SolidWorks Products: SolidWorks Flow Simulation

SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a full-featured computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool that allows you to accurately predict fluid flow around and through your SolidWorks model, and to assess heating and cooling in electronics systems, heat exchangers and more.

Unlike other computational fluid dynamics programs, SolidWorks Flow Simulation combines a high level of functionality and accuracy with ease-of-use.

Fully embedded inside of SolidWorks, SolidWorks Flow Simulation is perfect for the engineer who needs flow analysis, but is not necessarily an expert in the field of fluid simulation. A goal-oriented approach allows you to easily gain insight into the performance of your design under real world conditions.

SolidWorks Flow Simulation can be used in a diverse array of applications and has been designed to be extremely flexible. Whether you are developing an automobile, the wing of an airplane, or an exhaust valve, using SolidWorks Flow Simulation in the product development cycle can help you build a better product in less time.

SolidWorks Flow Simulation provides the following benefits:

• Complete Integration with SolidWorks: SolidWorks Flow Simulation is fully embedded within the SolidWorks Windows®-native environment. There is no need to modify your SolidWorks designs for fluid flow and heat transfer analysis.
• Configuration based analysis: Each SolidWorks Flow Simulation analysis is tied to a SolidWorks configuration thereby making it easy to analyze design variants and do “What-If” scenarios.
• Fully automatic and innovative meshing technology: SolidWorks Flow Simulation can automatically capture the geometry and resolve it to accurately compute the boundary layer. This technology handles very thin geometry well and results in a significant reduction in the number of computational cells. Simulations which take several hours for traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs can be solved in a fraction of the time.
• Wizard mode for analysis setup: SolidWorks Flow Simulation uses a wizard interface to setup the analysis thereby making it easy and intuitive to solve the problem. The toolbars and dialog boxes are very similar to SolidWorks interface thereby making the experience of using SolidWorks Flow Simulation very similar to SolidWorks.
• Engineering goal based analysis: SolidWorks Flow Simulation is a goal based CFD analysis program. You simply tell the program what you are interested in like Max temperature in part A, Max velocity in my flow, Flow rate at opening 1, Pressure drop across my model etc… and it will calculate these goals and present to the user after the completion of the analysis. This functionality helps you to get better engineering insight into your designs.
• Expanded CFD analysis capability: SolidWorks Flow Simulation can solve a wide range of problems including conjugate heat transfer, subsonic, supersonic and compressible flows, mixing of gases, flow around rotating geometry, porous media, cavitation prediction, humidity and climate control and fluid structure interaction.

Datasheets

Datasheet: SolidWorks Simulation 2012 SolidWorks Simulation is a complete suite of structural, functional, and flow analysis applications for every designer in the product development process. The software is easy to use, yet powerful enough to tackle the most complex design issues. It helps you to predict the performance of your design under real-world operating conditions and to detect problems and correct them before prototyping, tooling, and production.

White Papers

	White Paper: Putting the Spin in CFD Engineers who design equipment with rotating components need to analyze and understand the behavior of those components if they want to improve performance. Computational fluid dynamics is a perfect tool for studying rotating components. It helps eliminate expensive physical prototypes, and find serious flaws much earlier in the design process. This article explains the operation of one such CFD tool, SolidWorks® Flow Simulation. SolidWorks software uses both the single and multiple rotating reference frame approaches to solve rotating flow problems.
	White Paper: The Role of CFD in Real Life Designs This paper relates two heat sinks, a medical suction device, a household oven, and an industrial control valve as examples that illustrate how SolidWorks® Flow Simulation can help design engineers create the best possible product designs when dealing with heat transfer and fluid flow problems. SolidWorks Flow Simulation is an intelligent, easy-to-use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program that will facilitate the work of design engineers who use SolidWorks 3D CAD software for design creation.
	White Paper: Streamlining Design with Real-World Vibration Analysis Mechanical designers often use vibration simulation as a timesaving and cost-efficient alternative to the traditional approach of building, testing, modifying, and retesting their designs. By identifying the factors that influence the response to a dynamic load in a computer model, designers have the data needed to make the right improvements before they even cut a single piece of metal. In addition to greatly decreasing the number of actual prototypes required, vibration analysis also significantly reduces the costs involved.
	White Paper: Solve Complex Simulations to Enhance Product Performance Engineering successful, innovative products in today's competitive environment requires simulation power. The ability to analyze the multifaceted physical performance characteristics of a design before making a prototype can substantially increase productivity. Companies need robust simulation tools to efficiently overcome time, budget, and quality demands. SolidWorks® Simulation delivers powerful simulation capabilities that can solve complex analysis problems, helping you design better, more innovative products faster and more cost-effectively.
	White Paper: Design to Prevent Fatigue In 1954, two crashes involving the world's first commercial airliner, the de Havilland Comet, brought the words "metal fatigue" to newspaper headlines and into long-lasting public consciousness. The aircraft, also one of the first to have a pressurized cabin, had square windows. Pressurization combined with repeated flight loads caused cracks to form in the corners of the windows, and those cracks widened over time until the cabins fell apart. As well as being a human tragedy in which 68 people died, the Comet disasters were a wake-up call to engineers trying to create safe, strong designs.
	White Paper: Preventing Mechanical Fatigue Fatigue is the most common cause of catastrophic failure in metals and can occur in other materials as well. SolidWorks® software provides a fast, reliable, and cost-effective way to predict and resolve fatigue-related problems before they happen.
	White Paper: SolidWorks Software Optimization Optimization is the calculation of weight, stress, cost, deflection, natural frequencies, and temperature factors, which are dependent on variables such as dimensions, loads and restraints, materials, and manufacturing requirements. The challenge is that we seldom know these inputs at the early stages of the design process. This paper reviews some key concepts in optimization, tools now available for FEA-driven optimization, and then focuses on how design engineers can get the most out of optimization in their day-to-day work.