temperature for the selected surfaces.
7. Turn on the legend on the Legends tab and change the color to black from the color palette.
You can move the legend using Ctrl + left click.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Change the annotation color to black.
Figure 474:
Append Results to Create Multiple Data Sets
1. Click File > Data Input > AcuSolve [Direct Reader] to open the reader for .log files to be
read.
2. Select the Append option to add another data set to AcuFieldView for post-processing.
3. Select the check box for Read Extended Variables to read extended variables from the file.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 475:
4. Click Read Grids & Results Data... and select the Greenhouse_Enclosure_Night.1.Log from
your working directory.
5. Click Open.
6. The Function Subset Selection dialog opens. Check that all of the variables are selected and
click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 476:
7. Close the AcuSolve [Direct Reader] dialog.
Create Boundary Surfaces Showing Temperature for Full Geometry
1. Click Dataset.... You will see two data sets.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 477:
You can move between datasets using the +,- signs next to the dataset number or directly type
the number of datasets you want to view.
2. Go to the first dataset and activate the Mirror check box under Duplication.
A Dataset Mirror Parameters dialog opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 478:
3. Activate the Y check box and click OK.

A mirror dataset will be created about the Y axis, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 479:
4. Go back to Dataset Controls and select the second dataset.

5. Repeat the steps in the previous section to show the temperature on the inlet, outlet, ground and
greenhouse wall surfaces for this dataset.
You can skip turning on the legend again since these datasets are duplicates of each other.
6. Go back to the Dataset Controls dialog and under Translate, enter -4 for the X value.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 480:
7. Click Apply. This will translate the new data set.

8. Under Rotate, enter 180 for the Z value.
Figure 481:
This will rotate the data set by 180 degrees.

9. Activate the Mirror check box under Duplication and select Y from the Dataset Mirror
Parameters dialog. Click OK.
Now you will be able to see the complete greenhouse geometry with temperature displayed on the
inlet, outlet, ground and greenhouse wall surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 482:
Create Boundary Surfaces Showing the Geometry Model in Geometric

Coloring
1. Switch to the first dataset.

2.
Click the icon.
3. Turn off the mesh display by unchecking the Show Mesh option.
4. Set the Coloring to Geometric and select the gray color from the color palette.
5. Set the Transparency to 87.5 %.
6. Select all of the surfaces from Boundary Types except the symmetry surfaces.
7. Repeat the steps above for the second dataset.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 483:
Create Coordinate Surfaces Showing the Velocity Vector Magnitude
1.
Click the icon to open the Coordinate Surface dialog and create a new surface at the mid –X
coordinate surface.
2. Select the Scalar Function as velocity_magnitude.
3. Change the Display Type to Vectors.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 484:
4. Click Options... next to Vectors to open the Vector Options dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 485:
5. Set the Vector Scale to 8.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 486:
6. Click the Colormap tab in the Coordinate Surface dialog and then set the coloring to Local.
7. Turn on the legend and set the Annotation coloring to black.
Create Coordinate Surface Showing Temperature on the Mid Surface of the

Plants
1. Turn off the display for the coordinate surface showing the velocity vectors.
2.
Click the icon to open the Coordinate Surface dialog and create a new surface at the mid –Y
coordinate surface.
3. Under Coord Plane, enter -0.7 as the Current value.
This is the y coordinate for the mid plane between greenhouse plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 487:

5. Select temperature as the Scalar Function to be displayed.
6. Click the Colormap tab and check that the Coloring is set to Local.
7. Turn on the legend to display the temperature values on the coordinate plane.
8. Repeat the steps for the second dataset.
9. Orient the geometry to see the surfaces as well as their mirror images.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 488:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a steady state simulation with enclosure
radiation and porous media in a greenhouse. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and
generated a solution using AcuSolve. AcuProbe was used to post-process the pressure drop across the
porous plants in the greenhouse. Results were also post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to
create multiple datasets to view the velocity vectors and temperature contours on the full geometry.
New features introduced in this tutorial include: using the enclosure radiation feature, creating a porous
material medium, creating symmetry radiation surfaces and creating multiple datasets in AcuFieldView.
3.4.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
of air flow through a greenhouse using enclosure radiation and porous media. You should have already
run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a
basic understanding of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this tutorial, you will need access
to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU3200_GreenhouseRadiation.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial, which is shown in the figure below, consists of a low-cost
gable type greenhouse with tomato plants modeled as porous media and four inlet and outlet vents.
Soil heating cables are used under the plants to keep the plants warm in the night.

AcuSolve Tutorials
The geometry is symmetric about the length and width of the greenhouse and therefore modeled with 2
symmetry planes which leads to reduced computation time while still providing an accurate solution.
Figure 490: Schematic of Model

2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
ACU3200_GreenhouseRadiation.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named Greenhouse_Radiation and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter Greenhouse_Radiation as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.

4. Set the Turbulence model to Spalart Allmaras.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 491:
5. In the Solver Browser, expand 04.RADIATION_PARAMETERS then click on RADIATION

PARAMETERS.
6. Set the Num symmetry planes to 2.
7. Enter (2,0,1) as the coordinates for the Symmetry center.
8. Enter (0,1,0) as the vector for the Symmetry direction-1.
9. Enter (1,0,0) as the vector for the Symmetry direction-2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 492:

In this step, you will start by editing the material model for Air and then create a new material model
for the plants. Then you will create new emissivity models for the ambient air outside, greenhouse
walls, plants and the floor surface covered by soil. Next, you will define the surface boundary conditions
for the problem and assign material properties to the fluid volumes.
Modify the Air Material Model

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 02.MATERIALS > FLUID then click on Air_HM.
2. In the Entity Editor, under the Density tab, change the Density type to Boussinesq.
Create the Porous Material Model

1. In the Solver Browser, right click on Air_HM and click Duplicate.
2. In the Entity Editor, change the name to Porous_Plants.
3. Set the Specific heat value to 1326 J/kg-K.
4. Set the Conductivity value to 0.1139 W/m-K.
5. Under the Porosity tab, set the Porosity type to Constant.
6. Verify that the Porosity value is set to 1.0.
7. Set the Direction 1, Direction 2 and Direction 3 permeability values to 0.017.
8. Verify that the Darcy coefficient is set to 0.0.
9. Set the Forchheimer coefficient to 0.25.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Create New Emissivity Models

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 07.Emissivity_Model and select Create.
2. In the Entity Editor, change the name of the emissivity model to Air_Out.
3. Set the Emissivity value to 0.05.
4. Repeat the above steps to create three new Emissivity models: Ground, Plants, and Walls with
Emissivity values of 0.90, 0.46, and 0.70 respectively.

2. Click Inlet. In the Entity Editor,
a) Change the type to INFLOW.
b) Set the Inflow type to Average velocity and set the Average velocity to 0.8 m/s.
c) Set the Temperature to 293.0 K.
d) Under the Radiation Surface tab, activate the Display field and turn On Activate radiation
surface.
e) Set the Type to Opening.
f) Set the Emissivity model to Air_Out.
g) Set the Opening temperature to 293.0 K.
Figure 493:
3. Click Outlet. In the Entity Editor,

a) Change the Type to OUTFLOW.
b) Under the Radiation Surface tab, activate the Display field and turn On Activate radiation
surface.

AcuSolve Tutorials
c) Set the Type to Opening.

d) Set the Emissivity model to Air_Out.
e) Set the Opening temperature to 293.0 K.
Figure 494:
4. Click Greenhouse_Walls. In the Entity Editor,

surface.
c) Set the Type to Wall.
d) Set the Emissivity model to Walls.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 495:
5. Click Plants_Cover. In the Entity Editor,

surface.
c) Set the Type to Wall.
d) Set the Emissivity model to Plants.
The Plants_Cover surface is a fluid-fluid interface. When a surface boundary condition is
specified as WALL, Auto_Wall, which is an advanced feature in AcuSolve, automatically
detects if the surface is an external wall or an interface between two volumes. In this case, it
will be treated as an internal surface allowing the flow to pass through it.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 496:
6. Click Symmetry_1. In the Entity Editor, change the type to Symmetry.
Figure 497:
7. Repeat the above step for Symmetry_2.

8. Click Ground. In the Entity Editor,

AcuSolve Tutorials
b) In the Simple Boundary Condition tab, set the Temperature BC type to Value.
c) Set the Temperature value to 323.0 K.
d) Under the Radiation Surface tab, activate the Display field and turn On Activate radiation
surface.
e) Set the Type to Wall.
f) Set the Emissivity model to Ground.
Figure 498:
9. Click Greenhouse_Plants. In the Entity Editor,

b) Select Porous_Plants as the Material.
Figure 499:
10. Click Greenhouse_Main. In the Entity Editor,


AcuSolve Tutorials
b) Select Air_HM as the Material.

11. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve
2.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Open HyperView

Greenhouse_Radiation.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create Contours for Temperature Distribution

1. Orient the display to an Isometric view by clicking on the Standard Views toolbar.
3. Under result type, select Temperature(s).
4. Click on the Components selector and select All.
5. Click Apply.
Figure 500:
7.
8. Verify that the contour plot looks like the figure below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 501:
Create Velocity Vectors on a Section Plane

1. Right-click on empty space in the Results Browser and select Create > Section Cut > Planar.
A new entity, Section 1, is created.
2. Right-click Section 1 and select Edit.
3. Enter (1,-0.6,1) for the Base values and press Enter.
4. Change the Display options from Clipping plane to Cross section.
5. Click on Gridline in the panel area.
6. In the dialog, uncheck the Show option under Gridline then click OK.
8. For Selection, choose Sections from the drop-down menu.
9. Click on Sections and select Displayed.
10. Click Apply.
12. In the dialog, change the Numeric format to Fixed and click OK.
13. Click Apply in the panel area. Verify that the vector plot looks like the plot shown below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 502:
Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up a steady state heat transfer simulation with enclosure
radiation and porous media using HyperMesh. You also learned how to create a new material model.
You launched AcuSolve directly from HyperMesh to compute the solution and then post-processed the
results using HyperView. You also learned how to create a section cut and display velocity vectors using
HyperView.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.5 ACU-T: 3201 Greenhouse Daytime Climate

Simulation – Solar Radiation and Thermal Shell
AcuConsole
3.5.1 AcuConsole
of air flow through a greenhouse using solar and enclosure radiation along with thermal shell and
porous media. In this simulation, AcuSolve is used to compute the temperature and solar flux
distribution due solar radiation incident on the roof which is modeled as a thermal shell. This tutorial is
designed to introduce you to a number of modeling concepts necessary to perform simulations that use
thermal shells and solar radiation.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow
and the steps to set up enclosure radiation and porous media are shown in ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse
Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous Media. The following additional
capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this tutorial:
• Modeling thermal shells
• Modeling solar radiation and use of acuSflux script
• Post-processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView to get solar flux and temperature fields
Prerequisites
Elbow and ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous
Media. It is assumed that you have some familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, and AcuFieldView. You

<AcuSolve_installation_directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuSolve to a local directory.
Extract Greenhouse_Solar.x_t, solar_flux.dat and Greenhouse_Enclosure_Night.acs from
AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 503. It consists of a low
cost gable type greenhouse with tomato plants modeled as porous media, and four inlets and outlet
vents. The roof of the greenhouse is modeled as a thermal shell with three layers in order to account for
heat transfer due to its thickness. The fluid enters through the inlet vents, passes through the tomato
plants, and then exits the greenhouse through the outlet vents located on the roof.
The geometric characteristics of the greenhouse are as follows:

• Total Length: 4 m
• Total Width: 2 m
• Eaves Height: 1.5 m
• Ridge Height: 2 m
• Inlet Vents (4): 0.6 m length X 0.4 m height
• Outlet Vents (4): 1m length X 0.4 m height
Air enters the inlet vent at an average speed of 1.8 m/s and temperature 303 K which is considered the
temperature of ambient air around the greenhouse. The outlet vent is considered a constant pressure (p
= patm) outlet boundary.
The fluid in this problem is air, which has the following material properties:
3
• Density (ρ): 1.225 kg/m
-5
• Viscosity (µ): 1.781 X 10 kg/m-s

AcuSolve Tutorials
The density variation will be calculated according to the Boussinesq model in order to take into account
the natural convection effects.
The simulation will be set up to model steady state, turbulent flow in order to determine the climate
distribution inside the greenhouse at day time, due to the incident solar radiation.
Analyze of the Solar Radiation Properties of the Model

The incident solar radiation is computed using the acuSflux script provided with the installation. The
location is selected as Sunnyvale California, USA at latitude 37.3688° N and longitude 122.0363° W.
The date is selected as 30th August 2016. The time of the day is taken as 10:30 am in the morning.
The solar radiation is modeled by adding the solar fluxes to the thermal energy equation computed
using a ray trace algorithm. The ray trace algorithm uses the Monte Carlo method to compute exchange
factors and the solar heat flux on every surface.
The interaction of a solar ray photon with a surface may occur in five different ways:
• Specular transmission : Photon passes straight through a surface with no change of direction.
• Diffuse transmission : Photon penetrates the surface, but its outgoing energy is uniformly
distributed in solid angle over the hemisphere, weighted by projected surface area.
• Specular reflection : angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.
• Diffuse reflections : similar to diffuse transmission, except the hemisphere over which the
outgoing energy is distributed is on the same side of the surface as the incident photon.
• Absorption : Photon may be absorbed by the surface.
These five interactions are associated with five surface properties that together obey the following
constraint:
For computation purposes all of the surfaces are assumed to be gray bodies, that is, emissivity and
absorption are assumed to be independent of wavelength. Further from Kirchhoff’s law of radiation
absorptivity is assumed to be equal to the emissivity of the material.
The cover material on the roof of the greenhouse is semi-transparent and the plants, ground and walls
are diffusively radiating opaque surfaces.
The solar radiation/optical properties of the materials are listed below:

• Cover:
• Plants:
• Ground:
• Walls:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze of the Thermal Shell

Thermal shells are used to model the energy equation in solid materials where the thinness of
the geometry makes it inconvenient to use it as solid. A solid or shell element set solves only the
temperature and mesh displacement equations, while all other equations, such as flow, turbulence, and
species, are ignored.
Geometrically, the shell is infinitely thin, so that the pairs of nodes in an element that are on opposite
sides of the shell have the same coordinates. The shell medium supports only wedges and bricks.
For a single layer thermal shell the complete 3D heat transfer equation is solved considering the
complete volume element of thickness specified. For multiple layer thermal shell, between the two sides
of the shell, the element is divided up into a number of layers. Each layer is assigned a material model
and a thickness and a one dimensional heat equation is solved through the shell thickness.
The roof of the greenhouse is modeled as a thermal shell with four layers each of thickness 0.25 cm.
The material model of the thermal shell has the following properties:
3
• Density (ρ): 930 kg/m
Note: For the analysis of porous media and enclosure radiation properties, please refer to
AcuConsole.
Analyze of Mesh Sizes

that will be sufficiently refined to provide good results. For this problem the global mesh size is set to
provide at least 33 elements along the biggest dimensions of the greenhouse, the length.
Note that higher mesh densities are required where velocity, pressure, and eddy viscosity gradients
are larger. Local mesh refinements are used for the volume region containing the porous media and
the inlet and outlet surfaces. Proper boundary layer parameters need to be set to keep the y+ near the
wall surface to a reasonable level. The mesh density used in this tutorial is coarse and is intended to
illustrate the process of setting up the model and to retain a reasonable run time. A significantly higher
mesh density is needed to achieve a grid converged solution.
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the temperature distribution on the
ground and roof and the solar flux on the roof of the greenhouse.

AcuSolve Tutorials

In this tutorial, you will begin by opening an existing database, modifying and adding the geometry-
independent settings, replacing the geometry, creating additional groups, setting group parameters,
adding geometry components to groups, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to
the groups. Next you will generate a mesh and thermal shell with its associated properties. Then you
will run AcuSolve to compute the steady state solution. Finally, you will visualize the results using
AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole open and rename the database for storage of the simulation
settings.
2. From the File menu, click Open to open the Open data base dialog.
Note: You can also open the dialog by clicking on the toolbar.
3. Open the Greenhouse_Enclosure_Night.acs file.

5. Create a new folder named Greenhouse_Solar_Day and open this folder.
6. Enter Greenhouse_Solar_Day as the File name for the database.

In next steps you will set the parameters that apply globally to the simulation. To simplify this task, you
will use the BAS filter in the Data Tree Manager. This filter limits the options in the Data Tree to show
only the basic settings.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 504:
Figure 505:

4. Check that AcuSolve Tutorial is the Title.
5. Enter Greenhouse - Solar Radiation and Thermal Shell as the Sub title.
7. Check that the Turbulence equation is set to Spalart Allmaras.
8. Check that the Temperature equation is set to Advective Diffusive.
9. Check that the Radiation equation is set to Enclosure.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 506:
Tip: You may need to widen the detail panel from the default size by dragging the
right edge of the panel frame.

3. Ensure that Max time steps is set to 100.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 507:
Set Material Model Properties

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum and Water. You will need to modify the
material properties of Aluminum and create a new material model which would model the properties of
cover material for defining the thermal shell in the later steps.
In the next steps you will modify the density of aluminum. Additionally, you will create a new material
model named Cover_Shell and assign the material properties associated with it.
Figure 508:
2. Right-click Aluminum in the Data Tree and select Duplicate to make a copy of the Aluminum
material model.
3. Right-click Copy of Aluminum in the Data Tree and select Rename. Enter Cover_Shell as the
new name.
4. Double-click Cover_Shell to open the detail panel.
5. Check that the Material type for Cover_Shell is Solid.
The default material type for any new material created in AcuConsole is Fluid.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3
The density of cover is 930.0 kg/m .
7. Click the Specific Heat tab. The specific heat of plants is 2000 J/kg-K.
8. Click the Conductivity tab. The conductivity of cover is 0.35 W/m-K.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.
Create New Solar Radiation Models

The solar radiation models command specifies an ideal grey-surface solar radiation model to calculate
the solar heat flux. AcuConsole has a predefined solar radiation model for a black body. You will need
to create additional solar radiation models for the roof, greenhouse walls, plants and the floor surface
covered by soil.
In the next steps you will create new solar radiation models and the assign the values associated with
them.
1. Click RAD in the Data Tree Manager to filter all but the radiation settings in the Data Tree.
2. Double-click Solar Radiation Model in the Data Tree to expand it.
3. Right-click Solar Radiation Model in the Data Tree and select New to make a new solar
radiation model.
A new solar radiation model will be created with the name Solar Radiation Model 1.
4. Right-click Solar Radiation Model 1 and select Rename.
5. Enter Cover as the new name.
6. Double-click Cover to open the detail panel.
7. Check that Type is set as Constant for all the parameters.
8. Enter the values for the cover material as shown in the figure below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 509: Cover Solar Radiation Detail Panel
9. Similarly create three more solar radiation models named: Ground, Plants and Walls and set their
solar radiation values as shown below.
Figure 510: Ground Solar Radiation Detail Panel
Figure 511: Plants Solar Radiation Detail Panel
Figure 512: Walls Solar Radiation Detail Panel

AcuSolve Tutorials
Define the Solar Radiation Parameters

The solar radiation parameters command specifies the global parameters for solar radiation heat flux.
2
AcuConsole has a predefined solar radiation flux of -1352.0 W/m in the –Z direction.
The value would be read from the file solar_flux.dat generated by the acuSflux script.
1. Double-click Solar Radiation Parameters in the Data Tree to expand it.

2. Click Open Array next to Curve fit values.
3. In the Array Editor, click Read and open the file solar_flux.dat.
The solar flux is read and stored into the respective columns in the Array Editor.
Tip: To generate the solar_flux.dat file, execute the following command from the
command line:
acuSflux -time "aug-30-2016 17:30:00" -lat 37.3688 -lon -122.0363 –ndir

“0,1,0”

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Greenhouse Solar Geometry

Greenhouse_Solar.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing Greenhouse_Solar.x_t.
4. Select Greenhouse_Solar.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 513:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 514:

container.
In the next steps you will assign the volumes to existing volume groups.
the volume name.
4. Add the volume to the Greenhouse_Main group.

a) Right-click Greenhouse_Main > Add to.
b) Click on the greenhouse.
At this point, the greenhouse should be highlighted in the color gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 515:
5. Add the volume to Greenhouse_Plants groups.

a) Right-click Greenhouse_Plants and select Add to.
b) Click on the plant.
At this point, the greenhouse plants should be highlighted in the color gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 516:
Figure 517:
6. Right-click on the default volume group and select delete.

7. Check that the material model for the volume Greenhouse_Main is set to Air.
a) Expand the Greenhouse_Main volume.
c) Check that the Material model is set as Air.
Figure 518:
8. Check that the material model for the volume Greenhouse_Plants is set to Porous_Plants.
a) Expand the Greenhouse_Plants volume.
c) Check that the Material model is set as Porous_Plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 519:

When the geometry was replaced into AcuConsole, all surfaces are placed in the surface container
named "default" and the existing surface groups becoming empty.
• Inlets_1
• Inlets_2
• Outlet
• Plant_Cover
• Roof
• Ground
In the next steps you will create a copy of surface group Inlet, rename them to Inlets_1 and Inlets_2,
assign the appropriate settings, and add the inlets from the geometry to the surface groups.
1. Create a copy of the Inlet surface group.

a) In the Data Tree, right-click on Inlet and select Duplicate.
b) Right-click Inlet and rename it to Inlets_1.
c) Right-click Copy of Inlet and rename it to Inlets_2.
2. Expand the Inlets_1 surface in the Data Tree.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Inlets_1 to open the Simple Boundary
5. Change the Average velocity value to 1.8 m/s.
6. Change the Temperature to 303.0 k.
Figure 520:

8. Under Inlets_1, double-click the Radiation Surface check box to activate and open the
Radiation Surface detail panel.
9. Check that the Type is set to Opening.
10. Check that the Emissivity model is set to Air_Out.
Figure 521:

a) Right-click Inlet > Add to.
b) Click on the inlet face.
At this point, the inlet should be highlighted by the color gray. If it is difficult to find the inlet
surface, change the display type to outline to see where the inlet is located.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 522:
You can also use the middle mouse button to complete the addition of geometry components
to a group.
13. Propagate the settings for Simple Boundary Condition and Radiation Surface to the Inlets_2
surface group.
Note: You may need to switch between BAS and RAD in the Data Tree Manager or
display all the attributes by selecting the ALL filter.
a) Under Inlets_1, right-click on Simple Boundary Condition and select Propagate.

The Propagate dialog appears.
b) Select Inlets_2 from the list, and click Propagate.
c) Under Inlets_1, right-click on Radiation Surface and select Propagate.
d) Select Inlets_2 from the list, and click Propagate.
14. Add a geometry surface to the Inlets_2 group.
a) Right-click Inlets_2 and click Add to.
b) Click on the inlet faces on the +X sides of the geometry.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 523:
At this point, the inlets should be highlighted by grey color. If it is difficult to find the inlet
surfaces, change the display type to outline to see where the inlets are located.
In the next steps you will assign the appropriate settings, and add the outlet from the geometry to the
surface group
2. Expand the Outlet surface group in the Data Tree.
4. Check that the Type is set to Outflow.
6. Under Outlet, activate the Radiation Surface check box and double-click it to open the detail
panel.
7. Check that the Type is set to Opening.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Check that the Emissivity model is set to Air_Out.

9. Change the Opening temperature value to 303 K.
Figure 524:

a) Right-click Outlet > Add to.
b) Click the outlet face.
At this point, the outlet should be highlighted by the color gray.
Figure 525:

AcuSolve Tutorials
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the Outlet group.
Set Parameters for the Greenhouse_Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the walls, assign the appropriate settings and add
2. Expand the Greenhouse_Walls surface in the Data Tree.
3. Under Greenhouse_Walls, double-click Simple Boundary Condition and check that the Type is
set to Wall.
6. Check that the Emissivity model is set to Walls.
7. Under Greenhouse_Walls, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
Figure 526:
8. In the Data Tree, click the Solar Radiation Surface check box to activate and open the detail panel.
9. For Side of Surface, select Inward.
10. For Solar Radiation model, select Walls.
Figure 527:

a) Right-click Greenhouse_Walls > Add to.
b) Select all of the wall surfaces.
At this point, the wall surfaces should be highlighted in gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 528:
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Greenhouse_Walls surface container.
Set Parameters for the Ground
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the ground, assign the appropriate settings and add
2. Expand the Ground surface.
5. Set the Temperature BC type to Flux.
The default value of 0 is used for the Heat Flux for the ground.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 529:

7. Under Ground, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
9. Check that the Emissivity model is set to Ground.
12. For Solar Radiation model, select Ground.
Figure 530:

a) Right-click Ground > Add to.
b) Select the ground surface.
At this point, the ground surface should be highlighted by the color gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 531:
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Ground surface group.
Set Parameters for Plant Cover Surfaces
In the next steps you will define surface groups for the plant cover, assign the appropriate settings and
add the plant cover surfaces from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Turn off the visibility for the Ground, Walls, Inlets and Outlet surfaces.
2. Rename the surface Plant_Cover_Upstream to Plant_Cover.
3. Add the geometry surface to the Plant_Cover surface group.
a) Right-click Plant_Cover > Add to.
b) Click all the plant surfaces.
If it is difficult to find the surface, turn on the visibility for the volume group and set the
display type to Outline.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 532:
At this point, the Plant_Cover surface should be highlighted in gray.

c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Plant_Cover surface group.
d) Turn off the display for the surface.
There are two sets of surfaces for the plant surfaces which belong to different volume sets.
In this case they can be moved into the same surface group.
e) Right-click Plant_Cover > Add to.
f) Select the remaining Plant_Cover surfaces.
g) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the Plant_Cover
group.
Note that no boundary conditions are applied to this surface at this point. The grouping
operation was performed to identify that these surfaces are internal and that flow will be
allowed to pass through them freely. These surfaces can still be used for output purposes,
however.
5. Under Plant_Cover, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
7. Check that the Emissivity model is set to Plants.
9. For Side of Surface, select Both Sides.
10. For Solar Radiation model, select Plants.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 533:
Set Parameters for the Roof Surfaces
In the next steps you will define surface groups for the roof, assign the appropriate settings and add the
roof surface from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Turn off the visibility for the Plant_Cover surfaces.

2. Rename the surface Plant_Cover_Downstream to Roof.
3. Under Roof, double-click Simple Boundary Condition and check that the Type is set to Wall.
5. Under Roof, activate the Radiation Surface to open the detail panel.
7. Set the Emissivity model to Walls.
Figure 534:
8. In the Data Tree, click the Solar Radiation Surface check box to activate and open the detail
panel.
10. For Solar Radiation model, select Cover.
Figure 535:

AcuSolve Tutorials
11. Add the geometry surface to the Roof group.

a) Right-click Roof > Add to.
b) Click the roof surfaces.
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Plant_Cover surface group.
Note: At this point, all remaining volume containers, including the default container,
should be empty.
12. Right-click on Surfaces and click Purge to remove the empty volume containers.

AcuSolve Tutorials

the model.
In the next steps you will set global meshing attributes. In subsequent steps you will set the volume
and surface meshing attributes.
4. Check that the Mesh size type to Absolute.
This option is used to control the rate at which the mesh transitions between regions of different
surface and volume size. By default, the mesher will increase in size at a rate of approximately
2:1 between regions of adjacent size within the mesh. By setting this option to a value between
1.0 and 2.0, the mesh transition will be smoother across the size transitions.
Figure 536:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Volume Meshing Attributes

size on the volume groups that you created earlier. Specifically, you will set local meshing attributes that
control the size of elements inside the Greenhouse_Plants volume group.
1. Expand the Model > Volume > Greenhouse_Plants Data Tree item.
2. Click the check box next to Volume Mesh Attributes to enable the settings and open the Volume
Figure 537:

size on the surface groups that you created earlier. Specifically, you will set local meshing attributes for
inlet and outlet. You will also set attributes that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal
to the surfaces of the greenhouse walls and ground.
• Inlets_1
• Inlets_2
• Outlet
• Ground
Set Surface Meshing Parameters for the Inlet
size near the inlet.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Inlets_2 Data Tree item.
3. Check that 0.05 is set as the Absolute mesh size.
4. Repeat for Inlets_1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Outlet
size near the outlet.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Outlet Data Tree item.
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Greenhouse Walls and Roof
size near the greenhouse walls. The mesh size on the wall will be inherited from the global mesh size
that was defined earlier. The settings that follow will only control the growth of the boundary layer from
the walls.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Greenhouse_Walls Data Tree item.
3. Check that the Mesh size type is set to None.
4. Turn On the Boundary layer flag option.
walls.
5. Check that the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
When Boundary layer type is set to Full Control and the First Layer Height is resolved, the Total
layer height, Number of layers and the Growth rate are specified. Boundary layer elements will
be grown until the mesh size of the top layer matches the mesh size of the volume into which the
boundary layer elements are grown.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 538:
10. Propagate the Surface Mesh Attributes to the Roof surface.
Set Surface Meshing Parameters for the Ground
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Ground Data Tree item.
3. Check that the Mesh size type is set to None.
4. Check that the Boundary layer flag option is turned on.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 539:
Generate the Mesh

problem.

During meshing an AcuTail dialog will open. Meshing progress is reported in this dialog. A
summary of the meshing process indicates that the mesh generation has finished.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 540:
3. Examine the mesh in the modeling window. For the purposes of this tutorial, the following steps
lead to the display of inlet, outlet and greenhouse walls.
a) Right-click Volumes > Display off.
b) Right-click Surfaces > Display on.
c) Right-click Surfaces > Display type > solid & wire.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Create the Thermal Shell and Assign Attributes

In the following steps you will generate the thermal shell, assign the number of layers, material
properties as well as radiation and solar radiation properties.
1. Under Surfaces, right-click on Roof and select Mesh Op. > Generate Thermal Shell.
An Information Window showing the number of modified nodes is displayed. This will create a
new volume set named ‘default_shell’ and new surface set named ‘default’.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 542:
2. The generated thermal shell will be exactly on the Top surface. Click Display On and Display Off
to visualize the surfaces.
3. Rename the default surface to Shell_Top.
4. Double-click Element Set to open the detail panel.
5. Check that the Medium is set to Thermal Shell.
6. For Number of shell layers, enter 4.
Figure 543:
7. Next to Shell thickness, click Open Array to open the Array Editor dialog to specify the
thickness of each shell.
8. Change the unit to cm and enter 0.25 for all the layers.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 544:

10. Next to Shell material models, click on Open Ref to open the Reference Editor dialog to specify
the material model of each shell.
Note: You might get a warning stating that number of rows are less than the table.
Click Yes to add None as the default material model for each shell.
11. Select the Cover_Shell as the material model for all the layers by clicking on the drop down
arrow.
Figure 545:

13. Under Surfaces, under Shell_Top, uncheck Simple Boundary Condition to disable simple boundary
condition for this surface.
Since this surface belongs to the ‘default_shell’ volume, Simple Boundary Condition is disabled.
15. In the Data Tree, under Shell_Top, click the Solar Radiation Surface check box to activate and
open the detail panel.
16. For Side of Surface, select Outward.
17. For Solar Radiation model, select Cover.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 546:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

Accept all other default settings.
Figure 547:

AcuSolve Tutorials

While AcuSolve is running you can monitor the results using AcuProbe.
1.
2. In the Data Treeon the left, expand Residual Ratio.
3. Right-click Final > Plot All.
Figure 548:

The temperature on the roof of the greenhouse and the plant cover can be viewed at the end of
simulation using AcuProbe.
1. In the AcuProbe dialog, expand Radiation Output > Plant_Cover tri3 Greenhouse_Plants
tet4 > Temperature.
2. Right-click on temperature and click Plot.
3. Repeat the above steps for the Roof.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 549:

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView to display temperature on the plants and roof and heat
flux on the roof of the greenhouse.
Start AcuFieldView

Create Boundary Surface Showing Temperature for the Plants
1. Click Viewer Options and uncheck the Perspective check box to disable perspective view.
2. In the Viewer Options dialog, disable the axis markers.
3. Orient the geometry so you can see inlet, outlet and greenhouse wall surfaces.
4.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Check that Temperature is already selected as the Scalar Function.

6. Select the Plant_Cover tri3 Greenhouse_Plants tet4 surface from the Boundary Types list.
7. Click the Colormap tab and then select the check box for Local to display the local range of
values of temperature for the selected surfaces.
8. Turn on the Legend on the Legends tab and change the color to black from the color palette.
You can move the legend using Ctrl + left click.
Figure 550:
Create the Boundary Surface Showing the Temperature and Heat Flux for the
Roof
1. In the Boundary Conditions dialog, select the Shell_Top surface from the Boundary Types list.
Temperature should already be selected as the scalar function.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 551:
2. Click on Scalar Functions, and select Solar heat flux.

3. Click Calculate to display the Solar Heat flux on the roof.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 552:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a steady state simulation with solar
radiation and thermal shell in a greenhouse. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and
generated a solution using AcuSolve. Then you generated the thermal shell and assigned radiation
properties to it. AcuProbe was used to post-process the temperature on the plant cover and roof
surfaces. Results were also post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you visualize temperature contours
on the plant cover and roof, and heat flux values on the roof. New features introduced in this tutorial
include the solar radiation feature and thermal shell.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.6 ACU-T: 3203 Heat Transfer Between Concentric

Spheres – P1 Radiation Model
HyperMesh
3.6.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for setting, solving and viewing results for a steady state simulation
of radiation heat transfer between concentric spheres using the P-1 Radiation model. You should have
already run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction,
and have a basic knowledge of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView.To run this tutorial, you will need
access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.
ACU3203_P1Rad.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. In this problem, a P1
radiation model is used to simulate the heat transfer due to radiation between concentric spheres.
The inside surface of the inner and the outside surface of the outer sphere are both held at constant
temperature while the gap between them radiates the heat from one sphere to the other.
The problem consists of a fluid region with arbitrary material properties between two concentric spheres
with surfaces held at fixed temperature, as shown in the following figure, which is not drawn to scale.
The radius of the outer sphere is 0.04 m and the radius of the inner sphere is 0.01 m. The inner surface
of the inner sphere is defined to have a constant wall temperature at 300.0 K (26.85 ºC). The outer
surface of the outer sphere is defined to have a constant wall temperature at 1300.0 K (1026.85 ºC).
The fluid within the spheres is defined as a non-conducting material, allowing heat to transfer via
radiation only.
The problem is solved as a steady state case to allow the heat transfer in the solid and fluid regions to
reach an equilibrium.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 553:

2.
ACU3203_P1Rad.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named P1-Radiation_Sphere and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter P1-Radiation_Sphere as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.

3. Set the Radiation equation to P-1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 554:

5. In the Entity Editor, set the Convergence tolerance to 1e-05.
6. Verify that the Relaxation Factor is set to 0.3.
7. Turn off Flow and verify that the Temperature and Radiation fields are turned On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 555:
Set Up Radiation Parameters and Boundary Conditions
In this step, you will define the radiation parameters i.e. emissivity models, surface boundary conditions
for the problem, and assign material properties to the fluid and solid regions.
Set Up Material Model Parameters

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 02.Materials and select Material(Fluid).
2. Name the material Radiating.
3
3. In the Entity Editor, set the Density to 1000 kg/m .
5. Set the Conductivity to 1e-6 W/m-K.
This is done to prioritize heat transfer only through radiation.
6. Under Radiation Properties, turn on Allow Participating Media Radiation.
7. Set the Absorption coefficient to 0.0001.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 556:
8. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 02.Materials and select Material(Solid).

9. Name the material Inner.
3
12. Set the Conductivity to 2 W/m-K.
13. In the Solver Browser, right-click on Inner and select Duplicate. Rename it Outer.
14. In the Entity Editor, change the Conductivity to 0.35 W/m-K.
15. Verify that the Allow Participating Media Radiation is turned off for both Inner and Outer.
This is done because only the fluid medium participates in heat transfer through radiation.
Set Up Emissivity Model Parameters

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 07.Emissivity_Model collector and select Create.
2. Name the emissivity model Inner.
3. In the Entity Editor, set the Emissivity to 0.5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 557:
4. Repeat the above steps and create another emissivity model named Outer with an Emissivity of
0.8.

2. Click Radiating. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to FLUID and set Radiating as the
Material.
Figure 558:
3. Click Inner. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SOLID and set Inner as the Material.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 559:
4. Click Outer. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SOLID and set Outer as the Material.
Figure 560:
5. Click Inner_Inner_ri. In the Entity Editor,

b) Change the Temperature BC type to Value.
c) Set the Temperature to 300 K.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 561:
6. Click Outer_Outer_ro. In the Entity Editor,

Figure 562:
7. Click Inner_Radiating_r1. In the Entity Editor,

b) Change the Temperature BC type to Flux.
c) Under the Radiation Surface tab, activate the Display check box and turn On the Activate
radiation surface field.
d) Verify that the Type is set to WALL and select Inner as the Emissivity model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 563:
8. Click Outer_Radiating_r2. In the Entity Editor,

d) Verify that the Type is set to WALL and select Outer as the Emissivity model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 564:
9. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 565:

Open HyperView


AcuSolve Tutorials
P1-Radiation_Sphere.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create Temperature Contours

In this step, you will create a contour plot of temperature distribution across the domain.

2. Under Result type, select Temperature(s).
The drop-down below should be automatically set to Scalar value.
3. Click Apply.
Figure 566:
and click OK.
6. Right-click on empty space in the Results Browser and select Create > Section Cut > Planar to
create a planar section cut.
A new entity named Section 1 is created under the Section Cuts tree.
7. Click beside Section 1 to turn off the grid display in the graphics window.
8.
Orient the display to the xz-plane by clicking on the Standard Views toolbar.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 567:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a workflow to set-up a P1-Radiation model, carry out a radiation
heat transfer simulation, and post-process the results using HyperWorks products, namely AcuSolve,
HyperMesh, and HyperView. You started by importing the model in Altair HyperMesh. Then you defined
the simulation parameters and launched AcuSolve directly from within HyperMesh. Upon completion of
the solution by AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the results and create contour plots.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.7 ACU-T: 3204 Heat Transfer Between Concentric

Spheres – Discrete Ordinate Radiation Model
HyperMesh
3.7.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for setting, solving and viewing results for a steady state simulation
of radiation heat transfer between concentric spheres using the Discrete Ordinates Radiation model.You
should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI
Introduction, and have a basic knowledge of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this tutorial,
you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.
ACU3204_DiscreteOrdinate.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. In this problem, a DO
radiation model is used to simulate the heat transfer due to radiation between concentric spheres.
The inside surface of the inner and the outside surface of the outer sphere are both held at constant
temperature while the gap between them radiates the heat from one sphere to the other.
The problem consists of a fluid region with arbitrary material properties between two concentric spheres
with surfaces held at fixed temperature, as shown in the following figure, which is not drawn to scale.
The radius of the outer sphere is 0.04 m and the radius of the inner sphere is 0.01 m. The inner surface
of the inner sphere is defined to have a constant wall temperature at 300.0 K (26.85 ºC). The outer
surface of the outer sphere is defined to have a constant wall temperature at 1300.0 K (1026.85 ºC).
The fluid within the spheres is defined as a non-conducting material, allowing heat to transfer via
radiation only.
The problem is solved as a steady state case to allow the heat transfer in the solid and fluid regions to
reach an equilibrium.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 568:

2.
ACU3204_DiscreteOrdinate.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named DO-Radiation_Sphere and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter DO-Radiation_Sphere as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.

3. Set the Radiation equation to Discrete Ordinate.
4. Verify that the Radiation quadrature is set to S4.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 569:

6. In the Entity Editor, set the Convergence tolerance to 0.001.
7. Verify that the Relaxation Factor is set to 0.3.
8. Turn off Flow and verify that the Temperature field is turned On.
Figure 570:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Up Radiation Parameters and Boundary Conditions
In this step, you will define the radiation parameters i.e. emissivity models, surface boundary conditions
for the problem, and assign material properties to the fluid and solid regions.

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 02.Materials and select Material(Fluid).
2. Name the material Radiating.
3
5. Set the Conductivity to 1e-6 W/m-K.
This is done to prioritize heat transfer only through radiation.
6. Under Radiation Properties, turn on Allow Participating Media Radiation.
7. Set the Absorption coefficient to 0.0001.
Figure 571:
8. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 02.Materials and select Material(Solid).

9. Name the material Inner.
3

AcuSolve Tutorials

12. Set the Conductivity to 2 W/m-K.
13. In the Solver Browser, right-click on Inner and select Duplicate. Rename it Outer.
14. In the Entity Editor, change the Conductivity to 0.35 W/m-K.
15. Verify that the Allow Participating Media Radiation is turned off for both Inner and Outer.
This is done because only the fluid medium participates in heat transfer through radiation.
Set Up Emissivity Model Parameters

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 07.Emissivity_Model collector and select Create.
2. Name the emissivity model Inner.
3. In the Entity Editor, set the Emissivity to 0.5.
Figure 572:
4. Repeat the above steps and create another emissivity model named Outer with an Emissivity of
0.8.

2. Click Radiating. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to FLUID and set Radiating as the
Material.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 573:
3. Click Inner. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SOLID and set Inner as the Material.
Figure 574:
4. Click Outer. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SOLID and set Outer as the Material.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 575:
5. Click Inner_Inner_ri. In the Entity Editor,

Figure 576:
6. Click Outer_Outer_ro. In the Entity Editor,


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 577:
7. Click Inner_Radiating_r1. In the Entity Editor,

d) Verify that the Type is set to WALL and select Inner as the Emissivity model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 578:
8. Click Outer_Radiating_r2. In the Entity Editor,

d) Verify that the Type is set to WALL and select Outer as the Emissivity model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 579:
9. Click Inner_Inner_r1. In the Entity Editor,

b) Turn Off the Activate simple boundary condition field.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 580:
10. Click Outer_Outer_r2. In the Entity Editor,

b) Turn Off the Activate simple boundary condition field.
Figure 581:
11. Save the model.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

2.
Figure 582:


AcuSolve Tutorials
Open HyperView

DO-Radiation_Sphere.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create Temperature Contours

In this step, you will create a contour plot of temperature distribution across the domain.

2. Under Result type, select Temperature(s).
The drop-down below should be automatically set to Scalar value.
3. Click Apply.
Figure 583:
and click OK.
6. Right-click on empty space in the Results Browser and select Create > Section Cut > Planar to
create a planar section cut.
A new entity named Section 1 is created under the Section Cuts tree.
7. Click beside Section 1 to turn off the grid display in the graphics window.
8.
Orient the display to the xz-plane by clicking on the Standard Views toolbar.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 584:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a workflow to set-up a DO-Radiation model, carry out a radiation
heat transfer simulation, and post-process the results using HyperWorks products, namely AcuSolve,
HyperMesh, and HyperView. You started by importing the model in Altair HyperMesh. Then you defined
the simulation parameters and launched AcuSolve directly from within HyperMesh. Upon completion of
the solution by AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the results and create contour plots.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.8 ACU-T: 3300 Modeling of a Heat Exchanger

Component
HyperMesh
3.8.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for running a steady-state simulation of a flow inside a pipe with
an interior heat exchanger placed at the middle of the pipe.You should have already run through
the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic
understanding of HyperMesh and AcuSolve. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed
version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.
ACU3300_HeatExchanger.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
a cylindrical pipe channel with an interior heat exchanger component volume with thickness ‘t’ and
radius ‘r’. The heat exchanger component parameters are assigned to the HEX_Inlet surface component.
Basically, the heat exchanger model is applied to a surface and the temperature rises across that
surface to model the effect of the heat exchanger. Air enters the pipe at a velocity of 0.1 m/sec and
flows through the heat exchanger volume and then exits through the outlet.
Figure 585:

AcuSolve Tutorials

2.
ACU3300_HeatExchanger.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named HeatExchanger and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter HeatExchanger as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.

In this step, you will set the simulation parameters that apply globally to the simulation.

2. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Analysis type is set to Steady State.
4. Change the Turbulence model to Spalart Allmaras.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 586:
Set Up Boundary Conditions and Assign Material Model Parameters


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 587:
3. Similarly, click HEX and change the Type to FLUID and select Air_HM as the Material in the
Entity Editor.
b) Change the Inflow velocity type to Cartesian and set the X velocity to 0.1 m/sec.
d) Change the Turbulence input type to Viscosity Ratio.
e) For the Turbulent viscosity ratio, enter a value of 40.
Figure 588:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 589:
6. Click HEX_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,

a) Change the Type to HEAT_EXCHANGER_COMPONENT.
b) Verify that the Heat exchanger type is set to Constant Coolant Heat Reject.
c) Set the Coolant Heat Reject to 200 W.
3
d) Set the Coolant flow rate to 0.0006309 m /sec.
e) Set the Heat exchanger thickness to 0.06 m.
f) Verify that the Upstream distance is set to 0.
g) Change the Friction type to Kays London.
h) Change the Core Friction Constant to 20.
i) Change the Core Friction Exponent to -0.75.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 590:
7. Click Walls. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Type is set to WALL.
The surface mesh elements on the external wall surfaces and interfaces can be grouped into one
single collector. Auto_Wall, which is an advanced feature in AcuSolve, re-groups them into surface
sets based on the element set they belong to and whether they are internal or external surfaces.
This process is done internally without the user having to do it manually.
Figure 591:

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

2.
Figure 592:

AcuSolve Tutorials

As the solution progresses, the AcuTail and AcuProbe windows are launched automatically. The surface
output and residual ratios can be monitored using AcuProbe.
1. In the AcuProbe window, under the data tree, expand Residual Ratio, right-click on Final, and
select Plot All.
Figure 593:
2. Once the solution is converged, right-click on Final under Residual Ratio and select Plot None.
3.
A User Function dialog opens.
4. Enter dT as the Name.
5. Type In = in the Function field.
6. Expand Heat Exchanger > HEX_Inlet. Right-click on air_temperature and select Copy Name.
Paste the value in the function after In =.
7. Type Out = on a new line in the Function field.
8. Expand Heat Exchanger > HEX_Inlet. Right-click on coolant_temperature and select Copy
Name. Paste the value in the function after Out =.
9. On the next line, type value = Out - In.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 594:
Note: The word “value” is case sensitive and should always be in lowercase
characters. If it starts with a capital letter, it will give you an error window.
10. Click Apply.
Figure 595:
You can zoom into the plot by clicking and then defining an area at the end of the curve. As
shown in the figure below, for the given problem, the temperature rise is 43.21 K.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 596:
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully learned how to set up and solve a simulation involving a Heat
Exchanger component. You imported the meshed geometry and then assigned the boundary conditions
and material properties for all the regions. Once the solution was computed, you defined a user function
in AcuProbe in order to create a plot of the temperature rise across the heat exchanger volume.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3.9 ACU-T: 3400 AcuSolve-Flux Integration

AcuConsole
3.9.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results for simulation of a 2D
cable for simple conduction analysis. In this simulation, the heated solid volume is used for conduction
with the outer volume and comes with a flux value already calculated using another software. This
tutorial is designed to introduce you to a new feature, the Electromagnetics Manager, wherein the flux is
imported on to the heated volume in the form of a Nastran file.
• Importing the heat flux using the Electromagnetics Manger in AcuConsole
• Mesh extrusion from one surface to other surface
• Use of the Variable Manager for defining all the variables in a single panel
• Post-processing with AcuFieldView for plotting temperature contours
• Creating or modifying 2D Plots in AcuFieldView
In this tutorial, you will do the following:

• Assign material properties for the solid volume
• Import NASTRAN file using the Electromagnetics Manager for importing Flux
• Run AcuSolve
• Monitor the solution with AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites

2DCable.x_t and CABLE_EXAMPLE_MOD.nas from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Analyze the Problem

Figure 1 shows a simple 2D cable problem wherein the inner cylinder is provided with a volumetric heat
source of 1.46686 W and is in contact with the outer cylinder, the outer surface of which is maintained
o
at a temperature of 20 C (293K).This problem forms the basis of a simple conduction analysis between
two concentric cylinders. The only difference from the basic problem is that the heat source is calculated
using another software called Flux and is provided using AcuConsole’s EMag (Electromagnetic) Manger
to account for volumetric losses from Flux to AcuSolve.
Figure 597:
Flux is used to simulate electromagnetic components to determine static thermal loading. The
calculated thermal load value is then provided to AcuSolve to define the volumetric heat load on the
solid volume. AcuSolve can then be used to determine the behavior of the fluid surrounding the solid
components like:
• Fluid rotational effects
• Material specific properties (temperature dependent, non-Newtonian)
• Convection on the outer surface
Coupling of AcuSolve to Flux will also enable the inclusion of natural convection and forced convection
effects into the thermal calculation of various electrical devices.

AcuSolve Tutorials

components to groups, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Flux_Coupling and open it.
5. Enter Cable as the file name for the database.

Manager. This filter enables display of only a small subset of the available items in the Data Tree and

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 598:
Figure 599:
Note: You may need to widen the detail panel from the default size by dragging the
4. Enter Flux Sequential Cosimulation as the Title.

5. Enter Cable Example as the Sub title.
6. Set the Analysis type to Steady State.
8. Set Abs. temperature offset to 0 K.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 600:

the solution.
2. Check that Analysis type is set to Steady State.
4. Set the Flow flag to Off.
Figure 601:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials: Air, Aluminum, and Water, with standard parameters
defined. In the next steps, you will create a new solid material type called Insulation to match the
desired properties for this problem.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 602:
2. Right-click on Material Model and select New from the context menu.
3. Rename Material Model 1 to Insulation.
4. Double-click on Insulation to open the detail panel.
5. Change the Material type to Solid.
6. Set the material properties for Insulation as follows by navigating through the respective tabs in
the detail panel:
3
1. Density: 2702.0 kg/m
2. Specific Heat: 908.0 J/kg-K
3. Conductivity: 0.8 W/m-K
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

2DCable.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing 2DCable.x_t.
4. Select 2DCable.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 603:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 604:

container.
3. Turn off the display of surfaces by right-clicking on Surfaces and clicking Display off in the
context menu.
the volume name.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Right-click on Volumes and select New.

6. Rename Volume1 to Solid.
7. Rename the default volume group to SolidHeated.
8. Assign the respective volumes to their volume groups.
a) Right-click on Solid and click Add to.
b) Select the volume shown in the figure below and click Done.
Figure 605:
9. When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, the complete geometry volume was placed in
the default volume group. This default volume group was renamed to SolidHeated. In the previous
step, you assigned a volume to the other volume group that you created. At this point, all that is
left is the SolidHeated volume group

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 606:

1. Turn-off the display of Volumes by right-clicking on Volumes and selecting Display off .
2. Expand Surfaces in the Data Tree and toggle on the display of the default surface container.
3. Right-click on Surfaces and select Surface Manager.
4. In the Surface Manager Dialog, click New six times to create six new surface groups.
5. If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click on Columns and select
these two columns from the list then click Ok.
6. Turn off the display for all the surfaces except for the default surface and rename to default
surface to OuterWall.
7. Rename the other surfaces and set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns as per the
table shown below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 607:
8. Assign the surfaces to their respective surface groups.

a) Click Add to in the row belonging to +ZInner.
b) Select the planar surface shown in the figure below and click Done.
Figure 608:
c) Click Add to in the row belonging to +ZOuter.

d) Select the planar surface shown in the figure below and click Done.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 609:
e) Rotate the model to the opposite side.

f) In a similar manner, select the -ZInner and -ZOuter surfaces.
Figure 610:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 611:
g) Assign the surface for InterfaceOuter.
Figure 612:
h) Assign the surface for InterfaceInner

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 613:
i) When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all the geometry surfaces were placed in
the default surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to OuterWall.
In the previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you
created. At this point, all that is left is the OuterWall surface group.
Figure 614:
9. Close the Surface Manager Dialog.
Assign Volume Parameters (Element Material Properties)

In this step you will set element material properties for the volume groups that apply globally to the
simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: You need to switch to BAS in the Data Tree Manager.
Solid
1. Expand the Solid volume group in the Data Tree.
2. Double-click Element Set under Solid to open the Element Set detail panel.
3. Change the Medium to Solid.
4. Change the Material model to Insulation.
5. Leave the remaining parameters as it is.
Figure 615:
SolidHeated
The SolidHeated group will have the same settings as Solid group. In order to not to repeat the step
again, we can propagate the settings to that group as follows:
1. Expand the Solid volume group in the tree. Right click Element Set under Solid and select
Propagate.
2. Select the SolidHeated volume group from the pop-up window and click Propagate.
Note: You can ensure the settings are applied correctly by expanding the SolidHeated
group and cross checking the element set conditions.
Assign Surface Parameters (Boundary Conditions)

In next steps, you will set boundary conditions for the surfaces that apply globally to the simulation.
To make this simple, the boundary conditions applicable for any simulation can be filtered using the BC
filter in the Data Tree Manager.
OuterWall
The OuterWall group defines the wall through which conduction takes place.
1. Expand the OuterWall surface group in the Data Tree.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2. Double click Simple Boundary Condition to open the Simple Boundary Condition detail panel
3. Ensure that the Type is set to Wall.
4. Change Temperature BC type to Value.
5. Set Temperature to 293.0 K.
Figure 616:
Remaining Groups
1. Expand the +Zinner surface group in the Data Tree.
2. Deactivate Simple Boundary Condition for this surface.
All the remaining groups will have the same settings as +ZInner. In order to not to repeat steps,
we can propagate the settings.
3. Right click Simple Boundary Condition under +ZInner and select Propagate.
4. Select all the other groups except OuterWall in the pop-up window and click Propagate.
Figure 617:
Note: You can ensure the settings are applied correctly by expanding the other
surface group and cross checking the boundary conditions.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Define the Variables List
1. Click the Variable List icon from the main toolbar.
Figure 618:
Tip: You can also click Edit > Variable List.
The Variable Manager dialog opens.

2. Click Add six times.
3. Create six variables using the Name and Expression data shown below then click Close.
Figure 619:
Note: Type equal (=) or colon equal (:=) in the Expression column before entering an
expression. The expression will be valid only if either of these two symbols are used.
Equal to (=) calculates the value of the expression when defined and uses it, whereas
colon equal (:=) recalculates the value of the expression if any relative variable is
changed.
The variables L, r, V, Q denote length of the cylinder, radius, area of the cylindrical
surface, and heat flux respectively.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Global Mesh Attributes

to be generated.
5. Enter :=dr for the Absolute mesh size.
6. Change the Mesh growth rate to 1.2.
Figure 620:
Set Volume Mesh Attributes

Volume mesh attributes are the meshing parameters applied to a particular volume. You have the
option to control the mesh size on a volume and define curvature refinement parameters like curvature
angle and the curvature mesh size factor.
In the next steps you will set the volume mesh attributes.
1. Expand the Model Data Tree then expand Volumes.

2. Expand the Solid volume and activate the Volume Mesh Attributes check box.
3. In the detail panel, change the Absolute mesh size to :=dr.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 621:
Note: :=dr refers to the value of the variable dr, which was defined in the Variables
Manager earlier. This means that the Solid volume group has an absolute mesh size of
0.0001m.
4. The SolidHeated volume group has the same mesh parameters as the Solid group. In order to
avoid repeating steps, you can propagate the settings of Solid.
a) Expand the Solid volume group.
b) Right-click on Volume Mesh Attributes and select Propagate.
c) Select the SolidHeated group in the pop-up window and click Propagate.
Set Surface Mesh Attributes

2. Expand Model in the Data Tree then expand Surfaces.
3. Expand InterfaceInner and activate the Surface Mesh Attributes check box.
4. In the detail panel, set the Boundary layer flag to On.
5. Change Resolve to Number of Layers.
6. Set First element height to :=firstLayer.
7. Set Total layer height to :=dr.
8. Set the Growth rate to 1.2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 622:
9. The surface groups InnterfaceOuter and OuterWall will have the same settings as InterfaceInner.
In order to avoid repeating steps, you can propagate settings.
a) Right-click on Surface Mesh Attributes under Interfaceinner and select Propagate.
b) Select the groups InterfaceOuter and OuterWall in the pop-up window and click Propagate.
Define Mesh Extrusions

Mesh extrusion is a feature that allows the generation of structured mesh in the entire volume or only
on the surface. This feature extrudes the mesh on one surface to another surface and can also be used
with other meshing features. In this case, we are going to extrude the mesh along the length of both
the Inner and Outer cylinders from one end to the other.
Mesh Extrusion is available under the Model tree.
1. Right-click on Mesh Extrusions and click New and repeat this step.
2. Rename Mesh Extrusion 1 and Mesh Extrusion 2 to ZInner and ZOuter respectively.
3. Double-click on ZInner.
A Mesh Extrusion Dialog Box opens.
4. Ensure that the geometry type is surface.
5. Select -ZInner from the drop-down menu for Side 1.
6. Select +ZInner from the drop-down menu for Side 2.
7. Change the Extrusion options to All tets.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 623:

9. Similarly, repeat the same procedure for ZOuter. The final dialog should look like the image below.
Figure 624:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials

Figure 625:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Transfer Heat Loss Using the Electromagnetics Manager

The Electromagnetics Manager is a tool designed for transferring the electromechanical heat losses
from an EMag (Electromagnetics) output file to the appropriate element set in the CFD mesh. Flux is a
simulation software used in the development and design of electrical devices. It incorporates simulation
technology to accurately analyze a wide range of physical phenomena that includes complicated
geometry, various material properties, and the heat and structure at the center of electromagnetic
fields. The electromagnetics mesh and the element set of the CFD mesh on to which the data is
transferred must have the same size and coordinates.
In this case, the heat load is already calculated from the Electromagnetics software and imported
into the CFD mesh in the form of a .nas (NASTRAN) file. You do not need to calculate this value; it is
provided directly with the input files. In the next steps, you will learn how to import this .nas file using
the Electromagnetics Manager.
Note: Before importing the Flux values into the CFD mesh, make sure that the .nas file is
in your working directory.
1. From the main toolbar, click the Electromagnetics Manager icon .
Tip: You can also click Tools > Electromagnetics Manager.
The Electromagnetics Manager dialog opens.

2. Click the Add.
3. Change the name from SPM Motor 1 to Flux.
4. Click Open next to Import. Select CABLE_EXAMPLE_MOD.nas from your working directory and click
Open.
This opens the JMAG Total Heat Source showing the total heat source vs time step plot and the
average step data at the bottom.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 626:

6. Click Transfer next to Transfer to Element Set.
This opens the Volumes dialog.
7. Select SolidHeated and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 627:
8. Click Close to exit the Electromagnetics Manager.

9. In order to confirm the heat source is correctly applied to the SolidHeated volume group, check
the Element Set.
a) Switch to BAS in the Data Tree Manager
b) Expand SolidHeated under Volumes.
c) Double-click Element Set to open the Element Set detail panel.
d) Click Open Array.
The heat source is updated for the node id.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 628:
You can also see that the Total heat source in the Element Set detail panel is updated.
e) Click Ok to close the Array Editor.
Run AcuSolve

Figure 629:

AcuSolve Tutorials
AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView, create a boundary surface showing temperature and
plot temperature vs the radius of the model.
Launch AcuFieldView
Create a Boundary Surface Showing Temperature on the Surface

Figure 630:

c) Click Close.
3.
6.
Your display should now look like this.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 631:
7. In the Boundary Surface dialog, ensure that Coloring is Scalar and all the Boundary Types are
selected.
8. Set the Display Type to Constant.
9. Deactivate the box besides Show Mesh.
10.
From the toolbar, click to open the Defined Views dialog.
11. Select +Z then click Close.
12. Click the Colormap tab in the Boundary Surface dialog and select the Local check box to
display the local range of values for temperature for the selected surface.
13. Change the Max temp to 304.8 K and the Min temp to 293.0 K.
14. Click the Legend tab and activate the check boxes for Show Legend and Frame.
15. Enter (K) as the units for temperature in the Subtitle text.
16. Change the Labels, Annotation, and Subtitle color to black.
Tip: You can move the legend using Shift + left-click.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 632:
Create an XY Plot for Temperature vs Radius

In this section, you are going to create a plot and see how temperature varies along the radial direction
between the two cylinders. For that take two points along the cross-section of the cylinders in radial
direction. The figure below shows the two points along the radial direction from the inner cylinder to
outer cylinder.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 633:
1.
From the Visualization toolbar, click the Plot icon .
The 2D Plot Controls and Plot Display dialogs open.
2. In the Plot tab of the 2D Plot Controls dialog, click Create.
3. Select temperature as the Left Axis Function.
4. In the Paths tab, click Create and select Line Path (volume)....
5. In the Edit Points dialog, enter the coordinate values for the two points as shown below.
Figure 634:
6. Click Calculate and OK to close the dialog.

The Plot Display dialog is updated.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 635:
7. Returning to the Plot tab of the 2D Plot Controls dialog, change the Horizontal Axis/Plotting
Direction to Y. Click OK in the pop-up warning.
8. Click Axes.
The Horizontal Axis dialog opens.
9. In the Horizontal Axis dialog:
a) Change the Label to Radius (m).
b) Change the Min value to 0.002.
c) Change the Max value to 0.003.
d) Change the Unit value next to Major to 0.0002.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 636:
10. Click the Left Axis tab.

11. Change the Label to Temperature (K).
12. Change the Max value to 305 and the Unit value next to Major to 2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 637:
13. Click Close.

The Plot Display dialog is updated once more.
Figure 638:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a steady state simulation for a 2D
cable problem. This problem was setup as a normal heat conduction problem where the inside solid
volume was provided with a heat source. You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole,
importing and meshing the geometry, and setting up the basic simulation parameters. Once the case
was setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve. Results were also post-processed in AcuFieldView
by reading a dataset and viewing the temperature contours on the full geometry. New features that
were introduced in this tutorial included the Electromagnetic Manager, which was used for importing a
NASTRAN file that contained the thermal load applied to the SolidHeated volume, the variable manager,
for defining all the variables in a single panel, mesh extrusion from one surface to the another surface
along the length, reading a dataset in AcuFieldView, and finally, making 2D plots in AcuFieldView.

Multiphase 4
4 Multiphase
• 4.1 ACU-T: 4000 Dam Break Simulation (p. 570)

• 4.2 ACU-T: 4001 Water Filling in a Tank (p. 606)
• 4.3 ACU-T: 4002 Sloshing of Water in a Tank (p. 647)
• 4.4 ACU-T: 4100 Multiphase Flow using Algebraic Eulerian Model (p. 686)
• 4.5 ACU-T: 4200 Humidity – Pipe Junction (p. 701)
AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.570
4.1 ACU-T: 4000 Dam Break Simulation

AcuConsole
HyperMesh
4.1.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a transient dam
break simulation using the level set method. In this simulation, a square column of water is initially
held at rest by walls in one end of a reservoir. The simulation begins when the walls holding the water
column are removed and the water is free to flow out. The simulation can be used to visualize and study
the surge patterns as the column of water rushes out, as in a dam wall break.
• Two-phase flow simulation using the level set method
• Transient simulation
• Use of a script for the water volume fraction initialization
• Post-processing with AcuFieldView
Prerequisites

damBreak2D.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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4 Multiphase p.571
Analyze the Problem
In general, multiphase flows are mainly observed in real life environment, consisting of two or more
fluids (gas, liquid, or solid). They have possible combinations of gas-liquid (dissolved gas), liquid-liquid
(oil in water), liquid-solid (immersed particles), as well as gas-liquid-solid. The first two are examples
of two-phase immiscible flows. The two-phase immiscible flows can be solved by tracking the interface
between the two-phases. This tutorial will guide you through how to set up the two-phase flow problem
using the level set method.
The system being simulated contains a reservoir, along one corner of which stands a square water
column, held in place by walls. At time t = 0 the walls are removed. As the walls are removed, the
water column is now free to flow out and flow surges towards the other end of the reservoir. The
simulation can be used to visualize and study the surge patterns as the column of water rushes out, as
in a dam wall break.
The schematics of the problem which will be addressed in this tutorial is shown in Figure 639. The
system will be modeled as a two-dimensional problem by including only a single layer of extruded
elements in the spanwise direction.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.572

visualize some characteristics using AcuFieldView.
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Dam_break and open it.
5. Enter damBreak_2D as the file name for the database.


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4 Multiphase p.573
Figure 640:
Figure 641:
context menu.
4. Enter AcuSolve Multiphase Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Dam Break 2D as the Sub title.
7. Toggle on Show beta features to access multiphase equation.
Note: Once this option is toggled on, the "Level Set" in the Multiphase equation
pull down list is displayed. The additional multiphase model, VOF (Volume of Fluids)
approach, will be introduced in a later release.
8. Ensure Multiphase equation is set to Level Set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.574
Figure 642:
Set Solution Strategy Attributes
2. Check that the Analysis type is set to Transient.
4. Set the Final time to 1.0 secs.
5. Set the Initial time increment to 0.002498.
When setting up a transient analysis, if the Max time steps option is set to zero, this option is
ignored. In such a case, the final time must be specified. AcuSolve will then run until this final
time is reached, incrementing with the specified initial time increment at each time step.
7. Set the Max stagger iterations to 5.
9. Check that Flow and Multifluid flags are turned On.
10. Check that Fluid 1 is set to Air.
11. Check that Fluid 2 is set to Water.
The options available to specify the fluids for Fluid 1 and Fluid 2 are taken from the material
models already defined in the open AcuConsole database. When a new AcuConsole database
is created, the available pre-defined fluid material models are Air and Water. If your model
requires a fluid other than these two, you must create and define a new material model to match
the specification of this fluid, before you can set it as one of the fluids in the Multifluid model
definition.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.575
Figure 643:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum, and Water, with standard parameters
defined. In the next steps you will verify that the pre-defined material properties of air and water match
the desired properties for this problem.
Figure 644:
AcuConsole.
3. In the Density tab, check the following:
a) The Type is set to Constant.
3
b) The Density value is 1.225 kg/m .
-5

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.576
5. Double-click Water in the Data Tree to open the detail panel.

3
b) The Density value is 1000 kg/m .
7. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of water is 0.001 kg/m – sec.
may browse through the tabs to check the complete material specification
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.
Set the Multiphase Parameters

When Multiphase is activated in the Problem Description, by selecting a Multiphase equation,
AcuConsole automatically generates the necessary set of parameters required to complete the
multiphase model definition. These include defining the fields in the model, and also specifying the
interaction models between the fields.
In this section you will go through and observe the multiphase parameters for the simulation as
generated by AcuConsole.
1. Define the fields:

a) Click on ALL in the Data Tree Manager to display all available simulation settings.
b) Expand the Advanced Solution Strategy > Multiphase Parameters Data Tree item.
c) Under Multiphase Parameters, expand the Fields item.
d) Double-click Air.
e) Set Modify advanced settings to On and check that the Material model is set to Air.
f) Double-click on Water.
g) Set Modify advanced settings to On and check that the Material model is set to Water.
2. Define the Field Interaction Model:
a) Under Multiphase Parameters, expand the Field Interaction Model item.
b) Double-click Air-Water to open the detail panel.
c) Set Modify advanced settings to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.577
d) Click Open Refs next to Fields 1.

e) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Air.
f) Click Open Refs next to Fields 2.
g) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Water.
h) Set the Surface tension model to None.
i) Set the Interface thickness option to Auto.
3. Define the Multiphase Model:
a) Under Multiphase Parameters, expand the Multiphase Model item.
d) Click Open Refs next to Field interaction models.
e) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Air-Water.

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4 Multiphase p.578
Import the Geometry

damBreak2D.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing damBreak2D.x_t.
4. Select damBreak2D.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 645:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.579
Figure 646:
Set the Body Force

The body force commands add volumetric source terms to the governing conservation equations. In
this tutorial, gravitational body force will be applied to the fluid fields. Gravity will be defined as equal
to standard gravity (g = 9.81 m/s2) along the negative Y-axis, which is the downward direction in the
model.
Figure 647:
2. Double-click on Gravity to open the Gravity detail panel.

2

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.580
Define Nodal Outputs

The nodal output command specifies the nodal output parameters, for example, output frequency and
number of saved states.
1. Expand the Output tree, then double-click Nodal Output to open the Nodal Output detail
panel.
This will save the nodal outputs at every time step.
3. Set Output initial condition to On.
This will instruct the solver to write the initial state of the problem as the first output file.
4. Make sure that the Number of saved states is set to 0.
Setting this option to zero will instruct the solver to save all of the solution state files.
Figure 648:
2. Set the Pressure initial condition type to Script.
3. Click Open text next to Pressure script to open the text editor.
4. Enter the following script in the text editor:
value = 0.0
if (x<0.05715 and y<0.05715): value=9.81*1000.0*(0.05715-y)
This script will set the pressure initial condition in the domain. The region where x < 0.05715
and y < 0.05715 represents the region where the water column is initially held, bound by the
dam walls. Within this region, the pressure is defined by the hydrostatic pressure level within the
water column. For all other nodes in the domain, the pressure is set to zero. At these nodes, the
pressure value represents the atmospheric pressure.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.581
5. Click Ok to close the text editor.

6. In the Select fluid field, select Water.
7. Set Water initial condition type to Script.
8. Click Open Text next to Water volume fraction script to open the text editor.
value = 0.0
if (x<0.05715 and y<0.05715): value=1.0
This script will set the initial volume fraction of the field water in the domain. For the nodes where
x < 0.05715 and y < 0.05715 (the region occupied by the water column), the volume fraction
of water will be set to 1. For all other nodes, the volume fraction of water will be set to zero. At
these nodes, the volume fraction of air will be 1, as the sum of volume fractions of the field should
always be unity.

container.

2. Right-click on Surfaces and click Display off to turn off the display of surfaces.
the volume name.

a) Right-click on default.
b) Click Rename.
c) Enter Fluid as the new name and press Enter.
a) Expand Fluid in the Data Tree.
b) Double-click Element Set under Fluid to open it in the detail panel.
c) For Medium, select Multiphase.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.582
d) For Multiphase model, select Air-Water.

e) For Body force, select Gravity.
Figure 649:

boundary conditions, mesh parameters, and so on, which can sometimes be cumbersome (especially
for models with too many surfaces). To make it easier, less error prone, and for saving time two new
some features of the Surface Manager are exploited.
1. In the Data Tree, right-click on Volumes and select Display off to turn off the display of
volumes.
Note: If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click
Columns, select these two columns from the list, and click Ok.
4. Turn the display off for all surfaces except for default surface.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.583
Figure 650:

Done.
Figure 651:
When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all geometry surfaces were placed in the
default surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to sides. In the
previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created.
At this point, all that is left in the sides surface group are the surfaces which make up the
sides of the reservoir.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.584

2. Set up the sides surface parameters:
a) In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the sides surface group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.585

to be generated.
b) Click Absolute.
Figure 652:



AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.586

Figure 653:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.587
Figure 654:

The present case does not have any inlet or outlet surfaces to define any boundary condition that
reference point using a nodal boundary condition. The following steps will show how to setup the

2. Right-click on Nodes and select New to create a new entity, Node 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.588

5. In the Node Define Dialog Box, set Selection Type to Pressure Point and Volumes to fluid.
Figure 655:
6. Click OK.
7. Expand Fixed Pressure Node and enable Pressure.
The single node will now act as the pressure reference point for the simulation. The default Type
of Zero sets the nodes in this set to pressure = 0.0.
8. Examine the location of the reference pressure node and check that it is inside the domain.
b) Right-click on Surfaces and set Display type to outline.
You should be able to see the fixed pressure node as a point, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 656:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.589
Run AcuSolve

Figure 657:


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.590

with mesh.
Figure 658:
Set Up AcuFieldView
Figure 659:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.591

c) Click Close.
4.
7.
Your display should look similar to figure below.
Figure 660:
Coordinate the Surface Showing Water-Air Interface on the Mid Coordinate

Surface
boundary surfaces.
3. For the new set:
a) Turn on the visibility.
b) Set the Display Type to Outlines.
c) For Boundary Types, select All.
4. Click Ok.
5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.592
10. For Scalar Function, select volume_fraction-Water.
11. In the Colormap tab, set the maximum and minimum threshold values to 0.501 and 0.499
respectively.
Figure 661:
Visualize the Animation of the Water Flow

2. From the Tools menu, select Flipbook Build Mode.
3. In the Flipbook Size Warning window, click OK to close it.
4. Click Tools > Transient Data.
The Transient Data Controls dialog opens.
If the Sweep Control in this dialog says Sweep instead of Build, the Flipbook Build Mode is not active. In
Sweep mode, you will be able to create and visualize the animation but you will not be able to save it.
To be able to save the animation, enable the Flipbook Build Mode.
5. Drag the time step slider to its leftmost position. Alternatively, enter zero in the Time Step or
Solution Time box.
6. Click Apply.
The displayed state now corresponds to the initial state of the domain.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.593
Figure 662:
7. Click Build.
AcuFieldView will now build the frame-by-frame animation of the solution progressing through all
the available time steps. You will be able to see the progress in the Building Flipbook dialog.
Once the Build process is complete, a Flipbook Controls dialog will appear.
8. In the Flipbook Controls dialog, click Frame Rate.
9. For Minimum time, enter 0.1 seconds and click Close.
10.
Click Play to play the animation.
11. To save the animation, click Pause , and then click Save.
12. Provide a file name in the Flipbook File Save dialog, and click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.594
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a multiphase flow problem. The problem
simulated a dam break scenario. A column of water initially held in place by walls in one end of
the reservoir was let free to flow at the start of the simulation. You started the tutorial by creating
a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the geometry, and setting up the simulation
parameters. Air and water were modelled as different fields occupying a single volume. Once the case
was setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView
where you generated an animation of the water flow as it surges once the walls restricting the water
column are removed. New features that were introduced in this tutorial include: setting up a multiphase
flow simulation in AcuSolve with two fluids.
4.1.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for setting, solving and viewing results for a transient dam break
simulation using the Level Set method. You should have already run through the introductory
HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of
HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of
HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU4000_DamBreak.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
a square water column held in place by the reservoir walls. At time t=0, the walls are removed and
the water column is now free to flow out. The simulation can be used to visualize and study the surge
patterns as the column of water rushes out, as in a dam wall break.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.595
Figure 663:

2.
ACU4000_DamBreak.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named DamBreak and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter DamBreak as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.
Set the Transient Simulation Parameters


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.596

3. Set the Multiphase equation to Level Set.
Figure 664:

2. Set the Max time steps to 0 and press Enter.
5. Change the Max stagger iterations to 5 and press Enter.
7. Check that the Flow and Field options are turned On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.597
Figure 665:
Define the Nodal Outputs

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output then click NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Time step frequency to 1 and toggle on the Output initial condition
field.
Figure 666:
Create a Multiphase Model and Set the Body Force
Create a Multiphase Material Model

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 02.Materials then right-click on MULTIPHASE and select Create.
2. Enter Air-Water as the name of the model.
3. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Field Interaction Type is set to Level Set.
4. Select Air_HM as the Field 1 Material.
5. Enter Air as the Field 1 name.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.598
6. Select Water_HM as the Field 2 Material.

7. Enter Water as the Field 2 name.
Figure 667:
Set the Body Force

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 03.Body_Force then expand BODY_FORCE and click
Gravity_HM.
2
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Y gravity to -9.81 m/sec and Z gravity to 0.0.
Figure 668:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.599
Set the Nodal Initial Conditions and Boundary Conditions

In this step, you will start by creating a node-set for assigning nodal initial conditions for volume
fraction. All the nodes in the set are assigned a volume fraction of 1 for water, thereby creating a water
column.
Create a Node Set

1. Go to the Model Browser, right-click on empty space in the browser area, and select Create >
Set.
2. In the Entity Editor, rename the set to Water_Column.
Set the Boundary Conditions

2. Click z_pos. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SYMMETRY.
Figure 669:
3. Similarly, change the z_neg component Type to SYMMETRY.

4. Click sides. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Type is set to WALL.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.600
Figure 670:

a) Change the Type to MULTIPHASE.
b) Select Air-Water as the Material.
c) Select Gravity_HM as the Body Force.
Figure 671:

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 15.Nodal_Boundary_Condition and select Create.
2. Set the Name to Fixed Pressure Node and change the Definition to Nodes.
3. Set the Number of Nodes to 1.
4. Click on the Node collector. Then, in the graphics window, click on a node in the Fluid volume.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.601
Figure 672:
5. Click proceed in the panel area.

6. Change the Boundary condition variable to Pressure and leave the remaining settings as default.
Figure 673:
Assign Nodes to the Node Set

Block.
2. In the Entity Editor, rename the block to Water_Column.
3. Set the Min and Max coordinates to (0, 0, 0) and (0.05715, 0.05715, 0.002748),
respectively.
4. In the Model Browser, click Sets > Water_Column. In the Entity Editor, click on the Nodes
collector in the Entity IDs field.
5. In the panel area, click the nodes collector and select the by block option.
6. Toggle on the Water_Column block then click select.
All the nodes in the Water column block are highlighted in the graphics area.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.602
Figure 674:
7. Click proceed.
8. Optional: Turn off the display of the Water_Column block.
9. Save the model.
Set the Nodal Initial Conditions

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 01.Global then click 03.NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION.
2. In the Entity Editor, under the Field tab, set the Type to Nodal Values.
3. Set the Multiphase Field to Water.
4. Set the Select nodes by option to Node Set.
5. With the Node Set Count set to 1, select Water_Column as the Node Set.
6. Set the Initial Volume Fraction to 1.0.
Figure 675:

Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.603

2.
4. The Output time steps can be set to All or Final. Since this is a Transient analysis, set it to All.
Figure 676:

Open HyperView

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.604

DamBreak.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create the Water Flow Animation

In this step, you will create an animation of the water flow as it surges once the walls restricting the
water column are removed.
3. Select Volume_fraction-2-Water (s) as the Result type.
4. Click Apply to display the volume fraction contour at the first time step.
6. In the Edit Legend dialog, change the Number of levels to 2 and the Numeric format to Fixed.
Figure 677:

Save the Animation


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.605

Save.
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully learned how to set up and solve a multiphase flow problem using
HyperMesh and AcuSolve. You also learned how to create a multiphase model using the Level Set
method. Once the solution was computed, you post-processed the results in HyperView where you
generated an animation of the water flow as it surged once the dam walls were removed.

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4.2 ACU-T: 4001 Water Filling in a Tank

AcuConsole
HyperMesh
4.2.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a transient
simulation of a two-phase flow in a square tank using the level set model. In this simulation, AcuSolve
is used to compute the time-varying water-level interface due to presence of water through the inlet
and the outlet of the tank. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of modeling concept
necessary to perform two-phase simulations.
• Two-phase flow solution
Prerequisites

tank2D.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.607
Analyze the Problem
velocity).
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the half-filled water tank at time t = 0. From t = 0 onwards, water is
injected through the inlet, at a velocity of 1.5 m/s. As the water fills in through the inlet, the water-air
interface can be visualized in a transient simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.608

settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Tank_Filling and open it.
5. Enter tankFilling_2D as the file name for the database.


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.609
Figure 679:
Figure 680:
context menu.
4. Enter AcuSolve Multiphase Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Tank Filling 2D as the Sub title.
7. Ensure that Multiphase equation is set to Level Set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.610
Figure 681:
4. Set the Final time to 3.0 secs.
5. Set the Initial time increment to 0.01 secs.
ignored. In such a case, the Final time must be specified. AcuSolve will then run until this final
6. Check that the Convergence tolerance is set to 0.001.
8. Set the Relaxation factor to 0.
9. Check that Flow and Multifluid flags are turned On.
10. Change Fluid 1 to Water.
11. Change Fluid 2 to Air.

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4 Multiphase p.611
Figure 682:

Figure 683:
AcuConsole.
3
-5

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.612
5. Double-click Water in the Data Tree to open the detail panel.

3
b) The Density value is 1000 kg/m .
may browse through the tabs to check the complete material specification
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

In this section you will define the multiphase parameters for the simulation.
1. Define the fields:

f) Double-click Water.
b) Right-click on Air-Water and click Delete.
c) Double-click Water-Air to open the detail panel.
d) Set Modify advanced settings to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.613
e) Click Open Refs next to Fields 1.

f) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Water.
g) Click Open Refs next to Fields 2.
h) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Air.
i) Set the Surface tension model to None.
j) Set the Thickness type to Auto.
b) Right-click on Air-Water and select Delete.
c) Double-click Water-Air to open the detail panel.
d) Set Modify advanced settings to On.
e) Click Open Refs next to Field interaction models.
f) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Water-Air.

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4 Multiphase p.614
Import the Geometry

tank2D.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing tank2D.x_t.
4. Select tank2D.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 684:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.615
Figure 685:
Set the Body Force

this tutorial, gravitational body force will be applied to the fluid fields. Gravity will be defined as equal
to standard gravity (g = 9.81 m/s2) along the negative Y-axis, which is the downward direction in the
model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.616
Figure 686:

2

panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.617
Figure 687:
2. In the Select Fluid field, select Water from the drop-down selector menu.
3. Set the Water initial condition type to Script.
4. Click Open text next to Water volume fraction script to open the text editor.
value = 0.0
if y <= 0.0 : value = 1.0
The script above will set the initial volume fraction of the field water in the domain. For the nodes
where y <= 0.0 (bottom half of the domain), the volume fraction of water will be set to 1. For all
other nodes (top half of the domain), the volume fraction of water will be set to zero. At these
nodes, the volume fraction of air will be 1, as the sum of volume fractions of the field should
always be unity.

container.

the volume name.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.618

b) Click Rename.
c) Enter Fluid as the new name and press Enter

d) For Multiphase model, select Water-Air.
Figure 688:

for models with too many surfaces). To make it easier, less error prone, and for saving time two new

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.619
volumes.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New four times to create four new surface groups.
Figure 689:

Done.

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4 Multiphase p.620
Figure 690:
7. Assign the surface with the maximum x-coordinate to inlet surface group.
8. Assign the surface with the minimum x-coordinate to outlet surface group.
Use the following figure as the reference for selecting the required surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.621
Figure 691:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to sides. In the previous steps,
that is left in the sides surface group are the surfaces which make up the sides of the reservoir.
Inlet
As mentioned earlier, the inlet in this problem is a water inlet with inlet velocity set as 1.5 m/s.
1. In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the inlet surface.

3. Check that the Type is set to Inflow.
4. Check that the Inflow Type is set to Velocity.
5. Set the Inflow velocity type to Normal from the drop down selector menu.
6. Set the Normal velocity to 1.5 m/s.
7. Set the Incoming fluid field to Water from the drop down selector menu.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 692:
Outlet
1. In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the outlet surface.

3. Check that the Type is set to Outflow.
4. Switch the Hydrostatic pressure flag to On.
5. Click Open Array next to Hydrostatic pressure origin to check that the origin location is at (0, 0,
0)
Figure 693:
Wall
1. In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the wall surface.


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.623
Figure 694:
z_pos and z_neg
1. In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, expand the z_pos surface.

3. Check that the Type is set to Slip.
4. Similarly, check that the Simple Boundary Condition type for z_neg is also set to Slip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.624

to be generated.
5. Set Absolute mesh size to 0.12.
Figure 695:


2. Under Model, expand Surfaces > wall.
3. Click Surface Mesh Attributes to open the detail panel.
The detail panel becomes populated with more options.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.625

6. Switch the Curvature refinement parameters flag to On.
Mesh controls related to curvature refinement will be visible now. These settings are applied to
resolve curved geometric features in the surface group.
7. Set the Curvature angle to 5.0 degrees.
This setting controls the maximum value of the included angle between the two mesh edges
protruding from the surface.
8. Set the Curvature mesh size factor to 0.2.
This setting is used to determine the minimum value of the mesh edge length used to resolve
curved features. This minimum value is computed by multiplying the Absolute or Relative mesh
size with the Curvature mesh size factor.

In the last section, it was mentioned that surface mesh attributes are local mesh attributes that are
applied to a specific surface. Similarly, there is a provision for edge mesh attributes that are local to a
specific edge in the model. However, at times it is desired to specify a mesh attribute local to a region
independent of the CAD entities in the model. This can be achieved using Zone Mesh Attributes. It
is possible to specify a zone in the shape of a box, cylinder or a sphere for example, with local mesh
control attributes to be used within that zone. Wherever this zone overlaps the CAD model, the zonal
mesh attributes will be used instead of the global mesh attributes.
In the following steps, you will define a mesh refinement zone, and set up the zonal mesh attributes for
it to be used in the model. A box-shaped refinement zone will be used in the region where a water-air
interface is expected.
2. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Free surface region.
3. Double-click Free surface region to open the detail panel.
4. Change the Mesh zone type to Box.
6. Enter the values in the Array Editor as shown below and click OK.

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Figure 696:
7. In the detail panel, set the Box lengths as follows:

a) Box length X: 1.0 m.
b) Box length Y: 0.75 m.
c) Box length Z: 0.01 m.
8. Set the Mesh size to 0.015 m
Figure 697:

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 698:



AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 699:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 700:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.630
Run AcuSolve

problem.

This tutorial shows you how to work with transient analysis data.

with mesh.
with mesh.

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Figure 701:
Set Up AcuFieldView
Figure 702:

c) Click Close.
4.

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7.
Your display should look similar to figure 1.
Figure 703:

Surface
boundary surfaces.
3. For the new set:
c) For Boundary Types, select All.
4. Click Ok.
5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.633

respectively.
Figure 704:

Solution Time box.
6. Click Apply.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 705:
7. Click Build.
10.

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Summary
simulated a square shaped water tank in which water was being injected through an inlet. The tank
also had an open outlet. As the water filled in through the inlet, the air-water interface in the tank was
visualized. You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the
geometry, and setting up the simulation parameters. Air and water were modelled as different fields
occupying a single volume. Once the case was setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve. Results
were post-processed in AcuFieldView where you generated an animation of the water flow. New features
that were introduced in this tutorial include: setting up a multiphase flow simulation in AcuSolve with
two fluids.
4.2.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for running a transient simulation of a two-phase flow in a square
tank using the Level Set model. You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks
tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh,
AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh
and AcuSolve.

ACU4001_FillingTank.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be solved is shown schematically in the figure below. It consists of a half-filled water
tank at time t=0. Water is injected through the Inlet at t=0 and as the water fills in through the inlet,
the water-air interface can be visualized in a transient simulation.
Figure 706:


AcuSolve Tutorials
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2.
ACU4001_FillingTank.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named FillingTank and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter FillingTank as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.


AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 707:


AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 708:

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output and click NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. Set the Time step frequency to 1.
3. Toggle On the Output initial condition field.
4. Save the model.

2. Enter Water-Air as the name of the model.
3. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Field Interaction Type is set to Level Set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 709:
Set the Body Force

Gravity_HM.
2
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Y gravity to -9.81 m/sec and Z gravity to 0.0.
Figure 710:
Set the Boundary Conditions and Nodal Initial Conditions

a) Change the Type to MULTIPHASE

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4 Multiphase p.640
b) Select Water-Air as the Material.

c) Select Gravity_HM as the Body force.
Figure 711:
3. Click wall. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Type is set to WALL.
Figure 712:
4. Click inlet. In the Entity Editor,

b) Set the Normal Velocity to 1.5 m/s.
c) Select Water as the Multiphase incoming field.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.641
Figure 713:
5. Click outlet. In the Entity Editor,

b) Toggle On the Hydrostatic pressure field.
Figure 714:
6. Click z_pos. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SLIP.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.642
Figure 715:
7. Similarly, change the Type to Slip for z_neg.
Create a Node Set

Set.

Block.
3. Set the Min and Max coordinates to (-0.9, -0.5, -0.005) and (0.5, 0, 0.005), respectively.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 716:
7. Click proceed.
9. Save the model.

1. Go to the Solver Browser, expand 01.Global, then click 03.NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION.
Figure 717:

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4 Multiphase p.644
7. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

2.
Figure 718:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.645

Open HyperView

FillingTank.1.Log
3. Click Open.

In this step, you will create an animation of the water flow as it fills in through the inlet.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 719:

Save the Animation


Save.
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully learned how to set up and solve a transient multiphase flow problem
involving water filling a tank using HyperMesh and AcuSolve. You also learned how to create a
multiphase model using the Level Set method. Once the solution was computed, you post-processed the
results in HyperView where you generated an animation of the water flow as it filled the tank.

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4.3 ACU-T: 4002 Sloshing of Water in a Tank

AcuConsole
HyperMesh
4.3.1 AcuConsole
simulation of a two-phase flow in a rectangular tank using the level set model. In this simulation,
AcuSolve is used to compute the time-varying water-level interface due to sloshing of the water against
the tank walls. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of modelling concept necessary to
perform two-phase simulations.
• Two-phase flow simulation
• Use of user defined function for varying gravity
Prerequisites

sloshing_tank.x_t and gravity.cfrom AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Analyze the Problem
velocity).

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4 Multiphase p.648
Figure 1 shows a schematic of the partially-filled water tank. From t = 0 onwards, water is subjected to
a sinusoidal varying body force along x direction and constant gravity along y-direction, i.e.
EQ. 1
where
• Α = Amplitude of oscillation
•
ω = Frequency of oscillation =
• T = Time period of oscillation

• φ = Phase difference
• t = Time
In the present simulation, we use the following values for the variables of the equation above.
• Α = -0.06 m
• ω = 3.6 rad/sec
• T = 1.74 sec
• φ=0
A UDF (gravity.c) written in C language is used for this purpose. For the details of the functions used in
the gravity.c, refer to the AcuSolve User-Defined Functions Manual.

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Start AcuConcolse and Create the Simulation Database

mesh and run AcuSolve to solve for the number of time steps specified. Finally, you will visualize some
characteristics of the results using AcuFieldView.
4. Create a new folder named Sloshing_tank and open this folder.
5. Enter Sloshing_tank as the file name for the database

will use the BAS filter in the Data Tree Manager. This filter reduces the number of items shown in the
Data Tree to make navigation easier.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.650
Figure 721:
Figure 722:
Note: You may need to widen the detail panel by dragging the right edge of the panel
frame.
4. Enter AcuSolve Multiphase Tutorial as the Title for this case.

5. Enter Sloshing tank 2D as the Sub title for this case.
7. Change the Multiphase equation to Level Set.

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4 Multiphase p.651
Figure 723:

detail panel.
4. Set the Final time to 4.0.
ignored. In such a case, the Final time must be specified. AcuSolve will then run until this final
7. Set the Min stagger iterations to 2.
10. Check that the Flow and Multiphase flags are turned On.
11. Change Fluid 1 to Air.
12. Change Fluid 2 to Water.

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Figure 724:
Set the Material Model Attributes

Figure 725:
The material type for water is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created
in AcuConsole.
Note: Resize the detail panel, if needed, by dragging the right frame of the panel.
3
3. Click the Density tab. The density of water is 1000.0 kg/m .
4. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of water is 0.001 kg/m-sec.

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5. Double click Air in the Data Tree to open the Air material detail panel.
AcuConsole.
3
-5
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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4 Multiphase p.654
Import the Geometry

sloshing_tank.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry
in Parasolid ASCII format.
2. Browse to the directory containing sloshing_tank.x_t.
4. Select sloshing_tank.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 726:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.655
Figure 727:

In this section you will define the multiphase parameters for the simulation.
1. Define the Fields:

f) Double-click Water.
d) Click Open Refs next to Fields 1.
e) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Air.
f) Click Open Refs next to Fields 2.
g) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Water.
h) Set the Surface tension model to None.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.656
i) Set the Interface thickness option to Auto.

d) Click Open Refs next to Field interaction models.
e) Check that the entry in the Reference Editor is Air-Water.
Set the Body Force

this tutorial, gravitational body force will be applied to the fluid fields. The sinusoidal varying body force
along x direction and constant gravity along y-direction will be defined as given by Eq. (1).
Figure 728:

4. Change the Type to User Function.
5. Enter usrGravity for User function name.
6. Click Open Array next to User function values.
7. Click Add three times to create three rows and provide the following values:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.657
Figure 729:
Note: The values provided above are the ones described in the section Analyzing
the Problem. The user values should be provided in the same order as shown above
because these values will be passed on to the UDF script, which refers to these values
in specific order.
8. Click Ok.
Compile the UDF

A UDF in the form of C language (gravity.c) is provided with the tutorial. This program should be
compiled using the following steps:
1. For Windows:
a) Start AcuSolve Command Prompt from the Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs >
Altair HyperWorks<version>AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt.
b) Change the directory to the present working directory using the 'cd' command.
c) Enter the command acuMakeDll –src gravity.c.
This command creates a set of files necessary for the use of the UDF.
2. For Linux:
a) In the terminal, change the directory to the present working directory using the 'cd'
command.
b) Enter the command acuMakeLib -src gravity.c.


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.658
panel.
Figure 730:
2. In the Multiphase field, select Water from the drop-down selector menu.
3. Set the Water initial condition type to Script.
4. Click Open text next to Water volume fraction script to open the text editor.
value=0
if (y<0.12):value=1
The script above will set the initial volume fraction of the field water in the domain. For the nodes
where y < 0.12, the volume fraction of water will be set to 1. For all other nodes, the volume
fraction of water will be set to zero. At these nodes, the volume fraction of air will be 1, as the
sum of volume fractions of the field should always be unity.

container.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.659
the volume name.

b) Click Rename.
c) Enter Fluid as the new name and press Enter.

d) For Multiphase model, select Air-Water.
Figure 731:


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.660
for models with too many surfaces). To make it easier, less error prone, and for saving time, two new
volumes.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New two times to create two new surface groups.
Figure 732:
5. Rename Surface Names (column 1) for Surface 1 and Surface 2, and set the Simple BC Active and

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.661
Figure 733:
6. Assign the surfaces to the Front and Rear surface groups.

a) Click Add to in the row belonging to Front in the Surface Manager dialog.
Done.
c) Similarly assign the surface with the minimum z-coordinate to the Rear surface group.
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to wall. In the previous steps,
that is left in the wall surface group are the surfaces which make up the outer wall of the tank as
shown below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.662
Figure 734:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.663

to be generated.
5. Set Absolute mesh size to 0.015.
Figure 735:

The present simulation is equivalent to a representation of a 2D cross section of the model. In
AcuSolve, 2D models are simulated by having just one element across the faces of the cross section.
Thus, when these faces are set up with a similar boundary condition, it coerces the corresponding nodes
across the faces to have same results. In this problem, these faces are the negative and positive z-
surfaces. This kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with mesh extrusion process. In the following steps
you will define the process of extrusion of the mesh between these surfaces.
1. Expand the Model Data Tree item, right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New.
3. Right-click on Z extrusion and select Define. Double-clicking Z extrusion will achieve the same
result.
4. In the Mesh Extrusion Dialog Box that appears, make the following changes:

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.664
a) Check that Geometry type is set to surface.

b) From the drop down menus, assign Front and Rear as Side 1 and Side 2 respectively.
c) Check that Extrusion type is set to Number of layers.
d) Set Number of layers to 1.
e) Check that Extrusion options is set to Mixed Elements.
Figure 736:
5. Click Ok to close the dialog box.
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 737:

The present case does not have any inlet or outlet surfaces to define a boundary condition which
reference point using a nodal boundary condition. The following steps will show how to set up the
3. Right-click on Nodes and select New from the context menu to create a new entity.
6. In the Node Define Dialog Box, set Selection type to Pressure Point and Volumes to Fluid.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 738:
7. Click OK.
8. Expand Fixed Pressure Node and click Pressure.
Note: This single node will now act as the pressure reference point for the simulation.
9. Ensure that the Type is Zero.

10. Examine the location of the node.
b) Right-click on Surfaces and set Display Type to outline.
Note: The fixed pressure node should be displayed as a point in the modeling window.
Figure 739:

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Run AcuSolve
Figure 740:
problem.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 741:


with mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 742:
Set Up AcuFieldView

Figure 743:
3. In the Viewer Options dialog box:

c) Click Close.
4.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.670
7.
Your display should look similar to figure 1.
Figure 744:

Surface
boundary surfaces.
3. For the new set:
c) For Boundary Types, click Select All.
4. Click Ok.
5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.671
respectively.
Figure 745:
Your view should now look like this:
Figure 746:


AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.672

4. Go to the Tools menu again and select Transient Data.
Solution Time box.
6. Click Apply.
Figure 747:
7. Click Build.
10.
Summary
simulated sloshing of a rectangular water tank due to the gravity. As the water sloshed against the
walls, the air-water interface in the tank was visualized. You started the tutorial by creating a database
in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the geometry, and setting up the simulation parameters. Air
and water were modelled as different fields occupying a single volume. Once the case was setup,

AcuSolve Tutorials
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the solution was generated with AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView where you
generated an animation of the water flow. New features that were introduced in this tutorial include:
use of user defined function for simulating varying gravity.
4.3.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for running a transient simulation of a two-phase flow in a rectangular
tank using the level set model. You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks
tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh,
and AcuSolve.

ACU4002_SloshingTank.hm and gravity.c from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be solved is shown schematically in the figure below. It consists of a partially filled
water tank and from time t=0, water inside the tank is subjected to a sinusoidal varying body force
along x-direction and constant gravity along y-direction.
Figure 748:
The body force in the x-direction is given by the expression:
Where
• Α = Amplitude of oscillation = -0.06 m
•
ω = Frequency of oscillation = = 3.6 rad/sec
• T = Time period of oscillation = 1.74 sec

AcuSolve Tutorials
4 Multiphase p.674
• φ = Phase difference = 0

2.
ACU4002_SloshingTank.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named TankSloshing and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter TankSloshing as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.


AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 749:

8. Change the Min stagger iterations to 2 and press Enter.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 750:

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output and click NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. Set the Time step frequency to 10.

2. Enter Air-Water as the name of the model.
3. In the Entity Editor, under the Fields tab, verify that the Field Interaction Type is set to Level Set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 751:
Set the Body Force

Gravity_HM.
2. In the Entity Editor, under the Gravity tab, change the Gravity type to User Function.
3. Set the User function name to usrGravity.
4. Set the Number of user values to 3.
Figure 752:
5. Click the table icon in the Data: User values field.

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The Number of user values dialog opens.

6. Enter (-0.06, 1.74, 0) as the three values then click Close.
Figure 753:
7. A UDF in the form of C language (gravity.c) is provided with the tutorial. This program should be
compiled using the following steps:
For Windows:
1. Start AcuSolve Command Prompt from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start >
All Programs > Altair HyperWorks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd
Prompt .
2. Change the directory to the present working directory using the cd command.
3. Enter the command acuMakeDll -src gravity.c and press Enter.
For Linux:
1. In the terminal, change the directory to the present working directory using the cd
command.
2. Enter the command acuMakeLib -src gravity.c and press Enter.
Set the Boundary Conditions and Nodal Initial Conditions


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4 Multiphase p.679
a) Change the Type to MULTIPHASE

b) Select Water-Air as the Material.
c) Select Gravity_HM as the Body force.
Figure 754:
Figure 755:
4. Change the Front and Rear component Types to SLIP.

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Figure 756:
Create a Node Set

Set.

Block.
3. Set the Min and Max coordinates to (0, 0, 0) and (1.2, 0.12, 0.1), respectively.

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Figure 757:
7. Click proceed.
9. Save the model.

1. Go to the Solver Browser, expand 01.Global, then click 03.NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION.
Figure 758:
7. Save the model.

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Assign the Reference Pressure

1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 15.Nodal_Boundary_Condition and select Create.
2. Change the name to Fixed Pressure Node.
3. Change the Definition to Nodes.
4. Set the Number of Nodes to 1.
5. Click the Node collector and select a node on the Fluid volume in the graphics window.
6. Click proceed in the panel area.
7. Change the Boundary condition variable to Pressure.
Figure 759:
8. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

2.

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Figure 760:

Open HyperView

TankSloshing.1.Log
3. Click Open.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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In this step, you will create an animation of the water flow as it fills in through the inlet.
Figure 761:

Save the Animation



AcuSolve Tutorials
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Save.
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully learned how to set up and solve a transient multiphase flow problem
involving water sloshing in a tank using HyperMesh and AcuSolve. You also learned how to create
a multiphase model using the Level Set method and specify the body force using a user-defined
function and then compile the UDF. Once the solution was computed, you post-processed the results in
HyperView where you generated an animation of the water sloshing in the tank.

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4.4 ACU-T: 4100 Multiphase Flow using Algebraic

Eulerian Model
HyperMesh
4.4.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This tutorial provides instructions for running a transient simulation of a two-phase flow in a pipe
using the Algebraic Eulerian model. You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks
tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperWorks,
and AcuSolve.
ACU4100_Disperse.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. As an example, an
LPipe problem is attached here to show the capability of the Disperse modeling in AcuSolve. The
Algebraic Eulerian (AE) model is used to simulate the momentum exchange between a carrier field and
a dispersed field. When simulating multiphase flows using the AE model, the carrier field has to be a
fluid and the dispersed field can be of any medium.
In this problem, Water is considered a Carrier field material and Air is considered as Dispersed field
material. Fluid enters the Inlet at an Average Velocity of 1 m/sec and the Water and Air volume
fractions at the inlet are 96% and 4% respectively.

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Figure 762:

2.
ACU4100_Disperse.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named Lpipe_Disperse and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter LPipe as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.


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2. In the Entity Editor, set the Analysis type to Transient.

3. Set the Turbulence Model to Spalart Allmaras.
4. Set Multiphase equation to Algebraic Equation.
Figure 763:

2. In the Entity Editor, set the Max time steps to 150.
4. Set the Min stagger iterations to 2.
6. Change the Relaxation factor to 0.
7. Verify that Flow, Turbulence, and Field are turned On.

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Figure 764:

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output and click on NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. In the Entity Editor, set Time step frequency to 10.
Figure 765:
Set Up Material Model Parameters and Body Force
In this step, you will start by setting up the Multiphase material model and body force parameters.
Then, you will assign the surface boundary conditions and material properties to the fluid volume.

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1. In the Solver Browser, expand 02.Materials > MULTIPHASE and click on AirWater Eulerian
HM.
2. In the Entity Editor, verify that the Field Interaction Type is set to Algebraic Eulerian.
3. By default, Water_HM is set as the Carrier Material. Since water is the carrier field for this
analysis, leave this option as is.
4. Verify that the Number of Dispersed Field is set to 1.
Figure 766:
5. Activate the check box beside Edit Field Interaction Models.

The Field Interaction Model dialog opens.
6. In the dialog, set the Dispersed Field 1 Material to Air_HM, if not set already.
Figure 767:
7. Click Save and Close.
Set Up the Body Force

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 03.Body_Force then expand BODY_FORCE and click on
Gravity_HM.
2
2. In the Entity Editor, set the Z gravity to 0.0 and change the Y gravity to -9.81 m/sec .

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Figure 768:
Set Up Boundary Conditions and Nodal Initial Conditions
Assign Boundary Conditions and Material Properties

In this step you will assign the material properties to the multiphase fluid volume and then assign
surface boundary conditions.
b) Select AirWater_Eulerian_HM as the Material.
c) Set Body force to Gravity_HM.

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4 Multiphase p.692
Figure 769:
3. Click Inflow. In the Entity Editor,

d) Set No. of multiphase incoming fields to 2.0 and press Enter on the keyboard.
Figure 770:
The Incoming Fields dialog opens.

e) Select Air_HM_DF1.AirWater_Eulerian_Hm as the first Incoming Field and set Volume
Fractions to 0.04.
f) Select Water_HM_CF.AirWater_Eulerian_Hm as the second Incoming Field and set
Volume Fraction to 0.96.

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4 Multiphase p.693
Figure 771:
g) Click Save & Close.

4. Click Outflow. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to OUTFLOW.
Figure 772:

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4 Multiphase p.694
Figure 773:
6. Click Slip_1. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to SLIP.
Figure 774:
7. Similarly, change the Type to SLIP for the Slip_2 component.

8. Save the model.

1. In the Solver Browser, expand the 01.Global tree then expand
03.NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION and click on NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION.
2
2. In the Entity Editor, verify that the default value for Eddy viscosity is set to 0.0001 m /sec.
3. Under the Field tab, set the No. of Fields to 2 and press Enter.

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Figure 775:
The Fields dialog opens.

4. Set the fields as shown in the figure below.
Figure 776:
5. Click Save & Close.

6. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

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4 Multiphase p.696

2.
Figure 777:

Open HyperView

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4 Multiphase p.697

LPipe.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create Contours for Volume Fraction of Water

In this step, you will create a contour plot of the volume fraction of water at the end of the simulation.
1. In the Results Browser, set the Time to 1.5 sec.
Figure 778:

3.
Click the Isolate shown icon and then click on the Fluid component to turn off the display of
all components except the Fluid component.

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Figure 779:
6. From the top drop-down menu under the Result type, select Volume_fraction-2-
Water_HM_CF.AirWater_Eulerian(s).
8. In the panel area, click Apply.
Figure 780:

11. In the Edit Legend dialog, change the Numeric format to Fixed. In the Values section, click on
the Minimum value in the legend and set it to 0.80. Similarly, set the Maximum value to 1.0.

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Figure 781:

13. Verify that the contour plot looks like the figure below at frame 16.

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Figure 782:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set-up and solve a transient multiphase flow
problem using the Algebraic Eulerian multiphase model using HyperWorks products, namely HyperMesh
and AcuSolve. You started by importing the model in HyperMesh. Then, you defined the simulation
parameters and launched AcuSolve directly from within HyperMesh. Upon completion of the solution
by AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the results and created a contour plot of the volume
fraction.

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4.5 ACU-T: 4200 Humidity – Pipe Junction

HyperMesh
4.5.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
Introduction. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU4200_Humidity.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. As an example, a pipe
junction problem is attached here to show the capability of the Humidity modelling in AcuSolve. In this
problem, there are two inlets with different flow, thermal, and humidity conditions. As the flow proceeds
downstream of the pipe, two pipes merge into a single pipe to create a single outlet and a distinct
profile of temperature and humidity is attained. The geometry is symmetric about the XZ midplane of
the pipe, as shown in the figure.
Figure 783:


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2.
ACU4200_Humidity.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named PipeJunction_Humidity and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter Humidity as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.

2. Optional: In the Entity Editor, change the Title to Humidity Modeling.
2
3. Set Abs. pressure offset to 101325 N/m .
5. Set the Turbulence model to Spalart Allmaras.
6. Switch Humid Air Model to On.
This will automatically change the Multiphase equation to Advective Diffusive.

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Figure 784:

8. Set Initial time increment to 1 sec.

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Figure 785:
Set Up Body Force Parameters

In this step, you will define the body force.
1. In the Solver Browser, expand the 03.Body_Force tree then select BODY_FORCE >
Gravity_HM.
2
2. Set Gravity in the Y direction to -9.81 m/sec and change the Z direction to 0.

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Figure 786:
Set Up Boundary Conditions and Nodal Initial Conditions

2. Click Hot_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,
c) Set the Average velocity to 1 m/s.
e) Set Incoming Humidity type to Dew Point Temperature and set the value to 278.15 K.

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Figure 787:
3. Click Cold_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,

c) Set the Average velocity to 3 m/s.
e) Set Incoming Humidity type to Relative Humidity and set the value to 20.
Figure 788:
4. Click Outlet. In the Entity Editor, change the type to OUTFLOW.

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Figure 789:
5. Click plusY. In the Entity Editor, change the type to SLIP.
Figure 790:
6. Similarly click minusY and change the Type to SLIP.

Figure 791:

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4 Multiphase p.708

b) Select HumidAir_HM as the Material.
c) Set Body force to Gravity_HM.
Figure 792:
9. Save the model.

1. Go to the Solver Browser, expand the 01.Global tree then select
03.NODAL_INTIAL_CONDITION > NODAL_INTIAL_CONDITION.
2. Under the Velocity tab, set X Velocity to 1 m/sec.
3. Change the Defualt value of Temperature to 333.15 K.
2
4. Change the Defualt value of Eddy viscosity to 0 m /sec.
5. Change the Defualt value of Relative Humidity to 20.

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Figure 793:

Run AcuSolve
2.

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Figure 794:

Open HyperView

PipeJunction.1.Log

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3. Click Open.
Create Contour Plots

In this step, you will create contour plots of temperature, relative humidity, mass fraction humidity and
velocity magnitude.
2.
Click the Isolate shown icon and then click on the minusY component to turn off the display
of all components except the minusY component.
Figure 795:
3. Orient the display to the xz-plane by clicking on the Standard Views toolbar.
5. Select Temperature (s) as the Result type.
7. Click Apply.
Figure 796:
and click OK.

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10. Verify that the contour looks like the figure below.
Figure 797:
11. Change the Result type to Relative_humidity (v) then click Apply to view the relative humidity
contour on the minus-Y plane.
Figure 798:
12. Change the Result type to Mass_fraction-1-Humidity_HM.HumidAir(s) then click Apply.

Use the range 0.001306 to 0.0406.

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Figure 799:
13. Change the Result type to Velocity (v) then click Apply.
Use the range 0 to 3.753.
Figure 800:
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set-up a CFD model, carried out a CFD
simulation, and then post-processed the results using HyperWorks products, namely AcuSolve,
HyperMesh and HyperView. You started by importing the model in HyperMesh. Then, you defined the
simulation parameters and launched AcuSolve directly from within HyperMesh. Upon completion of the
solution by AcuSolve, you used HyperView to post-process the results and create contour plots.

Moving Body 5
5 Moving Body
• 5.1 ACU-T: 5000 Blower - Steady (Rotating Frame) (p. 715)

• 5.2 ACU-T: 5001 Blower - Transient (Sliding Mesh) (p. 759)
• 5.3 ACU-T: 5002 Brake Disc Cooling in an Automotive Disc Brake System (p. 794)
• 5.4 ACU-T: 5100 Modeling of a Fan Component: Axial Fan (p. 836)
• 5.5 ACU-T: 5200 Rigid-Body Dynamics of a Check Valve (p. 876)
• 5.6 ACU-T: 5201 Coupled Simulation of a Check Valve using AcuSolve and MotionSolve (p. 925)
• 5.7 ACU-T: 5202 Flow Closing Valve (p. 974)
• 5.8 ACU-T: 5300 Ship Hull Static (p. 995)
• 5.9 ACU-T: 5301 Ship Hull Dynamics (p. 1029)
• 5.10 ACU-T: 5400 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (P-
FSI) (p. 1049)
• 5.11 ACU-T: 5401 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester - PFSI & IMM (p. 1093)
• 5.12 ACU-T: 5402 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester with Rigid Body Rotation (p. 1137)
• 5.13 ACU-T: 5403 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (p. 1160)
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5.1 ACU-T: 5000 Blower - Steady (Rotating Frame)

AcuConsole
HyperMesh
5.1.1 AcuConsole
of a centrifugal air blower utilizing reference frames. In this simulation, AcuSolve is used to compute
the motion of fluid due to the rotation of the impeller blades as well as the resulting pressure drop
created between the inlet and outlet after the blades have been rotating for a long time. This tutorial is
designed to introduce you to a number of modelling concepts necessary to perform simulations that use
multiple reference frames.
• Rotating reference frame
• Assigning of reference frame to volume and surface sets
• Post-processing using user function with AcuProbe
• Post-processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView to get pressure and velocity fields.
Prerequisites

Centrifugal_Blower.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem

consists of a centrifugal blower with a wheel of backward curved blades, and a housing with inlet and
outlet ducts. The fluid through the inlet plane enters the hub of the blade wheel, radially accelerates
due to centrifugal force as it flows over the blades, and then exits the blower housing through the outlet
plane. Because of relatively cheaper and simpler than axial fans, centrifugal blowers have been widely
used in HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems of buildings.
The diameter of the inlet plane is 0.1 m and the length of the inlet duct is 0.15 m. The housing width is
0.1 m and the radius of the housing from the blade wheel hub varies from 0.113 to 0.18 m.
Figure 801: Schematic of Centrifugal Blower
The fan blades have a mean chord length and width of 0.05 m. The maximum thickness of the blades
is 0.003 m. The fan blades have an angular velocity of -1500 RPM. The negative sign describes the
direction of the angular velocity vector which in this case is in the –Z direction (clockwise rotation).
Figure 802: Schematic of Fan Blades

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The boundary condition at the inlet is taken as stagnation pressure rather than mass flow rate so that
AcuSolve calculates mass flow rates and pressure rise based on impeller rotation.
3
The fluid in this problem is air, which has a density (ρ) of 1.225 kg/m and a viscosity (μ) of 1.781 X
-5
10 kg/m-sec.
provide approximately 16 elements around the circumference of the inlet which results in a mesh size
of 0.02 m. Note that higher mesh densities are required where velocity, pressure and eddy viscosity
gradients are larger. In this application, the flow will accelerate as it passes through radial flow paths
between the fan blades. This leads to the higher gradients that need finer mesh resolution. Proper
boundary layer parameters need to be set to keep the y+ near the wall surface to a reasonable level.
The mesh density used in this tutorial is coarse and is intended to illustrate the process of setting up the
model and to retain a reasonable run time. A significantly higher mesh density is needed to achieve a
grid converged solution.
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the mass flow rate at the outlet and the
pressure drop across the inlet and outlet. These parameters define the performance characteristics.

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loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group parameters, adding geometry components to
mesh and run AcuSolve to compute the steady state solution. Finally, you will visualize the results using
AcuFieldView.
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Blower_MRF_Steady and open it.
5. Enter Blower_MRF_Steady as the file name for the database.


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Figure 803:
Figure 804:
context menu.

5. Enter Centrifugal Blower - Reference Frame as the Sub title.
6. Accept the default Analysis type as Steady State.
7. Change the Turbulence equation to Spalart Allmaras.

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Figure 805:

the solution.
3. Set the Max time steps as 100.
The relaxation factor is used to improve convergence of the solution. Typically, a value between
Figure 806:

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defined. In the next steps you will verify that the pre-defined material properties of air match the
Figure 807:
AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. The density of air is 1.225 kg/m3.
-5
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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Import the Geometry

Centrifugal_Blower.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing Centrifugal_Blower.x_t.
4. Select Centrifugal_Blower.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 808:

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Figure 809:
Create a Reference Frame

A reference frame is used to specify a rotating frame of reference. When specified for a volume set
in domain, the elements in that volume set are assumed to be solved in the given rotating reference
frame and rotational body forces are added for that volume set. In this tutorial, the fluid region near the
impeller blades is assigned a rotating reference frame.
In the next steps you will create a reference frame.
1. Click PB* in the Data Tree Manager to display all the available settings related to general problem
setup in the Data Tree.
3. Right-click Reference Frame and click New to create a new reference frame.
4. Rename the new reference frame.
a) Right-click Reference Frame 1.
b) Click Rename.
c) Type Impeller_RF and press Enter.
5. Double-click Impeller_RF to open the detail panel.
6. Click the Open Array button next to Rotation center to open the Array Editor.
7. Enter 0.05 as the Z-coordinate.

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Figure 810:

9. In the detail panel, click the Open Array button next to Angular velocity to open the Array
Editor.
10. Change the units to RPM and enter -1500 in the Z-component field.
Note: The negative sign specifies the clockwise direction of rotation. Note that the
rotation direction is determined using the “right-hand rule”.
Figure 811:

container.
In the next steps you will create a new volume group, assign a volume to that group, rename the
default volume group container, assign the materials for the groups, and set the reference frame for the
impeller volume.

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the volume name.
4. Create a new volume group.

b) Click New.
5. Rename the new volume group to Fluid_main.
6. Add the fluid volume to the Fluid_main volume group.
a) Right-click on the Fluid_main volume group.
b) Click Add to and select the volume to add it to the volume group.
The fluid main volume should now be highlighted in a grey color.
Figure 812:
volume group container. At this point, all the remaining volumes are in the default volume group.
Rather than create a new container, add the flow volume in the geometry to it, and then delete the
default volume container, you will rename the container and modify the parameters for this group.
7. Rename the default volume group to Fluid_Impeller.
8. Check that the material model for the volumes is set as Air.
a) Double click Element Set under Fluid_Main to open it in the detail panel.
b) Ensure that the Material model is set to Air.
9. Assign the reference frame Impeller_RF to Fluid_Impeller.

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Figure 813:

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Surface groups are containers used for storing information about a surface or a set of surfaces. This
information includes the list of geometric surfaces associated with the container, as well as attributes
such as boundary conditions, surface outputs and mesh sizing information.
characteristics of the problem and add surfaces to the group containers.
• Inlet
• Outlet
• Walls
• Interface
• Fan Blades
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the inlet, assign the appropriate settings, and add
the inlet from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Collapse Volumes in the Data Tree.

3. Rename the new surface to Inlet.
4. Expand Inlet in the Data Tree.
7. Change the Inflow type to Stagnation Pressure.
8. Change the Turbulent input type to Viscosity Ratio.
This allows you to automatically compute the eddy viscosity value based on the material model
and the ratio of the turbulent to molecular viscosity.
9. Set the Turbulence viscosity ratio to 10.
Figure 814:
10. Add geometry to the Inlet group.

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a) In the tree, right-click on Inlet and select Add to.

b) Click on the inlet face on the model.
At this point, the inlet should be highlighted grey.
Figure 815:
Tip: You can also use the middle mouse button to complete the addition of
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the outlet, assign the appropriate settings, and add
the outlet from the geometry to the surface group.

2. Rename the new surface to Outlet.
3. Expand Outlet in the Data Tree.

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Figure 816:
6. Add geometry to the Outlet surface container.

a) In the tree, right-click on Outlet and select Add to.
b) Click on the outlet face on the model.
At this point, the outlet should be highlighted grey.
Figure 817:
c) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Outlet surface group.
Set Parameters for the Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the walls, assign the appropriate settings, and add

2. Rename the new surface to Walls.

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3. Expand Walls in the Data Tree.

6. Add geometric faces to the Wall group.
a) In the tree, right-click on Walls and select Add to.
b) Select all the wall surfaces.
At this point, the wall surfaces should be highlighted grey.
Figure 818:

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Figure 819:
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Walls surface container.
Set Parameters for the Interface
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the Interface, assign the appropriate settings, and
add the Interface surfaces from the geometry to the surface group.
Note: Internal surfaces in AcuConsole are handled in a special manner. At import time,
AcuConsole creates two identical copies of the surface. One copy of the surface is associated
with each volume. This allows you to control meshing parameters independently on each
side of the surface. When assigning boundary conditions to internal surfaces, it is important
to remember that there are two sides of the surface that need to be dealt with. When
selecting an internal surface, the side corresponding to the outer volume is the first pick
target that is encountered when both faces are visible. The inner surface can be selected
directly by changing the display of the outer surface.
1. Turn off the display of the Inlet, Outlet, and Walls surfaces.
3. Rename the new surface to Interface.
4. Expand Interface in the Data Tree.
5. Turn off the Simple Boundary Condition by unchecking the box next to it.

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Figure 820:
6. Add geometry surfaces Interface group.

a) In the tree, right-click on Interface and select Add to.
b) Select all the surfaces on the interface.
c) Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the Walls surface container.
Figure 821:
7. Turn off the display for the interface.

There are two sets of surfaces for the interface which belong to different volume sets. In this case they
can be moved into the same surface group.
8. Right-click Interface and click Add to.
9. Select the remaining interface surfaces.
10. Click Done to associate this geometry surface with the surface settings of the Interface group.

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Note: Note that no boundary conditions are applied to this surface at this point. The
grouping operation was performed to identify that these surfaces are internal and that
flow will be allowed to pass through them freely. These surfaces can still be used for
output purposes, however.
Set Parameters for the Fan Blades
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the Fan_Blades, assign the appropriate settings,
and add the fan blades from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Rename the default surface to Fan_Blades.

2. Expand Fan_Blades in the Data Tree.
The default Type for a default surface is Wall.
4. Set the Reference frame as Impeller_RF.
Figure 822:

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the model.
applied to volume groups, surface groups, or edge groups
In the next steps you will set the global mesh attributes. In subsequent steps you will set the surface
meshing attributes.
6. Set the Maximum sweep angle as 30.0 degrees.
This option allows you to set the maximum sweep angle for edge blend meshing on a global basis
which creates a radial array of elements around sharp edges to provide better resolution of the
flow features. The sweep angle is used to control how many degrees each radial division spans.
Figure 823:

size on the surface groups that you created earlier. Specifically, you will set local meshing attributes that
control the growth of boundary layer elements normal to the surfaces of the walls and fan blades.

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• Walls
• Fan Blades
Set Surface Mesh Parameters for the Walls
size near the walls. The mesh size on the wall will be inherited from the global mesh size that was
defined earlier. The settings that follow will only control the growth of the boundary layer from the
walls.

2. Under the Model branch, expand Surfaces, and then expand Walls.
walls.
When Boundary layer type is set to Full Control, the First layer height, Number of layers and the
Growth rate are specified. Boundary layer elements will be grown until the mesh size of the top
layer matches the mesh size of the volume into which the boundary layer elements are grown.
Option Description
First element height 0.002
Number of layers 3
Boundary layer bends flag On
Maximum sweep angle 15.0

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Figure 824:
Set Surface Mesh Parameters for the Fan Blades
1. Under Fan Blades, click the check box next to Surface Mesh Attributes to enable the settings and
open the Surface Mesh Attributes detail panel.
3. Enter 0.005 m as the Absolute mesh size.
6. Set the Resolve field to Total Layer Height.
Option Description
First element height 0.001 m
Growth rate 1.3
Number of layers 3

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Figure 825:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 826:
3. Visualize the mesh in the modeling window. For the purposes of this tutorial, the following steps
lead to the display of inlet, outlet, walls and fan blades.
4. Right-click Volumes in the Data Tree and click Display off.
5. Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree and click Display on.
6. Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree, select Display type and click solid & wire.
8. Right-click on the model and select cut plane visualization to view the mesh near the fan
blades.

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Figure 828: Mesh Details Near the Fan Blades

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Run AcuSolve
Figure 829:
2. Enter 4 for Number of processors, if your system has 4 or more processors.

Based on these settings, AcuConsole will generate the AcuSolve input files and then launch the
solver.

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Figure 830:

1.
Figure 831:

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5 Moving Body p.743
After AcuSolve has finished running, a summary of the solution process showing the “End Time
Step” data indicates that the simulation has been completed.

The pressure rise between the Inlet and Outlet can be viewed using a User Function at the end of
simulation using AcuProbe.
1.
In the AcuProbe window, double click on .
2. Enter the name in the User Function window as Pres_Rise.
3. In the function window, type P_Outlet =.
4. Expand Surface Output > Outlet > Pressure.
5. Right-click on pressure and select Copy Name.
6. Paste the value in the function window for Outlet pressure.
7. Type P_Inlet = on a line line.
8. Repeat steps 4 - 6 for Inlet pressure.
9. Type value = P_Outlet – P_Inlet.
Figure 832:

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Figure 833:

AcuFieldView is based on a third-party post-processing tool that has been tightly integrated toAcuSolve.
AcuFieldView can be started directly from AcuConsole, or it can be started from the Start menu, or
from a command line. In this tutorial you will start AcuFieldView from AcuConsole after the solution is
calculated by AcuSolve.
Start AcuFieldView
View the Boundary Surface Showing Pressure for the Outer Surfaces with
Mesh

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Figure 834:
2. Click axis markers to disable them.

3. Uncheck Perspective to disable perspective view.
4. Close the Viewer Options dialog.
5. Change the background color to white
6. Orient the geometry so you can see inlet, outlet and wall surfaces as shown in Figure 835.
7. In the Boundary Surfaces dialog, ensure that Pressure is selected as the Scalar function.
8. In the Boundary Types list, select the Inlet, Outlet and Wall surfaces from boundary types.
9. Click on the Colormap tab and check Local to display the local range of values of pressure for the
selected surfaces.
a) In the Boundary Surface dialog, click the Legend tab.
d) In the Color group, next to Geometric, click the white color swatch, and then select the black
color swatch to set the color for the legend values to black.

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Figure 835:
View the Boundary Surface Showing Velocity Magnitude for the Impeller
Blades
1. In the Boundary surfaces dialog, click the Surface tab and set Coloring to geometric.
2. Click the color swatch, and select grey.
3. Uncheck the Show Mesh option to turn off the mesh display.
4. Set the transparency to 62.5%.
5. Click Create to create a new boundary surface.
6. From the Boundary Types list, select fan blades and click OK.
7. For Scalar function, select velocity magnitude and click Calculate.
8. Change the Coloring to scalar.
9. Set transparency to 0.
10. On the Colormap tab, turn on local .
11. On the Legends tab, click Show Legend.
12. Orient the geometry so you can see the contour on the impeller blades properly.
13. Turn off the legend for boundary surface 2.
Coordinate the Surface Showing Velocity Magnitude on the Mid Coordinate

Surface

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1.
Click the Coordinate surfaces icon to open the Coordinate Surface dialog.
2. Click Create to create a new surface.
3. Set the new surface at the mid –Z coordinate surface.
4. In the Coord Plane fields, enter 0.05 as the Current value.
This is the z coordinate for the mid plane between the blower front and back walls.
5. Change the Display Type to smooth.
6. Change the Coloring to scalar.
7. Select velocity magnitude as the scalar function to display.
8. Click the Colormap tab and change the coloring to local.
9. Turn on the legend to display the velocity magnitude values on the coordinate plane.
10. Orient the geometry to see the surfaces from both sides.
Figure 836:

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Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a steady state simulation with a rotating
reference frame in a centrifugal blower. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and generated
a solution using AcuSolve. AcuProbe was used to post-process the pressure rise in the blower. Results
were also post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour views for the pressure along
the walls and velocity magnitude on the mid coordinate surface of the blower as well as the impeller
blades. New features introduced in this tutorial include creating a rotating reference frame and creating
a user function in AcuProbe.
5.1.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks
UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this
tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU5000_BlowerSteady.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1 and Figure 2. It consists
of a centrifugal blower with a wheel of backward curved blades, and a housing with inlet and outlet
ducts. The fluid through the inlet plane enters the hub of the blade wheel, radially accelerates due to
centrifugal force as it flows over the blades, and then exits the blower housing through the outlet plane.
Because of relatively cheaper and simpler than axial fans, centrifugal blowers have been widely used in
HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems of buildings.

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2.
ACU5000_BlowerSteady.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named CentrifugalBlower and navigate into this directory.

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location.
6. Enter Blower_Steady as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.

In this step, you will set the simulation parameters that apply globally to the simulation.

2. Change the Turbulence model to Spalart Allmaras.
Figure 839:

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Create a Moving Reference Frame

In this step, you will create a rotating reference frame for the fluid in the impeller region so that the
elements in those regions are solved in the given rotating reference frame and rotational body forces
are added to that volume set.
1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 04.REFERENCE_FRAME and select Create.

2. In the Entity Editor, rename the reference frame as Impeller_RF.
3. Set the Rotation center to (0, 0, 0.05).
4. Set the Angular velocity-Z to -157.08 rad/sec.
Figure 840:

In this step, you will define surface boundary conditions and assign material properties to the fluid
volumes.

b) Set the Inflow type to Stagnation Pressure.
c) Set the Turbulence input type to Viscosity Ratio.
d) Set the Material to Air_HM.
e) Set the Turbulence viscosity ratio to 10.0.

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Figure 841:
Figure 842:

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Figure 843:
All the surface elements that make up the outer wall of the blower, the fan blades and the
interface between the impeller and main fluid can be grouped into one surface set. Auto_Wall,
which is an advanced feature in AcuSolve, re-groups these elements into external and internal
walls and applies appropriate wall and interface conditions. In this case, the surface elements on
the fan blades are grouped together (AUTO Fluid_Impeller wall) and the reference frame assigned
to the impeller fluid will be inherited. The surface elements on the interface will be grouped into
(AUTO Fluid_Impeller internal) and the elements on the outer casing will be grouped into (AUTO
Fluid_Main wall). This entire process of grouping is done internally without you having to do it
manually
5. Click Fluid_Main. In the Entity Editor,
Figure 844:
6. Click Fluid_Impeller. In the Entity Editor,


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c) Select Impeller_RF as the Reference frame.
Figure 845:
7. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

2.

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Figure 846:
Post-Process the Results
Create a Pressure-Rise Plot in AcuProbe

As the solution progresses, the AcuTail and AcuProbe windows are launched automatically. In this step,
you will create a User Defined Function (UDF) and generate a plot of the pressure rise between the inlet
and outlet.
1.
Once the solution has converged, click the User Function icon in the AcuProbe window.
A User Function dialog opens.
2. Enter Pres_Rise as the function name.
3. Type P_Outlet = in the Function field.
4. Expand Surface Output > Outlet > Pressure. Right-click on pressure and select Copy Name.
Paste the value in the Function field after P_Outlet =.
5. On the next line, type P_Inlet = and repeat the above step for inlet pressure.
6. On the next line, type value = P_Outlet - P_Inlet.

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Figure 847:
Note: The word “value” is case sensitive and should always be in lowercase
characters. If it starts with a capital letter, it will give you an error window.
Figure 848:
In the next step you will create a velocity contour on a section on the z-plane. Close the AcuProbe and
AcuTail windows. In the HyperMesh window, close the AcuSolve Control tab.

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Open HyperView

Blower_Steady.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create a Velocity Contour on a Section Cut Plane

1. Right-click on empty space in the Results Browser and select Create > Section Cut > Planar.
A new entity named Section 1 is created
2. Right-click on Section 1 and select Edit.
3. In the Define plane section in the panel area, select Z-axis and click Apply.
4. Enter (0,0,0.05) for the Base values and press Enter.
5. Change the Display options from Clipping plane to Cross section.
6. Click Gridline and in the dialog, uncheck the Show option then click OK.
8. Select Velocity(v) as the Result type and Mag from the drop-down below.
9. Click the Components collector and select All.
10. Click Apply.
Figure 849:
and click OK.

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13. Adjust the orientation in the graphics window for a better view of the results and verify that the
contour plot looks like the figure below.
Figure 850:
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully learned how to set up a steady state simulation involving a rotating
reference frame in a centrifugal blower. You started by importing the mesh and then once the case was
set up, you generated a solution using AcuSolve. Then, you computed the pressure rise using AcuProbe
and created a contour plot for velocity on a cut plane using HyperMesh.

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5.2 ACU-T: 5001 Blower - Transient (Sliding Mesh)

AcuConsole
5.2.1 AcuConsole
simulation of a centrifugal air blower utilizing the sliding mesh approach. In this simulation, AcuSolve
is used to compute and visualize the motion of fluid in form of velocity field, streamlines and particle
path animations for three revolutions after the blower has been operating for a long time. This tutorial
is designed to introduce you to a number of modeling concepts necessary to perform simulations that
use the sliding mesh motion feature.
• Mesh motion
• Use of multiplier function to scale the time step size
• Assigning and meshing interface surfaces
• Mesh refinement
• Projection of steady state solution as the initial condition
• Post-processing using AcuFieldView to get velocity fields, streamlines and streaklines animation.
Prerequisites
In order to run this tutorial, you should have already run through ACU-T: 5000 Blower - Steady
(Rotating Frame) and kept the solution in your working directory. It is assumed that you have some
familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, and AcuFieldView. You will also need access to a licensed version
of AcuSolve.
In case you do not have the steady state results, prior to running through this tutorial, copy
AcuConsole_tutorial_input.zip from <AcuSolve installation directory>\model_files
\tutorials\AcuSolve to a working directory and extract Centrifugal_Blower_MRF_Steady.acs from

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Analyze the Problem

consists of a centrifugal blower with backward curved blades.
The diameter of the inlet is 0.1 m and the length is 0.150 m. The scroll width is 0.1 m and the radius
varies from 0.113 m to 0.180 m.
The fan blades have a mean chord length and width of 0.05 m. The maximum thickness of the blades is
0.003 m.
To capture the dynamic motion of the impeller blades, the simulation has to be run as transient. The
converged steady state solution from the steady blower simulation is projected on the mesh and used
as the initial state for the transient simulation.
The simulation will be run to model 0.12 s of the flow, which would constitute three revolutions of the
fan blades with time step sizes scaled using a multiplier function.

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The multiplier function is chosen such that the impeller blades rotate at 10 degrees per time step for
the first revolution, then ramp down from 10 degrees per time step to 3 degrees per time step during
the second revolution and complete the third revolution at 3 degrees per time step.
Figure 853:
Note: Meaningful data should be taken after 2 or 3 revolutions as the initial conditions
are flushed out of the domain. The multiplier function is selected such that the simulation
completes in sufficient time for a tutorial exercise.
The time step size for the last revolution is based on prior investigations of a similar geometry, which
indicate that this time step size is small enough to capture the transient behavior of the flow. It should
be noted, however, that a time step size sensitivity study should always be performed to establish
appropriate time step size when analyzing a new application.
The CFD analysis of this problem offers detailed information about the flow through a centrifugal blower.
To investigate this behavior, it is necessary to select an appropriate set of boundary conditions to use.
There are two different methods that are commonly used. One approach is to specify the mass flow
rate at the inlet of the blower and allow AcuSolve to compute the pressure drop, that is, flow forces
simulation. Another option is to specify the stagnation pressure at the inlet and allow AcuSolve to
compute the flow rate that results from this specified pressure change between the inlet and outlet.

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The boundary conditions used in this example are the latter. That is, the inlet is taken as stagnation
pressure rather than mass flow rate so that AcuSolve calculates mass flow rates and pressure rise
based on impeller rotation.
3 -5
The fluid in this problem is air, which has a density of 1.225 kg/m and a viscosity of 1.781 X 10 kg/
m-s.
provide approximately 16 elements around the circumference of the inlet which results in a mesh size of
0.02 m.
Note that higher mesh densities are required where velocity, pressure, and eddy viscosity gradients are
larger. In this application, the flow will accelerate as it passes through radial flow paths between the
fan blades. This leads to the higher gradients that need finer mesh resolution. Proper boundary layer
parameters need to be set to keep the y+ near the wall surface to a reasonable level. The mesh density
used in this tutorial is coarse and is intended to illustrate the process of setting up the model and to
retain a reasonable run time. A significantly higher mesh density is needed to achieve a grid converged
solution.
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the velocity magnitude, stream – lines
and streak – lines animations as the blower goes through three revolutions of the impeller blades.

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In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, and open a database that is set up for a steady state
simulation for the centrifugal blower using a rotating reference frame. You will then run AcuSolve to
calculate a steady state solution, view the results with AcuFieldView, and save the database for the
transient simulation.
2. Click File > Open and open Centrifugal_Blower_MRF_Steady.acs.
Figure 854:
3. Run AcuSolve to solve the steady state problem.

a) Click on the toolbar to open the Launch AcuSolve dialog.
Based on these settings, AcuConsole will generate the AcuSolve input files, then launch the
solver. AcuSolve will run on four processors to calculate the steady state solution for this
problem.

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b) Click Ok to start the solution process.

The information provided in the summary is based on the number of processors used by
AcuSolve. If you use a different number of processors than indicated in this tutorial, the
summary for your run may be slightly different than the summary shown.
Figure 855:
View Steady State Results
The steady state flow field was calculated as the starting point for the transient simulation of
temperature. For instructions on visualising steady state results, refer to AcuConsole.


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The general parameters that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, transient analysis, and
mesh type as fully specified, which means that the motion is fully specified at the beginning of each
time step and hence no mesh equation needs to be solved.
Figure 856:
Figure 857:
context menu.

5. Enter Centrifugal Blower - Sliding Mesh as the Sub title.
8. Set the Mesh type to Fully Specified.
This option indicates that the simulation will contain a moving mesh, but the motion of the mesh
will be fully specified, that is, no differential equations will be solved to determine the deformation
of the elements. Since the mesh is undergoing a simple rotational motion, this option provides the
most efficient solution.

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Figure 858:

the solution.
AcuSolve will calculate the number of time steps based on the final time and the multiplier
function, which you will specify in the next section.
4. Set the Final time as 0.12.
Note that for a transient analysis, the convergence tolerance corresponds to the tolerance that
the equations are converged to before proceeding to the next time step. However, since we
are performing a maximum of 2 iterations per step, the solver will be limited in the number of
iterations it can perform while attempting to reach this tolerance.
This setting determines the maximum number of iterations that will occur at each time step.
The relaxation factor is used to improve convergence of the solution. The relaxation factor is used
to improve convergence of the solution. Typically a value between 0.2 and 0.4 provides a good
balance between achieving a smooth progression of the solution and the extra compute time
needed to reach convergence. When solving transient solutions, the relaxation factor should be set
to zero. A non-zero relaxation factor causes incremental updates of the solution, which will impact
the time accuracy of the solution for transient cases.

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Figure 859:
Create a Multiplier Function for the Time Increment

This is achieved through the use of a multiplier function. In this tutorial, the time steps sizes are scaled
against time to set up a robust solution.
In the next steps you will create a multiplier function for the time increment. The multiplier function is
chosen such that the impeller blades rotate at 10 degrees per time step for the first revolution (0 s–
0.04 s), then ramp down from 10 degrees per time step to 3 degrees per time step during the second
revolution (0.04 s – 0.08 s) and complete the third revolution at 3 degrees per time step (0.08 s – .12
s)
Data Tree Manager.
2. In the Data Tree, under Global, right-click Multiplier Function and click New to create a new
b) Type Time_Function and press Enter.
4. Double-click Time_Function to open the Time_Function detail panel.
This option indicates that you will enter an array of numbers that will be used by AcuSolve to
interpolate the value of the multiplier function at each time step. In this example, the curve fit is a
function of time.

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Figure 860:
6. Add the curve-fit values for the large inlet temperature profile.
b) Enter the values shown as calculated earlier and shown in the following image.
Figure 861:
7. Click Plot to expand the Array Editor dialog to display the plot of the curve fit values.
Note: You may need to expand the dialog by dragging the right edge in order to see
the plot.

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Figure 862:
Modify the Advanced Solution Strategy Parameters

AcuSolve provides additional features to modify some advanced solution strategy attributes separately,
such as individual staggers (flow, mesh, turbulence, and so on), time increments, linear solver
parameters and many more. In this tutorial the time increment feature is turned on in order to scale the
time step sizes based on a multiplier function.
In the next steps you will work with the time increment feature under advanced solution strategy to
assign the multiplier function.
1. Double-click Advanced Solution Strategy to expand the tree.

2. Double-click Time Increment to display the Time Increment detail panel.
3. Turn on the Modify advanced settings option.
4. Check that the Initial time increment has been set as 0.00111.
5. In the Multiplier function drop-down menu, select Time_Function.

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Figure 863:
Create the Mesh Motion

This command is used to simplify the specification of boundary conditions on mesh displacement and
it can be used to simulate the dynamic motion of a rigid body. In this tutorial, the fluid region near
the impeller blades is assigned a rotating mesh motion. The parameters defined for this would be the
angular speed of the impeller blades and the center of rotation of the motion.
In the next steps you will create a mesh motion.
1. Click ALE in the Data Tree Manager to see all the settings related to mesh motion.
3. Right-click Mesh Motion and click New to create a new mesh motion.
4. Rename the new mesh motion to Impeller_Motion.
5. Double-click Impeller_Motion to open the detail panel.
6. Set the Type to Rotation.
Figure 864:
7. Set the mesh motion parameters.

a) Click Open Array next to Rotation center to open the Array Editor.
b) Enter 0.05 as the Z-coordinate.
This is the coordinate for the centre of the rotating fluid domain, that is, Fluid_Impeller.
c) Click OK to close the dialog.
d) Click Open Array next to Angular velocity to open the Array Editor.
e) Change the units to RPM and enter -1500 in the Z-component field.
The negative sign specifies the clockwise direction of rotation.

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Note: The rotation direction is determined using the “right-hand rule”.
f) Click OK to close the dialog.

The Nodal Output Frequency determines at what frequency or time interval the solution results would
be stored to be used for post processing within AcuFieldView.
1. Click OUT in the Data Tree Manager to filter the settings in the Data Tree to show only those
controls related to outputs written to the solution files.
2. Double-click Output to expand it.
3. Double-click Nodal Output.
a) Change the time step frequency to 3.
This setting will save results every 3 steps and will allow you to create an animation of the
results once the simulation is complete.
4. Set Output Initial Condition to On.
This writes the initial condition file.
Figure 865:
Modify Volume Parameters

1. Click PRB from the Data Tree Manager.
2. Expand Model, and then expand Volumes.
3. Assign the mesh motion Impeller_Motion to Fluid_Impeller.
a) Expand Fluid_Impeller.
b) Under Fluid_Impeller, double-click Element Set to open the Element Set detail panel.
c) Click the drop-down control next to Mesh motion and click Impeller_Motion.
This step assigns the mesh displacement boundary conditions specified by the Impeller
Motion mesh motion on all the nodes of Fluid_Impeller Element Set. All the nodes in the

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Fluid_Impeller element set would be assigned the angular velocity and center of rotation
defined in the mesh motion.
4. Set the Reference frame as None.
Figure 866:
Modify Surface Parameters

In the next steps you will modify the parameters for:

• Fan Blades
• Interface
Modify Parameters for the Fan Blades
In the next steps you will specify the mesh motion associated with fan blades.
1. Click BC from the Data Tree Manager.

2. Expand Surfaces.
3. Assign the mesh motion Impeller_Motion to Fan_Blades.
a) Expand Fan_Blades.
b) Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Fan_Blades to open the Simple Boundary
c) Click the Mesh motion drop-down menu and select Impeller_Motion.
This step assigns the center of rotation and angular velocity assigned to Impeller_Motion
mesh motion to the fan_blades surface.
4. Set the Reference frame as None.

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Figure 867:
Modify Parameters for the Interface
In the next steps you will assign Interface Surface properties to the Interface.
The Interface acts as a sliding boundary and is used to connect pairs of elements that share
(approximately) the same surface but are not conformal. An Interface Surface allows the flow to pass
from one side of the surface to the other when the nodes are not connected to each other. This step
would become clear when you split the nodes on the interface surface in the later steps.
Note: Internal surfaces in AcuConsole are handled in a special manner. When a geometry
with internal surfaces is imported, AcuConsole creates two identical copies of the surface.
One copy of the surface is associated with each volume. This allows you to control meshing
parameters independently on each side of the surface. When assigning boundary conditions
to internal surfaces, it is important to remember that there are 2 sides of the surface that
need to be dealt with. When selecting an internal surface, the side corresponding to the
outer volume is the first pick target that is encountered when both faces are visible. The
inner surface can be selected directly by changing the display of the outer surface.
2. Expand Model, and then expand Surfaces.
3. Activate Interface Surface for Interface.
a) Double-click Interface.
b) Check Interface Surface under Interface.
c) Double-click Interface Surface.
d) Set the Gap factor to 0.
Gap factor is non-dimensional (with respect to the length of an element face) maximum gap
allowed for two element faces to be in contact.
A gap factor of 0 means the maximum gap allowed is zero.

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Figure 868:

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Set Zone Meshing Attributes

In addition to setting meshing characteristics for the whole problem, you can assign meshing attributes
to a zone within the problem where you want to be able to resolve flow with a mesh that is more
refined than the global mesh. A zone mesh refinement can be created using basic shapes to control the
mesh size within that shape. These types of mesh refinement are used when refinement is needed in an
area that does not correspond to a geometric item.
In the following steps you will add mesh refinement in the zone around the impeller blades closest to
the housing wall as shown in figure 3.
2. Under Global, right-click Zone Mesh Attributes and then click New.
3. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Refine_1.
4. Double-click Refine_1 to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
cylinder.
b) Enter the coordinate values as shown in the following image.
Figure 869:

7. In the detail panel, enter 0.05 m for the Radius.
This radius is used to define a cylinder that encloses the gap in the modeled section near the
impeller blades and housing wall.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size provides at least 10 cells between the impeller and
the housing wall at their nearest distance.

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Figure 870:
Set Surface Meshing Parameters for the Interface

size near on the interface.

2. Expand Surfaces, and then expand Interface.
5. Turn the Boundary layer flag option to On.
7. Enter the value 0.002 m for First element height.
9. Enter 1 for Number of layers.

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10. Change the Boundary layer elements type to Mixed.

This is used to generate prism/hexahedral elements in the boundary layer.
Figure 871:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 872:
3. Visualize the mesh in the modeling window. For the purposes of this tutorial, the following steps
lead to the display of inlet, outlet, walls and fan blades.
4. Right-click Volumes in the Data Tree and click Display off.
5. Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree and click Display on.
6. Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree, select Display type and click solid & wire.
8. Right-click on the model and select cut plane visualization to view the mesh near the fan
blades.

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Figure 874: Mesh Details Near the Fan Blades

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Split the Nodes on the Interface

At this point, the interface surface has one set of nodes which are either attached to the Fluid_Main or
Fluid_Impeller volume sets. In order for the nodes inside the Fluid_Impeller volume and Interface to
rotate based on the mesh motion prescribed, a duplicate set of nodes needs to be created, so that one
set of the nodes follow the motion of the Fluid_Impeller and another set stays attached to Fluid_Main.
Splitting the nodes on the interface would allow the nodes attached to Fluid_Impeller to slide over the
nodes on Fluid_Main, hence simulating the rotation on the fluid domain with the impeller blades.
In the next steps you will split the nodes on the interface using the Mesh Op. tool.
Right-click on Interface, select Mesh Op > Split internal faces.

The information window showing the modified number of nodes displays.

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Figure 875:
Project Steady State Solution to Use as Initial Conditions

In the next steps you will use the Project Solution to project the steady state solution onto the transient
case in form on Nodal Initial Conditions.
1. From the Tools menu, select Project Solution.

The AcuSolve solution projection dialog opens.
2. Click Browse to read in the log file from the steady state solution.
3. Browse to the location where the steady state solution is stored and select the log file.
Once the log file is selected, the Information Window displays, showing the details of the
projection process.
The AcuSolve solution projection dialog updates and displays the step ID and the variables to
project.
Figure 876:
4. Close the Information Window.

5. Select velocity, pressure and eddy_viscosity from the list by using Shift+click.
6. Click Project.
The Information Window displays and shows that all the three variables have been projected.

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7. Close the Information Window and the AcuSolve solution projection dialog.
9. In the Data Tree, expand Global, and double-click on Nodal Initial Condition.
10. Set the pressure, velocity and eddy viscosity initial condition type as Nodal Values.
11. Click Open Array next to Nodal values for Pressure to check that the values have been assigned.
Figure 877:
12. Click OK to close the Array Editor.

13. Similarly check the values for velocity and eddy viscosity.

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Run AcuSolve
Figure 878:
For this case, the default values will be used. AcuSolve will run using four processors and it will
calculate the transient solution for this problem.

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Figure 879:
View Transient Results with AcuFieldView

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView, display the velocity magnitude on the mid coordinate
surface and generate animations for velocity magnitude, streamlines and particle paths.
Start AcuFieldView
that were written to disk will be loaded for post-processing. You will see that the pressure
contours have already been displayed on all the boundary surfaces with mesh.

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Figure 880:
These steps are provided with the assumption that you are able to manipulate the view in
AcuFieldView to have a white background, perspective turned off, outlines turned off, and the
viewing direction set to +Z. If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to
Manipulate the Model View in AcuFieldView.
Animate the Velocity Magnitude on the Mid Coordinate Surface

1. In the Boundary Surface dialog, turn off the visibility for the boundary surfaces by unchecking
the Visibility check box.
2. From the View menu, uncheck Perspective view to disable it.
3. From the View menu, uncheck Axis markers to disable them.
4. From the View menu, select Defined Views.
5. In the Defined Views dialog, change the view to +Z.
7.
8. Click Create to create a new surface at the mid –Z coordinate surface.
9. Under Coord Plane, change the Current value to 0.05.
This is the z coordinate for the mid plane between the blower front and back walls.
12. Select velocity_magnitude as the Scalar Function to be displayed.
13. Click the Colormap tab, and activate the Local check box to change the coloring to local.
14. Click on the Legend tab, and activate the Show Legend check box to display the velocity
magnitude values on the coordinate plane.

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15. Activate the Frame check box to display the frame for the legend.
Figure 881:
16. From the Tools menu, click on Transient Data to open the Transient Data Controls dialog.
For a transient case, the data displayed by launching AcuFieldView from AcuConsole is for the last
time step. The Transient Data Controls allows you to visualize the data at rest of the time steps.
The time steps at which the data can be post processed depends on the nodal output value set in
AcuConsole. In this case the nodal output is stored at every third time step.
17. Move the slider all the way to the back to zero to visualize the data at the zeroth time step.
This is done in order to build the animation from the beginning of the simulation.
18. From the Tools menu, click on Flipbook Build Mode.
A Flipbook size warning dialog appears.
19. Click OK.
In the Transient Data Controls dialog, the Sweep option under Sweep Control changes to Build.
20. Click Build.
AcuFieldView will build the frame by frame animation of the solution progressing through all of the
available time steps. You will be able to see the progress in a Building Flipbook dialog.

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21. In the Flipbook Controls dialog, click on Frame Rate to open the Minimum Time Between
Frames dialog.
Figure 882:
22. Enter 0.1 as the frame rate value.

23. Pause the animation and click Save to save the animation.
24. Close the Minimum Time Between Frames, Flipbook Controls, and Transient Data Controls
dialogs.
Set up Streamlines
1.
2.
Click the Boundary Surfaces icon and turn on the visibility.
Pressure is already selected as the Scalar Function.
3. In the Boundary Types list, select OSF: walls and click OK.
4. Change the Coloring to Geometric and select grey from the color panel.
5. Turn off the mesh display by unchecking Show Mesh.
6. Set the Transparency field to 75 %.
7. Set the Scalar Function to velocity_magnitude.
8. Turn off the Visibility for this surface.
9. Click Create to create a new boundary surface.
10. Select OSF: Inlet and OSF: Outlet from the Boundary Types list.
12. Set the Transparency to 0.
13. Create another boundary surface and select OSF: Fan_Blades from the Boundary Types list.
14. From the Visualization Panels menu, select Streamlines.
The Streamlines panel opens.
15. Select Create to create a new set of streamlines.

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16. Click the Mode toggle button and select Seed a Surface.
In order to display streamlines you will need to seed a surface from where the streamlines are
generated.
Figure 883:
17. Set the Seeds to Add value to 200.

18. Click Ctrl + left click to select boundary surface 3 (Fan_Blades) as the surface to be seeded and
click OK.
The seeds are displayed on the fan blades.
Figure 884:
19. Uncheck Show Seeds to turn off the display of seeds.

20. Open the Boundary Surfaces dialog and turn on the display for Surface 1 (walls).
21. Return to the Streamlines dialog. Under Calculation Parameters, change the Step counter to 5.

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The Step size determines the time step intervals at which the streamlines would be calculated.
22. Change the Direction to Both.
The direction determines the direction of flow (upstream, downstream or both) in which the
streamlines would be generated from the surface selected.
Figure 885:
23. Click Calculate to generate the streamlines.
Figure 886:
24. Change Coloring to Scalar and Display Type to Filament and Arrows.
25. Click the Colormap tab.
26. Click the Colormap drop down arrow and select NASA-1.
27. Click the Legend tab.
28. Activate the Show Legend and Frame checkboxes to turn them on.
29. Orient the geometry so that all the surfaces are visible, as shown below:

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Figure 887:
30. In the Steamlines panel, click Animate to see the streamlines.

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Figure 888:
Set up Streaklines

2. Click OK to skip the warning.
4. Move the slider back to 0 to show the contours for the 0th time step.
5. Click Build.
6. Click Yes in the Streakline Export panel.
7. Save the .fvp export file.
The export file will save streaklines to a particle path file, and simplifies future import and display.
8. Change the Frame rate to 0.16.
9. Pause the animation and click Save to save the animation.

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Figure 889:

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Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a transient simulation with a sliding
mesh in a centrifugal blower. Once the case was set up, you modified the mesh to include refinement
zones, projected the steady state solution onto the refined mesh and generated a solution using
AcuSolve.
Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour views for the velocity
magnitude on the mid coordinate surface of the blower as well as the impeller blades along with new
features for creating animations for contours, streamlines, streaklines and particle paths.
New features introduced in this tutorial include creating a rotational mesh motion, use of interface
surfaces, projection of steady state solution in form of nodal initial conditions, creating velocity
magnitude, streamlines and particle path animations.

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5.3 ACU-T: 5002 Brake Disc Cooling in an

Automotive Disc Brake System
AcuConsole
5.3.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for the simulation of
a brake disc in a disc brake system, as well as understanding the cooling mechanism of the disc. The
model used for this tutorial consists of a section of a brake disc on which a heat source is applied to
simulate the braking action. The heat source is the result of the friction between the brake disc that
rotates along with the wheel(s) and the brake pads, which are stationary with respect to the wheel
rotation. When the brake is applied, the pads are actuated by a hydraulic mechanism and pressed
against the disc. The frictional force between the disc and the pads causes the deceleration of the disc,
and hence the wheel. The most common mechanism of the dissipation of the mechanical energy of the
moving automobile as it decelerates is through its conversion to heat energy due to friction between the
pad and the disc. The objective of this tutorial is to quantify the temperature rise in a disc as a vehicle
passes through a cycle of deceleration and acceleration.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow. This
tutorial does not introduce any new concepts or feature capabilities of AcuSolve. However, it does focus
on demonstrating the capabilities of AcuSolve in successfully simulating a complex problem such as a
disc brake system and provides guidelines on how to setup a similar simulation.
In this tutorial, you will:

• Run AcuSolve
• Post-process the solution with AcuFieldView

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Prerequisites

Extract the files brake_disc_partial.x_t and heatSource.c and the directory precursor_run from
Analyze the Problem

Figure 1 shows the schematic and working mechanism of a typical disc brake system. The brake pedal/
lever is connected to the pushrod, which exerts force on the master cylinder piston. Movement of the
piston transfers the pressure applied on the piston through the hydraulic lines to the brake pads, which
are seated in the brake caliper assembly. The pads are thus pushed towards the rotor, or the brake disc,
exerting a friction force on the rotating disc, causing it to decelerate till the brake lever is compressed
by the driver. The most common mechanism of the dissipation of the mechanical energy of the moving
automobile as it decelerates is through its conversion to heat energy due to friction between the pad
and the disc.
Figure 890: Model Used for the Simulation
The heat generated through the braking force can be very high under certain conditions, and if
not quickly dissipated to the ambient air, can cause significant temperature rise in the disc. If the
disc temperature rises beyond a certain limit, it can have undesirable consequences on the braking
performance, and in extreme cases can cause brake failure as well. Some of these potential situations
are listed below:

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1. Downhill braking – when the vehicle cruising downhill for a long distance, braking force is usually
applied on the disc constantly to ensure the vehicle speed is within a safe limit. Thus, the disc is
placed under constant heating, and the temperature of disc will keep rising until the heating is
balanced by cooling. The temperature reached at the ending state can be very high.
2. Repetitive braking is also a situation that often causes the disc temperature to approach the safe
limit. It is more commonly observed in racing where the vehicle is always under deceleration or
acceleration. Repetitive braking usually consists of multiple brake-release cycles within a short
time. In each cycle, disc temperature rises during braking and then cools down in release time. At
the end of each cycle, the temperature may not be fully cooled down. As a result, the temperature
of disc gets higher and higher after each cycle and eventually it may break the safe limit.
3. Emergency braking is also one of the reasons. Because the vehicle is stopped in a very short time,
the cooling effect is not significant enough to reduce the temperature on disc. As a result, the
temperature could be very high at the end of the braking cycle
While modern disc brakes can safely operate up to a surface temperature of 1200 K, the best operating
range peeks out at about 900 K. Thus, this is the maximum temperature most brake disc designs would
strive to achieve, at least under normal braking. Insufficient cooling of the brake system can result in
thermal distortion, brake fading, and brake fluid vaporization. Thermal distortion is due to excessive
thermal expansion, which in turn is due to high temperature; brake fading describes the friction force
between pad and disc, which under a fixed pressure reduces with increasing temperature. High brake
fluid temperature causes it to vaporize, which reduces the efficiency of the hydraulic system. As a
result, some brake pad stroke distance is wasted on compressing gas.
A mechanical engineer is usually concerned about the following properties: brake fading rate, thermal
stress, thermal distortion, material strength limits, and brake fluid temperature. In CFD simulations, all
the concerns are related to the two outputs: disc peak temperature and disc temperature distribution
Heat transfer Modes

There are three universal modes of heat transfer – conduction, convection and radiation. All three
modes are in play during a brake cooling cycle. The heat is generated in the region where the brake pad
and the brake disc are in contact, due to friction between these two surfaces. A portion of the heat is
conducted to the pad and the remaining heat is absorbed by the disc. The heat is then dissipated in the
disc volume by conduction. The surface of the disc which is not in contact with the pad dissipates the
heat by convection and radiation.
All three heat transfer modes will be considered in this tutorial. However, modeling of radiation heat
transfer has been simplified by use of black body radiation theory with no obstacles around the disc.
For accurate radiation heat transfer, view factors between the disc and the surrounding objects must be
evaluated.
Simulation Scenario - Repetitive Braking

A repetitive braking scenario will be simulated in this tutorial. The initial speed of the vehicle is assumed
to be 60 mph, corresponding to a disc angular velocity of 400 rpm. The vehicle is brought to a stop
through a linear deceleration process that lasts 2.8 seconds. As soon as the vehicle speed hits zero,
it linearly accelerates again to a speed of 60 mph (400 rpm) for the next 15.9 seconds. The whole
brake-release cycle thus lasts 18.7 seconds (figure 2). The first 2.8 seconds of this cycle, that is the
deceleration process, is the duration while the temperature of the disc rises due to the heat generation
caused by braking. In the following 15.9 seconds, the disc temperature falls as the heat is dissipated to

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the surroundings. At the end of one such cycle, the brakes are applied again and the disc temperature
will rise once more (figure 3).
Figure 891: The Repetitive Brake-Release Scenario
Figure 892: Expected Temperature Rise in the Disc with the Progression of Brake-Release Cycles
In this tutorial, two complete brake-release cycles will be evaluated.
Disc Brake Geometry

For this tutorial, a section of the brake disc is being considered. Figure 4 shows the geometry that will
be used for the simulation, which is a simplified one-eighth (45 degree) section of the disc rotor. Note
that the peripheral components, like the pad, the caliper assembly, the wheel housing, etc., have not
been included.

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Figure 893:
In the center of the domain is the disc. The inner air volume encloses the air volume close to the disc. It
represents the air volume inside the wheel, which rotates along with the wheel. The outer air represents
the ambient airflow. Thus, no moving reference frame is required for the outer air. The disc has an outer
radius of 0.15m, and the inner air radius is 0.2m. The ambient boundary is the outer surface of the
computational domain. It is a cylinder that is 1.1m tall with a radius of 1.0m. Note that in the current
simulation, the vehicle body and other mechanical parts are neglected. Essentially, this computational
domain corresponds to an idealized test rig in experiment. The air volume is just a simplification of the
outer environment of the brake disc.
Heat Source Application

Figure 5 shows a schematic plot for estimating the energy flow through the braking system when
a brake is applied. Traversing through the plot, it can be seen that an estimated 12.5% of the total
mechanical energy of a moving vehicle is transferred to each contact surface on the front wheel discs as
the vehicle is brought to rest.

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Figure 894: Energy Flow for Estimating Heat Flux on Front Wheel
Here, is the drag loss, which is around 27.4%. The constant is the weight fraction on the front
wheels, estimated to be about 72.5%. The reference for these two constants can be found in Martin
(2004). The heat partition ratio σ = 0.05 is the heat transferred to the pad surface. It can be estimated
by equation 1 (Adamowicz and Grzes, 2011).
Here, is the conductivity, ρ is the density, and is the specific heat capacity. Subscript 1 refers to the
pad material and subscript 2 refers to the disc material.
If the braking process contains change in both potential energy and kinetic energy of the vehicle, then
the equation for calculating the heat flux becomes:
With the total mechanical energy,
In the current braking scenario, the vehicle is assumed to be moving on a plane road. Thus, no change
in potential energy is expected; only the kinetic energy of the vehicle is transferred to heat.

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You have two options for determining the area of contact for the disc and pad surface. In the first
option, the actual area of contact between the disc and the pad is considered. This is useful for a
realistic simulation as it helps predict the peak temperature that will be reached in the disc. If a
monitoring point is put on the disc surface, the temperature value for this monitoring point will rise and
fall for each revolution of the disc as it enters and exits the contact patch.
The second option is using an averaged heat source on the disc. In this case, the heat flux generated
within the contact patch is averaged over the circumferential area swept by the disc-pad contact
surface. This simplifies the simulation, but with this option it is not possible to determine the peak
temperature occurring in the disc as the heat source itself is averaged.
Figure 895: Influence of Heat Patch on Temperature Variation at Monitoring Point
The use of a heat source is also limited by the geometry used for the simulation. If a partial disc
geometry is used, you are restricted to an averaged heat source. This tutorial will be setup using an
averaged heat source applied on the disc. However, for reference, following are the formulae used to
calculate the area in equation … for both the options.
For a realistic contact patch heat source,
For an averaged heat source,
Here, θ represents the sweep of brake pad on the disc. Averaged heat flux can be computed based on
realistic heat source as follows,
Based on the assumption that q is proportional to rpm and vehicle velocity, the heat source from 0.0s to
2.8s can be given by,

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For the provided geometry, the braking pad has a radius between ri = 0-11m and ro = 0-14m, and the
2
pad sweep angle on disc surface is 60 degrees. This results in a contact patch area of 0.003927 m on
each side of the disc. The outer rim radius of the disc is 0.15m, with a thickness of 0.016m at the outer
rim of the disc.
Note that in current simulations, the time function for the heat source is directly defined in a UDF.
The time function of the heat source is estimated from a pre-defined velocity variation with time.
To compute the heat source, you will need the vehicle mass, velocity profile, and the help of some
empirical coefficients mentioned in Figure 5.
Simulation Options in AcuSolve

AcuSolve provides several options to represent the physics of the problem when setting up the
simulation. You will make use of some of these options to represent the brake-release cycle and the
relative motion between the brake disc and the surrounding air.
One option to define the rotational motion of the disc is to use the sliding mesh method. In this method,
the actual physical motion of the brake disc in space is simulated. However, it is not possible to use this
method with the current geometry since only a section of the disc is being modeled. As the disc rotates,
it will eventually move out of contact with the ambient air which is stationary. The correct modeling
option to define this is using a Moving Reference Frame (MRF) method. In the MRF method, a reference
frame is defined for the disc surface and the air surrounding it. However, the disc itself is not rotated
during the simulation.
The definition of the MRF which will be used for the disc surface and the air surrounding it will have to
take into account the changing rotational speed of the disc as the vehicle decelerates and accelerates.
This will be achieved using a multiplier function which will be identical to the brake-release cycle curve
shown in Figure 2.
The heat source on the disc due to the braking is simulated using a user designed function. Please refer
the attached script heatSource.c. The heat source is only applied when the brake is applied, and to the
region where the pad is in contact with the disc.
A precursor simulation is used to generate the initial conditions for the flow quantities, i.e. pressure,
velocity, and the eddy viscosity in the simulation domain. It is assumed that the vehicle is cruising
at a constant 60mph velocity before applying brake. The temperature field before applying brake is
considered uniformly 300K, which doesn't need to be solved in precursor simulation. However, the
velocity field is not a steady state one because the air inside disc is rotating along with the disc. Thus,
only flow and turbulence equations are solved in this precursor simulation. The results of this precursor
simulation are provided in the precursor_run directory. These results will be interpolated to define the
initial flow field for this simulation.

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visualize some characteristics of the results using AcuProbe and AcuFieldView.
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Brake_Cooling and open it.
5. Enter brake_cooling as the file name for the database.


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Figure 896:
Figure 897:
Note: You may need to widen the detail panel from the default size by dragging the

5. Enter Brake Cooling MRF as the Sub title.
6. Set the Analysis type to Transient.

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Figure 898:

the solution.
2. Check that Analysis type is set to Transient.
4. Set the Final time to 37.4 seconds.
5. Set the Initial time increment to 0.1 seconds.
Transient simulation will stop when either of the final time, or the Max time steps is reached.
6. Set Min and Max stagger iterations to 2 and 4 respectively.
7. Check that the Flow, Temperature, Enclosure radiation, and Turbulence flags are set to On, and
the Temperature flow flag is set to Off.

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Figure 899:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials: Air, Aluminum, and Water, with standard parameters
desired properties for this problem. Subsequently, you will create a new custom material and assign
relevant material properties to it.
Figure 900:
AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. The density of air is 1.225 kg/m3 and the type is Constant.
-5
4. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of air is 1.781 x 10 kg/m – sec and the type is Constant.

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5. Similarly, check the Specific Heat and Conductivity tabs and make sure the values are as follows:
3. Turbulent Prandtl number: 0.91
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.
7. Right-click on Material Model in the Data Tree and select New from the context menu.
8. Rename the material model.
a) Right-click on Material Model 1.
b) Select Rename from the context menu.
c) Enter Disc Steel as the material name.
d) Press Enter on the keyboard.
you press the Enter. If you move the input focus away from the item without
entering it, your changes will be lost.
9. Double-click on Disc Steel in the Data Tree to open the material detail panel.
The material type is listed as Fluid. This is the default type for any new material created in
AcuConsole.
10. Click on the Material type drop-down selector and choose Solid from the list that appears.
11. Set the material properties for Disc Steel as follows by navigating through the respective tabs in
the detail panel:
3
1. Density: 7200 kg/m

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Import the Geometry

brake_disc_partial.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing brake_disc_partial.x_t.
4. Select brake_disc_partial.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 901:

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Figure 902:
Create a Multiplier Function for the Moving Reference Frame

As discussed in the introduction, a repetitive braking scenario is simulated in this tutorial. The
simulation starts at the instant the brake is applied. The initial speed of the vehicle is 60 mph,
corresponding to a disc rotor speed of 400 rpm. Over the course of the simulation, the vehicle is
decelerated to a speed of zero, then accelerated back to 60 mph. The complete brake-release cycle is
then repeated once more. In AcuConsole, this behaviour will be represented using a multiplier function.
This multiplier function will later be assigned to the definition of the moving reference frame, which will
ultimately govern the motion of the disc.

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2. Right-click on Multiplier Function and select New from the context menu.
3. Rename the newly created multiplier function to MRF_Multiplier.
Don't forget to press Enter after typing in the new entity name.
4. Double-click on MRF_Multiplier to open the detail panel. In the detail panel,
a) Change the Type to Piecewise Linear.
b) Set the Curve fit variable to Time.
c) Click the Open Array button next to Curve fit values.
d) In the Array Editor dialog, click the Add button and create five rows.
e) Fill in the values as follows:
Figure 903:
f) Click OK to close the dialog.
Create Emissivity Models for Air and Disc

In this section, you will create and define the emissivity models for air and disc, which will be used for
the definition of radiation surfaces.
1. Click RAD in the Data Tree Manager to filter all but the radiation relates settings in the Data Tree.
2. Right-click on Emissivity Model in the Data Tree and select New from the context menu.
A new entry, Emissivity Model 1, will be created in the Data Tree under the Emissivity Model
branch.
3. Repeat the previous step to create another entry, Emissivity Model 2.
4. Rename Emissivity Model 1.
a) Right-click on Emissivity Model 1.
b) Select Rename from the context menu.
c) Enter Disc Steel as the model name.
d) Press Enter on the keyboard.
5. In a similar manner, rename Emissivity Model 2 to Air.
6. Double-click on Disc Steel to open the model details panel and set the Emissivity to 0.75.
7. Similarly, set the Emissivity for Air to 0.05.

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Define the Moving Reference Frame

You will now create and define a moving reference frame, which will later be assigned to the disc
surface and inner air volume to simulate the rotation. The multiplier function defined in the previous
section will be assigned to this reference frame to represent the change in disc speed as the vehicle
accelerates and decelerates.
1. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to show all the settings in the Data Tree.
2. Right-click on Reference Frame and select New.
3. Rename the newly created reference frame to Disc_MRF.
4. Double-click Disc_MRF to open the detail panel.
5. Click the Open Array button next to Rotation center and check that the x, y and z coordinates for
the rotation center are (0, 0, 0).
6. Click the Open Array button next to Angular velocity. In the dialog box that opens,
a) Change the unit selector to RPM.
Figure 904:
b) Enter 400 in the Y-component row.

7. Set the Multiplier function to MRF_Multiplier, which is the function you created in the previous
steps.
As the simulation progresses, the value of the rpm for the reference frame, i.e. 400 rpm, will be
multiplied with the instantaneous value of the multiplier provided by the MRF_Multiplier function
at every time step. Thus at time zero, when the multiplier function evaluates to 1, the disc rpm
will be 400. The rpm will linearly decrease to zero over the next 2.8 seconds, before rising again
to 400 and so on as per the multiplier.

container.

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material models, boundary conditions, mesh parameters, etc. which can sometimes be cumbersome,
especially for models with too many surfaces. To make it easier, less error prone, and time saving, two
new dialogs are provided in AcuConsole which you can use to verify and provide the information for
all surface or volume entities at once. They are the Volume Manager and Surface Manager. In this
section some features of Volume Manager are exploited.
3. Turn off the display of surfaces by right-clicking on Surfaces and clicking Display off in the
context menu.
the volume name.
5. Right-click on Volumes and select Volume Manager.

6. In the Volume Manager Dialog, click on Columns, select Medium from the list and click Ok.
Figure 905:
7. Click New twice to create two new volume groups.

8. Turn the display off for all volumes except the default volume.
9. Rename the default volume to disc, Volume 1 to inner_air, and Volume 2 to outer_air.
10. Set the Medium, Material Model, and the Reference Frame for the volume groups as per the table
shown below.

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Figure 906:
Note: You may need to expand the dialog to view all the columns.
11. Assign the respective volumes to their volume groups.

a) Click Add to in the row belonging to inner_air.
b) Select the volume as shown in the figure below and click Done.
Figure 907:
c) Click Add to in the row belonging to outer_air, select the volume as shown in the figure
below and click Done.

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Figure 908:
d) When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, the complete geometry volume was placed
in a default surface group. That volume group was renamed to disc. At this point, all that is
left is the disc volume group, which makes up the rotor disc of the brake.
Figure 909:
12. Close the Volume Manager Dialog.


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In the previous section, you were introduced to the Volume Manager, which is used to quickly verify
and set the basic parameters for the volume groups. In this section some features of Surface Manager
are exploited.
1. Turn-off the display of Volumes by right-clicking on Volumes and selecting Display off .
2. Expand Surfaces in the Data Tree and toggle on the display of the default surface container.
4. In the Surface Manager Dialog, click New seven times to create seven new surface groups.
these two columns from the list then click Ok.
6. Turn off the display for all the surfaces except for the default surface and rename to default
surface to disc_surf.
7. Rename the other surfaces and set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns as per the
table shown below.
Figure 910:
8. Assign the surfaces to their respective surface groups.

a) Click Add to in the row belong to symm_air_2.
b) Select the two surfaces as shown in the figure below and click Done.

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Figure 911:
c) Click Add to in the row belong to symm_disc_2.

d) Select the surface as shown in the figure below and click Done.
Figure 912:
e) Assign the corresponding surfaces on the other side of the domain to the groups symm_air_1
and symm_disc_1 respectively.
f) Assign the remaining peripheral surfaces of the geometry to the ambient surface groups as
shown in the figure below.

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Figure 913:
g) Assign the surfaces for inner_outer_interface. These are the surfaces where the inner and
the outer_air volume coincide. Note that these surfaces will be overlapping with each other.
One of these surface sets will belong to the inner_air volume and the second to the outer_air
volume. Because of the overlap, you may need to repeat this step twice for what may look
like the same group of surfaces. However, these will be two different surface sets.
Figure 914:
h) Assign the surfaces for inner_disc_interface. These are the surfaces where the inner_air
volume is in contact with the disc volume. Note that these surfaces will be overlapping with
another surface set belonging to the disc volume. However, unlike the previous step, you only
need to select the surfaces on the inner_air volume side for this surface group.

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Figure 915:
i) When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all geometry surfaces were placed in a
default surface group. That surface group was renamed to disc_surf. At this point, all that is
left is the disc_surf surface group, which makes up the bounding surfaces of the disc volume.
Assign Surface Parameters (Boundary Conditions)

In next steps you will set boundary conditions for the surfaces that apply globally to the simulation.
To make this simple, the basic boundary conditions applicable for any simulation can be filtered using
the BC filter in the Data Tree Manager. However, for this tutorial you will also be using some advanced
capabilities of AcuConsole for specifying the boundary conditions.
Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to display all the available options in the Data Tree.
inner_outer_interface, inner_disc_interface, symm_air_1, symm_air_2,

symm_disc_1, symm_disc_2
Expand each of these surface groups in the Data Tree and ensure that the Surface Boundary Condition
option is not activated.
ambient
1. Expand the ambient surface group in the Data Tree.

2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition to open the boundary condition detail panel.
3. Ensure that Type is set to Wall.
4. Change the Temperature BC type to Value.
5. Set the value for Temperature to 300 K.

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5 Moving Body p.818
Figure 916:
6. Double-click Radiation Surface under ambient to open the radiation detail panel.
7. If you see the Activate flag set to off, switch it to On.
8. Set the Type to Opening.
9. Set the Emissivity model to Air.
10. Set the Opening temperature to 300 K.
Figure 917:
disc_surf
1. Expand the disc_surf surface group in the Data Tree.

2. Check that the Surface Boundary Condition option is not active.
3. Double-click Radiation Surface under disc_surf to open the radiation detail panel.
5. Set the Type to Wall.
6. Set the Emissivity model to Disc Steel.

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5 Moving Body p.819
Figure 918:
8. Expand the Advanced Options tree under disc_surf.

9. Double-click Turbulence Wall to open the detail panel.
11. Set the Type to Wall Function.
12. Expand the Nodal Boundary Conditions tree under Advanced Options.
13. Double-click X-Velocity to open the detail panel.
15. Set the Reference frame to Disc_MRF.
Figure 919:
16. Repeat the above three steps for Y and Z-Velocity.

17. Double-click Eddy Viscosity.
18. If you see the Activate flag set to off, switch it to On. Leave the default settings.
Apply Heat Transfer Parameters to the Disc

As discussed in the introduction, a user defined function will be used to define the heat source on the
disc. The script heatSource.c contains the function usrDiscHeatSource, which will be used to assign
heat flux on the disc surface corresponding to the heat source due to braking. In addition, radiation
heat flux parameters will also be applied for the disc.
1. Expand the Element Boundary Conditions tree under Advanced Options for the disc_surf
surface group.
2. Double-click Heat Flux to open the detail panel.

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5 Moving Body p.820

4. Set the Type to User Function.
5. For User function name, enter usrDiscHeatSource.
Figure 920:
6. Double-click Radiation Heat Flux to open the detail panel.

8. Set the Type to Constant.
2 4
9. Set the Constant value to 4.2525e-008W/m -K .
10. Set the Reference temperature to 300 K.
Figure 921:
Set Periodic Boundary Conditions

The surface groups symm_air_1 and symm_air_2 are periodic surface groups with axisymmetric
periodicity along the axis of rotation of the disc. Similarly, surface groups symm_disc_1 and
symm_disc_2 are periodic as well. To ensure mesh conformity between the periodic surface pairs,
periodic boundary conditions should be defined to pair the nodes before mesh is created. The mesh
created thereafter will be periodic.
2. Right-click on Periodics in the Data Tree, and select New.
3. Repeat the previous step to create another entry, Periodic 2.
4. Rename Periodic 1 as periodicity_disc.
5. Rename Periodic 2 as periodicity_air.
6. Right-click on periodicity_disc and select Define.
7. In the dialog that appears, set the following conditions:

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5 Moving Body p.821
a) Side 1: symm_disc_1
b) Side 2: symm_disc_2
c) Type: Rotational
d) Point 1 (x, y, z): (0, 0, 0)
e) Point 2 (x, y, z): (0, 1, 0)
f) Angle: 45 degrees
g) Tolerance: 0.001
Figure 922:
8. Similarly, define periodicity_air as shown below.

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5 Moving Body p.822
Figure 923:

The nodal output command specifies the nodal output parameters, for instance, output frequency,
number of saved states, etc.
panel.
4. Check that the Number of saved states option is set to zero.
Setting this option zero will instruct the solver to save all the solution state files
Figure 924:

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5 Moving Body p.823
Create a Time History Output Point

Time history output commands enable you to extract the nodal solution at any point within the domain.
In this simulation, it would be interesting to observe the temperature of a point on the disc within the
pad contact area as the brake is applied and released.
1. Expand the Output tree, right-click on Time History Output, and select New.
2. Rename Time History Output 1 to MonitorPoint.
3. Double-click MonitorPoint. In the detail panel,
b) Click Open Array next to Coordinates and edit the values in the Array Editor according to
the image shown below.
Figure 925:
c) Set the Time step frequency to 1.

This will save the results for the defined time history point at every time step.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.824

to be generated.
Figure 926:

1. Expand the Model Data Tree item and then expand Surfaces.
2. Expand the inner_disc_interface surface group under Surfaces.
3. Double-click Surface Mesh Attributes under inner_disc_interface to open the Surface Mesh
Attributes detail panel.

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5 Moving Body p.825

7. Switch the Region of influence parameters flag to On.
8. Set the Influence size factor to 1.5.
9. Set the Influence distance to 0.03.
11. Check the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
This will set the total layer height based on the other settings you provide.
b) Growth rate: 1.2
c) Number of layers: 4
14. Set the Boundary layer propagate flag to On.
Figure 927:
15. Similarly, set the Surface Mesh Attributes for disc_surf using the parameters shown below.

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5 Moving Body p.826
Figure 928:
Generate the Mesh

problem.

Figure 929:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.827

As mentioned in an earlier section, results from the precursor simulation will be used to define the initial
conditions for this case. The projection of the available results on the current mesh will be done using
the AcuProj utility in the following steps.
1. Select Tools > Project Solution from the menu bar.

2. In the AcuSolve solution projection dialog that opens, click Browse next to the AcuSolve log
file field.
3. Navigate to the precursor_run directory containing the solution to be projected.
4. Select brake_cooling.1.Log from the directory.
5. Click Open.
6. Verify that the Step id is 29 in the AcuSolve solution projection dialog.
7. Select all the variables available in the Variables to project field (velocity, pressure, and
eddy_viscosity).
You may need to hold Shift while clicking the top and bottom of the list to select all the variables.
Figure 930:
8. Click Project, then click Close.

The above setups will set the initial conditions for the pressure, velocity and the eddy viscosity
fields. Since the precursor run does not has the temperature field data, it needs to be set
manually.
10. Double-click on Nodal Initial Condition under Global in the Data Tree.
11. In the detail panel, set the Temperature initial condition type to Constant and the Temperature to
300 K.

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5 Moving Body p.828
Compile the UDF

A UDF written in C language (heatSource.c) is provided with the tutorial. This C source file should now
be compiled using the following steps.
The utilities required for compiling are different on Windows and Unix operating systems. Follow the
steps below according to your machine
1. Compiling the UDF for Windows:
a) Start AcuSolve Command Prompt from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All
Programs > Altair HyperWorks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt.
b) Change the directory to the present working directory using the cd command.
c) Enter the following command at the prompt:
acuMakeDll –src heatSource.c
2. Compiling the UDF for Unix operating system:
a) In the terminal, use the cd command to change the directory to the current working
directory.
Note: If you open a new terminal, please source the AcuSolve build before
proceeding.
b) Enter the following command at the prompt:

acuMakeLib –src heatSource.c
Once the compilation is complete, a set of files necessary for AcuSolve to read and process the
UDF will be created.
Run AcuSolve


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5 Moving Body p.829
Figure 931:

1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Time History > MonitorPoint > node 1.
3. Right-click on temperature and select Plot.
This will plot the temperature of the point which you defined as the time history output point as
the solution progresses.

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5 Moving Body p.830
Figure 932:
The temperature profile of the monitor point follows the expected behaviour. It can be seen
that the disc does not cool down completely before the next braking cycle starts, and thus the
maximum temperature reached increases with every following cycle.
processing.
c) Click Save.
Prerequisites
• How to find the data readers in the File pull-down on the Main menu and open the desired reader
panel for data input.
• How to find the visualization panels, either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization panel pull-
downs on the Main menu, and create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
This tutorial shows you how to work with transient analysis data.

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5 Moving Body p.831
Launch AcuFieldView
Figure 933:

You will see that the temperature contours have already been displayed on all the boundary
surfaces with mesh. When you start AcuFieldView from AcuConsole, the results from the last time
step of the solution that were written to disk will be loaded for post-processing.
Set Up AcuFieldView
Figure 934:

c) Click Close.
4.
7.
Your display should now look like this.

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5 Moving Body p.832
Figure 935:
Visualize and Save an Animation of the Temperature Variation with Time

1.
2. From the Boundary Types panel, select OSF: disc_surf and click OK.
5. Deactivate the Show Mesh check box.
6.
From the toolbar, click to open the Defined Views dialog.
7. Select -Y then click Close.
8. In the Colormap tab of the Boundary Surface dialog, activate the Local check box.
9. In the Legend tab, check the Show Legend check box.
10. Change the Label color to black.

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5 Moving Body p.833
Your display should now look like this. The visible temperature profile on the disc surface is the
profile at the end of last time step in the simulation.
Note: You may need to adjust the zoom level and pan the model to get the view
shown below.
Figure 936:

12. From the Tools menu, select Flipbook Build Mode. In the Flipbook Size Warning window, click
OK.
13. Go to the Tools menu again and select Transient Data.
This will open the Transient Data Controls dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.834
Figure 937:
If the Sweep Control in this dialog says Sweep instead of Build, the Flipbook Build Mode is not
active. In Sweep mode, you will be able to create and visualize the animation but you will not be
able to save it. To be able to save the animation, enable the Flipbook Build Mode.
14. Drag the time step slider to its leftmost position. Alternatively, enter 0 in the Time Step or
Solution Time box. Click Apply.
The displayed state now corresponds to the initial state of the domain, as defined by the projected
solution from the precursor_run directory used for initializing this setup. Since the projected
solution did not include temperature data, and temperature initial condition was a constant value.
That is what you see here.
15. Click Build.
the available time steps. You will be able to see the progress in a Building Flipbook dialog. Once
the build process is complete, a Flipbook Controls dialog will appear.
16.
Click to play the animation.
As the animation progresses, you will be able to see the variation of temperature on the disc
surface with time. The temperature increases while the brake is pressed, and once the brake
is released, the disc slowly cools down before the brake is applied again. Then the whole cycle
repeats itself.
17. To save the animation, click , then click Save.

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5 Moving Body p.835
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a disc brake simulation problem. You
started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, setting up the simulation parameters,
importing, and meshing the geometry. A moving reference frame approach along with a multiplier
function was used to model the brake-release cycle in a vehicle. Once the case was setup, the solution
was generated with AcuSolve. AcuProbe was used to visualize the variation of temperature on a monitor
point on the disc surface during the simulation. AcuFieldView was then utilized to generate an animation
of the temperature profile on the disc during the simulation.

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5.4 ACU-T: 5100 Modeling of a Fan Component:

Axial Fan
AcuConsole
HyperMesh
5.4.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for simulation of flow
inside a pipe with an interior fan placed at the middle of the pipe. This middle portion of the pipe is
considered to be fan volume which is modeled using the Fan_Component parameter. In this simulation,
flow is passed from the pipe inlet and it enters the fan in axial direction and exits at the outlet causing
pressure rise due to the fan. A lumped fan model is used to obtain fan pressure rise for a known
inlet volume flow rate. This tutorial is designed to introduce the user to modeling concepts related to
Fan_Components for axial fans.
• Specifying FAN_COMPONENT parameter in AcuConsole
• Setting up Inflow boundary condition with volumetric flow rate
Prerequisites

AxialFan.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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5 Moving Body p.837
Analyze the Problem
Figure 938: Axial Fan Model Used for the Simulation
Figure 1 shows a simple axial fan component problem where fan is an interior fan with thickness “t”
and tip radius as “r”. In this simulation, flow is passed from the pipe inlet and it enters the fan in axial
direction and exits at the outlet causing pressure rise due to the fan. This fan pressure rise can be
simulated for a given volume flow rate at the inlet surface which will be assigned as the inflow boundary
3
condition. The volume flow rate at the inlet surface is considered to be 525.35 m /hr.
The middle portion of the pipe is the Fan Component volume which has both Fan_Inlet and Fan_Outlet.
The FAN_COMPONENT parameters are assigned to Fan_Inlet surface through Advance problem
definition option. Basically, the fan model is applied to a surface, and the pressure jumps across that
surface to model the effect of the fan. The outlet of the pipe geometry is assigned with Outflow BC
to model the flow exit whereas the outer walls are defined to be Wall BC with slip condition. The fluid
3
material considered for this simulation is air with density=1.225 kg/m , viscosity=1.781e-005 kg/m-s.
The FAN_COMPONENT directly computes a body force term to yield the pressure rise within the volume
of interest. It accomplishes this based on the following approach:
• Evaluate the flow rate at the inlet to the domain that is assigned as a fan component (that is, the
surface on which you have assigned the FAN_COMPONENT condition)
• Evaluate the pressure rise resulting from this flow rate based on the fan curve that the user has
input
• Compute a body force per unit length that yields the required pressure rise based on fan_length
input parameter and the target pressure rise.
• The body force can be specified to be a function of the flow direction, that is, axial velocity, radial
velocity, tangential velocity or combination of all these three.
• Assign the body force to all elements of the element set that the FAN_COMPONENT is assigned to.
So, when deciding how to set up the FAN_COMPONENT model, you also need to consider how your
fan is modeled. If it is purely axial flow, then the relevant pressure rise relationship is just in the axial
direction, and the fan_length is the distance from inlet to outlet of the fan section.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.838
Basically the FAN_COMPONENT is modelled by adding axial, radial and tangential body forces to the
momentum equations. For an axial fan type, these forces increase the pressure across the component
by
where : axial coefficient
: density
: tip velocity =
: fan angular rotational speed (rad/sec)
: fan tip radius
: mass averaged velocity through the inlet (m/sec)
Since piecewise_bilinear curve fit values used in FAN_COMPONENT are functions of the normalized flow
1
rate (Q ) and axial coefficient (αaxial), you need to convert them from the fan performance curve.
1
Normalized flow rate (Q ):
Axial co-efficient (αaxial) =
For example, evaluate the axial coefficients and normalized flow rate from the fan performance data.
The following tables are inputs for the calculations.
Table 3: Fan Characteristics

3
Fluid Density 1.225 kg/m
Tip Radius ( ) 0.11 m
Rotational Speed ( ) 3600 RPM = 376.99 rad/sec

2
Inlet Area, Ai 0.03801 m
Tip Velocity ( ) 41.47 m/sec
Table 4: Fan Performance Parameters

3
Volume Flow Rate (Q), m /hr Pressure rise (ΔP), Pa
1 525.35 494.91
2 890.21 474.63
3 1161.63 424.9

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5 Moving Body p.839
3
Volume Flow Rate (Q), m /hr Pressure rise (ΔP), Pa
4 1272.76 389.11
5 1356.57 350.42
6 1431.84 308.18
7 1494.69 268.35
8 1551.39 230.89
You can calculate the normalized flow rate and axial coefficient for first two volume flow rates (Q) from
Table 2. The same procedure is followed for the other volume flow rates.
3
1. For Q = 525.35 m /hr:
1
Q = = 0.0926
= = 0.4613
3
2. For Q = 890.21 m /hr:
1
Q = = 0.1569
= = 0.426
l
In this manner you can calculate Q and αaxial for the remaining volume flow rates, shown in the
following table.
Table 5: Normalized Flow Rates and Axial Coefficients

1
S. No Normalized Flow Rate (Q ) Axial Coefficients ( αaxial )
1 0.0926 0.4613
2 0.1569 0.426
3 0.2047 0.3615
4 0.2243 0.3191
5 0.2391 0.2755
6 0.2523 0.2289
7 0.2634 0.1854

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5 Moving Body p.840
1
S. No Normalized Flow Rate (Q ) Axial Coefficients ( αaxial )
8 0.2734 0.1445
The same information is entered as input for axial curve fit values for the FAN_COMPONENT parameter
as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 939: Fan Component Array Editor
The first column of array is the normalized radius which varies between 0 and 1 which implies that at
the centre of the fan, this value is 0 whereas at the tip of the fan, this value is 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.841

settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Axial_Fan and open it.
5. Enter AxialFan as the file name for the database.


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5 Moving Body p.842
Figure 940:
Figure 941:

5. Enter Axial Fan as the Sub title.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.843
Figure 942:

the solution.
5. Check the Flow and Turbulence are set to On.
Figure 943: Auto Solution Detail Panel

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.844

Figure 944:
AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. The density of air is 1.225 kg/m3.
-5
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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5 Moving Body p.845
Import the Geometry

AxialFan.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing AxialFan.x_t.
4. Select AxialFan.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 945:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.846
Figure 946:

container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group container, assign the materials for that
group, and set mesh motion for the fluid volume.
the volume name.
4. Right-click on Volumes and select Volume Manager.

5. In the Volume Manager, click New twice to create two new volume groups.
6. Turn off the display of all volumes, except default.
7. Rename the default volume to UpstreamDuct.
8. Rename Volume 1 and Volume 2, and set the columns as per the image below:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.847
Figure 947:
9. Assign the respective volumes to their volume groups:

a) In the Fan row, click Add To.
b) Select the volume as shown in figure below and click Done.
Figure 948:
c) In the DownstreamDuct row, click Add To.

d) Select the volume as shown in figure below and click Done.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.848
Figure 949:
When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, complete geometry volume was placed
in the default volume group. This default volume group was renamed to UpstreamDuct. In
the previous steps, you assigned some volumes to various other volume groups that you
created. At this point, all that is left is the UpstreamDuct volume group wherein the flow
enters through the volume.
e) Repeat the process with UpstreamDuct.
Figure 950:


AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.849
1. Turn-off display for Volumes by right-clicking on Volumes and selecting Display off .
2. Right-click on Surfaces in the Data Tree and select Surface Manager.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New eight times to create eight new surface groups.
these two columns from the list and click Ok.
Figure 951:
6. Rename Surface 1 through Surface 9 according to the image below.
7. Set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns as per Figure 952.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 952:
8. Assign the surfaces to the respective surface groups.

a) In the Inlet row in the Surface Manager, click Add to .
b) Select the planar symmetry surfaces as shown in the image, and click Done.
Figure 953:
c) Rotate the model to see the other side of the surface.

d) In the Outlet row, click Add to, and select the surface shown below:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.851
Figure 954:
e) Assign the surface for the Wall_Up group.
Figure 955:
f) Assign the surface for the Wall_Fan group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.852
Figure 956:
g) Assign the surface for the Wall_Down group.
Figure 957:
h) Assign the surface for the Upstream_Out group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.853
Figure 958:
i) Assign the surface for the Fan_Inlet group.
Figure 959:
j) Assign the surface for the Fan_Outlet group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.854
Figure 960:
When the geometry was loaded into AcuConsole, all geometry surfaces were placed
in the default surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to
Downstream_Inlet. In the previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other
surface groups that you created. At this point, all that is left is the Downstream_Inlet surface
group which makes up the inlet of the DownstreamDuct volume.
9. Assign the surface for the Downstream_Inlet group.
Figure 961:

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Inlet
The Inlet group defines that the flow enters through the pipe and flows across length of the pipe. The
correct boundary condition type for this surface is Inflow.
1. Expand the Inlet surface in the tree.
2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Inlet to open the Simple Boundary Condition
detail panel.
3. Ensure that the Type is set to Inflow.
4. Change Inflow type from Velocity to Flow Rate.
5. In the Flow rate field, change the units to m3/hr.
6. Enter the Flow rate value as 525.35.
Figure 962:
Outlet
The Outlet group defines the exit of the pipe. The correct boundary condition type for this surface is
Outflow.
1. Expand the Outlet surface group in the tree.

2. Double click Simple Boundary Condition to open the detail panel.
3. Ensure that the Type is set to Outflow.
4. Leave the remaining settings at their default values.
Figure 963:

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5 Moving Body p.856
Wall_Up
The walls enclose the fluid volume on the outside. The correct boundary condition type for this surface
is Wall.
1. Expand the Wall_Up surface group in the tree.
2. Double click Simple Boundary Condition under inner_wall to open the Simple Boundary
Figure 964:
Wall_Fan and Wall_Down
The surface groups Wall_Fan and Wall_Down will have the same settings as Wall_Up group. In order to
not to repeat the steps again, you can propagate the settings to those two groups.
1. Expand the Wall_Up surface group.

2. Right-click on Simple Boundary Conditions, and select Propagate.
3. Select Wall_Fan and Wall_Down from the menu.
4. Click Propagate.

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5 Moving Body p.857
Figure 965:
Fan_Outlet
Uncheck the Simple Boundary Condition for this surface.
Upstream_Out
Downstream_Inlet
Fan_Inlet
This surface corresponds to the inlet of the Fan component volume. For this particular surface you need
to assign the FAN_COMPONENT parameter, which requires data related to fan speed, tip radius, axial
coefficients, and so on. This parameter is available under advanced options in AcuSolve.
1. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to show all the settings in the Data Tree.
2. Uncheck the Simple Boundary Condition for the Fan_Inlet surface
3. Expand Advanced Options.
4. Check the Fan Component check box to open the detail panel.
5. Ensure that the Type is set to Axial.
6. Next to Center, click Open Array.
7. In the dialog, enter 0.0 for all the fields.
8. Click OK.
9. Next to Direction, click Open Array.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.858
10. Enter 1.0 for X-Direction, and 0.0 for the other fields.
11. Click OK.
12. For Rotational Speed change the units from rad/sec to RPM.
13. Set the Rotational Speed to 3600 RPM.
14. Set Tip Radius to 0.11 m.
15. Set Fan thickness to 0.06 m.
16. Change Axial coefficient type from Constant to Piecewise Bilinear.
17. Next to Axial curve fit values, click Open Array.
18. Click Add Col seven times and enter the following as shown in the figure below.
Figure 966:

20. Set Radial coefficient and Tangential coefficient to 0.
Figure 967:

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5 Moving Body p.859

to be generated.
Figure 968:


2. Under the Model branch, expand the Surfaces. Under Surfaces, expand the Wall_Up surface
group.
3. If necessary, check the box next to Surface Mesh Attributes to activate it. Double-click it to open
the Surface Mesh Attributes detail panel.

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5 Moving Body p.860
The detail panel should now be populated with options related to the local surface meshing
controls.
6. Change the Boundary layer type to Match Outer Layer.
7. Ensure that First element height is set to 0.001 m.
8. Change the Growth rate to 1.2.
Figure 969:
The surface groups Wall_Fan and Wall_Down will have the same settings as the Wall_Up group. In order
to not to repeat the steps again, you will propagate the settings to those two groups.
10. Under the Wall_Up surface, right-click Surface Mesh Attributes and select Propagate.
11. In the Propagate dialog, select the surface Wall_Fan and Wall_Down, and click Propagate.
Figure 970:

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5 Moving Body p.861
Generate the Mesh

problem.
Figure 971:

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Run AcuSolve

input files and will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the steady state solution for this
problem.
Figure 972:

1.
This will plot the residuals for the three variables - eddy viscosity, pressure and velocity in the plot
area. This plot indicates the convergence of the variables with respect to timestep.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.863
Figure 973:
4. Right-click on Final under Residual Ratio and select Plot None.

5.
Click the User Function icon from the toolbar.
6. In the dialog, enter the Name as dP.
7. In the Data Tree dialog, expand Surface Output > Fan_Inlet > Pressure.
8. Right-click on pressure and select Copy name.
9. In the Function field of the User Function dialog, type Fan_In = then paste the name you just
copied.

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Figure 974:
10. Type Fan_Out = on a new line.

11. Under Fan_Outlet, expand Pressure then right-click on pressure and select Copy name.
12. Paste the name in the Function field.
Figure 975:
13. Type value = Fan_Out - Fan_In on a new line.

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Figure 976:
14. Click Apply.
Figure 977:
From the above figure, you can see the pressure rise got stabilized at around 9th iteration and
3
remains constant with a pressure of 494.53 Pa for a given volume flow rate of 525.35 m /hr which
is very near compared to reference value of 494.91 Pa.

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Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a problem involving the FAN_COMPONENT
feature for an axial fan. The FAN_COMPONENT directly computes body force term to yield the pressure
rise within the volume of interest. The problem simulated is the flow inside pipe with a fan placed at the
middle of the pipe causing pressure rise due to fan and exits at the outlet. You started the tutorial by
creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the geometry, and setting up the simulation
parameters. The fluid domain is divided into three volumes – UpstreamDuct, Fan & DownstreamDuct
– using the Volume Manager Dialog option. Once the case was setup, the solution was generated with
AcuSolve. Results were plotted in AcuProbe by creating a user function to check for the fan pressure
rise based on Fan_Inlet and Fan_Outlet pressures. New features that were introduced in this tutorial
include: using Fan Component feature and explaining how the axial coefficients are calculated based on
volume flow rate and fan pressure rise and using the User Function option in AcuProbe.
5.4.2 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
This simulation provides instructions for running a steady state simulation of flow inside a pipe with
an interior fan placed at the middle of the pipe. You should have already run through the introductory
HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of
AcuSolve and HyperMesh. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh
and AcuSolve.

ACU5100_AxialFanComponent.hm and AxialCoefficient.txt from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
The problem to be solved in this tutorial is shown schematically in the figure below. It consists of an
interior fan which rotates at a speed of 377 rad/sec (~3600 RPM) and has a thickness of 0.06 m and
3 3
a tip radius of 0.11 m. The Volumetric flow rate at the inlet is 0.146 m /sec (~525.35 m /hr). The
problem is simulated as a steady state run and the Pressure rise across the fan region is computed.
Figure 978:

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2.
ACU5100_AxialFanComponent.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named AxialFan and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter AxialFan as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your preference.

2. In the Entity Editor, change the Turbulence model to Spalart Allmaras.
3. Ensure that the Analysis type is Steady State.

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Figure 979:

b) Set the Inflow type to Flow rate.
3
c) Set the Flow rate 0.146 m /sec.

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Figure 980:
3. Click Fan_Inlet. In the Entity Editor,

a) Change the Type to FAN_COMPONENT.
b) Set the Rotational speed to 377 rad/sec.
c) Set the Tip radius to 0.11 m.
d) Set the Fan thickness to 0.06 m.
e) Change the Axial coefficient type to Piecewise Bilinear.
f) For the Axial coefficient curvefit file, click the open file icon and browse to the location where
you saved AxialCoefficient.txt and select it. Click Open.
g) Verify that the Radial coefficient and Tangential coefficient are set to 0.

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Figure 981:
Figure 982:

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Figure 983:
When component type is assigned as Wall, all the elements in the surface set are automatically
re-grouped into surface sets based on the parent volume they belong to and also if they are
internal or external. Auto_Wall is an advanced feature in AcuSolve which takes care of this process
internally, without you having to do it manually and hence reducing the number of steps in the
workflow.
6. Click Downstream_Duct. In the Entity Editor,
Figure 984:
7. Similarly, set the Fan and Upstream_Duct component Type to FLUID and select Air_HM as the
Material for both components.
8. Save the model.

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Run AcuSolve

2.
Figure 985:

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As the solution progresses, the AcuProbe window is launched automatically. AcuProbe can be used to
monitor various variables over solution time.
1. In the AcuProbe Data Tree, expand Residual Ratio.

Figure 986:
3. Once the solution is converged, right-click again on Final and select Plot None.
4.
Click the User Function icon from the toolbar.
5. In the dialog, enter the Name as dP.
6. In the Data Tree, expand Surface Output > Fan_Inlet > Pressure
8. In the Function field of the User Function dialog, type Fan_In = then paste the name you just
copied.
9. Type Fan_Out = on a new line.
10. In the Data Tree, expand Surface Output > AUTO Downstream_Duct internal > Pressure.
Here the (AUTO Downstream_Duct internal) surface output is the Auto_Wall generated surface
output corresponding to the surface set at the outlet of the fan component volume.
12. Paste the name in the Function field after Fan_Out =.
13. On a new line, type value = Fan_Out - Fan_In.

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Figure 987:
14. Click Apply.

15. In the Data Tree, expand User function then right-click on dP and select Plot.
Figure 988:
You can zoom into the plot by clicking then selecting an area at the end of the curve. As
3 3
shown in the figure below, for the given flow rate of 525.35 m /hr (0.146 m /sec), the pressure
rise is 494.182 Pa.

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Figure 989:
Summary
In this tutorial you successfully learned how to set up and solve a simulation involving a fan component.
You imported the meshed geometry and then assigned the material properties and boundary conditions
to all the regions. Once the solution was computed, you defined a user function to create a plot of the
pressure rise across the fan component volume.

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5.5 ACU-T: 5200 Rigid-Body Dynamics of a Check

Valve
AcuConsole
5.5.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a simulation of the
opening of a pressure check valve. In this simulation, AcuSolve is used to compute the forces on the
valve due to the time-varying inlet flow field and to compute the motion of the valve that results from
these flow forces. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of modeling concepts necessary
to perform simulations of rigid-body dynamics.
• Use of a multiplier function to scale inlet boundary condition values
• Mesh motion
• Fluid-structure interaction with a rigid body
• Results animation
Prerequisites

pressureCheckValve.x_t from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem

cylindrical pipe containing water that flows past a check valve with a shutter attached to a virtual
spring (not included in the geometry). The inlet pressure varies over time and the movement of the
shutter will be determined as a function of the balance of the fluid forces against the reactive force of
the spring. The problem is rotationally periodic at 30° increments about the longitudinal axis, and it
is assumed that the resulting flow is also rotationally periodic, allowing for modeling with the use of
a wedge-shaped section. For this tutorial, a 30° section of the geometry is modeled, as shown in the
figure. Modeling a portion of an rotationally periodic geometry leads to reduced computation time while
still providing an accurate solution.
Figure 990: Schematic of Check Valve with Spring-Loaded Shutter
The pipe has an inlet diameter of 0.08 m, and is 0.4 m long. The check-valve assembly is 0.085 m
downstream of the inlet. It consists of a plate 0.005 m thick with a centered orifice 0.044 m in diameter
and a shutter with an initial position 0.005 m from the opening, simulating a nearly closed condition.
The shutter plate is 0.05 m in diameter and 0.005 m thick. The shutter plate is attached to a stem 0.03
m long and 0.01 m in diameter. The mass of the shutter and stem is 0.2 kg and its motion is affected
by a virtual spring with a stiffness of 2162 N/m. The motion of the valve shutter is limited by a stop
mounted on a perforated plate downstream of the shutter.
Note that AcuSolve's internal rigid-body-dynamics solver is not able to simulate contact. Therefore, this
problem is formulated to avoid contact between the valve and the stop.

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Figure 991:
Modeling the geometry as a 30° section requires that the fluid model is set up to be consistent with the
1
rigid-body model. Since only /12 of the rigid body is modeled, the forces computed by AcuSolve that
1
act on the valve shutter represent /12 of the actual force on the device. Therefore, it is also necessary
to account for this in the simulation. There are two methods that can be used to accomplish this:
1. Scale up the fluid forces calculated by AcuSolve by a factor of 12 to represent the full load on the
device when the displacement of the body is computed.
Using this approach, the full stiffness of the valve spring is used in the rigid-body solution, and the
full mass of the valve is used.
2. Scale down the mass of the valve and the stiffness of the spring to by a factor of 12 to match the
fraction of the valve geometry to be modeled.
Using this approach, the loading passed to the rigid-body solver is not scaled.
This second approach is used in this tutorial; the scaled mass of 0.0167 kg and the scaled stiffness of
180.1667 N/m will be used .
Figure 992:
3
The fluid in this problem is water, which has a density (ρ) of 1000 kg/m and a molecular viscosity (μ)
-3
of 1 X 10 kg/m-sec, as shown in the worksheet.
Figure 993:
At the start of the simulation the flow field is stationary. Flow is driven by the pressure at the inlet,
which varies over time as a piecewise linear function shown in Figure 994. As the pressure at the inlet
rises, the flow will accelerate as the valve opens. The turbulence viscosity ratio is assumed to be 10.

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The initial inlet pressure is 0 Pa. At 0.002 s, the pressure begins to ramp up, and reaches 26,500 Pa at
0.05 s. The pressure is held at 26,500 Pa and begins to ramp back down starting at 0.2 s, reaching the
initial pressure at 0.25 s where it remains for the rest of the simulation.
Figure 994: Transient Pressure at the Inlet
Prior simulations of this geometry indicate that the average velocity at the inlet reaches a maximum
of 0.9 m/s. At this velocity, the Reynolds number for the flow is 72,000. When the Reynolds number is
above 4,000, it is generally accepted that flow should be modeled as turbulent.
Figure 995:
Note that the initial conditions of the flow are actually laminar, however, the increase in flow velocity
and flow around the valve shutter is expected to cause a rapid transition to turbulent conditions.
Therefore, the simulation will be set up to model transient, turbulent flow. When performing a transient
analysis, convergence is achieved at every time step based on the defined stagger criteria. Mesh motion
will be modeled using arbitrary mesh movement (arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian mesh motion).

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Figure 996:
For this case, the transient behavior of interest occurs in the time it takes for the pressure to ramp up
and ramp back down, which is given by the transient pressure profile. To allow time for the spring to
recover, additional time will be simulated. For this tutorial, 0.1 s is added after the pressure drops back
to initial conditions, for a total duration of 0.35 s.
Figure 997:
number. With this method, the time increment can be computed from the mesh size, the flow velocity,
and the desired CFL number.
The change in inlet pressure from initial conditions to maximum occurs over 0.048 s. A time increment
of 0.002 s would allow for excellent resolution of the transient changes, without requiring excessive
computational time. This time increment would result in a CFL number of 0.36, indicating that it would
take approximately three time steps for flow to cross a single mesh element. While the time increment
could be raised and still maintain a favorable CFL number, the value of 0.002 s is chosen to better
resolve the transient changes resulting from the sudden pressure shifts.

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Figure 998:
size is set to provide at least 50 mesh elements around the circumference of the inlet, resulting in a
mesh size of 0.005 m. This mesh size was chosen to provide a quick turnaround time for the model.
For real-world simulations, you would modify your mesh settings after an initial solution until a mesh-
independent solution is reached (that is, a solution that does not change with further mesh refinement).
Figure 999:
in areas where gradients in pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity, and the like are steep.
For this problem it is desirable to resolve flow characteristics near the gap between the valve opening
and the shutter. It would also be desirable to be able to resolve flow characteristics around the complete
valve body. The mesh size for the region around the gap will be sized to allow for at least three cells
to span the gap in the initial position. The mesh around the full valve body will be sized so that the
average cell size will be one half of the global mesh size. This local mesh refinement is accomplished
using mesh refinement zones.

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Figure 1000:
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the displacement of the moving surface,
the mass flow rate at the outlet, pressure contours on the symmetry plane, and velocity vectors on the
symmetry plane.

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This tutorial walks you through the process of setting up and solving a fluid-structure simulation of a
spring-loaded check valve subjected to changes in inlet pressure.
groups, creating a multiplier function, and assigning mesh controls and boundary conditions to the
groups. Next you will generate a mesh and run AcuSolve to simulate the transient behavior. You will use
AcuProbe to post-process mesh displacement and mass flow. Finally, you will visualize the results using
AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, create the database for storage of AcuConsole settings, and
4. Create a new folder named Check_Valve_Transient and open this folder.
5. Enter Check_Valve_Transient as the file name for the database.
Set General Simulation Attributes

The general attributes that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, transient time analysis,
and the use of arbitrary mesh movement.

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Figure 1001:
Figure 1002:

5. Enter Pressure Check Valve - AcuSolve Internal Solver as the Sub title.
choice for simulation of transient flows.
8. Change the Mesh type to Arbitrary Mesh Movement (ALE).

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Figure 1003:

Figure 1004:
detail panel.
of time steps based on the final time and the time increment.
3. Enter 0.35 sec for the Final time.
4. Enter 0.002 sec for the Initial time increment.
time step.

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Figure 1005:
Set Material Model Attributes

Figure 1006:
Figure 1007:

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3
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

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Import the Check Valve Geometry

pressureCheckValve.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing pressureCheckValve.x_t.
4. Select pressureCheckValve.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 1008:

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Figure 1009:
Create Multiplier Function for Inlet Pressure

This is achieved through the use of a multiplier function. In this tutorial, the inlet stagnation pressure
varies as the simulation progresses. By taking advantage of multiplier functions, you can easily set up a
function to model the pressure changes at the inlet.
In the next steps you will create a multiplier function for the pressure at the inlet. This multiplier
function will be applied to the inlet later in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, the inlet pressure starts at 0 pascals, ramps up to 26,500 Pa, is held steady briefly, and
then ramps back to 0 Pa.
Figure 1010:

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Data Tree Manager.
Figure 1011:
b) Enter inlet pressure.
4. Double-click inlet pressure to open the detail panel.

6. Set the Curve fit variable to Time.
7. Check that the Evaluation type is set to Per Time Step.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should evaluate the multiplier function once for each time step.
Figure 1012:
8. Add the function values for the inlet pressure profile.

b) Click Add five times to add five new rows.

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c) Enter the following values for X (time) and Y (pressure).
X Y
0.0 0.0
0.002 0.0
0.05 26500
0.2 26500
0.25 0.0
0.35 0.0
Figure 1013:
d) Click Plot to expand the Array Editor dialog to display the plot of the curve fit values.

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Figure 1014:
e) Click OK.
These entries will be used to control the change in inlet pressure throughout the simulation.
Create Mesh Motion

AcuSolve uses the mesh-motion settings to define the movement of nodes within the model. In this
tutorial, you will use a special case of this command that solves the dynamic equations of motion to
determine the motion of the nodes. This type of mesh motion is referred to as a rigid-body dynamic.
In this simulation, you will specify two inputs to define the behavior of the rigid body; the mass of the
valve shutter and the stiffness of the spring that resists the movement of the valve shutter.
The definition of mesh motion requires three steps in AcuConsole:

1. Create the mesh-motion definition (this set of steps).
2. Assign the mesh-motion instance to a surface group.
3. Revisit the mesh-motion settings to couple the forces on the surface with the displacement of the
body.
In the next steps you will create a mesh motion of type rigid body to simulate the valve shutter and
virtual spring. This mesh motion defines how the valve responds to the flow forces. To simplify this task,
you will use the FSI filter in the Data Tree Manager. The FSI filter limits the options in the to show only
the settings related to fluid-structure interactions.
1. Click FSI in the Data Tree Manager to filter all but the settings related to fluid-structure
interactions.
2. Right-click Mesh Motion in the Data Tree and click New to create a new mesh motion item.
3. Rename the mesh motion item.
a) Right-click Mesh motion 1.

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b) Click Rename.
c) Enter rigid body and press Enter.
4. Double-click rigid body to open the detail panel.
5. Set the Type to Rigid Body Dynamic.
6. Ensure that X displacement is set to Active.
7. Set the remainder of the displacement and rotation settings to Inactive.
These settings indicate that AcuSolve should only allow for valve motion in the X direction.
8. Enter 0.0167 for Mass.
1
This is the scaled mass of the valve shutter and stem, corresponding to the /12 portion of the
geometry that is modeled.
9. Define the stiffness of the virtual spring supporting the shutter.
a) Click Open Array next to Stiffness.
b) Enter 180.1667 in the XX cell.
This is the scaled stiffness of the spring, corresponding to the portion of the geometry that is
modeled. As the valve translates only in the X direction, all other stiffness settings remain at
zero.
Figure 1015:
10. Click OK.

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Figure 1016:

list of geometric volumes associated with the container, as well as attributes such as material models
container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group and set the material for the volume as
water.
3. Expand Volumes.
5. Double-click Element Set to open the Element Set detail panel.

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6. Click the drop-down control next to Material model and select Water
Figure 1017:
For the next set of steps it is useful to turn off the display of Fluid by clicking so that it is in the off
( ) state.

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Set Inflow Boundary Conditions for the Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the inlet, assign the multiplier function to describe
the transient pressure, and add the inlet from the geometry to the surface group.

b) Click New.
2. Rename the surface to Inlet .
5. Turn Advanced features On.
This will expose the Stagnation pressure multiplier function control that you will use to associate
the multiplier function with the inlet.
8. Set the Stagnation pressure to 1.0 N/m2.
9. Set the Stagnation pressure multiplier function to use the inlet pressure function to apply the
transient pressure at the inlet.
10. Set Turbulence input type to Viscosity Ratio.
When using this setting, AcuSolve will calculate the eddy viscosity based on the material model
and the ratio of turbulent to laminar viscosity.

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Figure 1018:

a) Right-click Inlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the geometry by Ctrl+left-clicking near the left side of the geometry and dragging the
cursor to the right.
c) Click the inlet face.
Figure 1019:
At this point the inlet should be highlighted

d) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Inlet surface group.

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b) Rotate the model to expose the outlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the right end of the
geometry and moving the cursor toward the left.
Figure 1020:

Set Symmetry Boundary Conditions for the Symmetry Planes
The problem is rotationally periodic, allowing for modeling with the use of a section. For this tutorial,
a 30-degree section of the geometry is modeled. In order to take advantage of this, the front and
rear faces of the section can be identified as symmetry planes, because the non-streamwise flow
contribution is minimal. The symmetry boundary condition enforces constraints such that the flow field
from one side of the plane is a mirror image of that on the other side.
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the symmetry plane on the front of the modeled
section, and then create a second surface group for the back symmetry plane.

2. Rename the surface to Front symmetry.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Front symmetry to open the Simple Boundary

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5. Change the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip.
This allows the mesh to move freely along the plane.
6. Turn off the display of all surface items except Front symmetry and default.
Figure 1021:

a) Right-click Front symmetry and click Add to.
b) Click the symmetry plane near the inlet and near the outlet.
Figure 1022:
At this point, the front symmetry plane should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Front symmetry surface group.
9. Rename the surface to Back symmetry.
10. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Back Symmetry to open the Simple Boundary

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Figure 1023:
13. Turn off the display of all surface items except Back Symmetry and default.
a) Right-click Back symmetry and click Add to.
Figure 1024:
At this point, the back symmetry plane should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Back symmetry surface group.
Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Valve Shutter Walls
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the walls of the valve shutter, assign the
appropriate settings, and add the faces from the geometry to the surface group. As part of the
definition, you will assign the rigid-body mesh motion that you defined earlier to this surface.

2. Rename the surface to Valve wall.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Valve wall to open the Simple Boundary
The default Type for the boundary condition for a new surface is Wall.
4. Set Mesh motion to use the rigid body mesh motion that you defined earlier in this tutorial.
a) Click the drop-down control next to Mesh motion.

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b) Click rigid body.
Figure 1025:

The wall of the valve is comprised of many surfaces in the geometry. By orienting the geometry
properly, you can select the surfaces that make up the valve wall with the use of the "rubber
band" selection tool in AcuConsole.
6. Zoom in on the portion of the geometry that represents the valve shutter and stem by using the
right-mouse button or on the View Manager toolbar.
7. Rotate the view by left-clicking above the model and dragging the cursor down and to the right to
expose the shutter and stem walls.
Figure 1026:
8. Turn off the display of all surface items except Valve wall and default.
a) Right-click Valve wall and click Add to.

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b) Hold the Shift key down, left-click, and drag a selection box (rubber band) around the valve
and stem.
Figure 1027:
c) Release the left key and the valve shutter and stem should be highlighted.
Figure 1028:
d) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Valve wall surface group.
Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Pipe Walls
you created. At this point, all that is left in the default surface group is the pipe wall. Rather than

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create a new container, add the wall surfaces in the geometry to it, and then delete the default surface
container, you will rename the existing container.
1. Rename the default surface to Pipe wall.

2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Pipe wall to open the detail panel.
Figure 1029:
Couple Mesh Motion to the Valve Wall
As the final step in enabling the use of mesh motion, you will revisit the mesh-motion definition to
couple the mesh motion that you created earlier with the valve wall surface group. This step instructs
AcuSolve to extract the forces on the valve from the set of surfaces that you specify in this step.
1. Click FSI in the Data Tree Manager to display the options relevant to setting up an FSI model in
the Data Tree.
2. Expand the Global > Mesh Motion tree item.
3. Double-click rigid body to open the detail panel.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the panel and click Open Refs next to Surface outputs.
5. Click Add Row in the Reference Editor.
6. Click the drop-down control for row 1 and select Valve wall.
Figure 1030:
7. Click OK.

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are written to disk. Writing the results every three time steps produces a collection of output states
that can be used to create an animation of the simulation once the run has completed. Note that more
frequent output can be used, but it will result in higher disk space usage.

This value indicates that AcuSolve should write results after every three time steps.
Figure 1031:

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Now that the simulation has been defined, attributes need to be added to define the mesh sizes that will
be created by the mesher.
the model.
In the next steps you will set global meshing attributes. In subsequent steps you will create zone and
surface meshing attributes.
3. Double-click Global Mesh Attributes to open the detail panel.
This option controls that rate at which the mesh transitions between regions of different surface
and volume size. Setting this to a value of 1.2 allows for a gradual transition between finely
meshed regions and coarsely meshed regions.
8. Set the Maximum sweep angle to 30.0 degrees.
This option allows you to set the maximum sweep angle for edge-blend meshing on a global basis,
Figure 1032:

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In the following steps you will add mesh refinements in the zone around the valve gap and around the
valve body.
Set Zone Meshing Parameters for the Gap
In the next steps you will add a set of mesh attributes for a zone around the gap between the valve
shutter and the orifice.

2. Turn off the display of all surfaces except Valve wall and Pipe wall.
5. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Gap mesh refinement.
6. Double-click Gap mesh refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
cylinder.
b) Enter -0.05 for X-coordinate 1.
c) Enter -0.03 for X-coordinate 2.
d) Enter 0.025 for Y-coordinate 1 and 2.
e) Enter 0.0 for Z-coordinate 1 and 2.
f) Click OK.
This radius is used to define a cylinder that encloses the gap in the modeled section of the check
valve.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size provides at least three cells between the shutter and
the edge of the orifice in the initial position.

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Figure 1033:
Figure 1034:
Set Zone Meshing Parameters for the Valve Body
In the next steps you will add a set of mesh attributes for a zone around the valve body.
2. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Valve body mesh refinement.
3. Double-click Valve body mesh refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
cylinder.
c) Enter 0.04 for X-coordinate 2.
f) Click OK.
valve.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size is half of the global mesh size.

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Figure 1035:
Figure 1036:

attributes that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal to the surfaces of the pipe walls
and valve walls.
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Pipe Walls
In the next steps you will set meshing attributes that allow for localized control of the mesh near the
walls of the pipe. The mesh size on the wall of the pipe will be inherited from the global mesh size that
was defined earlier. The settings that follow will only control the growth of the boundary layer from the
walls of the pipe into the fluid volume.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Pipe wall tree item.
walls.

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5 Moving Body p.909
9. Turn on the Boundary layer blends flag option.
This option creates a radial array of boundary layer elements around exterior corners.
10. Enter 30.0 degrees as the Maximum sweep angle.
Figure 1037:
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Valve Walls
In the next steps you will set meshing attributes that allow for localized control of the mesh size near
the walls of the valve shutter assembly.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Valve wall tree item.

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Figure 1038:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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Figure 1039:

5. Turn off the display of Gap mesh refinement and Valve wall mesh refinement under Global >
Zone Mesh Attributes by clicking next to the surface so that it is in the display off state ( ),
Details of the mesh on the front symmetry plane are shown in Figure 1040. This view was
obtained by reorienting the view with on the View Manager toolbar, then zooming in on the
model.

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Figure 1040: Mesh Details Around the Valve Viewed on the Front Symmetry Plane
Note that the mesh size in the pipe decreases from left to right in the transition from a region
where global settings determine the size to the zone around the gap where the settings are for
a finer mesh. Note also that the mesh to the right of the valve shutter is smaller than the global
mesh as determined in the Valve body mesh refinement that you created.

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5 Moving Body p.913
Run AcuSolve

Figure 1041:

While AcuSolve is running, you can monitor the inlet pressure and displacement of the valve using
AcuProbe.

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5 Moving Body p.914
1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Surface Output > Inlet > Pressure.
3. Right-click on pressure and select Plot.
As the solution progresses, the plot will update. If you opened AcuProbe after the solution
completed, click to refresh the plot.

4. Collapse Inlet under the Surface Output item.
5. Expand Valve wall > Geometry under the Surface Output item.
6. Right-click on mesh_x_displacement and select Plot.
Figure 1042:
Post-Process Flow Rate with AcuProbe

AcuProbe has the ability to plot many other flow quantities. One such quantity is mass flow rate at
the valve outlet. While AcuProbe does not have the option to plot volume flow rate directly, it can be
calculated for incompressible flow using a user function.
In the next steps you will create a user function for the display of volume flow rate in AcuProbe.
1. Turn off the plot of pressure at the inlet.

a) Right-click Inlet.
b) Select Plot None.
2. Turn off the plot of mesh_x_displacement on the valve wall.

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5 Moving Body p.915
a) Right-click Valve wall.

3. Create a user function for volume flow rate.
a)
Click on the toolbar to open the User Function dialog.
b) Enter Volume flow rate for the Name.
c) Type mass_flux = in the Function window.
d) Expand Surface Output > Outlet > Mass in the Data Tree.
e) Right-click on mass_flux and select Copy Name.
f) Paste the name into the Function box in the User Function dialog.
g) On the next line, type value = mass_flux/1000.0.
This sets the value to be plotted as the mass flux at the outlet divided by the density of
water.
Figure 1043:
h) Click Apply and Close the dialog.

4.
Click on the toolbar to refresh the plot of volume flow rate.

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5 Moving Body p.916
Figure 1044:

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView, display velocity magnitude and animate the view to
show mesh displacement. You will then display velocity vectors and pressure contours when the valve
shutter is at maximum displacement.
Start AcuFieldView

Display Velocity Magnitude on the Front Symmetry Plane
front symmetry plane of the modeled slice.
These steps are provided with the assumption that you are able to manipulate the view in AcuFieldView
to have a white background, perspective turned off, outlines turned off, and the viewing direction set

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5 Moving Body p.917
to +Z. If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to Manipulate the Model View in
AcuFieldView .
1.

c) Click Calculate.
4. Set the front symmetry plane and pipe walls as the location for display of contours.
a) Click OSF: Front symmetry.
b) Hold the Ctrl key and click OSF: Pipe wall.
c) Click OK.

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Figure 1045:
When data was loaded from AcuSolve, AcuFieldView displays information from the final time step.
In the following steps you will display velocity magnitude at the first time step and then animate
the display to show the motion of the valve shutter and the velocity changes throughout the
simulation.
Animate the Display of Velocity Magnitude
independently of AcuFieldView. As a first step, you will change the colormap used by the legend.
1. Set the colormap to use defined maximum and minimum values throughout the transient sweep.
a) Click the Colormap tab.
b) Enter 6.6 for the maximum.
c) Enter 0 for the minimum.
These settings will be used throughout the transient sweep so that the contours at each time step
will all be relative to this specified range.

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Figure 1046:
dialog.

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5 Moving Body p.920
Figure 1047:
6. Click Build.
Figure 1048:
7. Click Frame Rate and set the Minimum Time Seconds to 0.1.
8. Use the controls on the Flipbook Controls dialog to play and pause the animation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.921
9. Save the animation as mesh_velocity_mag.

AcuFieldView will add the appropriate file extension. For Windows, mesh_velocity_mag.avi
will be saved. It can be viewed independently of AcuFieldView by double-clicking it in Windows
Explorer.
warning.
Display Pressure Contours and Velocity Vectors on a Mid-Z Coordinate

Surface
In the next steps you will create a coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane of the modeled section. You
will then display pressure contours and velocity vectors on that surface.
1. Disable the Visibility option on the Boundary Surface dialog used to create the display of
velocity magnitude.
2. Open View > Defined Views and set the view to +Z.
3.
Click on the side toolbar to open the Coordinate Surface dialog.
Figure 1049:
4. Create and configure a new coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane.

a) Click Create.
b) Change the Display Type to Smooth.

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5 Moving Body p.922
c) Change the Coloring to Scalar.

d) Select pressure as the Scalar Function to display.
e) Set the Coord Plane to Z.
This surface will be created in the XY plane at the middle of the geometry in the Z direction.
f) Click the Colormap tab and enable Local in the Scalar Coloring group.
g) Click the Legend tab and enable the Show Legend option.
h) Click the black color swatch next to the Subtitle field and set the color for the subtitle to
white.
5. Create a second coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane for the display of velocity vectors.
a) Click Create on the Surface tab of the Coordinate Surface dialog.
Figure 1050:
b) Change the Display Type to Vectors.

c) Click Options next to Vectors.

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5 Moving Body p.923
Figure 1051:
d) Enable Head Scaling and set the scaling to 0.25.

e) Set the Length Scale to 0.5.
f) Enable Skip option and set it to 75 %.
g) Close the Vector Options dialog.
h) Change the Coloring to Geometric.
i) Set the Geometric color to white.
j) Set the Coord Plane to Z.
6. Zoom in on the valve-body region of the model.
th
7. Set transient data to display the 78 time step.
a) Open Tools > Transient Data.
b) Use the slider to set the Time Step to 78.
c) Click Apply.

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Figure 1052:

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5.6 ACU-T: 5201 Coupled Simulation of a Check

Valve using AcuSolve and MotionSolve
AcuConsole
5.6.1 AcuConsole
AcuSolve has the capability to solve problems with fluid-structure interactions, as shown in ACU-T: 5200
Rigid-Body Dynamics of a Check Valve. It can also be coupled with external codes, such as MotionSolve,
in cases where the built-in capabilities of AcuSolve do not fully represent the physics of interest, such as
a collision between solid bodies.
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results for a simulation of
the opening of a pressure check valve. In this simulation, AcuSolve is used to compute the forces on
the valve due to the time-varying inlet flow field and MotionSolve is used to compute the motion of
the valve that results from these flow forces. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number
of modeling concepts necessary to perform simulations of rigid-body dynamics and coupling with
MotionSolve. An important feature of the AcuSolve-MotionSolve coupling is the ability to simulate
contact between solid bodies, which is demonstrated in this tutorial through the collision of the valve
with the valve seat.
• Coupled solution with external code (MotionSolve)
• Fluid-structure interaction
• Mesh motion
• Use of a multiplier function to scale inlet boundary conditions
• Results animation
Prerequisites
will also need access to licensed versions of AcuSolve and MotionSolve.

<AcuSolve_installation_directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuSolve to a local
directory. Extract the Pressure_Check_Valve-Coupled\ directory and its contents from
AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip. This directory contains the geometry model in Parasolid ASCII
format, pressureCheckValve.x_t, as well as the prepared MotionSolve model, Valve_model.xml.

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5 Moving Body p.926
Analyze the Problem

cylindrical pipe containing water that flows past a check valve with a shutter attached to a virtual
spring (not included in the geometry). The inlet pressure varies over time and the movement of the
shutter will be determined as a function of the balance of the fluid forces against the reactive force of
the spring. The problem is rotationally periodic at 30° increments about the longitudinal axis, and it
is assumed that the resulting flow is also rotationally periodic, allowing for modeling with the use of
a wedge-shaped section. For this tutorial, a 30° section of the geometry is modeled, as shown in the
figure. Modeling a portion of an rotationally periodic geometry leads to reduced computation time while
still providing an accurate solution.
Figure 1053: Schematic of Check Valve with Spring-Loaded Shutter
The pipe has an inlet diameter of 0.08 m and is 0.4 m long. The check-valve assembly is 0.085 m
downstream of the inlet. It consists of a plate 0.005 m thick with a centered orifice 0.044 m in diameter
and a shutter with an initial position 0.005 m from the opening, simulating a nearly closed condition.
The shutter plate is 0.05 m in diameter and 0.005 m thick. The shutter plate is attached to a stem 0.03
m long and 0.01 m in diameter. The mass of the shutter and stem is 0.2 kg and its motion is affected

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5 Moving Body p.927
by a virtual spring with a stiffness of 2162 N/m. The motion of the valve shutter is limited by a stop
mounted on a perforated plate downstream of the shutter.
Figure 1054:
Modeling the geometry as a 30° section requires that the fluid model is set up to be consistent with the
1
rigid-body model. Since only /12 of the rigid body is modeled, the forces computed by AcuSolve that
1
act on the valve shutter represent /12 of the actual force on the device. The rigid-body-dynamics model
was set up in MotionSolve with scaled settings of mass and spring stiffness to account for the fact that
you are only modeling a small section of the full geometry. Additional information regarding the setup of
this problem in MotionSolve is provided in the MotionSolve documentation.
3
The fluid in this problem is water, which has a density (ρ) of 1000 kg/m and a molecular viscosity (μ)
-3
of 1 X 10 kg/m-sec, as shown in the worksheet.
Figure 1055:
At the start of the simulation the flow field is stationary. Flow is driven by the pressure at the inlet,
which varies over time as a piecewise linear function shown in Figure 1056. As the pressure at the inlet
rises, the flow will accelerate as the valve opens. The turbulence viscosity ratio is assumed to be 10.
The initial inlet pressure is 0 Pa. At 0.002 s the pressure begins to ramp up and reaches 29,000 Pa at
0.05 s. The pressure is held at 29,000 Pa and begins to ramp back down starting at 0.2 s, reaching the
initial pressure at 0.25 s where it remains for the rest of the simulation.

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Figure 1056: Transient pressure at the inlet
Prior simulations of this geometry indicate that the average velocity at the inlet reaches a maximum of
0.98 m/s. At this velocity, the Reynolds number for the flow is 78,400. When the Reynolds number is
above 4,000 it is generally accepted that flow should be modeled as turbulent.
Figure 1057:
Note that the initial conditions of the flow are actually laminar, however, the increase in flow velocity
and flow around the valve shutter is expected to cause a rapid transition to turbulent conditions.
Therefore, the simulation will be set up to model transient, turbulent flow. When performing a transient
analysis, convergence is achieved at every time step based on the defined stagger criteria. Mesh motion
will be modeled using arbitrary mesh movement (arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian mesh motion).

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 1058:
For this case, the transient behavior of interest occurs in the time it takes for the pressure to ramp up
and ramp back down, which is given by the transient pressure profile. To allow time for the spring to
recover additional time will be simulated. For this tutorial 0.1 s is added after the pressure drops back
to initial conditions for a total duration of 0.35 s.
Figure 1059:
number. With this method, the time increment can be computed from the mesh size, the flow velocity
and the desired CFL number.
The change in inlet pressure from initial conditions to maximum occurs over 0.048 s. A time increment
of 0.002 s would allow for excellent resolution of the transient changes without requiring excessive
computational time. This time increment would result in a CFL number of 0.36, indicating that it would
take approximately three time steps for flow to cross a single mesh element. While the time increment
could be raised and still maintain a favorable CFL number, the value of 0.002 s is chosen to better
resolve the transient changes resulting from the sudden pressure shifts.

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Figure 1060:
size is set to provide at least 50 mesh elements around the circumference of the inlet, resulting in a
mesh size of 0.005 m. This mesh size was chosen to provide a quick turnaround time for the model.
For real-world simulations, you would modify your mesh settings after an initial solution until a mesh-
independent solution is reached, that is, a solution that does not change with further mesh refinement.
Figure 1061:
components of the problem such as volumes, model surfaces or edges. It is useful to refine the mesh in
areas where gradients in pressure, velocity, eddy viscosity and the like are steep.
For this problem it is desirable to resolve flow characteristics near the gap between the valve opening
and the shutter. It would also be desirable to be able to resolve flow characteristics around the complete
valve body. The mesh size for the region around the gap will be sized to allow for at least three cells
to span the gap in the initial position. The mesh around the full valve body will be sized so that the
average cell size will be one half of the global mesh size. This local mesh refinement is accomplished
using mesh refinement zones.

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5 Moving Body p.931
Figure 1062:
Once a solution is calculated, the flow properties of interest are the displacement of the moving surface,
velocity of the moving surface, mass flow rate at the outlet, pressure contours on the symmetry plane
and velocity vectors on the symmetry plane.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.932

This tutorial walks you through the process of setting up and solving a fluid-structure simulation of a
spring-loaded check valve subjected to changes in inlet pressure using AcuSolve, to solve the fluid flow,
coupled with MotionSolve, to solve the rigid-body dynamics.
setting parameters for coupling with MotionSolve, loading the geometry, creating groups, setting group
attributes, adding geometry components to groups, creating a multiplier function, and assigning mesh
controls and boundary conditions to the groups. Next you will generate a mesh and run AcuSolve
and MotionSolve to simulate the transient behavior. You will use AcuProbe to post-process mesh
displacement and mass flow. Finally, you will visualize the results using AcuFieldView.
In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, create the database for storage of AcuConsole settings, and
4. Create a new folder named Check_Valve_Coupled and open this folder.
5. Enter Check_Valve_Coupled as the file name for the database.

The general attributes that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, transient time analysis,
arbitrary mesh movement, and the use of an external code (MotionSolve).

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5 Moving Body p.933
Figure 1063:
Figure 1064:

4. Enter AcuSolve Tutorial as the Title for this case.
5. Enter Pressure Check Valve - Coupled MotionSolve as the Sub title for this case.
choice for simulation of transient flows.
8. Change the Mesh type to Arbitrary Mesh Movement (ALE).
9. Turn External code on.
This indicates that AcuSolve will send and receive information from another solver. You will
configure the communication between the codes later in this tutorial.

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Figure 1065:

Figure 1066:
detail panel.
of time steps based on the final time and the time increment.
3. Enter 0.35 sec for the Final time.
4. Enter 0.002 sec for the Initial time increment.
Important: The value entered here must match the print_interval setting in the
prepared MotionSolve model, Valve_model.xml, to ensure that the two solvers stay
synchronized during the solution process.

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5 Moving Body p.935
time step.
Figure 1067:

AcuConsole has three pre-defined materials, Air, Aluminum and Water.
Figure 1068:

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5 Moving Body p.936
Figure 1069:
3
Set External Code Parameters for Communication with MotionSolve

In the next steps you will provide the settings that will allow AcuSolve and MotionSolve to communicate
during the solution process. In this simulation, MotionSolve is being used to calculate the motion of
the valve in response to the fluid loads calculated by AcuSolve. In order to achieve this, AcuSolve and
MotionSolve will communicate through a socket connection. This communication approach enables the
two codes to be run on separate machines and even different operating systems.
1. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to show all settings.

2. Double-click External Code Parameters under Global to open the External Code Parameters
detail panel.
3. Set Communication to Socket.
4. Turn Socket initiate off.
This setting indicates that the external code (MotionSolve) will open the socket and AcuSolve will
"listen" for a connection on the indicated socket port.
5. Enter localhost as the Socket host.
This indicates that AcuSolve and MotionSolve are running on the same machine. If MotionSolve
was running on a different machine, the host name or IP address would need to be supplied here.
6. Enter 48000 as the Socket port.
This is the default port used for communication between AcuSolve and MotionSolve.

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Figure 1070:

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5 Moving Body p.938
Import the Check Valve Geometry

pressureCheckValve.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
2. Browse to the directory containing pressureCheckValve.x_t.
4. Select pressureCheckValve.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 1071:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.939
Figure 1072:
Create Multiplier Function for Inlet Pressure

This is achieved through the use of a multiplier function. In this tutorial, the inlet stagnation pressure
varies as the simulation progresses. By taking advantage of multiplier functions, you can easily set up a
function to model the pressure changes at the inlet.
In the next steps you will create a multiplier function for the pressure at the inlet. This multiplier
function will be applied to the inlet later in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, the inlet pressure starts at 0 pascals, ramps up to 29,000 Pa, is held steady briefly, and
then ramps back to 0 Pa.
Figure 1073:

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Data Tree Manager.
b) Enter inlet pressure.
c) Double-click inlet pressure to open the multiplier function detail panel.

5. Set the Curve fit variable to Time.
6. Check that the Evaluation type is set to Per Time Step.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should evaluate the multiplier function once for each time step.
Figure 1074:
7. Add the function values for the inlet pressure profile.

b) Click Add five times to add five new rows.
c) Enter the following values for X (time) and Y (pressure).
X Y
0.0 0.0
0.002 0.0
0.05 29000
0.2 29000
0.25 0.0

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X Y
0.35 0.0
Figure 1075:
d) Click Plot to expand the Array Editor dialog to display the plot of the curve fit values.
Figure 1076:
e) Click OK.
These entries will be used to control the change in inlet pressure throughout the simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
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list of geometric volumes associated with the container, as well as attributes such as material models
container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group and set the material for the volume as
water.
3. Expand Volumes.
a) Right-click default under Volumes and click Rename on the context menu.
b) Enter Fluid.
a) Expand the Fluid tree item by clicking .
c) Click the drop-down control next to Material model.
d) Click Water.
Figure 1077:
For the next set of steps it is useful to turn off the display of Fluid by clicking so that it is in the off
( ) state.

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Set Inflow Boundary Conditions for the Inlet
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the inlet, assign the multiplier function to describe
the transient pressure, and add the inlet from the geometry to the surface group.

b) Click New.
2. Rename the surface to Inlet .
5. Turn Advanced features On.
This will expose the Stagnation pressure multiplier function control that you will use to associate
the multiplier function with the inlet.
8. Set the Stagnation pressure to 1.0 N/m2.
9. Set the Stagnation pressure multiplier function to use the inlet pressure function to apply the
transient pressure at the inlet.
10. Set Turbulence input type to Viscosity Ratio.
When using this setting, AcuSolve will calculate the eddy viscosity based on the material model
and the ratio of turbulent to laminar viscosity.

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Figure 1078:

a) Right-click Inlet and click Add to.
b) Rotate the geometry by Ctrl+left-clicking near the left side of the geometry and dragging the
cursor to the right.
c) Click the inlet face.
Figure 1079:
At this point the inlet should be highlighted

d) Click Done to add this geometry surface to the Inlet surface group.

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b) Rotate the model to expose the outlet by Ctrl+left-clicking near the right end of the
geometry and moving the cursor toward the left.
Figure 1080:

Set Symmetry Boundary Conditions for the Symmetry Planes
The problem is rotationally periodic, allowing for modeling with the use of a section. For this tutorial,
a 30-degree section of the geometry is modeled. In order to take advantage of this, the front and
rear faces of the section can be identified as symmetry planes, because the non-streamwise flow
contribution is minimal. The symmetry boundary condition enforces constraints such that the flow field
from one side of the plane is a mirror image of that on the other side.
In the next steps you will define a surface group for the symmetry plane on the front of the modeled
section, and then create a second surface group for the back symmetry plane.

2. Rename the surface to Front symmetry.
3. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Front symmetry to open the Simple Boundary

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6. Turn off the display of all surface items except Front symmetry and default.
Figure 1081:

a) Right-click Front symmetry and click Add to.
Figure 1082:
At this point, the front symmetry plane should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Front symmetry surface group.
9. Rename the surface to Back symmetry.
10. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Back Symmetry to open the Simple Boundary

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Figure 1083:
13. Turn off the display of all surface items except Back Symmetry and default.
a) Right-click Back symmetry and click Add to.
Figure 1084:
At this point, the back symmetry plane should be highlighted.

c) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Back symmetry surface group.
Set External Code Surface Attributes for the Valve Shutter Walls
The motion of this surface, resulting from the transient inlet pressure, will be modeled with
MotionSolve. In the next steps you will define a surface group for the walls of the valve shutter, assign
the appropriate settings, and add the faces from the geometry to the surface group.
1. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to show all settings.
3. Rename the surface to Valve wall.
4. Disable Simple Boundary Condition for Valve wall.
5. Enable External Code Surface.
Disabling the boundary condition options and enabling external code options indicates that
boundary conditions will be handled by the external code (MotionSolve).

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6. Set Coupling type to Rigid Body.

This indicates that the external code will provide rigid-body information for this surface.
7. Enter Model-Shutter Body for Rigid body name.
The name entered here needs to match the body name in the prepared MotionSolve model,
Valve_model.xml, to ensure that information about forces and motion of this surface match up
between AcuSolve and MotionSolve.
Figure 1085:
8. Restore the initial view by clicking on the View Manager toolbar. .

9. Zoom in on the portion of the geometry that represents the valve shutter and stem by using the
right-mouse button or on the View Manager toolbar.
10. Rotate the view by left-clicking above the model and dragging the cursor down and to the right to
expose the shutter and stem walls.
Figure 1086:

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11. Turn off the display of all surface items except Valve wall and default.
a) Right-click Valve wall and click Add to.
b) Hold the Shift key down, left-click, and drag a selection box (rubber band) around the valve
and stem.
Figure 1087:
c) Release the left key and the valve shutter and stem should be highlighted.
Figure 1088:
d) Click Done to add these geometry surfaces to the Valve wall surface group.

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Set Wall Boundary Conditions for the Pipe Walls
you created. At this point, all that is left in the default surface group is the pipe wall. Rather than
create a new container, add the wall surfaces in the geometry to it, and then delete the default surface
container, you will rename the existing container.
1. Rename the default surface to Pipe wall.

2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition under Pipe wall to open the detail panel.
Figure 1089:

are written to disk. The results can be used to create an animation of the simulation once the run has
completed. Writing the results after every time step produces a collection of output states that allows
for the best visual resolution of the contact between the valve and valve stop.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should write results after every time step.
Figure 1090:

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Now that the simulation has been defined, attributes need to be added to define the mesh sizes that will
be created by the mesher.
the model.
In the next steps you will set global meshing attributes. In subsequent steps you will create zone and
surface meshing attributes.
3. Double-click Global Mesh Attributes to open the detail panel.
This option controls that rate at which the mesh transitions between regions of different surface
and volume size. Setting this to a value of 1.2 allows for a gradual transition between finely
meshed regions and coarsely meshed regions.
8. Set the Maximum sweep angle to 30.0 degrees.
This option allows you to set the maximum sweep angle for edge-blend meshing on a global basis,
Figure 1091:

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In the following steps you will add mesh refinements in the zone around the valve gap and around the
valve body.
Set Zone Meshing Parameters for the Gap
In the next steps you will add a set of mesh attributes for a zone around the gap between the valve
shutter and the orifice.

2. Turn off the display of all surfaces except Valve wall and Pipe wall.
5. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Gap mesh refinement.
6. Double-click Gap mesh refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
cylinder.
c) Enter -0.03 for X-coordinate 2.
f) Click OK.
valve.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size provides at least three cells between the shutter and
the edge of the orifice in the initial position.

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Figure 1092:
Figure 1093:
Set Zone Meshing Parameters for the Valve Body
In the next steps you will add a set of mesh attributes for a zone around the valve body.
2. Rename Zone Mesh Attributes 1 to Valve body mesh refinement.
3. Double-click Valve body mesh refinement to open the Zone Mesh Attributes detail panel.
cylinder.
c) Enter 0.04 for X-coordinate 2.
f) Click OK.
valve.
This will result in a zone where the mesh size is half of the global mesh size.

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Figure 1094:
Figure 1095:

attributes that control the growth of boundary layer elements normal to the surfaces of the pipe walls
and valve walls.
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Pipe Walls
In the next steps you will set meshing attributes that allow for localized control of the mesh near the
walls of the pipe. The mesh size on the wall of the pipe will be inherited from the global mesh size that
was defined earlier. The settings that follow will only control the growth of the boundary layer from the
walls of the pipe into the fluid volume.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Pipe wall tree item.
walls.

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5 Moving Body p.955
Figure 1096:
Set Surface Meshing Attributes for the Valve Walls
In the next steps you will set meshing attributes that allow for localized control of the mesh size near
the walls of the valve shutter assembly.
1. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Valve wall tree item.

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5 Moving Body p.956

Figure 1097:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


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5 Moving Body p.957
Figure 1098:

5. Turn off the display of Gap mesh refinement and Valve wall mesh refinement under Global >
Zone Mesh Attributes by clicking next to the surface so that it is in the display off state ( ).
Details of the mesh on the front symmetry plane are shown below. This view was obtained by
reorienting the view with on the View Manager toolbar, then zooming in on the model.

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5 Moving Body p.958
Figure 1099: Mesh Details Around the Valve Viewed on the Front Symmetry Plane
Note that the mesh size in the pipe decreases from left to right in the transition from a region
where global settings determine the size to the zone around the gap where the settings are for
a finer mesh. Note also that the mesh to the right of the valve shutter is smaller than the global
mesh as determined in the Valve body mesh refinement that you created.

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5 Moving Body p.959
Solve the Problem

This tutorial uses a coupled solution between AcuSolve for the flow field and MotionSolve for the rigid-
body-dynamics. Solving the problem for this tutorial involves two steps:
1. Start AcuSolve.
2. Start MotionSolve.
The next sets of steps provide instructions for these two tasks.
Run AcuSolve


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5 Moving Body p.960
Figure 1100:
Run MotionSolve
In the next steps you will start MotionSolve and provide settings for communication with AcuSolve.
1. Run Start > All Programs > Altair HyperWorks <version> > MotionSolve to open the
HyperWorks Solver Run Manager.
2. Browse to the location of \Pressure_Check_Valve-Coupled\Valve_model.xml and select this as
the Input file.
This file contains MotionSolve version of the model.
3. Change the Files of type filter to Motion Solve Data (*.xml, *.acf, *.py).
4. Click Valve_model.xml and Open.
5.
Click next to Options to open the Available Options dialog.
6. Enable the -as_cosim option to indicate coupling between MotionSolve and AcuSolve.

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5 Moving Body p.961
Figure 1101:
7. In the -as_cosim dialog that appear, click None.

8. Click Apply Options and close the dialog.
9. Click Run to start MotionSolve.
As the solution progresses, a HyperWorks Solver View window will open. Solution progress
is reported in this window. The AcuSolve AcuTail window will also update as the solution
progresses.

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5 Moving Body p.962
Figure 1102:
As the solution progresses, you can monitor the progress with AcuProbe, as detailed in the next steps.

While AcuSolve is running, you can monitor flow characteristics such as inlet pressure, displacement of
the valve, and velocity of the valve, using AcuProbe.
1.
2. In the Data Tree, expand Surface Output > Inlet > Pressure.
4. Collapse Inlet under the Surface Output item.

5. Expand Valve wall > Geometry under the Surface Output item.
6. Right-click on mesh_x_displacement and select Plot.

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Figure 1103:
Note that the valve motion lags behind the pressure changes at the inlet. Note also the spike
th
around the 25 time step. This represents the collision of the valve stem with the stop and the
subsequent rebound of the valve.
Post-Process the Velocity of Valve Walls with AcuProbe

AcuProbe has the ability to plot many other quantities. One such quantity is velocity of the moving
valve. In the next steps you will create a plot of the x-velocity of the valve walls.
1. Turn off the plot of pressure at the inlet.
a) Right-click Inlet.
2. Expand Valve wall > Momentum.
3. Right-click on x_velocity and select Plot.
4.
Click on the toolbar to refresh the plot.

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Figure 1104:
th
Note that the spike in mesh_x_displacement around the 25 time step corresponds with a sudden
decrease in the velocity of the valve walls. This represents the collision of the valve stem with the
stop and the subsequent rebound is reflected by a negative X velocity.

AcuSolve.
shutter is at maximum displacement.
Start AcuFieldView


AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.965
Display Velocity Magnitude on the Front Symmetry Plane
front symmetry plane of the modeled slice.
to +Z. If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to Manipulate the Model View in
AcuFieldView .
1.
Figure 1105:


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5 Moving Body p.966
c) Click Calculate.
4. Set the front symmetry plane and pipe walls as the location for display of contours.
a) Click SBC: Front symmetry.
b) Hold the Ctrl key and click SBC: Pipe wall.
c) Click OK.
Figure 1106:

AcuSolve Tutorials
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Figure 1107:
When data was loaded from AcuSolve, AcuFieldView displays information from the final time step.
In the following steps you will display velocity magnitude at the first time step and then animate
the display to show the motion of the valve shutter and the velocity changes throughout the
simulation.
Animate the Display of Velocity Magnitude
independently of AcuFieldView. As a first step, you will change the colormap used by the legend.
1. Set the colormap to use defined maximum and minimum values throughout the transient sweep.
a) Click the Colormap tab.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.968
Figure 1108:
b) Enter 6.6 for the maximum.

c) Enter 0 for the minimum.
These settings will be used throughout the transient sweep so that the contours at each time step
will all be relative to this specified range.
dialog.

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5 Moving Body p.969
Figure 1109:
6. Click Build.
Figure 1110:
7. Click Frame Rate and set the Minimum Time Seconds to 0.1.
8. Use the controls on the Flipbook Controls dialog to play and pause the animation.
9. Save the animation as mesh_velocity_mag_coupled.
AcuFieldView will add the appropriate file extension. For Windows,
mesh_velocity_mag_coupled.avi will be saved. It can be viewed independently of AcuFieldView
by double-clicking it in Windows Explorer.
warning.

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Surface
In the next steps you will create a coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane of the modeled section. You
will then display pressure contours and velocity vectors on that surface.
1. Disable the Visibility option on the Boundary Surface dialog used to create the display of
velocity magnitude.
2. Open View > Defined Views and set the view to +Z.
3.
Click on the side toolbar to open the Coordinate Surface dialog.
Figure 1111:
4. Create and configure a new coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane.

a) Click Create.
b) Change the Display Type to Smooth.
c) Change the Coloring to Scalar.
d) Select pressure as the Scalar Function to display.
e) Set the Coord Plane to Z.
f) Click the Colormap tab and enable Local in the Scalar Coloring group.
g) Click the Legend tab and enable the Show Legend option.

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5 Moving Body p.971
h) Click the black color swatch next to the Subtitle field and set the color for the subtitle to
white.
5. Create a second coordinate surface at the mid-Z plane for the display of velocity vectors.
a) Click Create on the Surface tab of the Coordinate Surface dialog.
Figure 1112:
b) Change the Display Type to Vectors.

c) Click Options next to Vectors.
Figure 1113:
d) Enable Head Scaling and set the scaling to 0.25.

e) Set the Length Scale to 0.5.

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5 Moving Body p.972
f) Enable Skip option and set it to 75 %.

g) Close the Vector Options dialog.
h) Change the Coloring to Geometric.
i) Set the Geometric color to white.
j) Set the Coord Plane to Z.
6. Zoom in on the valve-body region of the model.
th
7. Set transient data to display the 78 time step.
a) Open Tools > Transient Data.
b) Use the slider to set the Time Step to 78.
Figure 1114:

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Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a transient simulation for moving mesh
and variable inlet pressure. The solution of this case was coupled between AcuSolve for the flow field
and MotionSolve for the rigid-body dynamics. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and
generated a solution using AcuSolve and MotionSolve. AcuProbe was used to post-process the motion
of the valve shutter (x_mesh_displacement) and velocity of the valve walls. Results were also post-
processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create contour and vector views, and to allow you to view the
transient data. New features introduced in this tutorial include: coupled solution with an external code,
fluid-structure interaction, mesh motion, transient simulation, multiplier functions, post-processing with
AcuProbe, and animation of transient results.

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5.7 ACU-T: 5202 Flow Closing Valve

AcuConsole
5.7.1 AcuConsole
flow closing valve. In this simulation, AcuSolve is used to set up the motion of the valve from open to a
fully closed configuration. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to modelling concepts necessary to
perform mesh motion simulations involving near contact simulations.
The basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in the ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow.
The basic steps involving rigid body mesh motion are shown in the ACU-T: 5200 Rigid-Body Dynamics
of a Check Valve. The following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this tutorial:
• Creating a mesh motion with mesh distortion correction
• Creating advanced solution strategy parameters for mesh displacement stagger
• Creating multiplier function for translational mesh motion in terms of velocity or displacement
• Using the ogden model associated with Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) mesh movement
technology to run the simulation
In this tutorial, you will do the following:

• Start AcuConsole and work with an existing database
• Set advanced simulation parameters
• Create a mesh motion to simulate near contact
• Assign mesh distortion correction parameters
• Create a multiplier function associated with velocity or, alternatively, displacement
• Edit the configuration file to run AcuSolve using the ogden ALE
• Post processing the time series output with AcuProbe
• Post processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView
Prerequisites
In order to run this tutorial, you should have already run through the introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 2000
Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and ACU-T: 5200 Rigid-Body Dynamics of a Check Valve tutorial. It
is assumed that you have familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve, and AcuFieldView. You will also need
access to a licensed version of AcuSolve.

Closing_Valve.acs from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem


rectangular channel with two flow paths, one of which may be closed by a valve.
The inlet height is 0.2 meters and the length of the domain is 1.0 meter. The initial position of the valve
is at 9.165 millimeters from the opening, thus simulating an open condition.
The valve moves at a constant speed of 18.33 mm/s towards and away from the opening during a time
duration of 1 second.
Figure 1115: Schematic of the channel with one closing valve
Note that AcuSolve cannot simulate near contact configuration with the default settings. The mesh
distortion correction and mesh stagger parameters need to be tweaked to allow the mesh elements to
collapse and recover given sufficient iterations.

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Start AcuConsole and Open the Existing Simulation Database

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and open the existing database for storage of additional
simulation settings. In this tutorial, you will begin by opening a database, creating advanced simulation
settings for flow, turbulence, and mesh stagger, and creating the required mesh motion. Next, you will
create a multiplier function based on velocity or displacement, modify mesh distortion parameters, and
assign the mesh motion to the moving surface. Then, you will run AcuSolve to solve for the number of
time steps specified. Finally, you will visualize some characteristics of the results using AcuFieldView.
2. Click File > Open to bring up the Open data base dialog.
Note: You can also bring up the Open data base dialog by clicking on the
toolbar.
4. Select Closing_Valve.acs and click Open to open the database.
Once you open the database, you will notice that the geometry, mesh, simulation settings, and
most of the boundary conditions have already been populated in the file.

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Figure 1116:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.978
Figure 1117:
Set Advanced Simulation Parameters

In the database, the general simulation, solution strategy, material model, and mesh parameters have
already been created.
In next steps, you will create and set the advanced solution strategy parameters that apply to the
simulation. To make this as simple as possible, you will use the PB* filter in the Data Tree Manager. This
filter reduces the number of items shown in the Data Tree and makes navigation of the entries easier.
2. Under the Global Data Tree item, double-click Advanced Solution Strategy, then double-click
the Stagger tree.

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5 Moving Body p.979
Figure 1118:
The advanced solution strategy tree contains settings that can be used to finely tune the solver
parameters, such as time increment, time marching, staggers, linear solver, convergence check,
etc.
The stagger command specifies the nonlinear iteration and linear solver parameters for the
solution of an equation. Each stagger loops over several nonlinear iterations, within which the
residual, and optionally, the LHS matrix of the stagger are formed, the resulting linear equation
system is solved, the corresponding solution field is updated, and its sub-staggers are executed.
3. Double-click on the mesh_displacement stagger to bring up the detail panel.
4. Turn on Modify advanced settings.
5. Set the Min stagger iterations and Max stagger iterations to 1 and 5 respectively.
Figure 1119:

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5 Moving Body p.980
Create Velocity-Based Mesh Motion

AcuSolve uses the mesh motion command to define the movement of nodes within the model. In this
tutorial, you will use a translational mesh motion to determine the motion of the nodes.
A multiplier function is used to scale values as a function of time or time step. In this tutorial, the stop
valve moves towards and away from the opening at a constant speed. This variation is accomplished by
assigning a multiplier function to the mesh motion.
In the next steps, you will create a mesh motion to simulate the motion of the valve.
1. Click FSI in the Data Tree Manager to filter the settings in the Data Tree to show only those
related to mesh motions and fluid/structure interactions.
3. Right-click Mesh Motion and click New.
4. Rename the mesh motion.
a) Right-click Mesh Motion 1.
b) Click Rename.
c) Type Valve_Motion and press Enter
5. Define the mesh motion parameters.
a) Double-click Valve_Motion to open the detail panel.
b) Click Open Array next to Translation velocity to open the array editor.
c) Enter -18.33 m/s in the X-component field.
This corresponds to the x component of the velocity defining the mesh motion.
Figure 1120:
d) Click OK to close the editor.

e) Click the drop-down next to Velocity variable and select Multiplier function.

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5 Moving Body p.981
Figure 1121:
A new option called Translation multiplier function becomes available. Because you still have
to define the corresponding multiplier function, it reads none.
Create an Associated Multiplier Function

When this translation mesh motion is defined, the nodes of the element set move at a constant velocity
of 18.33 mm/s in the negative x direction. For this case, the location of each node in the element set is
given by:
EQ. 2
Where is the initial condition of the node, is given by translation velocity, and is time.
A multiplier function can be defined with velocity_variable=multiplier_function to modify the

scaling of velocity. Then the location of each node is given by:
EQ. 3
Where is the given translation variable multiplier function.
With the mesh motion defined, you can now proceed to define a multiplier function to scale the velocity
in the mesh motion.
3. Create a new multiplier function named Velocity_Multiplier.
4. Define the multiplier function parameters.
a) Double-click Velocity_Multiplier to open the detail panel.
b) Click the drop-down control next to Type and select Piecewise Linear.
c) Click the drop-down control next to Curve fit variable and select Time step.
d) Check that the Evaluation type is set to Per Time Step.
This tells AcuSolve to evaluate the multiplier function once per step.

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Figure 1122:
e) Click on the Open Array tab next to Curve fit values.

f) Click Add and add three more rows.
g) Enter the time step values as shown in the image below.
h) Click Plot << to see the plot of the multiplier function.
Figure 1123:
i) Click OK to close the window.

5. Click FSI in the Data Tree Manager, return to the Valve_Motion detail panel, and assign
Velocity_Multiplier as the multiplier function.
Figure 1124:

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5 Moving Body p.983
This approach allows you to define a translation velocity and scale it using a multiplier function. In
this case, using a scaling range of [0,1], the motion of the valve can be varied through the range
of distance .
An alternate approach is to specify the multiplier function based on displacement, which is

discussed below.
Create Displacement-Based Mesh Motion

An alternate approach for defining a multiplier function for translation mesh motion is to define a
unit (1.0) velocity value in the mesh motion and assign the displacement of the moving body to the
multiplier function directly.
This approach is particularly useful in cases where you are given the displacement-time values or curves
defining the motion of the moving body.
In the next steps, you will define the mesh motion and multiplier function based on the approach
discussed in previous sections.
1. Define a translation mesh motion using the same process and parameters as previously described.
Important: You should not keep two sets of mesh motions and multiplier functions.
Given your simulation parameters, this section is intended as a substitute to velocity-
based mesh motions.
2. Set the X-velocity to 1.0 mm/s in the X-component field of the array editor.
Figure 1125:
3. Create a multiplier function called Displacement_Multiplier using the same process and
parameters as described in the previous section
4. Enter the displacement values for the curve fit variables in the array editor, as shown in the image
below.

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5 Moving Body p.984
Figure 1126:
This approach allows you to define the motion of the valve based on the displacement against the
time steps.
Assign Mesh Distortion Parameters

When AcuSolve is performing a moving mesh simulation, a check is performed to detect the
presence of bad elements. If any highly distorted element are found, the code either exits (when
mesh=specified or mesh=eulerian) or adds more non-linear iterations with an incremental update
strategy (when mesh=ale). Two parameters control the algorithm: mesh_distortion_tolerance and
mesh_distortion_correction_factor. The first parameter determines whether the correction needs to be
applied to the element Jacobian and the second quantifies the amount of correction. Mesh distortion is
checked within the ALE loop, and then acuSolve decides how forgiving it should be to highly distorted
elements.
In the next steps you will assign the values of mesh distortion parameters to the fluid volume.
1. Expand the Model tree.
Note: You'll need to switch back to BAS in the Data Tree Manager.
2. Expand Volumes.
3. Double-click Fluid to expand the tree then double-click Element Set to open the detail panel.
4. Enter 0.0005 as the value for the Mesh distortion correction factor.
5. Enter 0.05 as the value for the Mesh distortion tolerance.

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Figure 1127:
Assign Mesh Motion to the Valve Surface

The database has all the volume and surface groups already assigned.
In the next steps, you will assign the created mesh motion to the valve surface.
1. Expand Surfaces.
2. Double-click Valve_Wall to expand the tree then double-click on Simple Boundary Condition
to open the detail panel.
3. Click the drop-down menu next to Mesh motion and select Valve_Motion.
Figure 1128:

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5 Moving Body p.986
Run AcuSolve
In order to use the ogden model associated with Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) mesh movement
technology, you need to add the corresponding flag in the configuration file and then run the simulation
using the AcuSolve command prompt.
In the next steps, you will run AcuPrep from the GUI, edit the configuration file, and launch AcuSolve
from the command prompt in order to get a solution for this case.

For this case, only the AcuPrep module will be used, and AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input
files and launch AcuSolve.
2. From the drop-down menu next to Solver modules, select prep.
Figure 1129:
3. Click Ok to launch the AcuPrep process.

This will generate the input files and a configuration file called Acusim.cnf.
4. Browse to your working directory, open Acusim.cnf in a text editor, and add the following line to
the end of the file: altech=odgen.
This will cause AcuSolve to use the ogden model to run the simulation.

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5. Start AcuSolve command prompt from the Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
6. Browse to your working directory using the cd command.
7. Launch AcuSolve with the command AcuRun -np 4 -nt 1 -do solve to run the simulation with
four processors and only the solver module.
Note: The solution progress can be monitored by launching AcuTail using the icon
from the toolbar and selecting the log file from your working directory.
After AcuSolve has finished running, a summary of the solution process indicates that the
simulation has been completed.
Figure 1130:
Post Process with AcuProbe

After the simulation is complete, the plot for mesh_x_displacement can be viewed using AcuProbe.
1.
2. In the AcuProbe window, double-click on Surface Output to expand the tree.
3. Double-click on Valve_Wall to open the surface output list.
4. Double-click on Geometry to open the list of properties related to geometry.
5. Right-click on mesh_x_displacement and click plot.

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Figure 1131:
Other flow quantities can also be plotted using AcuProbe.

AcuSolve.
shutter is closed.
This tutorial has been written with the assumptions that you have become familiar with the
AcuFieldView interface and basic operations. In general, it will be helpful to understand the following
basics:
• How to find the data readers in the File pull-down on the Main menu and open up the desired
reader panel for data input.
• How to find the visualization panels either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization panel pull-
downs on the Main menu to create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
This tutorial shows you how to work with transient data. It also shows how to visualize the flow
parameters on the complete geometry when only a section of it is simulated in AcuSolve by using
multiple datasets.

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Start AcuFieldView
Figure 1132:

Once AcuFieldView opens, you will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on
all the boundary surfaces with mesh.
Figure 1133:
Animate the Display of Velocity Magnitude Contours
independently of AcuFieldView.

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5 Moving Body p.990
2. Disable perspective view from the Viewer Options menu.

3. Disable the axis markers from the Viewer Options menu.
4. Orient the geometry so you can see the wall, the inlet, and the symmetry+Z surface as shown in
the figure below.
5. In the Boundary Surface dialog, select velocity magnitude as the Scalar Function.
6. Turn on the legend in the legends tab and change the color to black from the color palette.
Note: You can move the legend using Shift + left click.

8. Turn off the display for the mesh by unchecking the Show Mesh option under the Surfaces tab.
Figure 1134:
9. Go to Tools > Flipbook Build Mode and click OK on the warning displayed.
10. Go to Tools > Transient Data and move the slider all the way back to reflect the first time step
data on the boundary surface.

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Figure 1135:
11. Click Build to build the animation.

12. Once the animation is built, click on Frame Rate and change the value to 0.1.
13. Save the animation as velocity_mag.

Surface at Valved Closed Position
1. From the Boundary Surface dialog, under the surfaces tab, disable the visibility for the boundary
surfaces.
2. Change the view to +Z from the Defined Views menu.

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Figure 1136:
3.
4. Create a new surface at the mid Z coordinate plane.
7. Select pressure as the Scalar Function to be displayed.
8. Set Scalar Coloring to Local from the Colormap tab.

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Figure 1137:
9. Create another coordinate surface and set the Display Type to Vectors.
10. Change the coloring to Geometric and select white from the color palette.
11. Click Options to open the Vector Options dialog.
12. Check Skip and enter 62.5%.
Figure 1138:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.994
13. Turn the legend on for the pressure coordinate surface.

th
14. Go to Tools > Transient Data and move the slider to the 50 time step.
Figure 1139:

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5 Moving Body p.995
5.8 ACU-T: 5300 Ship Hull Static

AcuConsole
5.8.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a simulation of flow
around a static ship hull. In this simulation, a wave hits the static ship hull and the flow around the ship
is simulated. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of modelling concepts necessary to
perform Free-Surface simulations.
• Use of a User Defined Function (UDF) for the gravity wave generation
• Mesh extrusions
• Periodic boundary conditions
• Use of Surface Manager to apply surface attributes
• Free surface
• Guide surface
• Use of hydrostatic pressure for boundary conditions
• Arbitrary mesh motion using ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) method

• Import the geometry for the Wigley-hull
• Set global meshing parameters
• Set mesh extrusion and periodic boundary conditions
• Run AcuSolve

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Prerequisites

wigley_hull.x_t and wave.c from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

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Analyze the Problem

The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown in Figure 1140. It is a mid-section of a Wigley
Ship model. Wigley hulls have been widely used as test cases for evaluating hydrodynamic behavior
of ships. The present tutorial demonstrates the simulation of gravity waves hitting a static Wigley hull
(a hypothetical situation of a ship anchored in sea). Since the motion considered in this tutorial is
perpendicular to the length of the ship, an analysis of a 2D section of the ship hull would be appropriate
with lesser computation time without compromising on accuracy. The mid-section dimensions of the
Wigley hull is a function of total ship length and the model used in this tutorial is the mid-section of
Wigley hull whose ship length is 1 m.
Figure 1140: Schematic of a Ship Hull
Generation of Surface Gravity Waves

Gravity waves are waves generated in a fluid medium or at the interface between two media when
the force of gravity or buoyancy tries to restore equilibrium. An example of such an interface is that
[1]
between the atmosphere and the ocean, which gives rise to wind waves . The mechanism of surface
gravity waves is that a fluctuation causes water to rise above the equilibrium surface level, gravity pulls
it back down because water is heavier than air, inertia acquired during the falling movement causes
water to penetrate below its level of equilibrium and a bouncing motion results. The oscillation is similar
to that of a spring that has been stretched and released. The ‘spring’ action in a surface water wave
[2]
is the gravity, hence the name of surface gravity wave . In the present simulation, wind-generated
gravity waves on the free surface of the sea are generated using a UDF (User-Defined Function).
Figure 1141: Gravity Waves
Figure 1141 depicts parameters that define a simple, progressive gravity wave. This wave can be
modeled in the form of the sinusoidal wave profile, shown below.

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5 Moving Body p.998
where
is the horizontal particle velocity of wave
is the speed of the wave
U is the velocity amplitude of disturbance
is wave number =
is the wave length of the wave
is the depth of the water
is the frequency of the wave =
is the time period of the wave
t is the time
In the present simulation we use the following values for the variables of above equation:
U = 0.1256 m/s
= 1.0 sec
-1
= 12.566 m
= 0.01 m/s
= 0.5 m
In the present tutorial, at the inlet you will generate the wave for 2 seconds and simulate the motion of
the wave for 5 seconds. A UDF (wave.c) written in C language is used for this purpose. For the details of
the functions used in the wave.c, refer to the AcuSolve User-Defined Functions Manual.
Two Dimensional Simulations in AcuSolve

AcuSolve does not support a CFD analysis on a 2D surface mesh. However a 2D analysis can be
simulated on a volume mesh by having a single element extrusion along the perpendicular direction of
2D surface of interest and then having identical boundary conditions of symmetry or slip on both sides
of extrusion. This way you can ensure that the solution does not vary along the thickness (extrusion),
which is essentially a 2D representation of the problem. The present tutorial uses this approach.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.999

mesh and run AcuSolve to solve for the number of time steps specified. Finally, you will visualize some
characteristics of the results using AcuFieldView.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Ship_hull_static and open this directory.
5. Enter Ship_hull_static as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.

In next steps you will set attributes that apply globally to the simulation. To simplify this task, you will
use the BAS filter in the Data Tree Manager. This filter reduces the number of items shown in the Data
Tree to make navigation of the entries easier.
The general attributes that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, transient analysis, and
mesh type as arbitrary mesh movement (ALE).

AcuSolve Tutorials
5 Moving Body p.1000
Figure 1142:
Figure 1143:

4. Enter AcuSolve Tutorial as the Title for this case.
5. Enter Ship hull motion as the Sub title for this case.
6. Click the Analysis type drop down menu and select Transient.
8. Set the Mesh type to Arbitrary Mesh Movement (ALE).

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1144:
2. Ensure the Analysis type is set to Transient.
4. Set the Initial time increment to 0.05 seconds.
5. Change the Max stagger iterations to 4.
Stagger iterations define how many iterations will be performed within each time step. Changing
the maximum stagger iterations to 4 means that AcuSolve will perform a maximum of four
iterations at every time step whether convergence is achieved or not. Setting the minimum
stagger iterations to 0 indicates that there is no minimum number of iterations within a time step.
In this case, AcuSolve will proceed to the next time step when it has either reached the desired
convergence tolerance or the maximum number of stagger iterations within the step.
6. Check that the Relaxation factor is set to 0.0.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1145:

defined. In the next steps you will check the material properties of the predefined Water to match the
Figure 1146:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1147:
The material type water air is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created
in AcuConsole.
3
3. Click the Density tab. The density of water is 1000.0 kg/m .
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

wigley_hull.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing wigley_hull.x_t.
4. Select wigley_hull.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 1148:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1149:
Set Body Force

As discussed in the section Analyze the Problem, gravity is the important aspect of the simulation.
2
In AcuConsole it is defined as the Body Force of standard Gravity (g = 9.81 m/s ) along the Z-axis is
applied to the model.
1. In the Data Tree, double-click Body Force to expand it.
2. Double-click Gravity to open the detail panel.
The Medium for Gravity is Fluid. The Gravity defined here is applicable only on material models
whose material type is Fluid.
3. Next to the Gravity field, click Open Array.
4. In the X-components and Y-components fields, enter 0.
2
5. In the Z-components field, enter 9.81 m/s
6. Click OK to complete the definition of Gravity.
Figure 1150:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: The definition of Gravity here will have no effect on the simulation unless it
assigned to a Volume in the model.
Apply Volume Attributes

container.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group container, set the material for that group
and set mesh motion for the fluid volume.
the volume name.
4. Create a new volume group for the solid ship hull.

b) Click New.
5. Rename the new volume group to Guide_Vol_Ship.
6. Add the ship hull component in the geometry to this group.
a) Right-click Guide_Vol_Ship.
b) Click Add to.
c) Click the ship hull portion of the geometry in the modeling window.
If you rotate the view by Ctrl+ left-clicking, you can see that only the ship volume is
highlighted.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1151:
d) Click Done to add the selected volume to the solid volume group.
7. Set the material model for the volume to None.
The material model of the ship hull is inappropriate to the present simulation. Hence, the medium
is set to None.
Note: The element sets of the solid volume are necessary in the pre-processing
stage (AcuPrep) of the simulation for the evaluation of normal directions for the guide
surfaces. However the element sets are not necessary during the solver module
because the only interaction between the fluid and solid is at the guide surface. The
use of None for the Medium of this volume ensures that no elements of this volume are
carried over to the solver, thus saving the computational time.
a) Expand the Guide_Vol_Ship volume group in the tree.

c) Change the Medium to None.
d) Check that the Mesh motion is set to None.
volume group container. In the previous steps, you selected a geometry volume to be added to
Guide_Vol_Ship container that you created. At this point, all that is left in the default volume group is
the fluid volume. Rather than create a new container, add the fluid volume in the geometry to it, and
then delete the default volume container, you can rename the container and modify the attributes for
this group.
8. In the Data Tree, right-click on default and rename it to Fluid.
b) Double click Element Set under Fluid to open it in the detail panel.
c) Ensure that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, change it to Fluid.
d) Change the Material model to Water.
e) Change the Body force to Gravity.

AcuSolve Tutorials

1. Turn-off display for Volumes by right-clicking Volumes and selecting Display off .
2. Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree and select Surface Manager.
3. In the Surface Manager dialog, click New eight times to create eight new surface groups.
5. Rename the default surface to Hull_guide.
6. Rename Surface 1 through Surface 8 and set the Simple BC Type and Simple BC Active options
according to the figure below.
Figure 1152:
7. Assign the surface for Outlet.

a) In the Surface Manager, next to Outlet, click Add to.
b) Select the surface of the Fluid with maximum X-coordinate.
c) Click Done.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1153:
8. Similarly, add the following surface to the appropriate surface groups.

• Bottom: Surface with maximum Z-coordinate (Bottom surface of water)
• Top: Two surfaces at minimum Z-coordinate (Top surfaces of water)
• Side1: Surface with maximum Y-Coordinate
• Side2: Surface with minimum Y-Coordinate
• Inlet: Surface with minimum X-Coordinate
• No_Bc: 5 surfaces of the Guide_Vol_Ship that are not in contact with Fluid as shown below.
Surfaces shown in gray belong to the No_Bc surface set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1154:
9. Assign the surface for Guide_surf.

Guide_surf is the surface that belongs to the Guide_Vol_ship and is in contact with Fluid.
a) In the Surface Manager, next to Guide_surf, click Add to.
b) Select all of the surfaces that belong to the Guide_vol_ship and are in contact with Fluid.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1155:
10. Assign the surface for Hull_guide.

Hull_guide is the surface that belongs to the fluid and is in contact with the Guide_Vol_Ship. At
this point, all the surfaces present in the default Surface set are eligible for Hull_Guide.
a) In the Surface Manager, next to Hull_guide, click Add to.
b) Select all of the surfaces present in the default surface set.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1156:
11. Clear the empty surface sets.

a) In the Data Tree, right-click Surfaces and select Purge.
12. Make sure that all the surfaces in Hull_guide belong to Fluid Volume and all surfaces in Guide_surf
belong to Guide_Vol_ship Volume.
a) Under Surfaces, right-click Hull_guide and select Info.
b) In the Information Window, check that Parent Volume is Fluid.
c) Under Surfaces, right-click Guide_surf and select info.
d) In the Information Window, check that Parent Volume is Guide_Vol_ship for all the
surfaces in Guide_surf.
Side1 and Side2
The present simulation is a 2D representation of a ship in water. Hence it is appropriate to set the Side1
and Side2 with the slip boundary condition to simulate that effect.
1. In the Data Tree, expand Side1.

2. Double-click Simple Boundary Condition to open the Simple Boundary Condition detail
panel.
3. Check that the Type is Slip.
5. Repeat the settings for the surface Side2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
AcuConsole has a special feature named Propagate that can speed up the process of simulation setup
and save time. This feature copies the attributes (it may be Simple Boundary Condition, Surface
Output, Surface Mesh Attributes, Element Set, Volume Mesh Attributes, and so on) set for one surface
set or volume set to another surface set or volume set. For example, in a simulation model if there are
10 surface sets with simple boundary condition set to Slip, then you can use this feature. You need
to manually set the boundary condition for one surface and use the Propagate feature for all other
surfaces.
6. Under Side1, right-click Simple Boundary Condition and select Propagate.
7. Select the surface Side2 and click Propagate.
Top
The Top surface is the top surface of water which is in contact with air and hence Free Surface is the
appropriate boundary condition.
Note: As the name suggest, the free surface is a surface of the fluid which is not
constrained by any physical boundary. This type of the boundary condition imposes normal
component of mesh velocity to the flow velocity at this surface.
1. In the Data Tree, expand Top.

panel.
3. Check that the Type is Free Surface.
4. Check that the Surface tension model is set to None.
Note: Surface tension model is the user-given model of surface tension defined under
Global > Surface Tension Model. Since the surface tension is not modelled in this
simulation, this parameter is set to None.
5. Check that the Contact angle model is set to None.
Note: Contact angle model is the user-given model of contact angle defined under
Global > Contact Angle Model. The contact angle model is used in conjunction with
the surface tension model. Since the surface tension is not modelled in this simulation,
this parameter is set to None.
6. Check that the Pressure is set to 0.

7. Check that the Pressure loss factor is set to 0.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: Use of Pressure loss factor (k) would add the following term to the pressure
term
where
= -1 for the inflow
=1 for the outflow
k = Pressure loss factor
= density of fluid
u = velocity of fluid
n = outward pointing normal of the surface
The higher the value of pressure loss factor, stiffer the free surface behaves, that is,
lesser the displacement of the free surface.
Bottom
1. In the Data Tree, expand Bottom.

panel.
3. Check that the Type is Slip.
A simple boundary condition type Slip imposes zero nodal boundary condition on velocity normal
to the given surface.
4. Change the Mesh displacement BC type to Fixed.
The Bottom surface is a stationary surface and a Mesh displacement BC type Fixed imposes zero
mesh displacement with respect to the surface.
Outlet
1. In the Data Tree, expand Outlet.

panel.
3. Check that the Type is Outflow.
4. Use the default values for Pressure and Pressure loss factor.
5. Change Hydrostatic pressure to On.
The pressure is not constant throughout the Outlet surface. The pressure at this surface varies
along Z- axis because of gravity (Hydrostatic pressure variation). In general, when setting
Hydrostatic pressure to On, the pressure varies as given below

AcuSolve Tutorials
where
= density of fluid
z = coordinate vector of the point on the surface
z0 = coordinate vector where the hydrostatic pressure is zero. Z0 defined below using Hydrostatic
pressure origin
g = gravity vector
6. Next to Hydrostatic pressure origin, click Open Array to define the pressure origin.
7. Provide the coordinates of origin (0, 0, 0) in the Array Editor.
Note: Hydrostatic pressure will be zero on Free surface (that is, the Top surface). The
point (0, 0, 0) is on the Top surface. In particular, any point on the Top surface can be
chosen as Hydrostatic pressure origin.
During the simulation there will be certain time points (particularly when trough is formed at the outlet
surface) at which the flow enters the domain through certain portion of outlet surface, which is called
back flow. Back flow may lead to instability temperature, turbulence variables. Enabling Back flow
conditions allows nodal boundary conditions to be specified for these variables only on nodes where
there is flow re-entering the domain. Assuming the outlet is sufficiently far away from ship hull, eddy
viscosity value can set as that of the Inlet, for example, 1e-05
8. Set Back flow conditions to On.
9. Set the Eddy viscosity back flow type to Value.
10. Set Eddy viscosity to 1e-05.
Setting the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip will allow the nodes on this surface (Outlet) to
move freely along the surface.
No_Bc
The No_Bc surface set contains the surfaces of Guide_Vol_Ship which do not participate in actual
simulation. Hence it is appropriate to disable the Boundary condition for this surface.
1. In the Data Tree, expand No_Bc.

2. Uncheck the Simple Boundary Condition check box.
Guide_surf
This surface belonging to the Guide_Vol_Ship will remain stationary in the present simulation and
provide as a guide for the fluid around. Hence we define it as Guide Surface with no mesh motion.
1. In the Data Tree, expand Guide_surf.

2. Uncheck the Simple Boundary Condition check box.

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Note: This ensures that boundary condition for the Guide_surf surface is not defined
by using Simple Boundary Conditions. The boundary condition will be defined as a
Guide surface using the following steps.
3. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager.

4. Under the Guide_Surf surface, check the box next to Guide Surface.
The Guide Surface type will ensure that Guide_Surf surface can be used to guide mesh nodes of
Hull_guide surface. Refer to the Hull_guide surface attributes defined later in this tutorial.
5. Make sure that Mesh motion is set to None.
This ensures that the Guide_surf surface is static and has no motion.
Hull_guide
1. In the Data Tree, expand Hull_guide.

panel.
3. Check that the Type is Wall.
4. Change Wall velocity type to Match Mesh Velocity.
5. Change the Mesh displacement BC type to Guide_Surface.
6. Change Guide_surface from None to Guide_surf.
This allows the mesh nodes of Hull_guide surface to slip along Guide_surf surface.
Inlet
At the Inlet, you will provide the horizontal velocity of the gravity waves given by Equation 1. This
boundary condition at the inlet will be defined using Nodal Boundary conditions with UDF.
1. In the Data Tree, expand Inlet.

panel.
3. Check that the Type is Inflow.
Note: Setting the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip will allow the nodes on the Inlet
surface to move freely along the surface.
5. Check that the Turbulence input type is set to Direct.

6. Change the Eddy viscosity to 1e-5.

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Note: X, Y, Z velocities in the Simple Boundary Condition detail panel can be left to
default values of zero, because these values will be overwritten with Nodal Boundary
conditions below. In case of conflict of inputs, Nodal Boundary conditions have higher
precedence than Simple Boundary conditions.
7. Change the filter to ALL in the Data Tree Manager

8. Under Inlet, expand Advanced Options then expand Nodal Boundary Conditions.
9. Check the box adjacent to X-Velocity.
10. Change Type to User Function.
11. For User function name, enter usrWaveHorizontal.
12. Next to User function values, click Open Array.
13. In the Array Editor, click Add five times.
14. Enter the values as shown in the figure below:
Figure 1157:
The values provided above are the ones described in the section Generation of Surface Gravity
Waves. The user values should be provided in the same order as shown above, because these
values will be passed on to the UDF script which refers these values in that specific order.
15. Click OK.
Define the Periodic Boundaries

The present simulation is a 2D representation of infinite ship model. So the solution should be periodic
on the surfaces Side1 and Side2. The following steps define the periodic boundary conditions.
Note: The following steps will only ensure that the mesh is periodic. The definition of
periodic boundary conditions for particular variables has to be made separately.
1. In the Data Tree, under Model, right click on Periodics and select New.
2. Rename Periodics 1 to Side1-Side2.
3. Right click on Side1-Side2 and select Define.
4. In the Periodics BC dialog, select the surfaces Side1 and Side2, respectively.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Verify that Type is Translational.

6. Set the Y-Offset to -0.01 m (which is the distance between Side1 and Side2).
Figure 1158:
Transformation information should be provided so that the Side 1 surface after transformation
matches the Side 2 surface. For the present case, Side 1 should be translated along (-Y) axis for a
distance of 0.01m. Hence the Type as Translational and the Y-Offset as -0.01m.
7. Click OK.
Check Periodic Boundary Conditions

The following steps define the periodic boundary conditions for various variables for Side1 and Side2.
2. Under Model, expand Periodics and expand Side1-Side2.
3. Make sure that the Periodic Boundary Condition box is checked On.
4. Double-click Periodic Boundary Condition and verify that Type is set to Periodic and Active Type
is set to Always.
Figure 1159:

The Nodal Output Frequency determines at what frequency or time interval the solution results would
be stored to be used for post processing within AcuFieldView.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. In the Data Tree, under Global, double-click Output.

2. Double-click Nodal Output to open the detail panel.
This value indicates that AcuSolve should write results every 2 time steps.
4. Turn Output initial condition on.
This indicates that AcuSolve writes initial conditions.
Compile for UDF on Linux

A UDF in the form of C language (wave.c) is provided with the tutorial. Now this C program should be
compiled using the following steps.
1. In the terminal, use the cd command to change the directory to the current working directory.
2. Enter the command acuMakeLib -src gravity.c.
A set of files necessary for the use of UDF are created..
Compile for UDF on Windows

A UDF in the form of C language (wave.c) is provided with the tutorial. Now this C program should be
1. Start AcuConsole Command Prompt from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All
Programs > Altair Hyperworks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt.
2. Use the cd command to change the directory to the current working directory.
3. Enter the command acuMakeDll –src wave.c.
A set of files necessary for the use of UDF are created..

AcuSolve Tutorials

Now that the simulation characteristics have been set for the whole problem, the next step is to
generate the mesh.
Figure 1160:

The present simulation is equivalent to a 2D representation of the model. In AcuSolve, 2D models
are simulated by having just one element across the thickness. In this case, there has to be only one
element between Side1 and Side2. This can achieved with mesh extrusion process. Since you are using
identical boundary conditions on Side1 and Side2, using one element between them will ensure that
there is no variation in nodal values across thickness and hence ensuring the simulation of a 2D model.
In the following steps you will define the process of extrusion of the mesh from Side1 to Side2.
1. Expand the Model Data Tree item and right-click Mesh Extrusions.
2. Select New from the context menu to create a new entity, Mesh Extrusion 1.
3. Rename Mesh Extrusion 1 as Side1-Side2.
4. Right-click Side1-Side2 and select Define from the context menu.

AcuSolve Tutorials
a) Use the drop down arrows to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as Side1 and Side2,
respectively.
b) Ensure that the Extrusion type is set to Number of layers.
c) Set Number of layers equal to 1.
d) Set Extrusion options to All tets.
Use the following figure for reference.
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1161:
3. Visualize the mesh in the modeling window. Turn on the display of surfaces, and set the display

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1162:
Split Nodes
At this point, the Hull_guide surface has all nodes that are attached to Fluid. A duplicate set of nodes
has to be created, so that one set of the nodes follow the Fluid motion and another set stays attached
to the surface Guide_surf. The following steps illustrate the process of splitting the nodes.
In the Data Tree, under Surfaces, right-click Hull_guide and select Mesh Op. > Split internal faces.
There is an increase in the number of nodes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve will run using four processors (if available, higher number of processors may be
specified) and AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input files and will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve
will calculate the transient solution for this problem.
Figure 1163:

AcuProbe can be used to monitor various variables over solution time. In the present simulation it is
worthwhile to monitor the forces on the ship hull.
1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Surface Output > Hull_guide > Forces and Moments.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3. Right-click on x_wall_shear_stress and select Plot.
4. Similarly, right-click on z_wall_shear_stress and click on Plot.
Figure 1164:

processing.
c) Click Save.

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView and create an animation of the ship hull motion with
the contours of z-mesh displacement.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Start AcuFieldView
View Water Displacement Around the Ship
to +z. If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to Manipulate the Model View in
AcuFieldView.
1. Orient the geometry so you can see the Top surface clearly, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 1165:
2. In the Boundary Surface dialog, uncheck Show Mesh.

3. Select z-mesh-displacement as the scalar function and click Calculate.
4. In the Legend tab, click Show Legend.
5. Change the color to black.
Note: You can move the legend using Shift + left-click.
6. From the Colormap tab, turn on Local.

7. Click Tools > Flipbook Build Mode and click OK .

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Click Tools > Transient Data and move the slider all the way back to reflect the first time step
data on the boundary surfaces.
10. Once the animation is built, click Frame Rate and change it to 0.1.
11. Save the animation as Z-Displacement.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a static ship-hull simulation with
surface gravity waves. Once the case was set up, you generated a mesh and obtained a solution using
AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create an animation of the free
surface movement with time. New features introduced in this tutorial include:
• User Defined Function (UDF) for surface gravity wave generation
• Mesh extrusions and periodic boundary conditions
• ALE based mesh motion approach
• Use of the Surface Manager to apply surface attributes
• Use of hydrostatic pressure as a boundary condition
• Free surface and Guide surface capabilities in AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials
5.9 ACU-T: 5301 Ship Hull Dynamics

AcuConsole
5.9.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results of a flow around
a freely floating ship hull. In this simulation, a wave hits the ship hull and displacement of the ship
and the flow around the ship are simulated. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to a number of
modeling concepts necessary to perform Free-Surface simulations.
• Use of Rigid Body type mesh motion
• Use of Free surface and Guide surface capabilities in conjunction of Rigid Body mesh motion.

• Use the pre-defined material model - Aluminum
• Create Rigid Body Mesh Motion
• Apply Mesh Motion to the Volume and Surface attributes
• Run AcuSolve
Prerequisites
In order to run this tutorial, you should have already run through the introductory tutorials, ACU-
T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and ACU-T: 5300 Ship Hull Static, and be familiar with
AcuConsole, AcuSolve, or AcuFieldView. In order to run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed
version of AcuSolve.

ship_hull_static.acs and wave_c from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown below. It is a mid-section of a Wigley Ship model.
Wigley hulls have been widely used as test cases for evaluating hydrodynamic behavior of ships. The
present tutorial demonstrates the simulation of gravity waves hitting a freely floating Wigley hull and
evaluating the position of the hull with time. This tutorial is similar to the Ship Hull Static tutorial,
except that the ship hull is freely floating as a rigid body compared to a static ship hull.
Since the motion considered in this tutorial is perpendicular to the length of the ship, an analysis of a
2D section of the ship hull would be appropriate with lesser computation time without compromising on
accuracy. The mid-section dimensions of the Wigley hull is a function of total ship length and the model
used in this tutorial is the mid-section of Wigley hull whose ship length is 1m.
Figure 1166: Schematic of a Ship Hull
Generation of Surface Gravity Waves

Wind-generated gravity waves on the free surface of the sea are generated using a UDF (User-Defined
Function).
Figure 1167: Gravity Waves
A linear solution of surface gravity wave propagation would result in the following equation for
horizontal velocity of wave.
Where,
is the horizontal particle velocity of wave

AcuSolve Tutorials
is the speed of the wave
U is the velocity amplitude of disturbance
is wave number =
is the wave length of the wave
is the depth of the water
is the frequency of the wave =
is the time period of the wave
t is the time
In the present simulation, the following values are used for the variables of above equation:
U = 0.1256 m/s
= 1.0 sec
-1
= 12.566 m
= 0.01 m/s
= 0.5 m
In the present tutorial, at the inlet you will generate the wave for 2 seconds and simulate the motion of
the wave for 5 seconds. A UDF (wave.c) written in C language is used for this purpose. For the details
of the functions used in the wave.c, refer to the AcuSolve User-Defined Functions Manual.
Two Dimensional Simulations in AcuSolve

AcuSolve does not support a CFD analysis on a 2D surface mesh. However, a 2D analysis can be
simulated on a volume mesh by having a single element extrusion along the perpendicular direction of
2D surface of interest and then having identical boundary conditions of symmetry or slip on both sides
of extrusion. This way you can ensure that the solution does not vary along the thickness (extrusion),
which is essentially a 2D representation of the problem. The present tutorial uses this approach.
Modeling the Solid Ship Hull

For the present tutorial the following properties are assumed for the ship hull.
Material = Aluminum
3
Density = 2702 kg/m
Body Center = (1.12971, 0.0, 0.0082984) m
Body Mass = 0.2038 kg
Body Weight = 0.2038 × 9.81 = 2.0 N

2
Components of Moments of Inertia (in kg m ):
= 0.00113969
= 0.0051392

AcuSolve Tutorials
= 0.004006
Rigid Body Dynamic Analysis

The rigid body is driven by the sum of two kinds of forces and moments.
• Internal Forces/Moments: refers to the integrated fluid traction and moment
• External Forces/Moments: refers to the force and moment you specify
A local coordinate system is used to simplify the definition of the rigid body model and the solution of
the equations of motion. The translational and rotational equations of motion are:
Where,
are the translational displacement, velocity and acceleration vectors, respectively as:
, ,
are the angular displacement, angular velocity and angular acceleration vectors, respectively
as:
, ,
is the mass of the body.
is the dyadic (moment of inertia) matrix of the body.
are the translational and rotational damping matrices, respectively.
are the translational and rotational stiffness matrices, respectively.
are the internal Forces and Moments from the fluid.
are the external Forces and Moments you specify.
Rigid Body Dynamics Analysis for a 2D Problem

1. The displacements of the ship along its span (y-direction) is neglected.
2. The axis of rotation for the ship is along the y-direction and the variables along other axis are
neglected.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3. Translational damping and stiffness matrices and their rotational equivalents are assumed to be
zero.
4. The only external force acting on the rigid body is the gravity force ( ) along the z-axis.
5. The external moments acting on the body is zero, because the only external force acting on the
body is gravity which does not generate any moment.
For the present tutorial, a single element extrusion will be made along the y-axis. Based on the above
assumptions, you arrive with:
, ,
, ,
The translational equations of the motion will be:
The rotational equations of the motion will be:
The only critical component of moment of inertia for the present tutorial is .

AcuSolve Tutorials
Start AcuConsole and Open the Simulation Database

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and open a database that is set up for a Ship hull static
simulation. You will then make appropriate changes to the database to take into account the dynamics
of the ship motion.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Ship_hull_dynamics and open it.
5. Copy the ship_hull_static.acs and wave.c from the <installation directory> to the new
working directory.
6. Click ship_hull_static.acs to open the database.
7. Click File > Save As and enter Ship_hull_dynamics as the file name for the database.

In the next steps you will modify global attributes needed for the transient portion of the simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1168:
Figure 1169:
context menu.
4. Name the Sub title as Ship hull dynamics.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1170:
Set Material Model Attributes

In the next steps you will verify that the pre-defined material properties of water and aluminum match
Figure 1171:
Note: The detail panel can be resized by dragging the right frame of the panel.
3

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Double-click Aluminum in the Data Tree to open the Aluminum detail panel.
The Material type for aluminum is Solid.
3
6. Click the Density tab. Verify that the density of aluminum is 2702.0 kg/m .
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.
Set Mesh Motion Attributes

In the next steps you will define the mesh motion based on the rigid body dynamics of the ship hull.
3. Rename Mesh Motion 1 to Rigid_body_mesh_motion.
4. Double-click Rigid_body_mesh_motion and change the Type to Rigid Body Dynamic.
Note: The values assigned to the parameters in this section are the material and
geometric properties of the ship hull. Please refer to AcuConsole.
5. Set X displacement and Z displacement as Active.

6. Set Y displacement as Inactive.
7. Set X rotation and Z rotation as Inactive.
8. Set Y rotation as Active.
9. For Mass, enter 0.2038 Kg.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1172:
10. Click Open Array adjacent to Center.

11. Enter the coordinates for the center of the ship hull, as shown below, and click OK.
Figure 1173:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Local Coordinates: This parameter defines the direction of local xyz coordinate system, specified
with respect to the global xyz coordinate system.
12. Click Open Array adjacent to Local coordinates.
Since the local and global coordinates are same in this simulation, use the following defaults.
Figure 1174:
13. Click OK.

14. Click Open Array adjacent to Dyadic, and enter the Moment of Inertia matrix, as shown below.
Figure 1175:
Though for the present 2D problem the only critical component of moment of inertia is Iyy as
mentioned in the section Rigid Body Dynamics Analysis, AcuSolve would require the dyadic matrix
to be positive definite because of the 3D volume mesh (refer to 2-Dimensional simulations in
AcuSolve) and therefore, requires the input of Ixx, Izz.
The parameters Stiffness, Damping, Rotational stiffness, and Rotational damping will be
considered zero, because the ship is assumed to be freely floating on water.
External forces: The force of gravity is the external force acting on the ship hull along the positive-
z direction.
15. Click Open Array adjacent to External forces.

16. Enter the Force vector as shown below and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1176:
External Moment: The only external force on the ship hull is force of gravity. It does not produce
any moment. Therefore, the External Moment will be zero in this simulation.
The parameters Initial displacement, Initial velocity, Initial rotation, Initial angular velocity,
Initial fluid forces, and Initial fluid moments will be considered zero, because of the stationary,
equilibrium position of the ship considered at the start of the simulation.
Surface outputs: This parameter lists the array of surfaces whose output of forces and moments
will be enforced on the Rigid body (in this case, Ship hull). In this simulation, the forces from the
fluid will be enforced on the ship hull through the surface “Hull_guide” of Fluid volume.
17. Click Open Refs adjacent to Surface outputs.
18. In the Reference Editor, click Add Row.
19. Select Hull_guide and click OK.
Figure 1177:
3. Expand Volumes.
4. Under Guide_Vol_Ship, double-click Element Set.
5. Change Medium to Solid.
6. Set Material Model to Aluminum.
7. Set Body force to Gravity.
8. Change the Mesh motion to Rigid_body_mesh_motion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1178:
Set the Mesh Motion to the Guide Surface

2. Expand the Model > Surfaces > Guide_surf tree item.
3. Double-click Guide Surface.
4. Change the Mesh motion to Rigid_body_mesh_motion.
Figure 1179:
Compile UDF for Windows

A UDF written in C language (wave.c) is provided with the tutorial. Now this C program should be
2. Change the directory to present working directory using the ‘cd’ command.
The working directory is where all files related to the simulation will be stored. When you are
setting up the problem, there will be a file with extension .acs in this directory, which corresponds
to an AcuConsole database. Once the mesh and solution are generated, additional files and
directories will be added by AcuSolve.
3. Enter the command acuMakeDll –src wave.c.
A set of files necessary for the use of UDF are created.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Compile UDF for Linux

A UDF written in C language (wave.c) is provided with the tutorial. Now this C program should be
1. In the terminal, use the cd command to change the directory to the current working directory.
2. Enter the command acuMakeLib -src gravity.c.
A set of files necessary for the use of UDF are created.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve
Figure 1180:
AcuSolve will run using four processors (if available, higher number of processors may be
specified) and AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input files and will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve
will calculate the transient solution for this problem.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1181:

AcuProbe can be used to monitor various variables over solution time. In the present simulation it is
worthwhile to monitor the forces on the ship hull.
1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Surface Output > Hull_guide > Forces and Moments.
3. Right-click on x_wall_shear_stress and click Plot.
4. Repeat the above steps for z_wall_shear_stress and click Plot.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1182:

processing.
c) Click Save.

AcuSolve.
In the following steps you will start AcuFieldView, create an animation of the ship hull motion with the
contours of z-mesh displacement.
Start AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Animate to View Displacement of the Ship
to +z. If you are unfamiliar with basic AcuFieldView operations, refer to Manipulate the Model View in
AcuFieldView.
1. Orient the geometry so you can see the entire model clearly, as shown in the figure below.
2. In the Boundary Surfaces dialog, uncheck Show Mesh.
3. Select z-mesh-displacement as the scalar function and click Calculate.
4. In the Legend tab, click Show Legend.
5. Change the color to black.
Note: You can move the legend using Shift + left-click.
6. From the Colormap tab, turn on Local.
Figure 1183:
7. Click Tools > Flipbook Build Mode and click OK .

8. Click Tools > Transient Data and move the slider all the way back to reflect the 1st time step
data on the boundary surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1184:

10. Once the animation is built, click on Frame Rate and change it to 0.1.
11. Save the animation as Z-Displacement.mpg.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial, you worked through a basic workflow to set up a dynamic ship-hull simulation with
surface gravity waves. You started with an .acs file from the Ship Hull Static tutorial and modified the
set up to accommodate the rigid body motion of the ship hull. Once the case was set up, you generated
a solution using AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create animation
of the Ship hull movement with time. New features introduced in this tutorial include: Rigid Body type
mesh motion, use of Free surface and Guide surface capabilities in conjunction of Rigid Body mesh
motion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5.10 ACU-T: 5400 Piezoelectric Flow Energy

Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (P-FSI)
AcuConsole
5.10.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results for a simulation of a
piezoelectric fluid harvester. In this simulation, a piezoelectric flow harvester is placed in a fluid flow
channel. The harvester is attached to a cylinder mount which also acts as a bluff body causing vortices
in the fluid flow. The interaction between the pressure fields generated by the vortices and the flow
harvester structure is simulated in this tutorial. AcuSolve is used in conjunction with a structural solver
to compute the structural displacement of the harvester using a practical fluid structure interaction (P-
FSI) approach. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach is used to compute the mesh deformation
in the fluid domain as it interacts with the deforming structure.
• Set up a Practical FSI simulation (P-FSI)
• Using ALE mesh motion
• Use Eigenmode Manager for transferring structural data onto CFD mesh

• Import and transfer structural data onto the CFD mesh
• Set up the P-FSI simulation
• Run AcuSolve
• Post-process the nodal output with AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites

Extract the files fluid.x_t and beam_modal.op2 from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip. The file
fluid.x_t stores the geometry information for the fluid portion of the model for this problem, and the
file slab_modal.op2 stores the output data from the structural solver which will be projected on to the
CFD mesh that will be generated in the course of the tutorial.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

elements, such as inlets, outlets or walls, and on flow conditions, such as fluid properties, velocity or
whether the flow should be modeled as turbulent or as laminar.
The system being simulated contains a section of a cantilever beam, the fixed side of which is attached
to a rigid cylindrical body. The beam along with the cylinder is placed in a water flow stream. This
cylindrical body acts a bluff body placed in the flow and stimulates vortex shedding in the flow
downstream as it passes over the cylinder. The alternating shedding of vortices creates a zone of
alternating asymmetric pressure distribution on either side of the beam. Such an alternating pressure
distribution exerts an oscillating force on the beam, creating a sustainable oscillating vibration in the
beam.
The modeled system can be compared to a piezoelectric based fluid flow energy harvester. The beam
used in the structural model has a layered arrangement, with a brass shim sandwiched between
the piezoelectric layers on either side. Piezoelectric materials have a unique property of generating
an electric charge when subjected to stress. In the current arrangement as the fluid flow exerts an
oscillating force on the beam leading to vibration, a corresponding oscillating structural stress is induced
in the beam. The piezoelectric property comes into play here as the stress causes the piezoelectric
layers to develop an electric charge. This electric charge is then tapped by a separate electromechanical
arrangement. Thus there is a two-step energy conversion involved in this electricity generation process.
First, the fluid flow energy is converted into mechanical energy of the vibration of the beam, then this
mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. However, the FSI aspect of this conversion, which
is also of interest, is the transfer of energy between the fluid flow and beam.
The schematics of the problem that will be addressed in this tutorial are in Figure 1185. The modeled
domain consists of a fluid volume. The fluid solver does not require the solid body to be modeled.
However, the results of the structural solver will be used to define the solid body and the surfaces where
the fluid interacts with the solid will be allowed to deform according to the Eigen modes of the beam.
Figure 1186 shows the arrangement of the beam with its various layers.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1186: The Beam with its Various Layers

AcuSolve Tutorials
Fluid Structure Interaction

Fluid Structure Interaction is the interaction between a fluid flow and a deformable solid structure
in contact with this flow. An FSI problem can be an external or an internal flow problem. The fluid
flow can be external with the solid body immersed in the flow, for example, a windmill blade in open
atmosphere. The fluid flow can also be internal with the solid body enclosing the flow, for example,
fluid flow inside a deformable pipe. In both cases, the principle behind solving the problem remains the
same. When a fluid flow encounters a structure, fluid pressure exerts a stress on the solid body that
can lead to deformations in the structure. The magnitude of the deformation depends on the stiffness of
the structure material and the magnitude of pressure force exerted by the fluid. The deformation in the
structure shape then leads to altering of the flow characteristics in vicinity of the structure.
A FSI problem is a multi physics problem, with the coupled laws of structural and fluid mechanics
affecting the solution. There are two widely used approaches with which this coupling is achieved:
• Practical-FSI (P-FSI): The structure is reduced in the modal space and coupled to the fluid
domain through interface nodes. The coupling between the solvers happens in a single pass itself.
Structural behaviour is limited to be linear in a P-FSI simulation.
• Direct coupling (DC-FSI): The coupling is a co-simulation between the structural and the fluid
solver, with each solver stepping through time simultaneously and iterating to equilibrium in each
time step.
In case the deformations in the structure are large enough to alter the fluid flow significantly, the DC-
FSI co-simulation approach should be used. With this approach, as the fluid flow and pressure fields
affect the structural deformations, and the structural deformations affect the flow and pressure, the
information about these effects is exchanged between the solvers in real time.
Given the difference in coupling methodology, it is likely that slightly different results will be observed
when a same problem is solved using P-FSI and DC-FSI approaches. The choice of the approach that
should be used shall depend on the problem and the available resources. As mentioned above, the P-
FSI approach should be limited to the cases when displacements in the structure are small, and the
structural behaviour can be approximated to be linear. For all other cases, DC-FSI should be preferred.
However, DC-FSI simulations incur a higher computational resources cost. With this consideration, P-FSI
simulation can also be used as a preliminary test simulation before a DC-FSI simulation is carried out.
FSI can be stable or oscillatory. In a stable FSI, the deformed shape of the structure will not change
with time, unless the flow changes as well. In an oscillatory FSI, once the structure is deformed, it will
try to return to its non-deformed state and then the whole deformation process repeats itself.
Mesh Motion Approaches in AcuSolve

Many simulations require deformation of the domain with time. AcuSolve provides two approaches for
handling dynamic meshes:
• Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE)

• Interpolated Mesh Motion
This tutorial uses the ALE approach for specifying the mesh motion of the deformed nodes in the
domain. The Interpolated Mesh Motion approach is discussed in detail in the subsequent tutorials which
solve the same problem using this approach.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE)

ALE is an approach for mesh motion in which the computational nodes are moved arbitrarily with the
aim of optimizing the element quality. An additional Partial Differential Equation (PDE) is solved to
arrive at the appropriate mesh position. ALE is capable of handling complex arbitrary motions and
is therefore the most general approach in simulating moving mesh problems. Generality comes with
additional computational cost because of the extra PDE to be solved. For simpler motions like 1D or
2D motions faster approaches are available which include Interpolated Mesh Motion, general specified
motions, Nodal Boundary conditions based approaches.

AcuSolve Tutorials

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and create the database for storage for the simulation
settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it PFSI_Tutorial and navigate into this directory.
5. Enter piezo_harvester as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.
In order for other applications to be able to read the files written by AcuConsole, the database
path and name should not include spaces.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1187:
Figure 1188:
Tip: You may need to widen the detail panel from the default size by dragging the
4. Enter AcuSolve PFSI Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Piezoelectric harvester as the Sub title.
8. Change the Mesh type from Fixed to Arbitrary Mesh Movement (ALE).
ALE stands for Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian. Using an ALE mesh type allows the mesh in
the domain to be moved freely in accordance with the movement in the domain boundaries
or interfaces. This is achieved by a formulation that can switch to purely Eulerian or purely
Lagrangian or any arbitrary combination of the two thus allowing the elements to take the most
optimum shape. This in turn enables the solver to handle a higher degree of element deformation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1189:

the solution.
3. Make sure that the Analysis type is set to Transient.
5. Enter 0.01 for Initial time increment.
6. Set the Min and Max stagger iterations to 3 and 5, respectively.
7. Make sure that Flow, Mesh and Turbulence are set to On.
Figure 1190:

AcuSolve Tutorials

defined. In the next steps you will verify that the pre-defined material characteristics of water match
Figure 1191:
in AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. The density value is 1000 kg/m3.
4. Make sure that the Type is set to Constant.
The remaining thermal and other material properties are not critical to this simulation. However,
you can browse through the tabs to check the complete material specification.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

fluid.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the geometry in
2. Browse to the directory containing fluid.x_t.
4. Select fluid.x_t and click Open to open the Import Geometry dialog.
Figure 1192:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1193:

container. Since the model for this tutorial has only a single volume, it will be the only volume in the
default volume group when the geometry is imported. Even when there is a single volume in the model,
it is advisable to rename the volume for ease of identification in the future.
In the next steps you will rename the default volume group container and set the material and other
properties for it.
3. Turn off the display of surfaces. Right-click Surfaces and click Display off in the context menu.
the volume name.
5. Rename the default volume to fluid.

a) Under Volumes, right-click default and click Rename on the context menu.

AcuSolve Tutorials
b) Enter fluid.
When an item in the Data Tree is renamed, the change is not saved until you press the Enter
key on your keyboard. If you move the input focus away from the item without entering it,
your changes will be lost.
a) Expand the Fluid tree item.
b) Double-click Element Set under fluid to open the Element Set detail panel.
c) Make sure that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid.
The default Medium for a volume in AcuConsole is Fluid.
d) Click the drop-down control next to Material model and select Water.
Figure 1194:

1. Turn-off the display for Volumes by right-clicking Volumes and selecting Display off .

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1195:
If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click Columns , select these
two columns from the list and click Ok.
Figure 1196:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Rename Surface 1 through Surface 6 according to Figure 1197.

6. Set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, per Figure 1197.
Figure 1197:

a) Click Add to in the z_pos row in the Surface Manager.
b) Select the planar surface with the maximum z-coordinate, as shown in Figure 1198, and click
Done.
c) Follow the procedure to assign the surface with the minimum z-coordinate to the z_neg
surface group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1198:
8. Assign the surfaces enclosing the domain at the top and bottom to the slip surface group.
9. Assign the surface with the minimum x-coordinate to the inlet surface group.
10. Assign the surface with the maximum x-coordinate to the outlet surface group.
11. Assign the cylinder surface to the cylinder surface group. This surface is the contact boundary
between the fluid and the cylinder. Use the following image as the reference for selecting the
required surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1199:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to beam in the Surface Manager. In
the previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created. At
this point, all that is left in the beam surface group are the surfaces that make up the contact boundary
between the fluid volume and the beam.
Create a Force Ramp Multiplier Function

The force acting on the beam due to the flow will be ramped gradually over the first few time steps.
After these first few time steps the force on the beam will remain constant. This will be achieved using
a multiplier function. In the next few steps you will create a linear multiplier function which will later be
assigned as a force multiplier function for load acting on the beam.
2. Right-click Multiplier Function and select New.

AcuSolve Tutorials
A new entry, Multiplier Function 1, is created in the Data Tree under the Multiplier Function
branch.
3. Right-click Multiplier Function 1, select Rename in the context menu and type ForceRamp as
the entity name.
4. Double-click ForceRamp to open the ForceRamp detail panel.
5. In the detail panel, change the Type to Piecewise Linear.
6. Change the Curve fit variable to Time step.
Figure 1200:
7. Click Open Array next to the Curve fit values option and create two rows in the Array Editor
dialog.
8. Fill in the values as follows:
Figure 1201:
Create a Flexible Body

In the introductory discussion of this tutorial, it was mentioned that FSI is the interaction between
a fluid and a deformable, or in other words, flexible solid body. In AcuConsole, such a solid body is
defined using the Flexible Body command. In P-FSI, the structure is reduced in the modal space. The
Flexible Body definition includes the specification of mass, stiffness and damping matrices of the body.
The mass matrix is usually normalized to I (unity matrix), and stiffness matrix k is a diagonal matrix
where the diagonal entries each represent an Eigen value. The surface outputs list refers to the surfaces
outputs which are used to calculate the forces and moments on the solid body.
the Data Tree.
2. Right-click Flexible Body and select New.

AcuSolve Tutorials
A new entry, Flexible Body 1, is created in the Data Tree under the Flexible Body branch.
3. Right-click Flexible Body 1, select Rename and type beam as the entity name.
4. Double-click beam to open the beam detail panel.
5. Make sure that Equation is set to Mesh Displacement.
6. Set Number of modes to 5.
This will import and apply the modal information for the first five modes available in the structural
data.
7. Set the Internal force multiplier function to the function ForceRamp, which you created as an
earlier step in the tutorial.
8. Click Open Refs next to the Surface outputs option.
The Reference Editor dialog opens.
9. Add a row by clicking Add Row.
10. Select beam as the entity in the row from the pull-down menu.
Figure 1202:

This tells the solver to use the surface output data on the beam surface group to determine forces
to be transferred to the flexible body beam.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1203:
Set Surface Boundary Conditions
3. Under Model, expand the Surfaces item, and then expand the inlet surface group.
5. Make sure that the Type is set to Inflow.
6. Make sure that the Inflow type is set to Velocity and the Inflow velocity type is Cartesian.
8. Set the Turbulence input type to Direct.
2

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1204:
Set Parameters for the z_neg and z_pos Surfaces
1. Expand the z_neg surface group in the tree.

3. Make sure that the Type is set to Slip.
4. Set the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip
This setting allows the mesh to slip tangentially along the surface. Using this option requires the
surface to be planar.
Figure 1205:
5. Repeat the above steps for the surface group z_pos.

You can also choose to Propagate the settings for z_neg surface group to z_pos surface group to
ensure they are the same. To do this, right-click the Simple Boundary Condition entity under
the z_neg surface group, select Propagate, select the z_pos surface group in the Propagate
dialog and click Propagate to finish the propagation step.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1206:
Set Parameters for the Slip Surface
1. Expand the slip surface group in the tree.

3. Ensure that the Type is set to Slip.
Figure 1207:
Set Parameters for the Outlet Surface
1. Expand the outlet surface group in the tree.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1208:
Set Parameters for the Cylinder Surface
1. Expand the cylinder surface group in the tree.

Figure 1209:
Set Parameters for the Beam Surface
1. Expand the beam surface group in the tree.

4. Set the Mesh displacement BC type to Flexible body by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
This setting will move the mesh on this surface group according to the motion of the flexible body.
5. Set the Flexible body as the beam.

AcuSolve Tutorials
This instructs the solver to use the flexible body beam as the reference for calculating the mesh
displacement of the beam surface group.
Figure 1210:

panel.
2. Set Time step frequency as 2.
This will save the nodal outputs at every second time step.
Figure 1211:

AcuSolve Tutorials

Time History Output commands enable you to extract the nodal solution at any point within the domain.
In this simulation, you will observe the displacement at the tip of the cantilever beam.
1. Double-click the Output tree, right-click Time History Output and select New.
A new entry, Time History Output 1, is created in the Data Tree under the Time History Output
branch.
2. Right-click Time History Output 1, select Rename in the context menu and type
Tip_MonitorPoint as the entity name.
3. Double-click Tip_MonitorPoint to open the Tip_MonitorPoint detail panel.
4. In the detail panel, change the Type to Coordinates.
5. Click Open Array next to the Coordinates option and fill in the row in the Array Editor dialog as
follows:
Figure 1212:
6. In the detail panel, set Time step frequency to 1.

Figure 1213:
1. Double-click Nodal Initial Condition in the Data Tree to open the dialog in the detail panel.
2

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1214:

AcuSolve Tutorials

to a specific geometric volume, surface, edge or point. Local mesh attributes are used to create mesh
Figure 1215:


2. Under the Model branch, expand Surfaces.
3. Under Surfaces, expand the cylinder surface group.
4. Click the Surface Mesh Attributes check box to activate and open the detail panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials

5. Make sure that the Mesh size type is set to Absolute.
Mesh controls related to influence region from the surface will be visible now.
8. Set the Influence parameters:
a) Set Influence type to Simple.
b) Set Influence size factor to 3.0.
c) Set the Influence distance to 2.0.
Note: The above settings will ensure that the volume mesh to have a size 0.05 m
(Absolute mesh size) at the surface and then transition to a size of (Absolute mesh
size) × (Influence size factor) at a distance 2.0 m (Influence distance).

Mesh controls related to the boundary layer become available.
10. Check that the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
a) Set First element height to 0.01.
b) Set Growth rate to 1.3.
c) Set the Number of layers to 4.
d) Set the Boundary layer elements type to Tetrahedron.
Figure 1216:

AcuSolve Tutorials
13. Right-click Surface Mesh Attributes under cylinder and select Propagate.
14. Click the beam surface group in the Propagate dialog.
Figure 1217:
15. Click Propagate.

When these faces are set up with a similar boundary condition it coerces the corresponding nodes
across the faces to have the same results. In this problem these faces are the negative and positive z-
surfaces. This kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with mesh extrusion process. In the following steps,
the process of extrusion of the mesh between these surfaces is defined.

2. Right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New from the context menu.
A new entity, Mesh Extrusion 1, is created.
3. Rename Mesh Extrusion 1 as z_extrusion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1218:
4. Right-click z_extrusion and select Define from the context menu.

Double-clicking z_extrusion achieves the same results.
b) Use the drop-down arrows to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as z_neg and z_pos,
respectively.
Use the following image for reference for setting up the mesh extrusion.
Figure 1219:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Generate the Mesh

problem.
Figure 1220:
Note: The actual number of nodes, elements and memory usage may vary slightly
from machine to machine.
4. You can rotate and zoom in the model to analyze the various mesh regions.
Import Structural Model Information

The next step is to import the structural model and project the eigenvectors onto the CFD mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1.
Click the icon on the toolbar.
The Eigenmode Manager dialog opens.
2. Click Add.
A new entry, Modal Response 1, is created.
3. Type Modes as the Name for the entry.
Figure 1221:
4. Click Open next to Import.

5. In the File Browser dialog, make sure that the file type is set to recognize Nastran OP2 results
files.
6. Select the file beam_modal.op2 and click Open to import the file.
The Number of available modes should now be 5.
7. Set the Number of active modes to 5.
8. Click the Show tab in the Eigenmode Manager, then toggle the Display and Animate buttons
On to visualize the modes of the structure.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Experiment with the Animation mode Id slider to look at the different modes of the structure.
You can also change the amplitude, speed and visualization properties of the animation using this
panel.
9. Click the Transfer tab in the Eigenmode Manager.
10. Click Transfer next to the Flexible body option.
a) Make sure that beam is selected in the Reference Editor dialog that opens.
Figure 1222:
b) Click OK to complete the transfer.

This will transfer the mass, stiffness and damping arrays from the structural model over to
the beam flexible body that was created earlier.
11. Click Transfer next to the Simple BC option.
a) Select beam from the list in the Reference Editor dialog.
Figure 1223:

This will project the eigenvectors of the structure onto the nodes of the surface group beam.
12. Close the Eigenmode Manager.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

For this case the default settings will be used. AcuSolve will run using four processors, if available,
a higher number of processors may be specified. AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input files and
will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the transient solution for this problem.
Figure 1224:

1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Time History > Tip_MonitorPoint > node 1.
3. Right-click on mesh_y_displacement and select Plot.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1225:
The node 1 lies at the tip of the beam. The plot above shows the displacement of the tip of the
beam due to the fluid forces as the beam interacts with the flow.
processing.
c) Click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials

The tutorial has been written with the assumption that you have become familiar with AcuFieldView and
basic operations. In general, it will be helpful to understand the following basics:
• How to find the visualization panels either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization panel on the
Main menu to create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
Start AcuFieldView

2. Click Ok in the Launch AcuFieldView dialog.
You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all of the boundary
surfaces with mesh. When results of a transient simulation are loaded in AcuConsole the displayed
results correspond to the last time step of the simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1226:
Set Up AcuFieldView

Figure 1227:

AcuSolve Tutorials
a) Turn off perspective view by deselecting the Perspective check box.

b) Disable the axis markers by clicking Axis Markers.
Figure 1228:
4. Click Close to close the dialog.

5.
6. Click Background in the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1229:
7. Select the color white in the Background Color dialog.
Figure 1230:
8. Close the dialogs.

9.
Click the icon to turn off the outline display.
Your model should now look like this:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1231:
Visualize and Save an Animation of the Beam Displacement
1.
2. Turn off the visibility for the active boundary surfaces.
3.
4. Create a new coordinate surface at the mid -Z coordinate plane.
The coordinate surface created is the mid plane between the z_neg and z-pos surfaces.
7. Select x-velocity as the Scalar Function to be displayed.
8. Select Z as the Coord Plane.
9. In the Colormap tab change Scalar Coloring to Local.

AcuSolve Tutorials
10. From the Defined Views menu bar, select +Z as the viewing direction.
Your model should look like the image below. The visible shape of the beam is its deformed shape
at the end of last time step in the simulation.
Figure 1232:

13. Click OK to close the Flipbook Size Warning dialog.
Figure 1233:
14. Click Tools > Transient Data .


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1234:
If the Sweep Control in this dialog shows Sweep instead of Build, the Flipbook Build Mode is not
15. Drag the time step slider to its left most position. Alternatively, type 0 for the Time Step or
Solution Time.
16. Click Apply.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1235:
17. Click Build.

18. Click Frame Rate in the Flipbook Controls dialog.
19. Enter 0.2 seconds for Minimum Time.
20. Click Close.
21.
Click the icon to play the animation.
As the animation progresses, you will be able to see the alternating vortices on the top and
bottom surface of the beam, causing an oscillating motion in the beam. This oscillating motion is
responsible for generation of piezoelectric charge in the top and bottom layers of the beam.
22. To save the animation click the icon and then click Save.
23. Provide a file name in the Flipbook File Save dialog and click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial you successfully set up and solved a FSI problem using the Practical-FSI
or P-FSI approach. The modal analysis of the structure (beam) is first done in a structural solver
and the results of this modal analysis are used to represent the structure in AcuConsole. The results
of the modal analysis provide the necessary information, such as the mass, stiffness and damping
characteristics of the solid body, to AcuSolve. This information, along with the flow field information
generated by AcuSolve, is used to calculate the displacement of the beam as it interacts with the flow.
You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the fluid portion
geometry and setting up the basic simulation parameters. Then you set up a flexible body to represent
the beam and generated a solution with AcuSolve.
Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView where you generated an animation of the beam’s
displacement as it interacts with the fluid flow. New features that were introduced in this tutorial include
setting up a Practical FSI simulation (P-FSI), using ALE mesh motion and using Eigenmode Manager in
AcuConsole for transferring structural data onto a CFD mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Harvester - PFSI & IMM
AcuConsole
5.11.1 AcuConsole
in the fluid flow. The interaction between the pressure fields generated by the vortices and the flow
harvester structure is simulated in this tutorial. Interpolated mesh motion approach is used to compute
the mesh deformation in the fluid domain as it interacts with the deforming structure.
• Fluid-structure interaction using the interpolated mesh motion (IMM)
• Use of the Eigenmode Manager for transferring structural data onto CFD mesh

• Import and transfer structural data onto the CFD mesh
• Set up the fluid-structure interaction simulation using IMM
• Run AcuSolve
• Post processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites

Extract the files fluid.x_t and beam_modal.op2 from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip. The file
fluid.x_t stores the geometry information for the fluid portion of the model for this problem, and the
file slab_modal.op2 stores the output data from the structural solver which will be projected on to the
CFD mesh that will be generated in the course of the tutorial.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

the important parameters that need to be provided to AcuSolve.
Figure 1236 shows a CFD model consisting of a cantilever beam and a rigid cylindrical body. The
cylindrical body produces vortex shedding in the flow downstream, inducing alternating asymmetric
pressure distribution on either side of the beam. Such an alternating pressure distribution results in a
sustainable oscillating vibration in the beam.
This model is a simplified model of a piezoelectric flow energy harvester.
Figure 1237 shows the beam with a brass shim sandwiched between the piezoelectric layers on either
side. Piezoelectric materials have a property of generating an electric charge when subjected to
oscillating structural stress. The electric charge is tapped by a separate electromechanical arrangement.
In this tutorial, we will focus on the simulation of the fluid forces on the beam in response to the
structural deformation. The schematics of the problem which will be addressed in this tutorial is shown
in Figure 1236. The modeled domain consists of a fluid volume. The fluid solver does not require the
solid body to be modeled. However, the results of the structural solver will be used to define the solid
body and the surfaces where the fluid interacts with the solid will be allowed to deform according to the
Eigen modes of the beam. Figure 1237 shows the arrangement of the beam with its various layers.
Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) is the interaction between a fluid flow and a deformable solid structure
in contact with the flow. There are two FSI approaches: Practical Fluid/Structure Interaction (P-FSI) and

AcuSolve Tutorials
Direct-Coupling Fluid/Structure Interaction (DC-FSI). Details about these approaches can be found in
AcuConsole.
The P-FSI approach requires eigenvalues of the OptiStruct structural model. It is then mapped to
the AcuSolve CFD model in order to compute the structural deformation in response to the vortex
shedding (fluid force) on the beam. The computation of the structural deformation will be made using
the Interpolated Mesh Motion (IMM) rather than using the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE).
When using interpolated mesh motion (IMM), all the surfaces associated with this motion are
assigned as interpolated motion surfaces and collected into a single set. All the nodes falling within
the boundaries of that set are then interpolated to determine their weighted displacement based
on the distance from their surrounding “driving” surfaces. For example, in this simulation shown in
Figure 1238, as the flow passes over the cylinder and the beam, the forces causes the beam to move
in transverse direction. This transverse motion of the beam should be communicated to the top and
bottom surfaces. Assigning these surfaces as interpolated surfaces (as shown in Figure 1238) and
then imparting the interpolated mesh motion to the nodes within the volume will linearly scale the
displacement of the surrounding nodes as a function of distance between the surfaces associated with
the interpolated mesh motion. The main advantage of interpolated mesh motion over ALE is that no
extra partial differential equations are solved, hence lower computation times. However, this approach
is limited to problems involving not so complex mesh motion.
Figure 1238: The Interpolated Motion Surfaces of the Model
In this tutorial, the simulation is performed using the interpolated mesh motion approach.

AcuSolve Tutorials

settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it PFSI_IMM_Tutorial and navigate into this
directory.
5. Enter piezo_harvester_IMM as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1239:
Figure 1240:

4. Enter AcuSolve PFSI with IMM Tutorial as the Title for this case.
5. Enter Piezoelectric harvester as the Sub title for this case.
8. Change the Mesh type to Fully Specified.
Using a ‘Fully specified’ mesh type allows the mesh in the domain to be moved based on the mesh
motion defined by user in the later steps. This user-specified mesh motion can be a rigid body
motion or an Interpolated mesh motion (IMM). In this tutorial you will define the mesh motion
using the Interpolated mesh motion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1241:

4. Set the Initial time increment as 0.01.
5. Set the Min stagger iterations as 3.
6. Set the Max stagger iterations as 5.
8. Check that Flow and Turbulence are both set to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1242:

in AcuConsole.
3
b) The Density value is 1000 kg/m
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import the Geometry

Figure 1243:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1244:

container.

2. Turn off the display of Surfaces by right-clicking on Surfaces and selecting Display off.
the volume name.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Rename the default volume group to fluid.
press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you move the input focus away from the
5. Set up the fluid volume set:

c) Check that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, click on the drop-down menu
and select Fluid.
d) Click the Material model drop-down menu and select Water.
Figure 1245:

1. Turn-off the display for Volumes by right-clicking Volumes and selecting Display off .

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1246:
If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click Columns , select these
Figure 1247:

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Rename Surface 1 through Surface 6 according to Figure 1248.
6. Set the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, per Figure 1248.
Figure 1248:

a) Click Add to in the z_pos row in the Surface Manager.
b) Select the planar surface with the maximum z-coordinate, as shown in Figure 1249, and click
Done.
c) Follow the procedure to assign the surface with the minimum z-coordinate to the z_neg
surface group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1249:
9. Assign the surface with the minimum x-coordinate to the inlet surface group.
10. Assign the surface with the maximum x-coordinate to the outlet surface group.
11. Assign the cylinder surface to the cylinder surface group. This surface is the contact boundary
between the fluid and the cylinder. Use the following image as the reference for selecting the
required surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1250:
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to beam in the Surface Manager. In
the previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created. At
this point, all that is left in the beam surface group are the surfaces that make up the contact boundary
between the fluid volume and the beam.

The force acting on the beam due to the flow will be ramped gradually over the first few time steps.
After these first few time steps the force on the beam will remain constant. This will be achieved using
a multiplier function. In the next few steps you will create a linear multiplier function which will later be
assigned as a force multiplier function for load acting on the beam.
2. Right-click Multiplier Function and select New.

AcuSolve Tutorials
branch.
3. Right-click Multiplier Function 1, select Rename in the context menu and type ForceRamp as
the entity name.
4. Double-click ForceRamp to open the ForceRamp detail panel.
Figure 1251:
7. Click Open Array next to the Curve fit values option and create two rows in the Array Editor
dialog.
Figure 1252:
Create a Flexible Body

In the introductory discussion of this tutorial, it was mentioned that FSI is the interaction between
a fluid and a deformable, or in other words, flexible solid body. In AcuConsole, such a solid body is
defined using the Flexible Body command. In P-FSI, the structure is reduced in the modal space. The
Flexible Body definition includes the specification of mass, stiffness and damping matrices of the body.
The mass matrix is usually normalized to I (unity matrix), and stiffness matrix k is a diagonal matrix
where the diagonal entries each represent an Eigen value. The surface outputs list refers to the surfaces
outputs which are used to calculate the forces and moments on the solid body.
the Data Tree.
2. Right-click Flexible Body and select New.

AcuSolve Tutorials
A new entry, Flexible Body 1, is created in the Data Tree under the Flexible Body branch.
3. Right-click Flexible Body 1, select Rename and type beam as the entity name.
4. Double-click beam to open the beam detail panel.
5. Make sure that Equation is set to Mesh Displacement.
6. Set Number of modes to 5.
This will import and apply the modal information for the first five modes available in the structural
data.
7. Set the Internal force multiplier function to the function ForceRamp, which you created as an
earlier step in the tutorial.
8. Click Open Refs next to the Surface outputs option.
The Reference Editor dialog opens.
9. Add a row by clicking Add Row.
10. Select beam as the entity in the row from the pull-down menu.
Figure 1253:

This tells the solver to use the surface output data on the beam surface group to determine forces
to be transferred to the flexible body beam.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1254:
3. Under Model, expand the Surfaces item, and then expand the inlet surface group.
5. Make sure that the Type is set to Inflow.
6. Make sure that the Inflow type is set to Velocity and the Inflow velocity type is Cartesian.
2

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1255:
1. Expand the z_neg surface group in the tree.

3. Make sure that the Type is set to Slip.
4. Set the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip
Figure 1256:
5. Repeat the above steps for the surface group z_pos.

You can also choose to Propagate the settings for z_neg surface group to z_pos surface group to
ensure they are the same. To do this, right-click the Simple Boundary Condition entity under
the z_neg surface group, select Propagate, select the z_pos surface group in the Propagate
dialog and click Propagate to finish the propagation step.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1257:
1. Expand the slip surface group in the tree.

3. Ensure that the Type is set to Slip.
Figure 1258:
1. Expand the outlet surface group in the tree.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1259:
1. Expand the cylinder surface group in the tree.

Figure 1260:
1. Expand the beam surface group in the tree.

4. Set the Mesh displacement BC type to Flexible body by selecting it from the drop-down menu.
This setting will move the mesh on this surface group according to the motion of the flexible body.
5. Set the Flexible body as the beam.

AcuSolve Tutorials
This instructs the solver to use the flexible body beam as the reference for calculating the mesh
displacement of the beam surface group.
Figure 1261:

number of saved states etc.
1. Expand Output, then double-click Nodal Output to open the Nodal Output detail panel.
This will save the nodal outputs at every 2nd time step.
4. Check that the Number of saved states is set to zero.
Setting this option to zero will instruct the solver to save all the solution state files.
Figure 1262:

AcuSolve Tutorials

Time History Output commands enable you to extract the nodal solution at any point within the domain.
In this simulation, you will observe the displacement at the tip of the cantilever beam.
1. Double-click the Output tree, right-click Time History Output and select New.
A new entry, Time History Output 1, is created in the Data Tree under the Time History Output
branch.
2. Right-click Time History Output 1, select Rename in the context menu and type
Tip_MonitorPoint as the entity name.
3. Double-click Tip_MonitorPoint to open the Tip_MonitorPoint detail panel.
4. In the detail panel, change the Type to Coordinates.
5. Click Open Array next to the Coordinates option and fill in the row in the Array Editor dialog as
follows:
Figure 1263:
6. In the detail panel, set Time step frequency to 1.

Figure 1264:
1. Double-click Nodal Initial Condition in the Data Tree to open the dialog in the detail panel.
2

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1265:
Assign the Interpolated Motion Surfaces

In this step you will assign the appropriate surfaces as Interpolated mesh motion surfaces so that the
mesh bounded by these surfaces will be interpolated based on the motion of these interpolated mesh
motion surfaces.
1. Click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to display all settings in the Data Tree.
2. Expand Model > Surfaces > beam.
3. Check the box next to Interpolated Motion Surface.
4. In the detail panel, for Motion surface type, accept the default option of Faceted.
5. Similarly, assign the Interpolated Motion Surface for the Slip surface.
Figure 1266:
Create Mesh Motion with Interpolated Motion Surfaces

In the next steps you will define the mesh motion based on the Interpolated surfaces defined in the
above step.
1. Click ALE in the Data Tree Manager to display all settings in the Data Tree.
2. Right-click on Mesh Motion and select New.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3. Right-click on Mesh Motion 1 and rename it to Interpolated_mesh_motion.

4. Double-click on Interpolated_mesh_motion to open the detail panel.
5. Change the Type to Interpolated Motion.
Figure 1267:
6. Click Open Refs.

7. In the Reference Editor, click Add Row twice to create two new rows for the two interpolated
motion surfaces just created.
8. Select the interpolated motion surfaces (beam and slip).
Figure 1268:
Assign Mesh Motion to the Fluid

In this step you will assign the appropriate surfaces as Interpolated mesh motion surfaces so that the
mesh bounded by these surfaces will be interpolated based on the motion of these interpolated mesh
motion surfaces.
2. Expand Model > Volume > fluid.
3. Double-click Element Set.
4. In the detail panel, change Mesh motion to Interpolated_mesh_motion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1269:

AcuSolve Tutorials

5. Set the Absolute mesh size to 2.0 m.
Figure 1270:


2. Under Model, expand Surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Region of influence is a size control that allows you to control the size and growth rate of the surface
and volume mesh surrounding a surface based on the distance from the surface.

10. Ensure that the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
Figure 1271:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Instead of repeating the above steps for the beam surface group, you can propagate the mesh attribute
settings for cylinder surface group to beam surface group.
13. In the Data Tree, under cylinder, right-click on Surface Mesh Attributes.
14. Select Propagate.
15. In the Propagate dialog, select the beam surface group and click Propagate.

When these faces are set up with a similar boundary condition it coerces the corresponding nodes
across the faces to have the same results. In this problem these faces are the negative and positive z-
surfaces. This kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with mesh extrusion process. In the following steps,
the process of extrusion of the mesh between these surfaces is defined.

2. Right-click Mesh Extrusions and select New from the context menu.
A new entity, Mesh Extrusion 1, is created.
3. Rename Mesh Extrusion 1 as z_extrusion.
Figure 1272:
4. Right-click z_extrusion and select Define from the context menu.

Double-clicking z_extrusion achieves the same results.
b) Use the drop-down arrows to select the surfaces for Side 1 and Side 2 as z_neg and z_pos,
respectively.
Use the following image for reference for setting up the mesh extrusion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1273:
Generate the Mesh

problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1274:
Note: The actual number of nodes, elements and memory usage may vary slightly
from machine to machine.
4. You can rotate and zoom in the model to analyze the various mesh regions.
Import Structural Model Information

The next step is to import the structural model and project the eigenvectors onto the CFD mesh.
1.
The Eigenmode Manager dialog opens.
2. Click Add.
A new entry, Modal Response 1, is created.
3. Type Modes as the Name for the entry.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1275:
4. Click Open next to Import.

5. In the File Browser dialog, make sure that the file type is set to recognize Nastran OP2 results
files.
6. Select the file beam_modal.op2 and click Open to import the file.
The Number of available modes should now be 5.
7. Set the Number of active modes to 5.
8. Click the Show tab in the Eigenmode Manager, then toggle the Display and Animate buttons
On to visualize the modes of the structure.
Experiment with the Animation mode Id slider to look at the different modes of the structure.
You can also change the amplitude, speed and visualization properties of the animation using this
panel.
9. Click the Transfer tab in the Eigenmode Manager.
10. Click Transfer next to the Flexible body option.
a) Make sure that beam is selected in the Reference Editor dialog that opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1276:

This will transfer the mass, stiffness and damping arrays from the structural model over to
the beam flexible body that was created earlier.
11. Click Transfer next to the Simple BC option.
a) Select beam from the list in the Reference Editor dialog.
Figure 1277:

This will project the eigenvectors of the structure onto the nodes of the surface group beam.
12. Close the Eigenmode Manager.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

For this case the default settings will be used. AcuSolve will run using four processors, if available,
a higher number of processors may be specified. AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input files and
will launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the transient solution for this problem.
Figure 1278:

1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1279:
The node 1 lies at the tip of the beam. The plot above shows the displacement of the tip of the
beam due to the fluid forces as the beam interacts with the flow.
processing.
c) Click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Start AcuFieldView

2. Click Ok in the Launch AcuFieldView dialog.
You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all of the boundary
surfaces with mesh. When results of a transient simulation are loaded in AcuConsole the displayed
results correspond to the last time step of the simulation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1280:
Set Up AcuFieldView

Figure 1281:

AcuSolve Tutorials

Figure 1282:

5.
6. Click Background in the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1283:
7. Select the color white in the Background Color dialog.
Figure 1284:

9.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1285:
1.
3.
9. In the Colormap, tab change Scalar Coloring to Local.

AcuSolve Tutorials
10. From the Defined Views menu bar, select +Z as the viewing direction.
Figure 1286:

Figure 1287:
14. Click Tools > Transient Data .


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1288:
If the Sweep Control in this dialog shows Sweep instead of Build the Flipbook Build Mode is not
Solution Time.
16. Click Apply.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1289:
17. Click Build.

18. Click Frame Rate in the Flipbook Controls dialog.
19. Enter 0.2 seconds for Minimum Time.
20. Click Close.
21.
Click the icon to play the animation.
As the animation progresses, you will be able to see the alternating vortices on the top and
bottom surface of the beam, causing an oscillating motion in the beam. This oscillating motion is
22. To save the animation click the icon and then click Save.
23. Provide a file name in the Flipbook File Save dialog and click Save.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial you successfully set up and solved an FSI problem, using the Practical-FSI,
or P-FSI approach. The modal analysis of the structure (beam) is first done in a structural solver and
the results of this modal analysis in the form of a .op2 file are used to represent the structure in
AcuSolve. The .op2 file provides the necessary information, such as the mass, stiffness and damping
characteristics of the solid body, to AcuSolve. This information, along with the flow field information
generated by AcuSolve, is used to calculate the displacement of the beam as it interacts with the flow.
You started the tutorial by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the fluid portion
geometry, and setting up the basic simulation parameters. Then you set up a flexible body to represent
the beam, and generated a solution with AcuSolve. Results were post-processed in AcuFieldView
where you generated an animation of the beam’s displacement as it interacts with the fluid flow. New
features that were introduced in this tutorial include: setting up a Practical FSI simulation (P-FSI)
using Interpolated Mesh Motion (IMM), and using Eigenmode Manager in AcuConsole for transferring
structural data onto a CFD mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Harvester with Rigid Body Rotation
AcuConsole
5.12.1 AcuConsole
in the fluid flow. In addition, the cylinder and the harvester are imparted with a sinusoidal rotation
motion. The interaction between the pressure fields generated by the vortices and the flow harvester
structure is simulated in this tutorial. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach is used to compute
the mesh deformation in the fluid domain as it interacts with the deforming structure.
• Defining rigid body rotation motion
• Implementation of P-FSI in conjunction with rigid body rotation

• Start AcuConsole and read the simulation database of the Piezoelectric Flow Harvester
• Modify general problem parameters
• Create multiplier function for rigid body mesh motion
• Create mesh motion for rigid body rotation
• Apply mesh motion to the surface attributes
• Assign rigid body motion to the surface and node attributes
• Change the inlet velocity
• Add a time history output point
• Run AcuSolve
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the tutorials ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow and
ACU-T: 5400 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (P-FSI). It is assumed
that you have some familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve and AcuFieldView. You will also need access
to a licensed version of AcuSolve.

AcuSolve Tutorials

piezo_harvester_P-FSI.acs from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip. The file piezo_harvester_P-
FSI.acs stores the complete setup as described in Piezoelectric Flow Harvester, which includes purely
flexible body simulation. In this tutorial, you will start from that database and add a rigid body rotation
and then simulate the flow phenomenon.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Analyze the Problem

the important parameters that need to be provided to AcuSolve.
The CFD model contains a cantilever beam and a rigid cylindrical body. The beam along with the
cylinder is placed in a water flow stream. This cylindrical body acts a bluff body placed in the flow
and stimulates vortex shedding in the flow downstream as it passes over the cylinder. The alternating
shedding of vortices creates a zone of alternating asymmetric pressure distribution on either side of
the beam. Such an alternating pressure distribution exerts an oscillating force on the beam, creating a
sustainable oscillating vibration in the beam.
In this tutorial, in the addition to the flexible motion of the beam adopted in Piezoelectric Flow
Harvester Tutorial-1, you will incorporate the rigid body rotation of the cylinder and the beam. The
cylinder and the beam are enforced with a sinusoidal oscillatory rotation about the center of the cylinder
with a maximum angle of rotation as 100 (i.e. 0.174 rad) with a frequency of 22 rad/sec (3.5 Hz). The
axis of rotation is along axis of cylinder. The variation of the rotation angle (θ) is given as:
Where, t is the time (sec).
Since this tutorial has a rotation motion in addition to flexible motion of beam, you can achieve higher
displacements (and hence strains) at lower velocity. Therefore, you will reduce the inlet velocity to 4 m/
sec instead of 10 m/sec in Piezoelectric Flow Harvester Tutorial-1.
The schematics of the problem which will be addressed in this tutorial is shown in Figure 1. The
modeled domain consists of a fluid volume. The fluid solver does not require the solid body to be
modeled. However, the results of the structural solver will be used to define the solid body and the
surfaces where the fluid interacts with the solid will be allowed to deform according to the Eigen modes
of the beam. Figure 2 shows the arrangement of the beam with its various layers.

AcuSolve Tutorials

AcuSolve Tutorials
Start AcuConsole and Open the Simulation Database

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole and open a database that is set up for a P-FSI simulation of
a non-rotating piezoelectric harvester. You will then make appropriate changes to the database to take
into account the rigid body rotation of the harvester in addition to the flexible body motion.
3. Create a new directory in this location. Name it P-FSI_with_rigid_body_motion.
4. Click File > Open and open piezo_harvester_P-FSI.acs.
5. Click File > Save As and enter P-FSI_with_rigid_body_rotation as the file name for the
database.

In the next steps you will modify global settings needed for the rigid body rotation of the piezoelectric
harvester.
Figure 1292:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1293:
context menu.
4. Enter P-FSI with rigid body rotation as the Sub title.
Figure 1294:
Create a Multiplier Function for Mesh Motion
The variation of the rotation angle ( ) is modeled using a multiplier function using
the following steps.
2. Right-click Multiplier Function and click New to create a new multiplier function.

AcuSolve Tutorials
A new entry, Multiplier Function 1, will be created in the Data Tree under the Multiplier Function
branch.
3. Rename the new multiplier function.
a) Right-click Multiplier Function 1.
b) Click Rename.
c) Type Rotation_multiplier and press Enter.
4. Double-click Rotation_multiplier to open the detail panel.
5. Change Type to Sine Series.
6. Click Open Array next to Sine coefficients.
In the Array Editor, the first column refers to the amplitude of the sine function, second column
refers to the frequency of the sine function and the third column refers to phase of the sine wave.
Figure 1295:
Create Mesh Motion for Rigid Body Rotation

In the next steps you will define the rigid body rotation of the cylinder and the beam.
3. Rename the new reference frame as Rigid_body_rotation.
4. Double-click Rigid_body_rotation to open the detail panel.
5. Change the Type to Rotation.
6. Click the Open Array button next to Rotation center to open the Array Editor.
7. Enter -0.1 as the X-coordinate.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1296:
Note: (x, y, z) = (-0.1, 0, 0) is the center of the cylinder.
9. Click the Open Array button next to Angular velocity to open the Array Editor.
10. Enter 1.0 as the Z-coordinate.
Figure 1297:

12. Set the Rotation variable to Multiplier Function.
13. Set the Rotation multiplier function to Rotation_multiplier.
Figure 1298:
Using the mesh motion Type = Rotation defines the variation of the rotation angle which is
used by AcuSolve in evaluating the coordinates of the beam and cylinder. The rotation angle is
evaluated by multiplying the value of Rotation Variable with the components of Angular Velocity.
Therefore, for this tutorial, the rotation angle comes out to be:

AcuSolve Tutorials
EQ. 4
about z-axis
For a point with initial coordinates, located on the cylinder or beam, the coordinates at a given
time, t, is given by:
EQ. 5
EQ. 6
EQ. 7
Assign Rigid Body Motion to the Beam Surface
2. Expand Model > Surfaces > Beam.
4. Set the Mesh motion to Rigid_body_rotation.
Figure 1299:
Assign Rigid Body Motion to the Cylinder Surface
1. Expand Model > Surfaces > Cylinder.

3. Set the Mesh motion to Rigid_body_rotation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1300:
4. Click Save to save the database.
Reduce the Inlet Velocity

As mentioned in Analyze the Problem, you will set the inlet velocity to 4 m/sec.
1. Expand Model > Surfaces > Inlet.

3. Set the X velocity to 4.0 m/sec.
Figure 1301:

In the next steps you will set the initial conditions.
detail panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials

3. Verify that the Eddy viscosity is set to 1e-005 m2/sec.
Figure 1302:
Add Time History Output Point

domain. In this simulation, it would be interesting to observe the displacement at the tip and root of
the cantilever beam. The .acs database you started with has a monitor point at the tip of the cantilever
beam.
The following steps will create a similar monitor point at the root of the cantilever beam.

2. Double-click Output.
3. Right-click on Time History Output, and select New.
4. Rename the new time history output to Root_MonitorPoint.
5. Double-click Root_MonitorPoint to open the detail panel.
6. Change the Type to Coordinates.
7. Click Open Array next to Coordinates, and update the fields in the Array Editor dialog, as
follows:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1303:

9. Click Save to save the database.
Figure 1304:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve

Figure 1305:

1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Time History > Root_MonitorPoint > node 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Repeat the above steps to plot the mesh_y_displacement for the Tip_MonitorPoint.
Figure 1306:
The plot above shows the displacement of the tip and the root of the beam, due to the fluid forces
as the beam interacts with the flow. The above plot also shows the displacement at the root and
at the tip are not in phase, hence maximizing the bending stress (hence, strains) for a lower inlet
velocity.
processing.
c) Click Save.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Launch AcuFieldView
Click on the AcuConsole toolbar to open the Launch AcuFieldView dialog.

You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all of the boundary surfaces with
mesh. When results of a transient simulation are loaded in AcuConsole, the displayed results correspond
to the last time step of the simulation.
Figure 1307:
Set Up AcuFieldView


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1308:


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1309:

5.
Click the Scalar Colormap Specification icon on the toolbar.
6. In the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog, click Background.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1310:
7. In the Background Color dialog, select the color white.
Figure 1311:

9.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1312:
1.
3.
5. Set the Coloring to Scalar.
6. Set the Display Type to Smooth.
9. In the Colormap tab, change Scalar Coloring to Local.

AcuSolve Tutorials
10. From the Defined Views, select +Z as the viewing direction.

Figure 1313:


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1314:
If the Sweep Control in this dialog shows Sweep instead of Build, the Flipbook Build mode is not
active. In Sweep mode, you will be able to create and visualize the animation, but you will not be
Solution Time.
16. Click Apply.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1315:
17. Click Build.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Summary
In this tutorial you worked through a basic workflow to set up a flexible body motion of a rotating
beam in the wake of a cylinder. You started with the piezo_harvester_P-FSI.acs file from the tutorial
Piezoelectric Flow Harvester and modified the set up to accommodate the rigid body rotation of the
beam and the cylinder. Once the case was set up, you generated a solution using AcuSolve. Results
were post-processed in AcuFieldView to allow you to create animation of the beam displacements with
time.
New features introduced in this tutorial included:

• Creating rigid body type mesh motion for rotation
• Implementation of P-FSI in conjunction of rigid body rotation

AcuSolve Tutorials

Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction
AcuConsole
5.13.1 AcuConsole
This tutorial provides the instructions for setting up, solving and viewing results for a simulation of
a piezoelectric fluid harvester. In this simulation, a piezoelectric flow harvester is placed in a fluid
flow channel. The harvester is attached to a cylinder mount which also acts as a bluff body causing
vortices in the fluid flow. The interaction between the pressure fields generated by the vortices and the
flow harvester structure is simulated in this tutorial. AcuSolve is used in conjunction with a structural
solver to compute the structural displacement of the harvester using a direct-coupled fluid structure
interaction (DC-FSI) approach. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach is used to compute the
mesh deformation in the fluid domain as it interacts with the deforming structure.
PFSI approach for a fluid-structure multiphysics problem has been discussed in the Piezoelectric Flow
Energy Harvester PFSI tutorial. The following additional capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this
tutorial:
• Set up a Direct Coupled FSI simulation (DC-FSI)
• AcuSolve/OptiStruct multiphysics coupling
• Setting up external code parameters to support coupling
• Assigning external code parameters to surfaces

• Import the geometry for the simulation.
• Set the appropriate boundary conditions for the coupling surfaces
• Run AcuSolve
• Post-process the nodal output with AcuFieldView

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a
Mixing Elbow. Though not required, it is recommended that you have also run through ACU-T: 5400
Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (P-FSI). This tutorial will demonstrate
the same problem setup used in the P-FSI tutorial but with a DC-FSI approach. It is assumed that
you have some familiarity with AcuConsole, AcuSolve and AcuFieldView. You will also need access to a
licensed version of AcuSolve.
The coupled structural solver used for this tutorial is another HyperWorks product, OptiStruct. Thus,
to follow this tutorial you will also need access to a licensed version of OptiStruct. The corresponding
OptiStruct setup for this tutorial is available in the OptiStruct tutorial manual.

Extract fluid.x_t and slab_dcfsi.fem from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip. The file fluid.x_t
stores the geometry information for the fluid portion of the model for this problem, and the file
slab_dcfsi.fem is the OptiStruct input deck for this problem.
Analyze the Problem

velocity).
The schematics of the problem is shown in Figure 1316. The CFD model consists of a cylindrical body
and a cantilever beam. This cylindrical body generates vortex shedding. This vortex shedding creates
a zone of alternating asymmetric pressure distribution on either side of the beam. Such an alternating
pressure distribution exerts an oscillating force on the beam, creating a sustainable oscillating vibration
in the beam.
The fluid solver does not require the solid body to be modeled. However, the structural solver will solve
for the structural deformation using the fluid flow and pressure field which will be acting on the surface
of the structure. The information required by the structural solver for structure displacement calculation
will be passed on to it by the fluid solver. The structural solver on the other hand, will pass on the
displacement information to the fluid solver. The fluid solver will then use this displacement information
to calculate the flow field at the next time step, which will then be used by the structural solver to
update the displacement information. This back and forth exchange of information between the fluid
and structural solver will take place at each time step, and continue until one of the solvers signals the
end of simulation. Figure 1317 shows the arrangement of the beam with its various layers.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Fluid Structure Interaction

Fluid Structure Interaction is the interaction between a fluid flow and a deformable solid structure
in contact with this flow. An FSI problem can be an external or an internal flow problem. The fluid
flow can be external with the solid body immersed in the flow, for example, a windmill blade in open
atmosphere. The fluid flow can also be internal with the solid body enclosing the flow, for example,
fluid flow inside a deformable pipe. In both cases, the principle behind solving the problem remains the
same. When a fluid flow encounters a structure, fluid pressure exerts a stress on the solid body that
can lead to deformations in the structure. The magnitude of the deformation depends on the stiffness of
the structure material and the magnitude of pressure force exerted by the fluid. The deformation in the
structure shape then leads to altering of the flow characteristics in vicinity of the structure.
An FSI problem is thus a multiphysics problem, with the coupled laws of structural and fluid mechanics
affecting the solution. There are two widely used approaches with which this coupling is achieved:
1. Practical-FSI (P-FSI): The structure is reduced in the modal space and coupled to the fluid
domain through interface nodes. The coupling between the solvers happens in a single pass itself.
Structural behaviour is limited to be linear in a P-FSI simulation.
2. Direct coupling (DC-FSI): The coupling is a co-simulation between the structural and the fluid
solver, with each solver stepping through time simultaneously and iterating to equilibrium in each
time step.
In case the deformations in the structure are large enough to alter the fluid flow significantly, the DC-
FSI co-simulation approach should be used. With this approach, as the fluid flow and pressure fields

AcuSolve Tutorials
affect the structural deformations, and the structural deformations affect the flow and pressure, the
information about these effects is exchanged between the solvers in real time.
Given the difference in coupling methodology, it is likely that slightly different results will be observed
when a same problem is solved using P-FSI and DC-FSI approaches. The choice of the approach that
should be used shall depend on the problem and the available resources. As mentioned above, the P-
FSI approach should be limited to the cases when displacements in the structure are small, and the
structural behaviour can be approximated to be linear. For all other cases, DC-FSI should be preferred.
However, DC-FSI simulations incur a higher computational resources cost. With this consideration, P-FSI
simulation can also be used as a preliminary test simulation before a DC-FSI simulation is carried out.
FSI can be stable or oscillatory. In a stable FSI, the deformed shape of the structure will not change
with time, unless the flow changes as well. In an oscillatory FSI, once the structure is deformed, it will
try to return to its non-deformed state and then the whole deformation process repeats itself.
Mesh Motion Approaches in AcuSolve

Many simulations require deformation of the domain with time. AcuSolve provides two approaches for
handling dynamic meshes:
1. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE)
2. Interpolated Mesh Motion.
Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE)

ALE is an approach for mesh motion in which the computational nodes are moved arbitrarily with the
aim of optimizing the element quality. An additional Partial Differential Equation (PDE) is solved to
arrive at the appropriate mesh position. ALE is capable of handling complex arbitrary motions and
is therefore the most general approach in simulating moving mesh problems. Generality comes with
additional computational cost because of the extra PDE to be solved. For simpler motions like 1D or
2D motions faster approaches are available which include interpolated mesh motion, general specified
motions, nodal boundary conditions based approaches.

AcuSolve Tutorials

settings.
4. Create a new directory in this location. Name it DCFSI_Tutorial and navigate into this directory.
5. Enter piezo_harvester_dcfsi as the file name for the database.


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1318:
Figure 1319:
context menu.
4. Enter AcuSolve DCFSI Tutorial as the Title.

5. Enter Piezoelectric harvester as the Sub title.
a) Click the Analysis type drop-down menu.
b) Click Transient from the list.
8. Change the Mesh type from Fixed to Arbitrary Mesh Movement (ALE).
This option tells AcuSolve that it will be communicating with an external code at run time.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Set the Max time steps as 0.0.
5. Set the Final time as 3.0.
6. Set the Initial time increment as 0.01.
7. Set the Min stagger iterations as 3.
8. Set the Max stagger iterations as 20.
10. Check that the Flow, Turbulence, Mesh radio buttons are set to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials

defined. In the next steps you will check the material characteristics of the predefined "Water" model to
match the desired properties for this problem.
The Material type for water is Fluid. Fluid is the default material type for any new material created
in AcuConsole.
3. Click the Density tab. Check that:
3
b) Density value is set to 1000 kg/m .
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.
future changes.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Import Geometry
Figure 1320:

AcuSolve Tutorials

container.

2. Turn off the display of Surfaces by right-clicking on Surfaces and selecting Display off.
the volume name.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Rename the default volume group to fluid.
press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you move the input focus away from the
5. Set up the fluid volume set:

c) Check that the Medium for the volume is set to Fluid. If not, click on the drop-down menu
and select Fluid.
d) Click the Material model drop-down menu and select Water.
Figure 1321:
Create Surface Groups and Apply Basic Surface Parameters

characteristics of the problem and add surfaces to the group containers.
1. Turn-off the display for Volumes by right-clicking on Volumes and clicking Display off.

AcuSolve Tutorials
If you cannot see the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns, click Columns, select these
4. Turn off the display off for all surfaces except for default surface.
5. Using the figure below as a guide, rename the Surface Names (column 1) for all surfaces, and set
the Simple BC Active and Simple BC Type columns.
Make sure the Simple BC option is set to off for the beam surface.
a) Click Add to in the to z_pos row.
Done.

AcuSolve Tutorials
7. Similarly, assign the surface with the minimum z-coordinate to the z_neg surface group.
9. Assign the surface with the minimum x-coordinate to inlet surface group.
10. Assign the surface with the maximum x-coordinate to outlet surface group.
11. Assign the cylinder surface to the cylinder surface group.
Use the following figure as the reference for selecting the required surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
surface group container. This default surface group was renamed to beam in the Surface Manager.
In the previous steps, you assigned some surfaces to various other surface groups that you created.
At this point, all that is left in the beam surface group are the surfaces which make up the contact
boundary between the fluid volume and the beam.
3. Under Model, expand Surfaces, and then expand the inlet surface group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Ensure the Type is to Inflow.

6. Check that the Inflow type is set to Velocity, and that the Inflow Velocity type is Cartesian.
7. Set the X velocity to 10 m/s.
2
9. Set the Eddy viscosity ratio to 1e-05 m /sec.
Figure 1322:

1. Expand the z_neg surface group.
3. Ensure the Type is to Slip.
4. Set the Mesh displacement BC type to Slip.
5. Repeat the above steps for the z_pos surface group.
You may also choose to Propagate the settings for z_neg surface group to z_pos surface group, to
ensure they are the same.

1. Expand the slip surface group.
3. Ensure the Type is to Slip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1323:

1. Expand the outlet surface group.
3. Ensure the Type is set to Outflow.
Figure 1324:

1. Expand the Cylinder surface group.
3. Ensure the Type is set to Wall.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1325:

the Data Tree.
2. Under beam, activate External Code Surface.
3. In the detail panel, check that the Coupling type is set to Structural and that the Coupling
direction is set to Both.
4. Ensure the Velocity type is set to Wall, and the Mesh displacement type is Tied.
5. Set the Gap factor to 0.0.

number of saved states, etc.
2. Expand Global then expand Output.

AcuSolve Tutorials

This will save the nodal outputs at every 2nd time step.
6. Check that the Number of saved states is set to zero.
Figure 1326:
Setting this option to zero will instruct the solver to save all the solution state files.

domain. In this simulation, it would be interesting to observe the displacement at the tip of the
cantilever beam.
1. Under Output, right-click on Time History Output and select New.

A new entry, Time History Output 1, will be created in the Data Tree under the Time History
Output branch.
2. Rename Time History Output 1 to Tip_MonitorPoint.
3. Double-click Tip_MonitorPoint to open the detail panel. In the detail panel, complete the
following:
b) Click Open Array and fill in the row in the Array Editor dialog as follows:
Figure 1327:
c) Click OK.
d) Set Time step frequency to 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. In the Data Tree, double-click Nodal Initial Condition to open the detail panel.
2. Set the X velocity to 10 m/s.
2
Figure 1328:

The force acting on the beam, due to the flow, will be ramped gradually over the first few time steps.
After these first few time steps, the complete force from the fluid will be transferred to the beam
without any ramping. This will be achieved using a Multiplier Function. In the next few steps you will
create a linear multiplier function which will later be assigned as a force multiplier function for load
acting on the beam.
2. Right-click on Multiplier Function and select New.
branch.
3. Rename Multiplier Function 1 to ForceRamp.
4. Double-click on ForceRamp to open the detail panel.
8. Click Add to create a second row in the Array Editor.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9. Enter the values as follows:
Figure 1329:
10. Click OK.
Set up the External Code Coupling

In the introduction it was discussed that the structural solver is responsible for calculating the
displacement, and passes on the calculated displacements to AcuSolve. In the following steps, you will
set up the connection between AcuSolve and the external code, which in this case is OptiStruct.
the Data Tree.
3. Double-click External Code Parameters to open the External Code Parameters detail panel.
4. Check that Communication is set to Socket.
5. Turn the Socket initiate flag to Off.
6. Enter the name of the machine running the structural solver in the Socket host box.
Note: If you are running AcuSolve and the structural solver (OptiStruct) on the same
machine, enter localhost here.
7. Set the Socket port to 48002.

Socket port will depend on the structural solver. 48002 is the OptiStruct default and is thus used
for this example. Refer to the manual of the structural solver you are using to determine the
correct port number to be entered here.
8. Click the Multiplier function drop-down menu and select ForceRamp.
This will gradually ramp up the forces transmitted from the external code over the first few steps
as specified by the multiplier function (20 time steps in this case).

AcuSolve Tutorials

AcuSolve Tutorials

5. Set the Absolute mesh size to 2.0 m.
Figure 1330:


2. Under Model, expand Surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials

Region of influence is a size control that allows you to control the size and growth rate of the surface
and volume mesh surrounding a surface based on the distance from the surface.

10. Ensure that the Boundary layer type is set to Full Control.
Figure 1331:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Instead of repeating the above steps for the beam surface group, you can propagate the mesh attribute
settings for cylinder surface group to beam surface group.
13. In the Data Tree, under cylinder, right-click on Surface Mesh Attributes.
14. Select Propagate.
15. In the Propagate dialog, select the beam surface group and click Propagate.

Thus, when these faces are set up with an identical boundary condition, it coerces the corresponding
nodes across the faces to have same results. In this problem, these faces are the negative and positive
z-surfaces. This kind of mesh is achieved in AcuSolve with mesh extrusion process. In the following
steps you will define the process of extrusion of the mesh between these surfaces.

2. Right-click on Mesh Extrusions and select New.
3. Rename Mesh Extrusion 1 to z_extrusion.
4. Right-click on z_extrusion and select Define.
b) Select the surfaces from drop-downs for Side 1 and Side 2 as z_neg and z_pos,
respectively.
d) Set Number of layers equal to 1.
Figure 1332:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Generate the Mesh

problem.

3. Visualize the mesh in the modeling window.

a) Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree and click Display on.
b) Right-click Surfaces in the Data Tree, select Display type and click solid & wire.
c) Rotate and zoom in the model to analyze the various mesh regions.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1333:
Run OptiStruct
1. Start OptiStruct from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
HyperWorks <version> > OptiStruct.
2. Click to browse for the file to open.
3. Navigate to file slab_dcfsi.fem and click Open.
4. Click Run to launch OptiStruct.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1334:
As the solution progresses, a HyperWorks Solver View window opens. OptiStruct solution
progress is reported in this window.
OptiStruct will initiate the socket connection and wait for AcuSolve to respond to its signal before
proceeding with the solution.
Run AcuSolve

input files and launch AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the transient solution for this problem.
As the solution progresses, an AcuTail window will open. Solution progress is reported in this
window.
When AcuSolve is started, it will listen to the socket port specified while setting up the external
code coupling, for an initial communication from OptiStruct. You must make sure to start the
OptiStruct run which will initialize the socket port for communication. Once the connection is
established, the solvers will alternatively send and receive data through the simulation steps.
the solution.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1335:

1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1336:
The node 1 lies at the tip of the beam. The plot above thus shows the displacement of the tip of
the beam due to the fluid forces as the beam interacts with the flow.
processing.
c) Click Save.

• How to find the visualization panels either from the toolbar or the Visualization menu, so you can
create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
• How to move the data around the modeling window using mouse controls to translate, rotate and

AcuSolve Tutorials
Start AcuFieldView
Click on the AcuConsole toolbar to open the Launch AcuFieldView dialog.
Figure 1337:
You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all the boundary surfaces with
mesh. When results of a transient simulation is loaded in AcuConsole, the displayed results correspond
to the last time step of the simulation.
Figure 1338:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set up AcuFieldView

Figure 1339:
4. In the Viewer Options dialog, deselect the Perspective check box to turn it off.
5. Disable axis markers by clicking Axis Markers.
7.
Click on the Colormap Specification icon on the toolbar.
8. In the Scalar Colormap Specification dialog, click Background and select white.
10.
From the toolbar, click to turn off the outline display.
Your AcuFieldView display should now look like this.
Figure 1340:
View Beam Displacement Animation

AcuSolve Tutorials
1.
3.
4. Create a new coordinate surface at the mid – Z coordinate plane by selecting Z of Coord Plane.
The coordinate surface created is the mid plane between the z_neg and z_pos surfaces.
7. Select x-velocity as the Scalar Function to display.
8. Click the Colormap tab, and change Scalar Coloring to Local.
9. From the Defined Views, select Viewing Direction as +Z.
Your AcuFieldView view should now look like this. The visible shape of the beam is its deformed
shape at the end of last time step in the simulation.
Figure 1341:

11. From the Tools, select Flipbook Build Mode.
12. In the Flipbook Size Warning window, click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1342:
Solution Time box.
15. Click Apply.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1343:
16. Click Build.

18. For Minimum Time, enter 0.2 seconds.
19. Click Close.
20.
As the animation progresses, you will be able to see the alternating vortices on top and bottom
surface of the beam, causing an oscillating motion in the beam. This oscillating motion is
21. To save the animation, click Pause , then click Save.
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved an FSI problem using the Direct Coupling,
or DC-FSI approach. DC-FSI approach is a co-simulation approach where both the structural and
the fluid solvers run simultaneously, and exchange information at each time step of the simulation.
The fluid solver passes the flow and pressure information to the structural solver, which are used to

AcuSolve Tutorials
determine the displacements in the structure. The structural solver then passes the displacement
information to the fluid solver, which then recalculates the flow and pressure field. Both the solvers
thus update and exchange the results of the simulation to achieve the solution. You started the tutorial
by creating a database in AcuConsole, importing and meshing the fluid portion geometry, and setting
up the basic simulation parameters. Then you set up the structure which interacted with the flow such
that its position was updated by the displacement data received from the structural solver at each
time step. As a final step, you defined the parameters for setting up the connection between AcuSolve
and the structural solver, and generated a solution with co-simulation. Results were post-processed in
AcuFieldView, where you generated an animation of the beam’s displacement as it interacted with the
fluid flow. New features that were introduced in this tutorial include: setting up a Direct-Coupled FSI
simulation (DC-FSI), AcuSolve/OptiStruct multiphysics coupling, setting up external code parameters to
support coupling, and assigning external code parameters to surfaces.

AcuTrace 6
6 AcuTrace
• 6.1 ACU-T: 6000 Static Mixer Simulation - AcuTrace (p. 1196)

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1196
6.1 ACU-T: 6000 Static Mixer Simulation - AcuTrace

AcuConsole
6.1.1 AcuConsole
static mixer in combination with the post-processing module AcuTrace. In this simulation, AcuSolve is
used to compute the species mixing within a simple mixer and AcuTrace is used to compute the particle
motion of finite mass particles within the mixer. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to concepts
necessary to visualize streamlines and produce particle path with AcuTrace.
TThe basic steps in any CFD simulation are shown in ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow. The
• Generation of finite mass particle paths with AcuTrace.
• Conversion of the nodal output data with AcuTranstrace for reading into AcuFieldView.
• Post-processing the nodal output with AcuFieldView to visualize streamlines and particle path.
Prerequisites

StaticMixer.acs from AcuConsole_tutorial_inputs.zip.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1197
Analyze the Problem
elements (such as inlets, outlets, or walls) and on flow conditions (such as fluid properties, velocity, or
whether the flow should be modeled as turbulent or as laminar).
The problem to be addressed in this tutorial is shown schematically in Figure 1. It consists of a mixing
tube that contains several swept walls to instigate mixing within the tube. The inlet face is split into two
regions, one containing 100 percent of species_1 and the other containing zero.
The diameter of the inlet is 0.1 m and the length of the mixing tube is 0.525 m. The fins have a mean
diameter of 0.1 m. The maximum thickness of the fins are 0.003 m.
Figure 1344: Schematic of the static mixer
The boundary condition at the inlet is defined to produce a fully developed inlet profile with velocity of
1.0 m/s. One portion of the inlet is defined to contain 100 percent of species_1, while the other inlet is
defined to contain 0.0 percent of species_1.
The fluid in this problem is an epoxy resin, which has a density of 1264.0 kg/m3 and a viscosity of 1.49
kg/m-sec.
In addition to setting appropriate conditions for the simulation, it is important to utilize a mesh that
will be sufficiently refined to provide good results. In this application, the flow will accelerate as it
passes over the fin walls. This leads to the higher gradients that need finer resolution. Proper boundary
layer parameters need to be set to keep the y+ near the wall surface to a reasonable level. Although
a slightly refined mesh is used in this area, it should be noted that a proper mesh refinement study is
necessary in order to determine the required mesh controls to obtain a grid independent solution. The
mesh controls used in this tutorial are very coarse and are only intended to illustrate the process of
setting up the model and to retain a reasonable run time. A significantly higher mesh density is needed
to achieve a grid converged solution.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1198

In the next steps you will start AcuConsole, and open the database for storage of the simulation
settings. In this tutorial, you will begin by loading the existing database, preparing the particle trace
settings and running the model. Next you run AcuTrace to generate the particle paths within the flow
field and convert the data for reading into AcuConsole. Finally, you will visualize some characteristics of
the results using AcuConsole.
2. Click the File menu, then click Open to open the Chose a file dialog.
3. Browse to the directory where StaticMixer.acs is stored.
4. Select StaticMixer.acs and then click Open to open the database.

In next steps you will review parameters that apply globally to the simulation. To make this simple,
The general parameters that you will set for this tutorial are for turbulent flow, steady analysis, and
mesh type as fixed.
Figure 1345:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1199
Figure 1346:
context menu.
4. Enter Mixing_tube as the Title.

5. Enter Steady State as the Sub title.
7. Set the Species equation to Advective Diffusive.
9. Set the Mesh type to Fixed.
Figure 1347:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1200

defined. For this tutorial you will use a newly defined material model, “Epoxy Resin” which has been
preloaded into the AcuConsole database. In the next steps you will check the material characteristics of
the predefined "Epoxy Resin" to match the desired properties for this problem.
Figure 1348:
2. Double-click Epoxy Resin in the Data Tree to open the Epoxy Resin detail panel.
3
3. Click the Density tab. The density of the epoxy is 1264.0 kg/m .
4. Click the Viscosity tab. The viscosity of the resin is 1.49 kg/m – sec.
following methods.
• Click Ctrl+S.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1201
future changes.
Prepare Output Data Stream

In order to utilize the finite mass particle trace functionality for particles that have non-constant density,
you are required to store additional variables during the simulation. This is done by using the Derived
Quantity Output mechanism.
1. In the Data Tree, double-click Output to expand it.

2. Double-click Nodal Output.
3. Change the Time step frequency to 1000.
4. Set the Time frequency to 0.
5. In the Data Tree, double-click Derived Quantity Output to open the Derived Quantity Output
detail panel.
6. Change the Time step frequency to 1000.
7. Set the Time frequency to 0.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1202
Run AcuSolve
Figure 1349:
Note: For this case, the default values will be used. AcuSolve will run using four
processors, and AcuConsole will generate AcuSolve input files and will launch
AcuSolve. AcuSolve will calculate the steady state solution for this problem.


AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1203
Figure 1350:

AcuProbe can be used to monitor residuals.
1.
2. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Solution Ratio.
The Solution ratio measures how much the solution is changing from one step to the next.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1204
Figure 1351:
Prepare Particle Trace Attribute for AcuTrace

Now that the steady-state simulation is complete, you can use the finite mass particle tracer to simulate
micro-particles of SiO2, which are often used to add strength to the epoxy.
Define Particle Trace Parameters for Static Analysis
In the next steps you will define the particle trace data.
1. In AcuConsole, click ALL in the Data Tree Manager to see all settings in the Data Tree.
2. In the Data Tree, expand Particle Trace to show only items related to particle tracing.
Figure 1352:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1205

4. For Particle equation, select Finite mass.
5. In the Data Tree, double-click on Flow Field to open the detail panel.
6. Set the Flow field type to Static as this is a static analysis.
7. In the Data Tree, double-click on Finite Mass to open the detail panel.
8. Verify that Density model is set to Use flow values.
In order to utilize the Use flow values option, the derived quantity output needs to be specified.
If the derived quality output is not available, you can select Constant and enter in a Constant
density value. This allows the particles to maintain a specified value for density.
Define Finite Mass Boundary Conditions
In the next steps you will set the finite mass boundary conditions.
1. Under Particle Trace, right-click on Finite Mass Boundary Condition and select New.
2. Right-click on Finite Mass Boundary Condition 1 and select Rename.
3. Enter the new name as SideWalls.
4. Double-click on SideWalls to open the Finite Mass Boundary Condition panel.
5. Set the Particle surface to Pipe Wall.
6. Leave the Wall type set to Reflect and the Normal and Tangential coefficient of restitution type set
to Constant.
7. Enter 0.2 for both the Normal and Tangential coefficient of restitution.
Figure 1353:
8. In the Data Tree, right-click on Finite Mass Boundary Condition and select New.
9. Rename Finite Mass Boundary Condition 2 to FinWalls.
10. Double-click FinWalls to open the Finite Mass Boundary Condition panel.
11. Set the Particle surface to Fin Walls.
12. Leave the Wall type set to Reflect and the Normal and Tangential coefficient of restitution type set
to Constant.
13. Enter 0.8 for both the Normal and Tangential coefficient of restitution.
This will allow for less energy to be lost when the particle hits the wall and in turn will reflect off of
the wall with a greater velocity.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1206
Figure 1354:
Define Particle Seeds
In the next steps you will define the particle seeds that are moving into the flow regime.
1. Under Particle Trace, right-click on Particle Seed and select New.

2. Rename Particle Seed 1 and to S1.
3. Double-click on S1 to open the Particle Seed panel.
4. For Coordinates type, select Surface Random.
5. For Particle surface, select Inlet S1.
6. For Number of seeds, enter 500.
7. For Constant density, enter 200.
8. For Constant radius, enter 0.0001.
Figure 1355:
9. Under Particle Trace, right-click on Particle Seed and select New.

10. Rename Particle Seed 1 and to S2.
11. Double-click on S2 to open the Particle Seed panel.
12. For Coordinates type, select Surface Random.
13. For Particle surface, select Inlet S2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1207
14. For Number of seeds, enter 500.

15. For Constant density, enter 200.
16. For Constant radius, enter 0.00015.
Figure 1356:
Define the Output Parameters
In the next steps you will define the output parameters.
1. Under Particle Trace, expand Output.

2. Check the box for Trace Output.
3. Double-click Trace Output to open the detail panel.
4. For Output frequency, enter 10.
This is equivalent to outputting the streamlines of the data at a frequency that relates the number
of segments, or the approximate length of the particles. In order to reduce the amount of disc
required in AcuTrace, it is recommended that the output frequency be larger than 1, more
specifically, an order of magnitude larger.
Figure 1357:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1208
Compute the Particle Paths and Review

Now that the steady-state simulation is complete, we can use the finite mass particle tracer to simulate
micro-particles of SiO2 which are often used to add strength to the epoxy.
Run AcuTrace
In the next steps, you will launch AcuTrace to compute the solution for this case.
1.
Click on the toolbar to open the Launch AcuTrace dialog.
Figure 1358:
2. Accept the default settings and select Ok to start the solution process.
Convert Results for AcuFieldView
Once the run is complete, you need to convert the results so that they can be read in AcuFieldView. To
do this, run the AcuTransTrace utility. This tool can be used to convert data for Ensight, FieldView or
AcuDisplay.
2. Change the directory to your working location using the cd command.
3. Enter the command:
acuTransTrace –to fieldview –fvopt streamline,steady

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1209
Figure 1359:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1210

The tutorials have been written with the assumptions that you have become familiar with the
AcuFieldView interface and basic operations. In general, it will be helpful to understand the following
basics:
• How to find the data readers in the File pull-down on the Main menu and open up the desired
reader panel for data input.
• How to find the visualization panels either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization panel pull-
downs on the Main menu to create and modify surfaces in AcuFieldView.
This tutorial shows you how to work with the steady state data and load a particle paths file.
Launch AcuFieldView from the AcuConsole window using the icon on the toolbar.
You will see that the pressure contours have already been displayed on all the boundary surfaces. The
image below was captured with the mesh turned off.
Figure 1360:
Create a Boundary Surface and Coordinate Plane in Mixer
1. In the Boundary Surfaces dialog, change the Coloring to Geometric.

2. Select grey from the color tab.
3. Uncheck the Show Mesh option to turn off the mesh display.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1211
4. From the Boundary Types list, select OSF: Fin Walls and click Ok.
5. Orient the geometry to show that the flow moves from bottom to top of the screen.
6. In the Boundary Surfaces dialog, click Create to create a new boundary surface.
7. From the Boundary Types list, select OSF: Pipe Walls and click OK.
8. Set the Display Type to Outlines and set Coloring to Geometric.
Set the Coordinate Surface Showing Velocity Magnitude on the Mid

Coordinate Surface
1.
2. Click Create to create a new surface.
3. Set the Coord Plane at the mid –Y coordinate surface.
4. Change the Display Type to Constant.
6. For Scalar Function, select z-velocity as the scalar function to be displayed, and click Calculate.
7. Click the Colormap tab, and change the coloring to Local.
8. Click the Legend tab, and activate the Show Legend check box to display the velocity magnitude
values on the coordinate plane.
Figure 1361:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1212
Set the Boundary Surface and Particle Paths
1.
Click the Paths icon to open the Particle Paths dialog.
2. Click Import.
3. Browse to the .fvp file created with acuTransTrace and click Open.
4. In the Particle Paths dialog, change the Coloring type to Scalar.
5. Set the Scalar Variable to particle_z_velocity
6. Click the Legend tab and turn on the legend.
Figure 1362:

AcuSolve Tutorials
6 AcuTrace p.1213
Summary
In this tutorial, you successfully set up and solved for a steady simulation of a static mixer to visualize
the particle path. You started the tutorial by opening a database in AcuConsole and setting up the
simulation parameters to compute the species mixing within the mixer. You ran AcuTrace to generate
the particle paths within the static mixer and converted the data using AcuTranstrace to visualize the
particle paths in AcuFieldView.

Optimization 7
7 Optimization
Discover optimization with MotionView, MotionSolve, and HyperStudy.
• 7.1 ACU-T: 7000 Parametric Optimization with AcuSolve (p. 1215)

• 7.2 ACU-T: 7001 Shape Optimization using HyperMorph (p. 1246)
AcuSolve Tutorials
7 Optimization p.1215
7.1 ACU-T: 7000 Parametric Optimization with

AcuSolve
HyperMesh
7.1.1 HyperMesh
This tutorial provides instructions for setting up, solving, and viewing results for a parametric
optimization problem in AcuSolve. The parametric studies enable you to specify one or more conditions
that may vary, such as a sweep over a range of inlet mass flow boundary conditions. The range and
frequency of the parameter controlling the mass flow is selected either by simply specifying the desired
values or having the program compute suitable values automatically. Several parameters can be used
in parametric studies, for instance, controlling the inlet mass flow, the impeller rotational speed, and
blade angles of a fan problem. The model used for this tutorial consists of a sphere immersed in a fluid
flow. The surface of the sphere is kept hot from an internal heat source. The fluid flow removes the heat
from the sphere surface, thus causing the temperature of the fluid to rise. The simulation is run with
various values of temperature at the fluid inlet to determine the conditions which result in the outlet
temperature closest to a desired value.
The basic steps in a CFD simulation have been discussed in the earlier tutorials. The following additional
capabilities of AcuSolve are introduced in this tutorial:
• Setting up a parametric optimization problem in AcuSolve
• Post-processing a parametric optimization problem
In this tutorial, you will:

• Start HyperMesh and create a simulation database
• Organize the geometry and generate mesh using the Mesh Controls Browser
• Set material model parameters
• Set up the design variables
• Set up the response variables
• Set up the optimization
• Define the objectives
• Set up the volume group parameters
• Set up the surface group parameters
• Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks UI
Introduction. It is assumed that you have some familiarity with HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and
AcuFieldView. To run this tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and
AcuSolve.

sphere_heat_fluid.x_t from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
may differ. The default color scheme in HyperMesh is "random," in which colors are randomly assigned
Analyze the Problem

Figure 1 shows the schematic of the problem that will be solved in this tutorial. The fluid enters the
channel from the left side, and flows around the sphere immersed in the channel. The sphere surface
is maintained at a constant temperature of 500 K. The fluid flow rate is set to be constant. The fluid
inlet temperature is varied over a range of values which are a combination of specified values and
those chosen by the program on basis of a set of parameters. The fluid model used for this problem is a
hypothetical fluid material.
Figure 1363:
The inlet temperature here is what is known as the “design variable” for the problem. A target
value for outlet temperature is specified, and the desired inlet temperature is the value at which the
outlet temperature is closest to the target outlet temperature. The difference between the target
outlet temperature and the actual outlet temperature is what is known as the “response variable”
for the problem. Since the objective of the problem is to minimize the difference between the outlet
temperature and the target outlet temperature, this problem is a “minimization” problem.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Optimization
Optimization, in simple terms, is the process of selecting a best input from a set of available
alternatives. Almost all engineering problems today are aimed at optimizing something. Airfoil designers
are always trying to come up with new airfoil designs with better lift and low drag. Heat exchanger
component designers want to maximize the surface heat flux while also minimizing the pressure drop
through the exchanger.
AcuSolve offers you two options to setting up an optimization study: design optimization and parametric
studies. Design optimization enables you to optimize an objective function subject to certain constraints
and satisfaction of flow equations.
Parametric studies enables you to specify one or more conditions that may vary, such as a sweep over
a range of inlet mass flow boundary conditions. In parametric studies, these control parameters vary
according to a specified pattern. For example, the range and frequency of the parameter controlling the
mass flow is selected either by simply specifying the desired values or having the program computing
suitable values automatically. Several parameters can be used in parametric studies, for instance,
controlling the inlet mass flow, the impeller rotational speed, and blade angles of a fan problem.
Perhaps you want to evaluate the pressure rise and torque of the fan; these outputs are called
"response variables". The parameters controlling the run conditions are called "variables" or "design
variables". The nomenclature is similar to the optimization problems.
Both design optimization and parametric studies manage analyses where,

1. the geometry is allowed to change (geometric design and shape optimization) and/or
2. internal parameters, such as the inlet flow rate or viscosity, are allowed to change (design of
experiments and quantified optimization).
A minimization problem where a local minimum is sought can be stated as:
Minimize, objective(U,Y)
subject to constraints(U,Y)
Here, U is the flow solution variables and Y is a vector of control parameters, called Design Variables
(DVs), that determines the shape of an object or a flow parameter. The objective(s) and constraint(s)
are specified by you. A maximization problem is the same as above, but Minimize is replaced with
Maximize.
Optimization Solution Sequence

The design optimization may be considered as a sequence of cases, where each case first runs the
optimizer and updates the design variables and then solves the flow equations for a number of time
steps until convergence. Sample data is gathered at the end of each time step.
The optimizer solution consists of:

1. Constructing the response surface from the set of samples.
2. Running the optimizer on the response surface.
3. Updating the design variables.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1364:
Define the Simulation Parameters and Import the Geometry
Start HyperMesh and Create a Model Database

In this tutorial, you will begin by creating a model database in HyperMesh, loading the geometry,
and generating and organizing the mesh. Next you will set up the problem parameters, component
parameters, and boundary conditions, and then launch AcuSolve to solve for the number of time steps
specified. Finally, you will visualize some characteristics of the results using AcuProbe.
In the next steps you will start HyperMesh and create the database for storage of the simulation
settings.
1. Start HyperMesh from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All Programs > Altair
HyperWorks <version> > HyperMesh.
A User Profiles dialog opens.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: If it does not show up for you, click Preferences on the menu bar and select
User Profiles.
2. Select HyperMesh from the Application drop-down menu.

3. Select AcuSolve from the list of applications.
4. Click OK.
Figure 1365:
Traditional HyperMesh users will be able to tell the difference between the default HyperMesh
profile and the CFD (AcuSolve) profile. There will be an additional CFD toolbar visible. Also, the
Model Browser will be populated with some entities relevant to a CFD simulation setup.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1366:
5. Click File > Save to open the Save Model dialog.

Save the model database frequently as you proceed through the tutorial steps.
This directory is where all files related to the simulation will be stored. When you are setting
up the problem, there will be a file with extension hm in this directory, which corresponds to an
HyperMesh model database. Once the mesh and solution are generated, additional files and
directories will be added by HyperMesh and AcuSolve.
7. Create a new directory in this location. Name it Parametric_Optimization and open it.
8. Enter sphere_heat as the File name for the database.
HyperMesh, the database path and name should not include spaces.
Import the Geometry

sphere_heat_fluid.x_t in order to complete these steps. This file contains information about the
1. Click File > Import > Geometry.
Tip: Alternatively, click the arrow next to the Import Solver Deck icon on the
standard toolbar and select Import Geometry.
2. Select Parasolid as the File type.
Note: In general, if you are not sure about the geometry file type, leave the File type
option as Auto Detect.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1367:
3.
Click .
Note: If you see anything in the list of import files, clear the list before this step by
clicking .
4. In the Select Parasolid file dialog, select sphere_heat_fluid.x_t and click Open.
5. Make sure that the selected file is in the list of import files and click Import.
6. Click Close.
7.
Click on the Visualization toolbar to display the surfaces.
Your imported model should look like the figure below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1368:
Tip: Use the following controls for visualizing the model:

1. Control + Left-Click: Rotate the model
2. Control + Scroll: Zoom in/out
3. Control + Right Click: Pan the model
Delete the Solid and Create the Surfaces
1. Open the Delete panel by doing one of the following:

a) Click delete in the panel area.
Figure 1369:
b) Click BCs > Delete from the menu bar.

c) Click on the CFD toolbar.

AcuSolve Tutorials
2.
In the Delete panel, click on the entity selector.
3. Select solids from the list of entities that can be collected
You might need to navigate to the right to see all of the available options.
4. Click the solids collector and select all from the list of options.
Important: Make sure that the delete bounding surfs check box is not selected.
The display color of all solids will change to white, indicating that they are selected.
5. Click delete entity.
Organize the Surfaces into Components
1. Right-click in the Model Browser and select Create > Component from the context menu.
2. Enter Inflow as the component name and press Enter.
3. Create two more components and rename them to Outflow and Outer_Walls.
4. Rename the default component to Sphere_Wall.
a) Right-click on Part 1 and select Rename from the context menu.
b) Type Sphere_Wall and press Enter.
5. Open the Organize panel by doing one of the following:
a) Click organize in the panel area.
Figure 1370:
b) Click BCs > Organize from the menu bar.

c)
6. Make sure the collectors radio button is activated.
7.
Click and set the entity selector to surfs.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1371:
8. In the modeling window, select the inlet surface.
Figure 1372:
Tip: Right-click on a surface to deselect it.
9. Click dest component = then select Inflow from the list of surfaces.
10. Click move.
The surface is moved to the Inflow component. The color of the inlet surface in the modeling
window will match the component color for Inflow.
11. In the modeling window, select the outlet surface.
Figure 1373:

AcuSolve Tutorials
12. Click dest component = then select Outflow from the list of surfaces.
13. Click move.
The surface is moved to the Outflow component.
14. In the modeling window, select the four outer walls.
Figure 1374:
15. Click dest component = once more then select Outer_Walls from the list of surfaces.
16. Click move.
The surfaces are moved to the Outer_Walls component.
The remaining surfaces are left in the Sphere_Wall component group.

In the following steps you will set up the mesh controls and generate the mesh for the model. You will
be introduced to the Mesh Controls Browser for this purpose.
Select Mesh > Mesh Controls from the menu bar.
The Mesh Controls Browser opens.
Figure 1375:

AcuSolve Tutorials
The Mesh Controls Browser lets you access all of the different meshing technologies in the single
browser. As you can see in the image above there are options to generate the surface mesh, volume
mesh, refinement zones, and so on. Within these options there are associated model, local, feature, and
refinement controls available. The model controls apply to the entire model. The local controls apply to
a specific entity in the model, such as surfaces and elements.
You will start by creating a surface mesh control followed by a volume mesh control with active
boundary layers. You will then add a volume mesh local control for the surfaces that do not require a
boundary layer.
Set Up Surface Mesh Controls
2. Optional: In the Entity Editor, set the entity name to Surface_Mesh_Control.
collector.
6. In the menu area, click the surfs collector and select all.
7. Click proceed.
8. Expand the Advanced group and verify that Destination Component is set to Original and Mesh
Connectivity is set to Keep.
Figure 1376:
Next you will create and set up a local mesh control for the Sphere_Wall surface.

AcuSolve Tutorials
10. Optional: In the Entity Editor, set the entity name to Sphere_Wall_Mesh_Control.
collector.
14. In the menu area, click the surfs collector and select by collector.
15. Select Sphere_Wall from the list of on the left of the panel, click select, then proceed.
Figure 1377:
Set Up Volume Mesh Controls
1. Go to the MeshControls tab and right-click on Volume Mesh. From the context menu that
appears, select Create > Model > BL + Tetra.
Selecting BL + Tetra will show options for the boundary layer specification in addition to tetra
volume meshing options.
2. In the Entity Editor, set the entity name to Volume_Mesh_Control.
4. Select all four components then click OK.
Tip: Click in the bottom, left corner of the dialog to quickly select all four
components.
5. Expand the Boundary Layer group and set the boundary layer parameters as follows:
a) First layer thickness: 0.01
b) BL growth rate: 1.2

AcuSolve Tutorials
c) First Layer Height / Base Ratio: 0.4

d) Number of Layers: 6
e) Hexa Transition Mode: All Prism
Figure 1378:
When generating boundary layer meshes in HyperMesh, it is recommended to use All Prism as the
boundary layer meshing mode for superior element quality. The prism elements can later be split
into tetrahedral elements, which is the recommended element type for AcuSolve.
This completes the boundary layer mesh control. You will now add a local control for surfaces that
do not require a boundary layer.
6. Right-click on Volume Mesh in the Mesh Controls Browser. From the context menu that appears,
select Create > Local > No BL.
7. Optional: In the Entity Editor, set the entity name tono_BL_control.
9. Select Inflow, Outflow, and Outer_Walls from the list then click OK.
10. Expand the Boundary Layer group and set Base Surface Mesh Treatment to Float.
Figure 1379:

AcuSolve Tutorials
11. Finally, add a volume selector control to put the boundary layer and the core tetra mesh in the
same component.
a) Right-click on Volume Mesh in the Mesh Controls Browser. From the context menu that
appears, select Create > Volume Selector.
b) In the Entity Editor, activate the check box for BL and Tetras in One Component.
Figure 1380:
Generate the Mesh

Once you have created the mesh controls, you can proceed to generating the mesh. Mesh generation
has to be carried out in two steps. First the surface mesh is generated, followed by the volume mesh.
In the previous steps, you created some model and local mesh controls. Your Mesh Controls Browser
should look like the figure below.
Figure 1381:
When you set up the mesh controls, at least one active model control should be present before you
generate the mesh. You can create multiple model controls, but only one model control can be active at
a time. Surface and volume mesh however have different mesh controls.
Local controls are optional. You can create multiple local mesh controls, however only the ones which
are selected at the time of mesh generation will be applied.

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. Ensure that Surface_Mesh_Control is enabled in the Mesh Controls Browser.

2. Ensure that Sphere_Wall_Mesh_Control is enabled.
3. Right-click on Surface Mesh and select Mesh.
Once the meshing is complete, observe the mesh using the visualization controls.
4. Click Shaded Elements and Mesh Lines from toolbar to view the mesh elements more clearly.
Figure 1382:
5. Ensure that Volume_Mesh_Control is enabled in the Mesh Controls Browser.

6. Ensure that no_BL_control is enabled.
7. After the surface meshing is complete, right-click on Volume Mesh and select Mesh.
The generated volume mesh is placed in a single collector called CFD_tetcore001 under the list
of components. This collector will be visible in the Model Browser. Once the meshing is complete,
observe the mesh using the visualization controls.
8. Click the Model tab to return to the Model Browser.
9. Rename the CFD_tetcore001 collector to Fluid.
This collector will hold all the 3-D volume elements.
10. Make sure that the Fluid component is shown in bold, which indicates that it is the current
component. If it is not bold, right-click on Fluid and select Make current.
The mesh generated has prismatic elements in the boundary layer. These elements will be split to
create tetrahedral elements.
11. Click Mesh > Edit > Elements > Split Elements.
The Split Elements panel opens.
12. Select solid elements from the options on the left.
13. Click the elems collector and select all.

AcuSolve Tutorials
14. Change the split pattern to split intro tetras.

This is the optimized mode for splitting elements into tetras for a CFD simulation.
15. Click split.
Figure 1383:
Set up Simulation Parameters for AcuSolve

The next step after creating the mesh is to set up the simulation parameters. You will use the Solver
Browser for this purpose. The Solver Browser provides a solver perspective view of the model structure
in flat, listed tree structure. Before switching to the Solver Browser, it is useful to specify the type for
the components in the Model.
1. From the Model Browser, expand the Component tree and click on Fluid.
2. Change the Type to FLUID.
3. Click Sphere_Wall in the Model Browser.
4. In the Entity Editor, change the Type to Wall.
5. Similarly, change the type for Inflow to INFLOW.
Click Yes in the warning dialog that appears.
6. Change the type for Outflow to OUTFLOW.
7. Change the type for Outer_Walls to SLIP.

In next steps, you will set parameters that apply globally to the simulation.
1. Click View > Solver Browser to open the Solver Browser.

Explore the structure and various entities in the Solver Browser. As you can see, the Solver
Browser lists every entity mapped to the active solver profile within the session and places those
entities into their respective entity group folders.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1384:
2. Expand 01.Global and then expand 01.PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION.

3. Click PROBLEM_DESCRIPTION to open the Entity Editor.
4. Enter Sphere Heat Parametric Optimization Tutorial for the Title.
6. Set Optimization to On.
Figure 1385:

AcuSolve Tutorials
1. In the Solver Browser, expand the 02.SOLVER_SETTINGS group then click SOLVER_SETTINGS
to open it in the Entity Editor.
2. Set the Min optimization cases to 10.
3. Set the Max optimization cases to 50.
4. Set the Optimization convergence tolerance to 1e-5.
The above three parameters are new parameters specific to an optimization setup in AcuSolve.
The minimum and maximum optimization cases are the minimum and maximum number of
unique input cases that will be solved. The optimization convergence tolerance checks for the
change in results on a case-by-case basis. The optimization stops when either the optimization
convergence tolerance is achieved or the specified number of maximum optimization cases is
reached.
5. Set Max time steps to 10.
6. Set the Convergence tolerance to 1e-4.
The Min and Max time steps are the minimum and maximum number of time steps solved for each
case. The solver moves on to the next case when either the convergence tolerance is achieved or
the specified number of maximum time steps is reached.
8. Check that the Flow, Temperature, and Design Optimization flags are set to On and the
Temperature flow flag is set to Off.
Figure 1386:

HyperMesh has some pre-defined standard materials with standard parameters available for use when
a new database is created. In the next steps, you will create a new custom material and assign relevant
material properties to it.
1. Right-click on the Materials group in the Data Tree and select Material(Fluid) from the context
menu.

AcuSolve Tutorials
A new entry, FLUID.1, is created inside the Fluid subgroup under Materials.
2. Rename FLUID.1 to simple_fluid and press Enter.
3. Click simple_fluid in the Data Tree to open the material details in the Entity Editor.
4. Check that the Material type is fluid.
3
5. Set the Density value to 1.0 kg/m .
6. Set the Viscosity value to 0.1 kg/m-sec.
7. Set the Conductivity value to 1.0 W/m-k.
Figure 1387:
1. Click the Nodal_Intial_Condition group.

2. In the Entity Editor, set the Default value for Temperature to 300 K.
Define the Design Variable
1. Right-click on the Optimization group in the Data Tree and select Optimization >
DESIGN_VARIABLES from the context menu.
A new entry, designvar1, is created inside the Design_Variables subgroup under Optimization.
2. Rename designvar1 to temperature_control and press Enter.
3. Click temperature_control to open the Entity Editor.
4. Set the Initial Value to 1.0.
5. Set the Lower Bound to 0.5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6. Set the Upper Bound to 1.5.

7. Set the Max Update Factor to 0.05.
The lower and upper bound values define the range of values between which the design variable
can be set. The initial value is the value of the design variable that will be used for the first case,
or the initial condition. The maximum update factor controls the maximum change allowed in the
design variable value from one case to the next.
8. Set the Number of supervised training points to 3.
9. Click inside the value field for the newly created Data: Supervised Training row.
The Number of supervised training points dialog opens. The the number of available rows is
equal to the number of points specified in the previous step.
10. Enter 1.0 in row 1, 0.9 in row 2, and 0.8 in row 3 then click Close.
The Supervised Training parameter is used to enforce AcuSolve to use the listed design variable
values for as many cases as there are values in the list. After the list is exhausted, optimization
control takes over. It is advisable to provide at least three values for Supervised Training as it
helps the solver develop a pattern, streamlining the process of selecting the values for design
variable for succeeding runs.
Figure 1388:
Create a Multiplier Function for the Design Variable

In AcuSolve, multiplier functions are used to scale values of certain parameters at runtime. For
example, viscosity of a fluid may vary with temperature. Or inflow rate or temperature may vary over
time.
Multiplier functions can also be used to scale the values of the design variables between cases. In
quantity optimization, the design variables are linked with the desired quantities in AcuSolve through
multiplier functions.
1. Right-click on the Multiplier_Function group in the Data Tree and select Create from the
context menu.
A new entry, Muliplier_Function.1, is created under the Multiplier_Function branch.
2. Rename Muliplier_Function.1 to inflow_temperature_control and press Enter
3. In the Entity Editor, change the Multiplier Function Type to Design Variable.
4. Click in the value field next to Design Variable, click the Designvar collector, select
temperature_control from the appearing dialog, and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Define Response Variables

Response variables are the building blocks for deriving objective functions and constraints. Examples
include: drag, lift, force in an arbitrary direction, total volume, pressure drop, total pressure, uniformity
index on temperature, max speed, etc. In other words, response variables are functions of the flow
solution (via output mechanism), the design variables, and/or other response variables.
The most basic response variables are functions of the flow solution, extracted from the
SURFACE_OUTPUT and ELEMENT_OUTPUT. More complex response variables can be derived from these
basic response variables using expressions. An example of this is demonstrated in the following steps.
1. Right-click on the Optimization group in the Data Tree and select Optimization >
RESPONSE_VARIABLES from the context menu.
A new entry, optiresponse1, is created inside the Response_Variables subgroup under
Optimization.
2. Rename optiresponse1 to temperature and press Enter
3. Repeat the above steps to create three new response variable entries and rename them to:
a) target_temperature
b) temperature-target_temperature
c) (temperature-target_temperature)^2
4. Click on temperature. In the entity editor,
a) Change the Response type to Surface Output.
b) Click in the value field next to Surface Elements, click the Component collector, select
Outflow from the appearing dialog, and click OK.
c) Set the Output variable to Temperature.
This response variable will extract the surface integrated value of the temperature variable from
the outflow surface.
Figure 1389:
5. Double-click on target_temperature. In the entity editor,

a) Change the Response type to Constant.
b) Set the Value to 325.0.
This response variable is set to a constant value or 325 K.
6. Double-click on termperature-target_temperature. In the entity editor,
a) Change the Response type to Subtraction.
b) Click inside the value field for the Data: Response variables row.
c) In the dialog that opens, click inside row 1 then click on the Optiresponse collector.
d) In the Select Optiresponse dialog, select temperature from the list and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
e) Similarly, select target_temperature for row 2.

f) Click Close to exit the dialog.
This response variable will extract the difference between the two response variables, temperature
and target_temperature.
7. Double-click on (termperature-target_temperature)^2. In the entity editor,
a) Change the Response type to Multiplication.
b) Click inside the value field for the Data: Response variables row.
c) In the dialog that opens, click inside row 1 then click on the Optiresponse.
d) In the Select Optiresponse dialog, select temperature-target_temperature from the list
and click OK.
e) Similarly, select temperature-target_temperature for row 2.
f) Click Close to exit the dialog.
This response variable will return the squared value of the response variable, temperature-
target_temperature.
Define the Objectives

It was mentioned earlier that the response variables are the building blocks for deriving objective
functions and constraints. In this section, you will define a new objective and link an existing response
variable to that objective entity.
The objective of an optimization problem is usually minimization or maximization of a response variable.

In this problem, the objective is to minimize the difference between the actual and the target outflow
temperature. In the next few steps, you will create and define the objective accordingly.
1. Right-click on the Optimization group in the Data Tree and select Optimization > OBJECTIVES
from the context menu.
A new entry, objective1, is created inside the Objectives subgroup under Optimization.
2. Rename objective1 to find_flow_temperature and press Enter
3. Click on find_flow_temperature. In the entity editor,
a) Check that the Objective Type is set to Minimize.
b) Set the Response variable to (temperature-target_temperature)^2 by clicking in the
value field next to Response variable and then selecting the correct response variable from
the Select Optiresponse dialog.
Note: If there are any constraints in your problem, you can define them similarly
under the Constraints group.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Up Optimization Controls

In the Optimization command, you will link all the defined objectives and constraints to define the
optimization problem. There are no constraints defined for this problem, but if there are any, they
should be defined first under the Constraints entry in the Data Tree.
1. Click Optimization under the Global group in the Data Tree.

2. Define the objective in the Entity Editor.
a) Click inside the value field for the Objective row then click the Objective collector.
b) In the Select Objective dialog box that opens, select find_inflow_temperature from the
list of defined objectives.
3. If there are any constraints in your problem, you can set the value for the Number of Constraints
field accordingly and then define the constraints.
4. Set the Optimizer convergence tolerance to 1e-4.

1. Expand Volumes then expand the Fluid volume group in the Solver Browser and click Fluid.
2. Verify that the Type is set to FLUID.
3. Set the Material to simple_fluid by clicking in the value field next to Material and then selecting
the correct material from the appearing Select Material dialog.
Apply Surface Parameters

1. Expand the Surfaces group in the Data Tree

There are four surface group types that are used in this model. Each of these types has a
subgroup of its own. Each of these subgroups is a collection of the surfaces that share the same
surface type.
2. Inflow
a) Expand the INFLOW surface group in the tree then click Inflow to open the Entity Editor.
b) Verify that the Type is set to INFLOW.
c) Set Show advanced features to On.
d) Set the Inflow type to Velocity.
e) Set the Inflow velocity type to Normal.
f) Set the Normal velocity to 0.1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
g) Set the temperature to 300 K.

h) Set the Temperature multiplier function to inflow_temperature_control by clicking in the
value field next to Temperature multiplier function and then selecting the correct multiplier
function from the appearing Select Plot dialog.
Figure 1390:
3. Outflow
a) Expand the OUTFLOW surface group in the tree then click Outflow to open the Entity
Editor.
b) Ensure that the Type is set to OUTFLOW.
4. Outer_Walls
a) Expand the SLIP surface group in the tree then click Outer_Walls to open the Entity Editor.
b) Ensure that the Type is set to SLIP.
5. Sphere_Wall
a) Expand the WALL surface group in the tree then click Sphere_Wall to open the Entity
Editor.
b) Ensure that the Type is set to WALL.
c) Set the Temperature BC type to Value.
d) Set the Temperature to 500 K.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Run AcuSolve
1. In the Model Browser, ensure that the visibility of the grid for all collectors to be exported
for AcuSolve are activated. In this case, display for all the collectors – Fluid, Inflow, Outflow,
Sphere_Wall, and Outer_Walls – should be activated.
Figure 1391:
2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1392:
3. Verify that Auto run AcuProbe is On.
This will open an AcuProbe dialog which will let you monitor the solution progress.
4. Click Launch to start the solution process.
As the solution progresses, an AcuTail and an AcuProbe dialog will open. Solution progress is
reported in the AcuTail dialog. An AcuSolve Control dialog will also open from which you can
control the solution process. In this dialog you have options to stop the solution or generate the
output files at the end of the current time step.
You'll notice AcuSolve prints the case number before beginning the solution for the case. The
Case-Step number is reset to 1 when AcuSolve moves to a new case while Time-Step proceeds
sequentially.
Figure 1393:

AcuSolve Tutorials
the solution.
Figure 1394:

AcuProbe can be used to monitor various variables over solution time. An AcuProbe window will be
launched by the Solver Job Launcher if the Auto run AcuProbe flag is set to On.
1. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Surface Output > Inflow > Temperature.
2. Right-click on temperature and select Plot.
Figure 1395:

AcuSolve Tutorials
This plot shows the surface temperature of the inflow surface as the solution progresses.
In the setup, the inflow temperature is a design variable. At the inflow surface, the temperature
varies from case to case in accordance with the values provided to the solver by the optimization
program. The first three values of inflow temperature correspond to the values provided in
the supervised learning parameter, after which the values are provided by the optimizer. The
converged value of the inflow temperature is approximately 264.3 K. This is the value at which the
outflow temperature is closest to its target value.
3. Right-click on temperature and select Don’t Plot to turn off the plot display.
4. Expand Surface Output > Outflow > Temperature.
5. Right-click on temperature and selectPlot.
Figure 1396:
This plot shows the surface temperature of the outflow surface as the solution progresses.
At the outflow surface, the temperature varies in the beginning of the simulation and ultimately
converges to a value close to the target temperature value, i.e. 325 K.
processing.
c) Click Save.
AcuGetDv and AcuGetRsp

AcuSolve provides two post-processing utilities specific to optimization problems, AcuGetDv and
AcuGetRsp. AcuGetDv provides the values of the design variables for all the cases included in the

AcuSolve Tutorials
solution. AcuGetRsp provides the values of the response variables for all the cases included in the
solution.
acuGetDv
AcuSolve will print the values of design variables for each case.
Figure 1397:
4. To print the values of response variables, use the command:

acuGetRsp
Note: The order of columns in which the design variables and the response variables
are printed by these commands is the order in which they appear in the INP file.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1398:
Summary
In this AcuSolve tutorial, you successfully set up and solved a parametric optimization problem with
AcuSolve. You started the tutorial by creating a database in HyperMesh, importing and meshing the
geometry, and setting up the simulation parameters. You defined the design variables, the response
variables, and set up the objectives of the problem using the response variables. Once the case was
setup, the solution was generated with AcuSolve. AcuProbe was used to visualize the variation of design
variables and response variables as the solution progressed through the different cases provided to
AcuSolve by the optimization program. You also used the utilities provided in AcuSolve to get the design
variables and response variables information for all the cases.

AcuSolve Tutorials
7.2 ACU-T: 7001 Shape Optimization using

HyperMorph
HyperMesh
7.2.1 HyperMesh
Prerequisites
You should have already run through the introductory HyperWorks tutorial, ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks
UI Introduction, and have a basic understanding of HyperMesh, AcuSolve, and HyperView. To run this
tutorial, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperMesh and AcuSolve.

ACU7001_ShapeOptimization.hm from HyperMesh_tutorial_inputs.zip.
Problem Description
Optimization, in simple terms, is the process of selecting a best input from a set of available
alternatives. AcuSolve offers you two options to setting up an optimization study: design optimization
and parametric studies. Design optimization enables you to optimize an objective function subject to
certain constraints and satisfaction of flow equations. The design optimization may be considered as a
sequence of cases, where each case first runs the optimizer and updates the design variables and then
solves the flow equations for a number of time steps until convergence. Sample data is gathered at the
end of each time step.
The optimizer solution consists of:
1. Constructing the response surface from the set of samples.

2. Running the optimizer on the response surface.
3. Updating the design variables.
The geometry for this problem consists of a simple pipe channel with perfectly circular cross-section as
the base shape. Water enters the Inlet at the rate of 0.0003 kg/s and the outlet is a standard pressure
outlet at zero relative pressure. Walls of the channel are no-slip walls.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1399:

2.
ACU7001_ShapeOptimization.hm and click Open.
5. Create a new directory named ShapeOptimization and navigate into this directory.
location.
6. Enter ShapeOptimization as the file name for the database, or choose any name of your
preference.
Set the Global Simulation Parameters

2. Set Optimization to On.
3. Set the Mesh type to Fully Specified.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1400:

2. In the Entity Editor , set the Min optimization cases to 10.
3. Set the Max optimization cases to 200.
4. Set the Optimization convergence tolerance to 1e-005.
5. Set Max time steps to 100.
8. Check that the Flow and Design Optimization flags are set to On.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1401:

1. In the Solver Browser, expand 17.Output and then click NODAL_OUTPUT.
2. Turn On the Output initial condition field.
3. Save the model.
Create Mesh Motion and Set the Boundary Conditions and Material
Model Parameters
Create Mesh Motion

An optimization study can be performed in AcuSolve using either volume morph shapes or surface
morph shapes. If volume morph shapes are used for simulation, you do not need to define mesh
motion, as the volume nodes will move using the input from morph shapes. If surface morph shapes are
used for simulation, interpolated mesh motion is needed to define the motion of volume nodes in the
model. For this tutorial, surface morph shapes with interpolated mesh motion is used.
1. In the Solver Browser, right-click on 06.Mesh_Motion and click Create.

2. Name the mesh motion Volume_MMI.
3. Set the Type to Interpolated_Motion and the Number of Interpolated surfs to 3.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1402:
4. Click the data entry icon .

The Number of Interpolates surfs dialog opens.
5. Select Wall, Inflow, and Outflow.
Figure 1403:
Specify the Boundary Conditions and Material Models Parameters

2. Click Inflow. In the Entity Editor,
b) Set the Inflow type to Mass flux.

AcuSolve Tutorials
c) Set the Mass flux to 0.0003 kg/sec

d) Under the Interpolated Motion Surface section, turn on Display and Activate the
interpolated motion surface.
Figure 1404:
3. Click Outflow. In the Entity Editor,

b) Under the Interpolated Motion Surface section, turn on Display and Activate the

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1405:
4. Click Wall. In the Entity Editor,

a) Verify that the Type ia set to Wall.
b) Under the Interpolated Motion Surface section, turn on Display and Activate the

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1406:

c) Set the Mesh motion to Volume_MMI.
Figure 1407:
6. Save the model.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Set Up Optimization Parameters
Generate and Export Morph Shapes

HyperMorph is used to parameterize the shape of the design. You will create morph shapes by moving
the surface nodes. The volume nodes will be taken care of using the interpolated mesh motion feature
of AcuSolve.
1. In the panel area, click HyperMorph then select morph volumes.

2. In the morphing sub-panel, change mvols:active to mvols:skin only.
By changing this option to “skin only”, you only morph the surfaces and surface morph shapes are
generated. If “mvols” is left to default, volume morph shapes are generated where all the nodes in
the model are deformed (not just surfaces) during the morphing process.
Important: Do not click the solve button.
Figure 1408:
3. Click on return, then from the main HyperMorph menu panel, select morph volumes.
4. In the create sub-panel, click the elems collector and select all.
5. Click create.
A new morph volume is created.
Figure 1409:
6. Click return to exit to the main HyperMorph menu then select morph from the panel area.
7. Select the move handles sub-panel if it's not already selected. In the sub-panel, click the second
arrow and select scale. Leave the x scale at 1.0 and set the y scale and z scale to 1.5.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1410:
8. Activate the handles collector by clicking on it.

9. In the modeling window, select the four edge handles at the pipe outflow, highlighted in grey in
the figure below.
Figure 1411:
10. Click morph.

The grid is morphed.
Figure 1412:
11. Select the save shape sub-panel. In this panel,

a) Set the name field to outflow_expand.
b) In the second row, set the selector to as node perturbations.
c) Check that the coordinate system is set to global and click save.
d) Select No when asked to “Save perturbations for nodes at global and morph volume
handles?”

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1413:
Note: When you click save, a new entity folder, Shapes, will be created in the Model
Browser. The shape outflow_expand will be created inside this folder in the Model
Browser. You can turn off the display of the shape nodal perturbations by right-clicking
on outflow_expand and selecting Hide. To show the shape again, right-click on
outflow_expand and select Show. It is recommended to hide the shape display at
this point before proceeding to next steps.
12. From the right side of the panel, select undo all.
13. Click move handles to return to the move handles sub-panel. In the sub-panel, reset the y scale
to 1.0 and leave the z scale at 1.5.
14. Activate the handles collector then select all eight handles in the modeling window.
15. Click morph.
Figure 1414:
16. Select the save shape sub-panel again. In the panel,

a) Set the name field to length_z.
handles?”
17. Click undo all then click return to exit to the main HyperMorph menu.
18. Hide the shape display in the Model Browser

AcuSolve Tutorials
19. Click morph volumes to enter the morph volumes panel again then select the split/combine
sub-panel.
20. In the second row, set the split type to No. of splits (# of splits) and enter 3 for the number of
splits.
Figure 1415:
21. In the modeling window, select the edge of the morph volume marked by green crosses in the
figure below.
Figure 1416:
22. Click split.

The morph volume is split at the locations of the crosses.
23. Click update edges to open the corresponding sub-panel. Click the first arrow and select update
ends. Then, click the second arrow and select mvols. Finally, click the third arrow and select
master-slave.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1417:
Note: This option allows you to link any two edges together with a master-slave
relationship between two morph volumes. In this kind of relationship, the slave edge is
forced to follow the curvature of the master edge at the joining end of the two edges.
24. Activate the master morphvolmes collector and select the outer two morph volumes shown
in the figure below. Then, activate the slave morphvolumes collector and select the inner two
morph volumes. After selecting the volumes in the order mentioned, click update.
Figure 1418:
The edges in the volume should resemble the figure shown below.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1419:
25. Click return to go back to the HyperMorph panel.

26. Select morph from the panel area then select the move handles sub-panel. In the sub-panel,
click the second arrow and select scale if it's not already selected. Set the z scale to 1.0 and the
y scale to 1.5.
27. Activate the handles collector by clicking on it then select the four middle handles in the modeling
window.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1420:
28. Click morph.

Figure 1421:
29. Select the save shape sub-panel. In the panel,

a) Set the name field to center_y.
handles?”
30. Click undo all and hide the shape display in the Model Browser.
31. Exit the HyperMorph panel.
Define the Design Variable
1. Right-click on 10.Optimization in the Solver Browser and select Optimization >

DESIGN_VARIABLES from the context menu.
2. Rename the variable to outflow_expand and press Enter.
3. In the Entity Editor, set the Initial Value to 0.7.
4. Set the Lower Bound to 0.2.

AcuSolve Tutorials
5. Set the Upper Bound to 1.5.

6. Set the Max Update Factor to 0.02.
7. Follow the above steps to create two new design variables, length_z and center_y. Use identical
parameters as above to define these two new design variables.
Define the Response Variable

1. Right-click on 10.Optimization in the Solver Browser and select Optimization >
RESPONSE_VARIABLES from the context menu.
2. Rename the variable to inflow_pressure and press Enter
3. In the Entity Editor, change the Response type to Surface Output.
4. Change the Response type to Surface Output.
5. Set the Surface elements component to Inflow.
6. Change the Output variable to Pressure.
This response variable will extract the surface integrated value of the pressure variable from the
inflow surface.
Figure 1422:
Define the Objective

1. Right-click on Optimization in the Solver Browser and select Optimization > OBJECTIVES from
the context menu.
2. Rename the objective to maximize_inflow_pressure and press Enter
3. In the Entity Editor, set the Objective Type is set to Maximize.
4. Select inflow_pressure as the Response variable.
Set Up the Nodal Shapes

1. Right-click on Optimization in the Solver Browser and select Optimization > NODAL_SHAPES
from the context menu.
2. Rename the nodal shape to pipe_shapes and press Enter
3. Set the Number of shapes to 3.

AcuSolve Tutorials
4. Click inside the value field in the newly created Data: Shape row.
A Number of shapes dialog opens. You will notice that the number of available rows is equal to
the number of points specific in the previous step.
5. In row 1, click the Shape field then click the Shape collector and select outflow_expand from
the Select Shape dialog.
6. Click in the DV field in row 1 then click the Designvar collector and select the design variable
outflow_expand from the Select Designvar dialog.
7. Similarly, select length_z as the shape and design variable for row 2 and center_y as the shape
and design variable for row 3.
Figure 1423:
8. Click Close to exit the dialog.
Set Up Optimization Controls

1. In the Entity Editor, expand 01.Global > 06.Optimization.
2. In the Entity Editor, select maximize_inflow_pressure as the Objective.
3. Verify that the Optimizer convergence tolerance is set to 1e-4.
4. Save the model.

Run AcuSolve

AcuSolve Tutorials

2.
Figure 1424:

AcuProbe can be used to monitor various variables over solution time. An AcuProbe window will be
launched by the Solver Job Launcher if the Auto run AcuProbe flag is set to On.
1. In the Data Tree on the left, expand Surface Output > Inflow > Pressure.

AcuSolve Tutorials
3. Select Edit > Toggle X-Axis-Case to change the x-axis from Time Step to Case ID.
Figure 1425:
AcuGetDv and AcuGetRsp

AcuSolve provides two post-processing utilities specific to optimization problems, AcuGetDv and
AcuGetRsp. AcuGetDv provides the values of the design variables for all the cases included in the
solution. AcuGetRsp provides the values of the response variables for all the cases included in the
solution.
acuGetDv
AcuSolve will print the values of design variables for each case.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1426:
4. To print the values of response variables, use the command:

acuGetRsp
Note: The order of columns in which the design variables and the response variables
are printed by these commands is the order in which they appear in the INP file.
Figure 1427:


AcuSolve Tutorials
Open HyperView

ShapeOptimization.1.Log
3. Click Open.
Create the Pressure Variation Animation

2. Select Pressure as the Result type.
4. Click Apply to display the pressure contour.
Figure 1428:

7. In the Edit Legend dialog, change the Type to Dynamic scale, the Numeric format to Fixed,
and the Numeric precision to 6. Click OK to close the dialog.
Save the Animation


AcuSolve Tutorials
2. In the Export Settings AVI dialog, set the Frame rate to 10 fps.
3. Set the JPEG quality to 99 and click OK.

Save.
Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to set up and solve a shape optimization problem with AcuSolve using
HyperMorph. You started by importing the model database and then created mesh morphs. Then, you
defined the design variables, the response variables, and set up the objectives of the problem using the
response variables. Once the solution was computed using AcuSolve, you used the AcuSolve Command
Prompt to get the design variables and response variables used for the optimization cases. Finally, you
used HyperView to visualize how the shape of the pipe changed with the optimization steps.

AcuFieldView Tutorials 8
8 AcuFieldView Tutorials
• 8.1 AFV-T: 1000 Biomedical Device Data (p. 1270)

• 8.2 AFV-T: 2000 Polymer Processing Data (p. 1289)
• 8.3 AFV-T: 3000 Transient Data (p. 1314)
The following topics are designed to give both the new as well as the experienced AcuFieldView users a
detailed look at some of the abilities of the product. In each tutorial, you will be guided through a series
of steps to visualize the results from the given data set. Each tutorial covers a different application or
industry. Visualizations have been created and calculations have been performed that might be useful
for an individual in that discipline. It is not expected nor required that you work through all of the
tutorials to learn AcuFieldView. More experienced AcuFieldView users may want to browse through the
tutorial topics to learn new visualization techniques.
Prerequisites
The tutorials have been written with the assumptions that you are familiar with components of
AcuSolve, especially AcuConsole and AcuTrans. It is also assumed that you have become familiar with
the AcuFieldView interface and basic operations. In general, it is expected that you understand the
following basics:
• How to find the data readers in the File menu and open the desired reader panel for data input.
• How to open the visualization panels either from the Side toolbar or the Visualization Panels menu
to create and modify surfaces and rakes in AcuFieldView.
• How to change scalar, vector and threshold functions for surfaces and rakes directly on their
respective visualization panels, and/or open the Function Specification panel to "load-up" different
functions in the function registers (iso-surface, scalar, vector and threshold).
• How to change the geom (geometry) color and color maps used to color surfaces on the Scalar
Colormap Specification panel.
Tutorial Data
The tutorial data is installed by default with the AcuSolve software. All of the files required for each
tutorial can be found in separate directories in <AcuSolve installation directory>\model_files
\tutorials\AcuFieldView\AFV_tutorial_inputs.zip. This zip file expands to contain subdirectories
named for each of the tutorials. The tutorials are listed in the table below.
Tutorial Name Notes
/biomedical Internal flow in a

complex manifold device,
AcuSolve Tutorials
8 AcuFieldView Tutorials p.1269
Tutorial Name Notes

illustration of how to
calculate a species mass
balance, how to perform
dataset mirroring.
/polymer_mixing Flow of a non-Newtonian

fluid in a Kenics mixer,
highlighting extensive
use of function calculator.
FVX keyframe. Illustration
accompanies example.
/vortexshedding Transient flow around a

cylinder, with description
of streakline calculation.
FVX keyframe. Illustration
accompanies example.
Working Through the Tutorials

It is assumed that you have read the topics mentioned in the prerequisites section above before you
run the tutorials. The tutorials have been written as explicitly as possible. If a step requires actions that
have been performed in previous steps, the instructions may be less explicit than in the first instance.
Note: Tutorials are documented with visualization images using white backgrounds and
black text. However, the default background color in AcuFieldView is black. If you want to
recreate the images in this document, then change your background color to white as soon
as you start on a tutorial. To change your background color, click View > Background
Color. Select white and click Close.
It is strongly recommended that you save a complete restart after each page of a given tutorial so
that you can easily revert to the state at an earlier step. A complete restart is a set of files containing
information about the current state of AcuFieldView. It saves information about the data file read in and
any surfaces/rakes that have been created as well as their attributes. Restarts can be created at any
time, of course, but one complete restart for each step will assure its availability later.
Note: The tutorials were each designed to be run from a fully set up AcuConsole database
(.acs) or from a set of results that are provided. After running AcuSolve, you will start
AcuFieldView and work through the remainder of a given tutorial. If other data has been
loaded into AcuFieldView and visualizations have been performed, or if other tutorials have
been worked before starting a given tutorial (without restarting AcuFieldView), then panels
may exist in states different than that described in the instructions. If you are just starting
with AcuFieldView, it is recommended that you restart the program for each tutorial to avoid
confusion.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.1 AFV-T: 1000 Biomedical Device Data

This tutorial looks at an application from the biomedical industry. A catheter is inserted into an artery
with a tumor. The injection of a drug through the catheter into the artery and its absorption into the
tumor is investigated.
Prior to running this tutorial, copy the expanded biomedical directory from <AcuSolve installation
directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuFieldView\AFV_tutorial_inputs.zip to a working
directory. See Tutorial Data for more information.
For Windows users, in order to take advantage of the restarts provided for this tutorial, you will need
to make sure that the properties for your AcuFieldView shortcut on the Start menu do not include a
Start in entry. To change that property, browse to the AcuFieldView shortcut on the Start menu, right-
click, and select Properties. The Start in field can be found on the Shortcut tab in the AcuFieldView
Properties dialog. Note that this step is only necessary because the restart files use relative paths.
Figure 1429:

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.1.1 Solve the Case with AcuConsole and AcuSolve

1. Start AcuConsole.
2. Open <your working dir>\biomedical\biomedical.acs.
3. Run AcuSolve to calculate a solution.
4. Exit AcuConsole.
8.1.2 Start AcuFieldView and Load the Data

1. Start AcuFieldView.
2. Click View > Background Color and select white.
Figure 1430:
3. Click Close.
4. Click File > Data Input > AcuSolve [Direct Reader].
5. Click Read Grids & Results Data.
6. Browse to the \biomedical directory, select biomedical.1.log, and click Open.
7. In the Function Subset Selection panel, which opens with all functions selected by default, click
OK.
8. When the data has loaded, switch the INPUT MODE to Append.
9. Read biomedical.1.Log again and close the AcuSolve [Direct Reader] panel once the data has
loaded a second time.
10. On the main toolbar, click Dataset.
11. Set SCALE X to -1.
12. Click Apply and Close.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Dataset 2 now mirrors dataset 1 along the X plane.
13. On the main toolbar change the value for Dataset to 1 to set the dataset that you loaded first as
the current dataset.
Tip: You can also change the current dataset on the Dataset Controls panel.
14.
Click Bound to open the Boundary Surface panel.
15. Click Create, select OSF: Tumor Walls in the BOUNDARY TYPE list and click OK.
16. Change DISPLAY TYPE to Smooth shading and Geometric COLORING to red.
Figure 1431:
17. Create a second surface consisting of OSF: Artery Walls with Geometric COLORING yellow.
18. Create a third surface consisting of OSF: Catheter Inlet and OSF: Catheter Walls with Geometric
COLORING gray.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1432:
19. Click File > Save Restart > Current Dataset.

20. Browse to the \biomedical\restart directory, name the file tumor_1, and click Save.
21. Make Dataset 2 current using the control on the toolbar or by clicking Dataset and changing the
ID on the Dataset Controls panel.
22. Click File > Open Restart > Current Dataset and open tumor_1.dat to create the same three
surfaces on dataset 2 as on dataset 1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1433:
23. Change the current Dataset to 1.

24. On the Boundary Surface panel, set the Surface ID to 1.
25. Turn off the Visibility of the tumor walls.
26. Set the Surface ID to 2 and turn off the Visibility of the artery walls.
27. Set the Surface ID to 3 off and set the Transparency to 50.0%.
This will make the catheter inlet and walls partially transparent.
28.
On the Transform Controls toolbar, turn the Outline display off by clicking the icon.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1434:
8.1.3 Visualize the Flow Field

In this step you will create a vector coordinate surface to visualize the flow field created by the
interaction of the fluid carrying the drug with the blood in the artery.
1. Rotate the view slightly and zoom into the catheter ports and the tumor.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1435:
2. Click File > Open Restart > Formula.

3. In the ..\biomedical\restart directory, select bio.frm and click Open.
4. Click Dataset on the toolbar to open the Dataset Controls panel.
5. Make sure that the Dataset is set to 2.
6.
Click Coord to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
7. Click Create and set the COORD PLANE to X.
8. Enter -1e-005 for the Current position in the COORD PLANE section.
9. Change the DISPLAY TYPE to Vectors.
10. For Vector Function, click Select.
11. In the Function Selection panel, select nrmlz('velocity') and click Calculate.
12. Click Options in the Coordinate Surface panel to open the Vector Options panel.
13. Turn on Head Scaling and change the value to 0.125.
14. Change the TYPE from Total to Projected.
15. Activate the Skip option and change it to 87.5 %.
16. Change the Length Scale to 0.25.
17. Close the Vector Options panel.
18. Change the Geometric COLORING to white.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1436:
19. Set the current Dataset to 1. Turn off Visibility for dataset 1.
Only the boundary and coordinate surfaces for dataset 2 will be visible.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1437:
20.
Click Zoom .
21. Use the left mouse button (M1) to drag a rectangular zoom box around a few of the catheter
ports. The vectors indicate the flow direction and velocity of blood flow in the artery as well as
the flow of drug-containing fluid in the catheter. Notice the change in direction as the fluid moves
through the catheter into the delivery ports. Also notice the flow interaction between the fluid
containing the drug and the blood flow through the artery.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1438:
22.
Click Undo Zoom to reset the view.
Tip: You can undo the zoom again to reset the view to an earlier zoom. Use the right
mouse button to change the zoom by dragging in the visualization window.
8.1.4 Display the Shear on the Artery Wall

In this step you will see the shear on the artery wall created by the drug release through the holes of
the catheter.
1. Double click the Artery Wall to set the dataset to 2 and open the Boundary Surface panel with
the Surface ID set to 2.
2. For Scalar Function, click Select.
3. In the Function Selection panel, scroll down and select shear.
4. Click Calculate.
5. Change COLORING from Geometric to Scalar.
6. In the Colormap tab, change the minimum to 100, the maximum to 500 and the Number of
Contours to 32.
7. Turn on Filled Contour.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8. Click Tools > Unify to make all the surfaces of the same type (boundary) and of the current
dataset (dataset 2) display shear with the set color ranges.
Notice the very high shear rates on the artery wall due to the delivery of the drug through the
holes of the catheter. This shows an undesirable amount of shear on the artery.
Figure 1439:
8.1.5 Visualize Stress and Concentration Contours

In this step you will see stress contours and concentration contours at and near the location of the
catheter ports. For each set of planes, you will see a different way to create multiple surfaces of the
same type.
1. Double click the vectors to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
2. Turn Visibility off.
3. Double click the artery surface to open the Boundary Surface panel.
4. Turn Visibility off for the artery walls.
5. Change the Surface ID to 1 and turn Visibility off for the tumor walls.
6. Double click on the catheter boundary surface and change to Geometric COLORING.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1440:
7. Change the Dataset to make dataset 1 current, and turn the Visibility on.
8. Double click the Catheter boundary surface for dataset 1 and set the Transparency back to 0.
9.
While dataset 1 is current, click to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
10. Create a coordinate surface.
11. Turn Visibility on. Set the COORD PLANE to Z and the Current position to -0.0001.
12. Create four more coordinate surfaces: at Z= -0.0003, -0.0005, -0.0007 and -0.0011.
13. Change the DISPLAY TYPE of the current surface (Z=-0.0011) to Constant shading.
14. Change the Geometric COLORING to black, Contours from None to Scalar and Scalar Function to
stress.
15. On the Colormap tab, change the minimum to 0.0, the maximum to 180.0 and the Number of
Contours to 10.
16. Click Tools > Unify to make all the surfaces of the same type (coordinate) and of the current
dataset (dataset 1) display stress with the set color ranges.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1441:
17. Click File > Save Restart > Current Dataset and save a Current Dataset restart named
tumor_2.dat.
18. Make dataset 2 current by changing the Dataset value on the toolbar.
19. Click File > Open Restart > Current Dataset and open the Current Dataset restart to create
the same five surfaces on dataset 2 as on dataset 1.
20. Double click one coordinate surface in dataset 2.
21. Change the Scalar Function to species_1 and COLORING to Scalar.
22. Click Tools > Unify to propagate the change to the other four surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1442:
8.1.6 Calculate the Mass Balance

In this step you will calculate the mass balance of the solution by taking into consideration both the
convective flux through the artery as well as the diffusive flux through the artery wall and the tumor.
1. Double click a scalar surface to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
2. Click Clear All and then click OK.
This will clear all coordinate surfaces on one of the datasets.
3. Double click any of the remaining species_1 surfaces to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
4. Click Clear All and then click OK on the Coordinate Surface: Clear All Confirmation panel.
This will clear all coordinate surfaces on the other dataset.
5. For boundary surface 3 of both datasets, turn on the Visibility and change the Transparency to
50.0%.
6. For dataset 2, turn on the Visibility of boundary surfaces 1 and 2.
7. For dataset 2, create a fourth boundary surface.
8. Select Blood Inlet and click OK.
9. Change COLORING to Scalar.
10. Change the Scalar Function to Nconvective to show the convective flux into the artery.
11. Create a fifth boundary surface using Blood Outlet.

AcuSolve Tutorials
This surface has the Scalar Function already set to Nconvective.

12. Zoom out to show the whole model.
13. Rotate the view so that you can see the upstream end of the model.
Figure 1443:
14. Click Tools > Integration to open the Integration Controls panel.
15. Change the Integration Mode to Current Surface.
16. Click Integrate.
The convective flux out of the artery Int(S) is about -5.03 e-010. Integrating across this surface
gives an indication of the relative amount of drug that flows out of the artery.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1444:
17. For boundary surface 2 (Artery Walls), change the COLORING to Scalar and change the Scalar
Function to Ndiff-Normal, the diffusive flux into the wall.
18. On the Colormap tab, change the min and max to 0.0 and 2000.0.
19. Integrate to get around 2.33e-004. Integrating on this surface indicates the relative amount of the
drug that is impinging on the artery walls.
20. Switch to boundary surface 1 (Tumor Walls).
21. Change the COLORING to Scalar and change the Scalar Function to Ndiff-Normal. On the
Colormap tab, change the min and max to 0.0 and 2000.0.
22. Turn on Visibility.
23. Integrate to get about 9.77e-005. Integrating on this surface indicates the relative amount of
the drug that is impinging on the tumor wall. Comparison of the integrated values for the artery
walls and the tumor walls indicates that for this model greater than twice the amount of the drug
diffuses into the artery walls compared to the drug that diffuses into the tumor wall.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1445:
8.1.7 Visualize the Drug Delivery

In this step you will look at the flow of the medicine and show some visualization "tricks".
1. For dataset 1, boundary surface 3 (Catheter Inlet and Catheter Walls), set the Transparency to 0.
2. Double click the Artery Wall (dataset 2, boundary surface 2) and change the COLORING to
Geometric (yellow).
3.
Click Tools > Color Mixer or on the toolbar.
4. Click the yellow chip. Change the Red, Green and Blue values to 235, 182, and 180.
6.
Change to Dataset 1 and click Iso to open the Iso-Surface panel.
7. Click Create.
8. Click Select next to Iso Function.
9. Select species_1 on the Function Selection panel and click Calculate.
10. Set the Current value for Iso Function to 0.5 and make the color blue.
11. Change the DISPLAY TYPE to Smooth shading.
12. Open the Color Mixer and change the blue color chip RGB values to 212, 212, 0.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1446:
14. The iso-surface intersecting the artery wall is open. To close it, create a fourth boundary surface
on dataset 1 consisting of OSF: Artery Walls, OSF: Tumor Walls. Color it dark yellow.
15. For Threshold Function, click Select.
16. On the Function Selection panel, select species _1 and click Calculate.
17. Turn Threshold Clip on and set Min to 0.5 to fill in the "open top" and clip the rest.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1447:

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.2 AFV-T: 2000 Polymer Processing Data

This tutorial shows how to create advanced functions in AcuFieldView to help quantify the extent of
mixing in a static mixer.
Prior to running this tutorial, copy the expanded polymer_mixing directory from <AcuSolve
installation directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuFieldView\AFV_tutorial_inputs.zip to a
working directory. See Tutorial Data for more information.
Figure 1448:

AcuSolve Tutorials

2. Open <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\polymer_mixing.acs.
3. Generate a mesh.
4. Run AcuSolve to calculate a solution.
5. Exit AcuConsole.
8.2.2 Convert the Dataset to FieldView Unstructured

Format (FV-UNS)
AcuFieldView's native format for reading data is known as the FV-UNS format. This format has been
optimized for file size and performance. When using this format, data read times are reduced in
comparison to reading the data directly from the AcuSolve database. When the data will be read
multiple times, this format is preferred. This step explains how to perform the conversion of AcuSolve
results to FV-UNS format.
1. Open an AcuSolve Cmd Prompt or Linux terminal.
2. Change the directory to the location of the solved problem, <your working dir>
\polymer_mixing\.
3. Execute AcuTrans with the following command line arguments.
acuTrans -out -to fieldview
4. Exit the command window or terminal when AcuTrans completes the conversion.
8.2.3 Start AcuFieldView and Create Boundary Surfaces

3. Click Close.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1449:
4. Click File > Data Input > AcuSolve [FV-UNS Export].

5. Click Read Grid or Combined Data.
6. Browse to the \polymer_mixing directory, select polymer_mixing_step000032.fv, and click
Open.
Note: The file in your directory may have a slightly different step number. This is
expected due to processor and operating system differences.
7. In the Function Subset Selection panel, which opens up with all of the functions selected by
default, click OK.
8. Close the AcuSolve [FV-UNS Export] panel.
9.
Click Bound to open the Boundary Surface panel.
10. Click Create.
11. Select OSF: Fin Walls in the BOUNDARY TYPES list to create a surface consisting of all of the
blades and click OK.
12. Change DISPLAY TYPE to Smooth shading.
Figure 1450:
13.
Click on the toolbar to open the Color Mixer panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
14. Change the gray chip to Red, Green and Blue values of 130, 130 and 158.
15. Click Apply and click Close.
16. In the Boundary Surface panel, BOUNDARY TYPES section, click OK.
Figure 1451:
17. Click Create.

18. Select OSF: Fin Walls again and click OK.
19. On the Transform Controls toolbar, change Object to Surface.
Figure 1452:
20. Use the left mouse (M1) to translate the current boundary surface up and right.
21. Click Viewer Options to open the Viewer Options panel.
22. Turn Perspective off and click Close.
23. Click View > Rendering Options.
24. Turn off everything except Boundary Surfaces and Streamlines.
25. Activate Presentation Quality.
26. Adjust the controls under LIGHTING INTENSITY and SHININESS and click Refresh to see the
effect of each change.
27. Click Default Light to restore the default LIGHTING INTENSITY, reset Intensity and Highlight Size
under SHININESS to 1 and 0.5, click Refresh, and close the panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1453:
28.
Click Coord to open the Coordinate Surface panel.
29. Create an X Coordinate Surface.
30. Change DISPLAY TYPE to Smooth shading and COLORING to Scalar.
31. Change the Scalar function to z-velocity and click Calculate.
32. Change the Colormap minimum value to -2.0 and maximum value to 4.0.
33. Create a second coordinate surface at Y = 0.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1454:
8.2.4 Visualize Back Flow

This step will help visualize the back flow resulting from the mixer blades.
1. On the Transform Controls toolbar, turn Outline off.
Figure 1455:
2. Turn off the Visibility of the coordinate surfaces and the surface transformed boundary surface
(boundary surfaces ID 1 and ID 2).
3. On the Viewer toolbar, set Object to World.
4.
Click Zoom and use M1 (left mouse) to select an area to zoom into the third blade element.
5. Create a boundary surface containing the BOUNDARY TYPES of OSF: Pipe Wall.
6. Turn on Visibility (if not already).

AcuSolve Tutorials
7. Change the Geometric COLORING to yellow.

8. Click Select to change the Threshold Function.
9. On the Function Specification panel, select X and click Calculate.
10. Activate Threshold Clip, set the Min to 0 using the slider or by directly entering 0 in the Min field.
Figure 1456:
Figure 1457:
11.
Click Iso to open the Iso-Surface panel.
12. Click Create.

AcuSolve Tutorials
13. Click Define Iso Function on the Iso-Surface Create panel.

14. Select z-velocity and click Calculate.
15. Change the Current value to -0.25 and the DISPLAY TYPE from Constant to Smooth shading.
You will seed streamlines on this iso-surface.
16. Change the Geometric COLORING to light blue.
Figure 1458:
17.
Click Stream or to open the Streamlines panel.
18. Click Create on the Rake tab.
19. Zoom with M1 further into the largest iso-surface region for easier seeding.
20. Use Ctrl + left mouse button (M1) to add eight seeds (Ctrl click once per seed).

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1459:
21. In the Calculation Parameters section, change Direction to Both and the Step value to 6.
22. Click Calculate.
23. Change the DISPLAY TYPE to Filament, change Line Type to Thick, change Geometric coloring to
red and change Div to 100.
24. Turn Show Seeds off.
25. Use M3 (right mouse) to zoom out.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1460:
Note: The streamlines on your screen will differ from what is shown, based on the
placement of your seeds.
26. Turn on Animate to visualize the streamlines.

27. Click View > Minimum Time Between Frames and use the slider to slow the animation.
28. Turn off Animate for the next step.
8.2.5 View Axial Velocities

In this step, you will sample cross-sections of the static mixer to visualize axial velocities. A restart is
available to recreate this view.
1. Turn off the Visibility of the streamlines and the iso-surface.
2. Zoom out to view the entire dataset.
3. Create a coordinate surface at Z = -0.475.
4. Turn on Visibility, if needed.
The Scalar Function should still be z-velocity, the DISPLAY TYPE should be Smooth shading, and
the COLORING should be Scalar.
5. In the Colormap tab, change the colormap from Spectrum to NASA-1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6. Activate Filled Contour.

7. Change the Number of Contours to 64.
8. In the Legend tab on the Coordinate Surface panel, activate Show Legend, change Decimal
Places to 2, change the number of Labels to 5 and clear the Subtitle field.
9. Hold the Shift key down, position the mouse over the legend, then left-click and drag to position
the legend.
Figure 1461:
10. On the Surface tab of the Coordinate Surface panel, click Create again to create an identical
surface.
This new surface will be moved and oriented separately from the rest of the model.
11. On the Viewer toolbar, set Object to Surface.
12. Move the surface up.
13.
On the Viewer toolbar click to activate the locked transformation controls.
14. Use the icons on the Viewer toolbar to rotate the surface to the orientation illustrated.
Figure 1462:
There are two modes of operation of the locked transformations controls. When the mouse icon
has a light background , you can click the toolbar icons to transform the surface. When the

AcuSolve Tutorials
mouse icon has a darker background , you can perform transformation by clicking a pair of
toolbar icons and then using the right mouse to transform the surface.
Figure 1463:
15. Create five more pairs of surfaces at Z values of -0.35, -0.25, -0.15, -0.05 and 0.05.
16. Move and rotate one of each surface pair, as illustrated.
17.
Click on the Viewer toolbar to toggle to Locked Transforms control and move the coordinate
surface up.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1464:
8.2.6 Change the Scalar Display of the Cross Sections

This step shows how to create similar images of several other useful flow properties. Defining these
flow properties involves using the function calculator to define the equations and variables needed. The
formula needed can be found in a formula restart file that is provided for this tutorial.
1. Double click on the coordinate surface above the upstream end of the mixer.
2. Click File > Open Restart > Formula to open the OPEN RESTART: Formula panel.
3. In the polymer_mixing\restart directory, select polymer.frm and click Open.
4.
Click the icon.
5. Click Scalar on the Function Selection panel.
6. Scroll down in the list, select shear, and click Calculate.
7. Close the Function Specification panel.
8. On the Colormap tab of the Coordinate Surface panel, change the minimum and maximum
SCALAR COLORING values to 0.0 and 400.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1465:
Steps 2-6 above display the shear function on the current surface. Note that the legend title
reflects the scalar values for the surface with the visible legend.
9. Click Tools > Unify to force all of the coordinate surfaces in the dataset to acquire the same
attributes as the current surface.
This will also update the legend, as the surface it belongs to will inherit shear as the Scalar
Function. Unify only applies changes to all surfaces of the same type as the currently active
surface.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1466:
10. Double click the legend to open the Coordinate Surface panel with the ID for the surface with the
visible legend.
11.
Click the icon.
12. Click Scalar on the Function Selection panel.
13. Scroll down in the list (if needed), select lambda, and click Calculate.
15. On the Colormap tab of the Coordinate Surface panel, adjust the min/max SCALAR COLORING to
0.30 and 0.70.
At this point, the legend should now be updated to show the contours for lambda.
16. Click Tools > Unify to apply lambda as the scalar function for all coordinate surfaces.
The mixing parameter is interpreted as follows:
0.0 = simple rotation
0.5 = simple shear
1.0 = elongation

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1467:
8.2.7 Integrate Concentration Variance of Each Cross

Section
This step will be similar to the last step in that you will change the scalar function being displayed on
the coordinate surface.
1. Double click the legend to open the Coordinate Surface panel for the surface with the visible
legend.
2.
Click the icon.
Tip: As an alternative, you can change the Scalar Function on the Coordinate Surface
panel.
3. Click Scalar.
4. On the Function Selection panel, scroll up (if needed), select species_1 and click Calculate.
6. On the Colormap tab of the Coordinate Surface panel, adjust the min/max SCALAR COLORING to
0.00 and 1.00.

AcuSolve Tutorials
7. Click On the Function Selection panel, scroll down in the list, if needed, select Conc Variance,
and click Calculate to apply species_1 as the scalar function for all coordinate surfaces.
Figure 1468:
8. Double click the top coordinate surface on the upstream end of the mixer.
9.
Click the icon.
10. Click Scalar.
11. On the Function Selection panel, scroll down in the list (if needed), select Conc Variance, and
click Calculate.
13. On the Colormap tab of the Coordinate Surface panel, adjust the max/min range to 0.00 and
0.25.
14. Click Tools > Unify to apply Conc_Variance as the scalar function for all of the coordinate
surfaces.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1469:
Species variance shows the extent of mixing statistically. At the inlet, the fluid is completely
unmixed, and in this case, the variance should be equal to 0.25 (Note: average concentration
throughout the mixer will always be 0.5.) At each of the cross-sections, the variance decreases.
These values can be computed by AcuFieldView.
Section # Variance (average)
1 0.2312
2 0.1702
3 0.1059
4 0.0193
5 0.0071
6 0.0029
15. To compute variance for a section, double click a section to make it current.
16.
Click the Integrate icon or Tools > Unify.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Tip: To see the icon on the toolbar, you might need to expand the toolbar with the
icon.
17. Change the Integration Mode to Current Surface.

18. Click Integrate to calculate the integral of the scalar function over the surface.
The following image shows the results for the fifth section (one up from the downstream end of
the mixer).
Figure 1470:
8.2.8 Create a Keyframe Animation

This section shows how to create a keyframe animation of an exploded view. A keyframe animation
allows for more control of animations and consists of tracks of keyframes and actions. Tracks exist for
each dataset, region and surface. This section uses a complete restart and a keyframe restart that are
provided with the tutorial data. Keyframe animations require some planning before execution due to the
complexity of the animation that can be created.
1. Click File > Open Restart > Complete.
2. In the <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\restart directory, select KeyStart.dat and click
Open.
3. Click Tools > Graphics Layout Size > 640x480 NTSC.
This creates an animation file of a standard size that can be converted to MPEG, if desired.
4. Click Tools > Keyframe Animation.
5. In the ANIMATION section, click Create to create a new keyframe animation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
6. In the Length field, double click 120, change the default keyframe animation length to 40, and
press Enter.
The animation will not need to be longer and this will also help display the time line more clearly.
Figure 1471:
7. Click Select in the Track section.

8. In the Keyframe Track Selection panel, select Coord dataset=1 #=4 and click OK.
This selects the coordinate surface with ID = 4 as the surface to be animated. This is the duplicate
surface at the upstream end of the mixer that was moved up and rotated earlier in this tutorial.
Figure 1472:
9. In the FRAME DISPLAY section, move the slider to 40.

10. In the KEYFRAME section, click Create to create a keyframe at frame 40 for Coord dataset=1
#=4.
11. Turn on Transformation to set the position of this particular surface for keyframe number 1,
which corresponds to a frame number of 40.
This is the final position of the surface in the animation.
12. To set the initial position of the surface, set the Current frame to 1 in the FRAME DISPLAY section.
13. Click Create in the KEYFRAME section.
14. On the Transform Controls toolbar, click Reset.

AcuSolve Tutorials
This places the surface at its original, untransformed position and turns on Transformation. This
change is not visible until the animation is played or you click in the modeling window.
Figure 1473:
15.
Click play arrow to preview your animation or the Frame Advance arrows to preview specific
frames.
Tip: To speed up the preview, pause the animation and edit the Inc value to 2 or to 4
to play only every other or every fourth frame, and play the animation to see the effect
of changing this value.
16. Pause the animation.

17. Click Select, select Coord dataset=1 #=6 and click OK to set the two keyframes for the next
coordinate surface.
18. Change the Current frame to 40 in the FRAME DISPLAY section.
19. In the KEYFRAME section, click Create to create a key for the final position of the surface.
20. Turn on Transformation and change the Current frame to 1.
22. On the Transform Controls toolbar, click Reset to set the initial position of the surface.
23. Repeat the steps above for coordinate surface numbers 8, 10, 12 and 14.
24. Click Save in the KeyFrame Animation panel.
25. Name and save the keyframe animation file.
26. Click File > Save Restart > Complete.
27. Name and save the complete restart. The complete restart and the keyframe animation can be
loaded into a new AcuFieldView session so that you can view the animation later.
28. Click Build Flipbook on the KeyFrame Animation panel to create a keyframe animation file that
you can view independently of AcuFieldView.
29. Click OK in the Flipbook Size Warning panel.
30. In the Flipbook Controls panel that opens when the build is complete, click Save.
31. In the Flipbook File Save browser, name and save the animation file.
This file can be opened independently of AcuFieldView to watch the animation.
32. Close the Flipbook Controls panel.
34. In the <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\restart directory, select KeyComplete_key.dat
and click Open.
35. Click Tools > Keyframe Animation to open the KeyFrame Animation panel.
36. Click Open.

AcuSolve Tutorials
37. In the <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\restart directory, select KeyComplete.key and

click Open.
38. Play the animation.
This keyframe animation contains all of the keyframe transformations that you created earlier in
this tutorial. In addition, an annotation has been added that fades in.
39. Click Select, scroll down, select Titles #=1 and click OK.
Figure 1474:
40. Click Clear to remove the key for the title.

41. Play the animation to see the effect of this change.
The title's current position will be its final position.
42. Pause the animation. Change the Current frame to 8.
44. Turn on Transformation and change the Current frame to 1.
46. Change the Visibility from On to Fade In.
Note that the fade-in has already started. The fade starts immediately on frame 1, which has a
fade (transparency) value of 0.125.
47. With Shift + left mouse, move the title closer to the mixer.
This will automatically turn on the Transformation button and set the keyframe.
The annotation should start from the position of the title in the last step and move to the final
position.
49. Pause the animation.

AcuSolve Tutorials
50. Change the Frame Number in the KEYFRAME section to 2.

The title will be invisible at the beginning of the animation, then fade in and move to its final
position.
52. Click Build Flipbook to create a new keyframe animation file.
53. In the Flipbook Controls panel that opens when the build is complete, click Save.
54. Name and save the animation file.
55. In the KeyFrame Animation panel, click Save.
56. Name and save the keyframe animation file.
57. Click File > Save Restart > Complete.
58. Name and save the complete restart. The complete restart and the keyframe animation can be
loaded into a new AcuFieldView session so that you can view the animation later.
A complete restart (KeyComplete_key.dat) and a completed keyframe animation
(keyComplete.key) are provided in <your_working_dir>\ploymer_mixing\restart. This
keyframe animation contains all of the keyframes and actions that are produced by the above
steps.
60. In the <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\restart directory, select KeyComplete_key.dat
and click Open.
61. Click Open on the Keyframe Animation panel.
62. In the <your working dir>\polymer_mixing\restart directory, select keyComplete.key and
click Open.
This opens a keyframe animation with a title that fades in and moves from near the mixer to its
current position, but faster than the surfaces.
Equations for Static Mixer

A number of mathematical expressions were used to create the visualizations presented in this
tutorial and have been provided as formula restarts. An explanation of the equations found in the
formula restarts and used in the tutorial is given here.
The following definitions were used in the static mixer equations:
Figure 1475:

AcuSolve Tutorials
AcuFieldView Equations
In the following equations, the name of the function as stored in the restart files and as appears
in AcuFieldView when read in is shown first, followed by the mathematical expression followed
by the expression used in AcuFieldView to define the given function. All of the terms and factors
of the expressions used in AcuFieldView are either intrinsic functions available on the Function
Formula Specification panel or have been previously defined in this section.
Figure 1476:
and so on for Dxy, Dyy, Dzy and Dxz, Dyz and Dzz.
Figure 1477:

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: Use ε to avoid division by zero problems.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.3 AFV-T: 3000 Transient Data

This tutorial shows you how to work with transient data. It also shows how to create streaklines to
visualize transient flow patterns. An outline is presented for setting up rakes which can be used for
subsequent work with other datasets.
Prior to running this tutorial, copy the expanded vortex_shedding directory from <AcuSolve
installation directory>\model_files\tutorials\AcuFieldView\AFV_tutorial_inputs.zip to a
working directory. See Tutorial Data for more information.
Figure 1478:

AcuSolve Tutorials

2. Open vortex_shedding.acs.
3. Run AcuSolve to calculate a transient solution.
4. Exit AcuConsole.
8.3.2 Convert the Dataset to FieldView Unstructured

Format (FV-UNS)
AcuFieldView's native format for reading data is known as the FV-UNS format. This format has been
optimized for file size and performance. When using this format, data read times are reduced in
comparison to reading the data directly from the AcuSolve database. When the data will be read
multiple times, this format is preferred. This step explains how to perform the conversion of AcuSolve
results to FV-UNS format.
1. Open an AcuSolve Cmd Prompt or Linux terminal.
2. Change the directory to the location of the solved problem, <your working dir>
\vortex_shedding\.
3. Execute AcuTrans with the following command line arguments: acuTrans -out -to fieldview -
ts A -extout.
4. Exit the command window or terminal when AcuTrans completes the conversion.
8.3.3 Start AcuFieldView and Read a Transient Dataset


AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1479:
3. Click Close.
4. Click File > Data Input > AcuSolve [FV-UNS Export].
6. Select vortex_shedding_step000003.fv and click Open.
7. In the Function Subset Selection panel, ensure that all function names are selected and click OK.
8. Click Yes to treat all files as a transient set.
After read in, you will be presented with an isometric view of the data outline.
9. Close the FV-UNS data input panel.
10.
Click in the Transform Controls toolbar or View > Defined Views to open the Defined Views
panel.
11. Click +Z for the VIEWING DIRECTION.
12. Close the Defined Views panel.
13.
Click Bound to visualize the cylinder using the Boundary Surface panel.
14. Click Create, select OSF: Cylinder, and click OK.
15. Change Line Type to Thick and change the Geometric color to black.
Figure 1480:

AcuSolve Tutorials
16. Zoom into the cylinder (with Object set as World on the Viewer toolbar) with the right mouse
button (M3).
Figure 1481:
17.
Click Coord to visualize the vortex shedding using the Coordinate Surface panel.
18. Click Create and change the COORD PLANE to Z.
19. Change the COLORING to Scalar and the DISPLAY TYPE from Mesh to Contours.
Figure 1482:
20. In the Colormap tab in the Coordinate Surface panel, change the Number of Contours to 32 and
the Colormap from Spectrum to NASA-1.
You can also set the colormap on the Scalar Colormap Specification panel from the Edit menu.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1483:
21. On the View menu turn off the Axis Markers and Perspective.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1484:
Note: The image on your screen may differ from what is shown based on the zoom
level.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1485:
8.3.4 Perform a Transient Sweep

In this step, you will use the Transient Data Controls panel to visualize the movement of the vortex
"tail" as you perform a transient sweep. You will also create a grid of coordinate surfaces in order to
better see the extent of the movement.
2. Use the slider to set the initial TIME STEP to 3 and click Apply.
3. Activate Sweep.
The flow contours develop from a symmetric initial condition to the transient vortex shedding seen
as the blue contours of the vortex "tail" sweeping up and down. Notice that the vertical extent of
the "tail" is approximately that of the unit cylinder, and note that the center of the cylinder is the
point [0,0,0]. This information will be used to create a "grid" in the following steps.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1486:
4. Click View > Minimum Time Between Frames and set the Minimum Time Seconds to 0.1 to
slow the sweep animation.
5. Click Sweep again to stop the animation.
6. Click OK in the Transient Data Controls message panel.
7. Reset the current TIME STEP to 3 using the slider or by entering 3 in the TIME STEP field.
8. Click Apply and close the Transient Data Controls panel.
9. In the Coordinate Surface panel (Visualization Panels > Coordinate Surface), click Create.
10. Change COLORING to Geometric, DISPLAY TYPE to Mesh, COORD PLANE to X and the Current
value to 1.0.
11. Create additional vertical X coordinate surfaces at 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5.
These will be coordinate surface numbers 3-5.
12. Create horizontal Y coordinate surfaces at 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, and at -0.5 and -1.0.
These will be coordinate surface numbers 6-10.
13. Use the Transient Data Controls to Sweep through the time steps again.
Notice how the blue contoured "tail" sweeps through the points [1.5, 0.5] and [1.5, -0.5]. These
two points will be used to create small coordinate surfaces to seed onto in the next step.
14. Click Sweep to stop the animation.
The following image is from time step 201.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1487:
15. Reset the current TIME STEP to 3.
8.3.5 Create Streamline Seeding Surfaces

In this step, you will create seeding surfaces at the vertical extents of the "tail" swing. You will create
two circles by thresholding coordinate surfaces. First you will create the two threshold functions, circles
centered on [1.5, 0.5] and [1.5, -0.5].
1.
Click the icon.
2. In the Function Specification panel, click Create.
3. In the Function Formula Specification panel, create the formula (("X"-1.5)^2+("Y"-0.5)^2)^0.5
by clicking the Operations/Keys and selecting the X and Y Quantities.
4. Click OK.
5. In the Function Name Input panel, name the function Center-1 and click OK.
6. Create the formula (("X"-1.5)^2+("Y"+0.5)^2)^0.5, click OK, name it Center-2 and click OK.

AcuSolve Tutorials
7. In the Coordinate Surface panel, create a Z coordinate surface.

Change the Geometric color of the surface to blue and change the DISPLAY TYPE to Constant
shading.
8. Scroll down to the Threshold Function controls, click Select, select Center-1 from the Function
Selection panel, and click Calculate.
9. Turn on Threshold Clip and change the Max to 0.25.
10. Scroll to the top of the Coordinate Surface panel, if needed.
11. Create another Z coordinate surface. This surface will inherit most of the properties of the
previous surface.
12. Change the Threshold Function to Center-2.
13. Change Max in the Threshold Function section to 0.25.
Figure 1488:

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.3.6 Create Streamlines

In this step, you will seed the threshold coordinate surfaces from the previous step. This will be made
easier by turning off the visibility of the contour coordinate surface.
1. Double click a contour in the main visualization window to open the Coordinate Surface panel
(Surface ID: 1) and turn Visibility off.
2.
Click Stream .
3. Create a streamline rake.
4. Change the seeding Mode from Add (default) to Seed a Surface.
Figure 1489:
5. With the mouse pointer above the upper of the two blue coordinate surfaces (avoid clicking on the
grid), click Ctrl+left mouse (M1) to select the surface.
An "x" should appear on the selected surface.
6. Click OK to add the 10 seeds.
7. Make the following changes to the Calculation Parameters at the bottom of the Streamlines panel
(you may need to scroll down to see the bottom panel).
a) Turn Time Limit on using the default value of 1 to limit the duration of all streamlines in this
rake to a maximum of 1.
b) Increase the Step size from the default of 3 to 9.
Figure 1490:
8. In the Streakline Parameters section, change the Release Interval to 1.

This will be used in streakline calculations later on.
Figure 1491:
9. Click Calculate to show the time limited streamlines.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Note: The appearance of the streamline pattern will depend on the current time step.
10. Create a second rake and repeat the above steps as necessary for the other threshold coordinate
surface.
You may need to scroll up to see the top of the panel.
Figure 1492:
8.3.7 Create Streaklines

In this step, you will sweep through the transient dataset. While doing this, you will create a streakline
export file and a flipbook (movie) of the particles.
1. Turn off Show Seeds for both rakes.
2. Zoom out and move the cylinder to the left edge of the graphics window to better see the vortices
being propagated downstream of the cylinder.
3.
Click Anno to open the Annotation panel.
Tip: To see the icon on the toolbar, you might need to expand the toolbar with the
icon.
4. Click Create Text to create titles showing the time step and solution time being displayed.
5. In the Annotation Create panel, enter in the string: Time Step: %%N1 Solution Time: %%T1 and
click OK.
The special notation %%N1 means show the time step of dataset #1 and %%T1 means show the
solution time of dataset #1.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1493:
6. Change the default font, Lee Bold, and increase the Size as desired.
7. Move the title with the SHIFT+left mouse (M1) following the hints on the Annotation panel.
Figure 1494:
8. Click Tools > Flipbook Build Mode to prepare to create a flipbook.

9. Click OK to dismiss the Flipbook Size Warning panel.
Because Flipbook Build Mode is on, the Sweep button on the Transient Data Controls panel is
replaced by Build.

AcuSolve Tutorials
11. Set the TIME STEP to 3.

12. Activate Build.
The Streakline Export panel prompts you to save the streaklines, based on your visible streamline
rake seed locations, to a Particle Path file, which makes subsequent streakline display much
simpler.
13. Click Yes on the Streakline Export panel.
14. In the Export Streaklines panel name the file vortex_1.fvp and save the file.
Once the 75 frames are created, the Flipbook Controls panel can be used to play and Save the
animation.
15. Click Frame Rate to open the Minimum Time Between Frames panel and adjust the Minimum
Time Seconds to slow or speed up the flipbook replay.
Figure 1495:
This image is from frame 63, which captured time step 189
16. Close the Flipbook Controls panel.
17. Click OK to dismiss the warning in the Flipbook Exit Conformation panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
8.3.8 Import Streaklines and Improve Your Animation

In this step, you will import your previously exported streaklines. You will then create another animation
which will allow you to better see the vortices being shed off of the cylinder.
1. In the Transient Data panel, set the TIME STEP to 3.
2. In the Streamlines panel turn off the Visibility for each rake.
Tip: The arrow buttons at the top of the panel can be used to switch between Rake ID
1 and Rake ID 2.
3.
Click the Paths icon or Visualization Panels > Particle Paths.
4. Click Import.
5. Browse to and select the streakline export (particle path) file, vortex_1_3.fvp, that you
previously created.
6. Change the COLORING to Scalar and DISPLAY TYPE to Spheres.
7. Click Select and select x-velocity as the Scalar Variable for the particles.
8. Click Tools > Transient Data to open the Transient Data Controls panel.
9. Advance the TIME STEP to 225 and click Apply.
This shows the positions of the particles at their furthest extent. When the TIME STEP slider is
moved and applied, the positions of the particles change to match their locations at the selected
time step.
Figure 1496:
10. Set Object to World on the Viewer toolbar.

Resize the image in the modeling window so that more can be seen. Use zooming out (M3) and
left translation (M1).

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1497:
11. Open the Coordinate Surface panel.

12. Turn off the Visibility from the Surface tab for Surfaces #11 and #12.
13. Turn on the Visibility of Surface #1 (the contour surface).
14. In the Transient Controls panel, move the slider back to TIME STEP 3 and click Apply.
15. Turn Flipbook Build Mode on (Tools > Flipbook Build Mode).
16. Activate Build in the Transient Data Controls panel to create a flipbook.
17. Save the flipbook as vortex_animation_1.avi when the creation is complete.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1498:
8.3.9 Use Scripts

In this section, you will build a flipbook and produce a streakline export file at the same time using an
AcuFieldView script file. You will then import the exported streaklines and sweep through the dataset
again, creating a flipbook of the imported particles paths. This tutorial can also be used in conjunction
with DataGuide™ .
1. Start AcuFieldView with the DataGuide™ switch (add the -p2 command-line switch to your usual
AcuFieldView start-up command.) For Windows, run AcuSolve Command Prompt in your AcuSolve
program group and start AcuFieldView using acuFV -p2.
2. Click Views > Graphics Layout Size > 640x480 NTSC.
This creates an animation file of a standard size.
3. Click File > Data Input > AcuSolve [FV-UNS Export] to read in the FV-UNS data.
5. Select vortex_shedding_step000003.fv and click Open.
6. Click File > Open Restart > Complete, No Data Read to read in the complete restart called
..\vortex_shedding\restart\vortex_shedding.dat.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1499:
7. Click File > Open Restart > Script to read the script restart called create_streakline.scr
from the ..\vortex_shedding directory.
This script, shown below, automatically performs a sweep using 100 seeds and saves the
streakline export file, 100_seeds.fvp, a binary particle path file, along with the flipbook
simple_streak.miff, for Linux, or simple_streak.avi, for Windows.
!..AcuFieldView Script:
! Start recording a flipbook
RECORD ON simple_streak
! Performs a transient sweep &
! saves a streakline file
SWEEP TIME LOOP 1 1 1 100_seeds.fvp
! Turn off recording
RECORD OFF
!..End of Script
8. Exit from AcuFieldView.

9. Make sure that the file 100_seeds.fvp and the flipbook were created.
10. Start AcuFieldView again, this time without using any DataGuide™ command-line switches.

AcuSolve Tutorials
11. Click File > Open Restart > Complete to read in the complete restart called ..
\vortex_shedding\display_streakline.dat.
This restart imports the streaklines as particle paths, removes the coordinate lines, draws the
cylinder using smooth shading, changes the view to better display the vortex shedding, sets the
scalar function to use VecZ(curl(velocity)) for coordinate surface 1, relocates the surface plane
to .05, and turns on presentation rendering for better looking particles.
Figure 1500:
Note: You may need to resize your AcuFieldView window or move the model to get
the view shown above.
12. Open the Coordinate Surface panel and set the Surface ID to 1.
13. On the Colormap tab, change the scalar min/max values to -10 and 40, respectively. The Number
of Contours should be 32. Alternately, these changes can be made using the Scalar Colormap
Specification panel.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1501:
14. Click File > Open Restart > Script to read in the second script restart called ..
\vortex_shedding\display_streakline.scr.
This script performs a transient sweep and saves an animation called final_streak.miff, for
Linux, or final_streak.avi, for Windows.
!..AcuFieldView Script which:

! Starts recording a flipbook
RECORD ON final_streak.miff
! Performs a transient sweep
! (no streakline file saved)
SWEEP TIME LOOP 1 1 1
! Turns off recording
RECORD OFF
!..End of Script
15. When the script completes, exit AcuFieldView (if desired) and play the two flipbook animations,
simple_streak and final_streak.

AcuSolve Tutorials
Figure 1502: This image shows final_streak.avi at time step 213

Appendix A 9
9 Appendix A
• 9.1 AcuConsole Database (*.acs) (p. 1336)

• 9.2 Files Generated During Meshing (p. 1337)
• 9.3 Files Generated During Solving (p. 1342)
• 9.4 Files in ACUSIM.DIR (p. 1346)
AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1336
9.1 AcuConsole Database (*.acs)
When database is created or saved (File > New, File > Save, or via the toolbar), AcuConsole creates
a database file with the extension .acs. Once a problem is set up, a mesh generated, and a solution is
reached, an .acs file saved at that point will contain sufficient information to recreate the solution.
.acs
Description AcuConsole Database file - contains problem

definition, mesh settings, solution strategy, and
other settings related to the CFD problem
Location Specified by you
Name <problem>.acs, where you specify <problem>
File type Binary, HDF5
Note: This file is created, opened, and edited by AcuConsole. It should not be edited by any
other means.
The AcuConsole database file, with file extension .acs, stores all of the contents associated with an
AcuSolve simulation. The .acs file is initially created by AcuConsole as an empty template that will be
populated at various stages of the simulation definition. Once complete, the database stores the model
geometry, mesh settings, finite element mesh, initial conditions, boundary conditions, solution strategy
and other settings needed to solve a CFD problem.
All user actions/changes are saved immediately into the database (that is, the .acs file). This means
that you should never lose data if the code crashes, machine crashes, or the like. When the database is
saved (File > Save or on the toolbar), the existing database is copied to the .acs.bak file and a new
.acs is written to disk .
When you exit, you will be asked if you want to save changes. If you decide to not save the changes,
the .acs.bak file is moved to .acs and the uncommitted changes from the current session are
overwritten. Every action that you perform is saved to the database.
When you create multiple meshes in the same session of AcuConsole, this can lead to large database
sizes. The disk space associated with the “old” meshes can be freed up by enabling the Compress
the database option when closing a database. It is good practice to use this option. If you want to
compress the database even further, be sure that the following option is set: File > Preferences >
Data Base > Database compression option to Gzip=1,shuf. Note that this will cause the initial
opening of the database to take longer, but greatly reduce its size on disk.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1337
9.2 Files Generated During Meshing
When you generate a mesh (Tools > Generate Mesh or on toolbar), files and directories are
created. By default, when you generate a mesh, the options for exporting mesh settings and for
launching AcuMeshSim are turned on. You can use the Generate Mesh dialog with only the Export
option turned on. Information about these files and directories are provided in the following sections.
The files related to mesh settings are discussed first. Once you generate a mesh and save the .acs file,
the meshing files can be removed to free up disk space. You will need to regenerate the files if the you
would like to see any of the information contained in the files.
9.2.1 Export Mesh Settings
The following files are created from AcuConsole when a mesh is generated (Tools > Generate Mesh or
on toolbar) with the Export ams file option turned on.
.ams
Description Input file for AcuMeshSim
Location Same directory as <problem>.acs
Name Same as <problem> name given by you
File type ASCII, .xml
This file is needed for mesh generation by AcuMeshSim. It can be deleted, but will need to be recreated
in order to regenerate a mesh.
nm.smd
Description Non-manifold geometry file
Location \CAD.DIR directory below the location of the .acs

file
Name Same as the name of the geometry file imported

for the problem - <geom>nm.smd
File type ASCII

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1338
This file is needed for mesh generation by AcuMeshSim. It can be deleted, but will need to be recreated
in order to regenerate a mesh.
nat.x_t or nat.x_b
Description Parasolid geometry file
Location \CAD.DIR directory below the location of the .acs

file
Name Same as the name of the geometry file

imported for the problem - <geom>nat.x_t or
<geom>nat.x_b
File type ASCII (.x_t), binary (.x_b)
The Parasolid geometry file may not exist if the model was meshed from a tessellated surface. This file
should not be edited manually.
9.2.2 Mesh Generation
The following files are created from AcuConsole when a mesh is generated (Tools > Generate Mesh or
on toolbar) with the Launch AcuMeshSim option turned on, and with the Export ams file option
turned on, or with previously exported files.
.arm
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing metadata that

defines mesh locations - used for GUI visualization
in AcuConsole
Location Same directory as .acs
Name Same as <problem> name given by you -

<problem>.arm
File type ASCII
Once a mesh has been generated and the .acs file has been created, this file can be deleted.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1339
.Meshsim.jou
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing details of the

meshing process. Not generally used except for
identifying problems with the meshing process
Name Same as <problem> name given by you -

<problem>.Meshsim.jou
File type ASCII
This file is only used for advanced troubleshooting of the meshing process. If your mesh has generated
without problems, you can delete this file. You may be asked for the contents of this file when working
with a support representative.
Meshsim.txt
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing a summary of

the meshing process - this information is displayed
in AcuTail during the mesh generation
Name <problem>.<ID> where <ID> is an ID generated

by AcuMeshSim that usually reflects the number
of times AcuMeshSim has been run for the
particular problem
File type ASCII
This file provides a summary of the meshing process. Once meshing is complete, it can be deleted if the
summary information is not needed. During mesh generation, a directory, MESHSIM.DIR, is created. By
default, the files in this directory will be ASCII files. You can change the preferences so that files created
in this directory will be in binary format (File > Preferences > Export > Mesh file type).
.cnn
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing connectivity of

elements within a volume set
Location \MESHSIM.DIR directory below the location of the

.acs file

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1340
.cnn
Name <problem>.<volID>.<meshtype>.cnn, where

<volID> is the volume ID, <meshtype> is the
mesh type associated with the volume
File type ASCII (default) or binary
.crd
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing coordinates of

nodes within the model

.acs file
.ebc
Description AcuMeshSim output file containing identifiers for

element collections associated with each surface
set

.acs file
Name <problem>.<volID>.<volmeshtype>.<surfID>.<surfmesht
where
<volID> is the volume ID
<meshtype> is the mesh type associated with the

volume
<surfID> is the surface ID
<volmeshtype> is the mesh type associated with

the volume
<surfmeshtype> is the mesh type associated with

the surface

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1341
.ebc
When you generate a mesh (Tools > Generate Mesh or on toolbar), by default AcuConsole first
exports the mesh settings and then AcuMeshSim is run. In this process, files and a directories are
created.
The mesh settings are contained within <problem>.ams, where <problem> is the problem name
specified when you created the AcuConsole database. This file is used as input to AcuMeshSim and
contains attributes defining the mesh settings globally, by volume set, by surface set, by edge set, by
extrusion, and so forth.
Exporting the mesh settings also generates a directory associated with the CAD. The CAD.DIR directory
is created at the same directory level as the .ams file. CAD.DIR contains a copy of the original geometry
file that was imported into AcuConsole with the extension .x_t if an ASCII file was imported, or .x_b if
a binary file was imported. CAD.DIR also contains a non-manifold CAD file with extension .smd.
AcuMeshSim generates two files that capture the outputs of the application;
<problem>.<ID>.MeshSim.txt and meshsim.jou. The .MeshSim.txt file is automatically opened by
AcuTail when AcuMeshSim is executed from AcuConsole, or it can be read manually with any text editor.
The contents include information about the meshing process, node and element count, CPU time, and
memory usage. Meshsim.jou contains additional details about the mesh process, and is useful for
debugging when problems arise during the meshing process.
Once AcuMeshSim completes, additional files will be created within the specified mesh directory, with
default name MESHSIM.DIR. MESHSIM.DIR contains the resulting mesh that was created by AcuMeshSim,
stored in separate files to represent the different surface, volume, and other information that you
requested. In addition to the files created in MESHSIM.DIR directory, a metadata file with default name
<problem>.arm will be created in the specified directory. The .arm file points to the geometry file
within CAD.DIR, and to the files contained within MESHSIM.DIR that contain the coordinate, connectivity,
elemental boundary conditions, and nodal boundary conditions The .arm file is read by AcuConsole to
import the contents of MESHSIM.DIR into the GUI for visualization and subsequent processing/storage.
Once you have successfully generated a mesh and saved the .acs file, you can safely delete the
files generated during the meshing process and still have all of the information needed to generate a
solution. If you need any of the files, they can be recreated by generating a mesh.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1342
9.3 Files Generated During Solving
When you have a complete problem set up, including problem definitions and a generated mesh, the
next step is to run AcuSolve to calculate a solution. When you run AcuSolve from AcuConsole, files and
directories are created. These files support two phases of the solution process.
First, AcuConsole exports information about the problem and about the mesh. Next, AcuPrep and
AcuSolve read these files and calculate a solution, By default, when you run AcuSolve from AcuConsole,
the options for exporting the settings needed for the solver and for launching AcuSolve are both turned
on.
After you calculate a solution, you can delete the files used while calculating the solution. Care should
be taken to avoid deleting any results files. If you want to calculate a solution for the problem again,
you will need to regenerate the input files.
9.3.1 Export Solution Input Files
.inp
Description Input file containing all of the commands needed

to run AcuPrep
File type ASCII
This file is required in order to calculate a solution. If you have generated an input file but not run
AcuSolve, do not delete this file. Once a solution is calculated, this file can be deleted, but will need to
be recreated if you want to recreate the solution.
MESH/DIR\*.*
Description Directory containing all files associated with the

mesh
Name The complete directory should be treated as a

single entity

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1343
MESH/DIR\*.*
The files in this directory are required in order to calculate a solution. If you have generated an input
file and created this directory, but not run AcuSolve, do not delete this directory. Once a solution is
calculated, this directory can be deleted, but will need to be recreated if you want to recreate the
solution. By default, the files in this directory will be ASCII files. You can change the preferences so
that files created in this directory will be in binary format (File > Preferences > Export > Mesh file
type).
9.3.2 Run AcuSolve
ACUSIM.DIR\*.*
Description Directory containing files associated with the

results from the solution
Name The complete directory should be treated as a

single entity and should not be tampered with
File type ASCII
These files are required for results visualization. Deletion of any individual file or group of files may
render the output database unreadable. If you want to view results after files are deleted, they will
need to be recreated by running AcuSolve again.
Acusim.cnf
Description AcuSolve configuration file
Name Acusim.cnf
File type ASCII
This file is used when AcuSolve is run. This file should not be manually edited or deleted.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1344
.echo
Description Complete list of commands provided to AcuSolve
Name <problem>.<runID>, where <runID> is the

sequential number that indicates the number of
runs of AcuSolve for the particular problem
File type ASCII
This file contains all of the commands needed to run AcuSolve. This file is useful for analyzing
differences in settings between runs. This file should not be manually edited or deleted.
.inc
Description List of solution-strategy commands provided to

AcuSolve
Name <problem>.ss.inc
File type ASCII
It can be deleted once a solution is reached.
.Log
Description Summary of the simulation, containing summary

information for each sub-process spawned while
calculating a solution. Used as a reference to load
results into AcuProbe, AcuFieldView, and other
post-processing tools
Name <problem>.<runID>.Log, where <runID> is the

sequential number that indicates the number of
runs of AcuSolve for the particular problem
File type ASCII

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1345
This file is required for results visualization. Deletion may render the output database unreadable. If this
file is deleted, it will need to be recreated by running AcuSolve again.
Once the mesh process is complete, all of the boundary conditions are prepared and the solution
strategy has been set, exporting the problem from AcuConsole generates a set of files needed for
AcuPrep and AcuSolve. The mesh is exported into a directory with default name MESH.DIR and the input
file is written to <problem>.inp.
The input file is the most critical item associated with an AcuSolve simulation. It provides reference
to all settings needed to initialize the solver with a series of command statements. The command
statements may reference various other files that are associated with the mesh, initial conditions,
boundary conditions or user subroutines.
The .inp file should be kept as a reference to the simulation, and along with MESH.DIR, these file
comprise the simulation input. If either .inp or MESH.DIR are removed, it will not be possible to run the
solver. These will need to be recreated prior to solving the problem.
The files written to MESH.DIR are identical to those written by AcuMeshSim into MESHSIM.DIR if no
modifications to the mesh are made within AcuConsole. It is possible to perform remeshing operations
using AcuMeshSim directly and simply reference the files within MESHSIM.DIR in the input file.
AcuSolve is typically launched by a wrapper script called AcuRun. AcuRun controls the simulation
procedure for AcuSolve. It requires that the input files, as described above, are properly referenced and
available for the executable to read. First, AcuRun executes AcuPrep. AcuPrep will read the .inp file
and generate a series of new files associated with the current run identifier. Since AcuSolve relies on a
complete set of commands that are not explicitly defined in the .inp file, a new file <problem>.ss.inc
is created to expand on the AUTO_SOLUTION_STATEGY command. The .inc file contains several
additional commands associated with the solution strategy that may or may not have been defined
in the .inp file. If not defined in the .inp file, commands such as TIME_SEQUENCE, TIME_INCREMENT,
STAGGER, and CONVERGENCE_CHECK_PARAMETERS are automatically defined in the .inc file based on the
default settings. The .inc file is then referenced by the INCLUDE command to fully define the solution
strategy.
AcuPrep also generates a file with the extension .echo. The .echo file gives a complete listing of all
commands required to run AcuSolve. Everything included in the .inp file and the .inc file are written
to this file, which serves as a record of the full settings for each run that was made.
Once AcuPrep is complete, AcuRun executes AcuView (if necessary), followed by AcuSolve. AcuSolve
generates a series of files that comprise the output from the simulation. The primary file associated
with the output that you will interact with is the .log file, by default named <problem>.<run ID>.Log.
The .log file provides a summary of the simulation progress and includes information from AcuPrep,
AcuView, and AcuSolve. The .log file also serves as a reference for loading the simulation results into
various post processing applications, including AcuProbe, AcuFieldView, and HyperView. Note that these
applications only parse the .log file to extract the problem name, run ID, and working directory. The
actual data that is loaded into the post-processing tools is read using an API to the AcuSolve solution
database, which requires problem name, run ID and working directory as input.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1346
9.4 Files in ACUSIM.DIR
ACUSIM.DIR is the primary data storage directory for results from a solution. ACUSIM.DIR contains
various files that completely define the simulation, including results. The directory stores data in a
variety of files, each corresponding to a different type of output. These files should not be managed
manually. Rather, if you need to manage the ACUSIM.DIR directory, see Manage Files in ACUSIM.DIR.
File Grouping File Extension Description
Auxiliary Files .slv AcuPrep solver input
Basic .cli Replicated .echo file
.ddc Domain decomposition
.oqi Mask information
.top Solutions summary
.dat Domain connectivity
.osn Surface composition
Derived Quantity Output .odq
Nodal Output .out
Restart .rst
Time History .oth
9.4.1 Manage Files in ACUSIM.DIR

ACUSIM.DIR should not be modified manually by you. Instead, AcuDmg, the file and directory manager
with a graphical interface, should be used to selectively delete unneeded files. For information on the
files in ACUSIM.DIR, see Files in ACUSIM.DIR.
The following steps demonstrate how AcuDmg can be used to delete a complete run or only a selection
of the output contained within ACUSIM.DIR. Once certain files are removed, they cannot be restored
unless the necessary applications are rerun. For instance, if all of the .dat files are removed manually
or with AcuDmg, AcuSolve will need to be rerun from AcuConsole (Tools > AcuSolve or on the
toolbar), or AcuPrep will need to be rerun from the command line prior to running AcuSolve.
1. Open AcuDmg.
a) Click Tools > Directory Management.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1347
The following screen shot is taken from a tutorial, where AcuSolve was run once.
Figure 1503:
2. Expand Problem, then expand the name of your problem (in the image above,
Check_Valve_Transient).
3. Choose the files to delete using one of the following methods:
• Select Problem to delete all files in ACUSIM.DIR
• Select the Run <ID> to delete all files associated with a run
• Expand the tree to select individual files to delete
4. Click File > Delete Selected.
9.4.2 AcuCleanDir
These files are required for results visualization. Deletion of any individual file or group of files may
render the output database unreadable. If you want to view results after files are deleted, they will
need to be recreated by running AcuSolve again.
A command line tool called AcuCleanDir is also available for managing the field output files in
ACUSIM.DIR. Using this tool, it is possible to delete selective output types, steps, or an entire run. Note
that this tool does not operate on time series data, only nodal data.
To use AcuCleanDir:
1. Open an AcuSolve Cmd Prompt from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start > All
Programs > Altair Hyperworks <version> > AcuSolve > AcuSolve Cmd Prompt.
2. Change to the directory where your problem is saved.
3. Execute the acuCleanDir command with appropriate options.

AcuSolve Tutorials
9 Appendix A p.1348
• To delete run 2 of a problem named "channel":
acuCleanDir -pb channel -run 2 -delrun
• To delete all but the last time step of each result type:
acuCleanDir -pb channel -run 2 -ts abl
where abl is a string that means "all but last".

• To delete nodal output and nodal residual outputs from time steps between the first and last
available:
acuCleanDir -pb channel -run 2 -ts F:L:2 -types out,onr
where the options for -types are:
out NODAL_OUTPUT
odq DERIVED_QUANTITY_OUTPUT
onr NODAL_RESIDUAL_OUTPUT
ora RUNNING_AVERAGE_OUTPUT
ota TIME_AVERAGE_OUTPUT
rst RESTART_OUTPUT
oee ERROR_ESTIMATOR_OUTPUT
oae ERROR_ESTIMATOR_OUTPUT - time averaged
A command line tool called acuCpProbeFiles can be used to summarize the results of a given
AcuSolve simulation. Executing the script will copy the pertinent files from ACUSIM.DIR
and the .log file into a directory specified by the command line argument –tdir (default
is PROBE.DIR). The PROBE.DIR directory can be used by itself to interrogate results with
AcuProbe. Note, that nodal output is not stored within PROBE.DIR.
acuCpProbeFiles -pb channel -run 1 –tdir PROBE.DIR

Index
A
ACU-T: 1000 HyperWorks - AcuSolve Integration 18
ACU-T: 2000 Introduction to AcuSolve: Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow 56
ACU-T: 2000 Turbulent Flow in a Mixing Elbow (HyperMesh) 103
ACU-T: 2100 Turbulent Flow Over an Airfoil using the SST Turbulence Model 113
ACU-T: 2200 Transition Flow Over an Airfoil using the SA Transition Models 150
ACU-T: 2201 Transition Flow over an Airfoil using the SST Transition Models 193
ACU-T: 3000 Enclosed Hot Cylinder: Natural Convection 237
ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow 277
ACU-T: 3100 Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow (HyperMesh) 327
ACU-T: 3101 Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow 339
ACU-T: 3101 Transient Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow (HyperMesh) 373
ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous Media 386
ACU-T: 3200 Greenhouse Nocturnal Climate Simulation-Enclosure Radiation and Porous Media (HyperMesh) 440
ACU-T: 3201 Greenhouse Daytime Climate Simulation - Solar Radiation and Thermal Shell 454
ACU-T: 3203 Heat Transfer Between Concentric Spheres – P1 Radiation Model 498, 511
ACU-T: 3300 Modeling of a Heat Exchanger Component 525
ACU-T: 3400 AcuSolve-Flux Integration 535
ACU-T: 4000 Dam Break Simulation: Two Phase Problem 570
ACU-T: 4000 Transient Dam Break Simulation (HyperMesh) 594
ACU-T: 4001 Water Filling in a Tank 606
ACU-T: 4001 Water Filling in a Tank (HyperMesh) 635
ACU-T: 4002 Sloshing of Water in a Tank 647
ACU-T: 4002 Sloshing of Water in a Tank (HyperMesh) 673
ACU-T: 4100 Disperse Case – LPipe 686
ACU-T: 4200 Humidity – Pipe Junction 701
ACU-T: 5000 Blower-Steady (Rotating Frames) 715
ACU-T: 5000 Centrifugal Air Blower with Moving Reference Frame (Steady) (HyperMesh) 748
ACU-T: 5001 Blower - Transient (Sliding Mesh) 759
ACU-T: 5002 Brake Disc Cooling in an Automotive Disc Brake System 794
ACU-T: 5100 Modeling of a Fan Component: Axial Fan 836
ACU-T: 5100 Modeling of a Fan Component: Axial Fan (HyperMesh) 866
ACU-T: 5200 Rigid Body Dynamics of a Check Valve 876
ACU-T: 5201 Coupled Simulation of a Check Valve Using AcuSolve and MotionSolve 925
ACU-T: 5202 Flow Closing Valve 974
ACU-T: 5300 Ship Hull Static 995
ACU-T: 5301 Ship Hull Dynamics 1029
ACU-T: 5400 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction (P=FSI) 1049
ACU-T: 5401 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester - PFSI & IMM 1093
ACU-T: 5402 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester with Rigid Body Rotation 1137
ACU-T: 5403 Piezoelectric Flow Energy Harvester: A Fluid-Structure Interaction 1160
ACU-T: 6000 Static Mixer Simulation - AcuTrace 1196
ACU-T: 7000 Parametric Optimization with AcuSolve 1215
ACU-T: 7001 Shape Optimization using HyperMorph 1246
1349
AcuFieldView tutorials 1268
acufieldview, start 989
acusolve, run 986
advanced simulation parameters, set 978
analyze the problem 975
animate velocity magnitude contours 989
assign mesh distortion parameters 984
assign mesh motion to the valve surface 985
assign reference pressure 587
assigning mesh motion to the fluid 1117
assigning the interpolated motion surfaces 1116
associated multiplier function, create 981
B
basic workflow x
biomedical device data 1270
C
calculate the mass balance 1283
change the angle of attack and compute the solution 148
change the scalar display of the cross sections 1301
convert the dataset to FieldView unstructured format (FV-UNS) 1290, 1315
create a keyframe animation 1307
create an associated multiplier function 981
create displacement-based mesh motion 983
create streaklines 1325
create streamline seeding surfaces 1322
create streamlines 1324
create velocity-based mesh motion 980
D
displacement-based mesh motion, create 983
display pressure contours and velocity vectors 991
display the shear on the artery wall 1279
display velocity magnitude on the front symmetry plane 965
G
generate the mesh 84
I
import streaklines and improve your animation 1328
integrate concentration variance of each cross section 1304
Introduction to AcuSolve Tutorials vii
1350
M
mesh distortion parameters, assign 984
mid-z coordinate surface 991
monitor the solution with AcuProbe 1187
O
objectives viii
open existing simulation database 976
P
perform a transient sweep 1320
polymer processing data tutorial 1289
post process with acuprobe 987
post-process velocity of valve walls with AcuProbe 963
post-process with AcuFieldView 1150
R
reference pressure, assign 587
run acusolve 986
S
set advanced simulation parameters 978
set solution strategy parameters 244
set up AcuFieldView 1190
solve the case with AcuConsole and AcuSolve 1271, 1290, 1315
start acuconsole 976
start acufieldview 989
start AcuFieldView 88, 964, 1189
start AcuFieldView and create boundary surfaces 1290
start AcuFieldView and load the data 1271
start AcuFieldView and read a transient dataset 1315
summary 1193
supporting files xii
T
tutorial prerequisites ix
typographical conventions used in this manual xiii
U
use scripts 1330
V
velocity magnitude contours 989
1351
velocity-based mesh motion, create 980
view axial velocities 1298
view beam displacement animation 1190
view results with acufieldview 988
view results with AcuFieldView 1188
visualize back flow 1294
visualize flow field 1275
visualize stress and concentration contours 1280
visualize the drug delivery 1286
W
working with transient data 1314
1352

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