Chapter 5.

Unit Systems

This chapter describes the units used in FLUENT and how you can control them. Infor-
mation is organized into the following sections:

• Section 5.1: Restrictions on Units

• Section 5.2: Units in Grid Files

• Section 5.3: Built-In Unit Systems in FLUENT

• Section 5.4: Customizing Units

FLUENT allows you to work in any unit system, including inconsistent units. Thus, for
example, you may work in British units with heat input in Watts or you may work in SI
units with length defined in inches. This is accomplished by providing FLUENT with a
correct set of conversion factors between the units you want to use and the standard SI
unit system that is used internally by the solver. FLUENT uses these conversion factors
for input and output, internally storing all parameters and performing all calculations
in SI units. Both solvers always prompt you for the units required for all dimensional
inputs.
Units can be altered part-way through a problem setup and/or after you have completed
your calculation. If you have input some parameters in SI units and then you switch to
British, all of your previous inputs (and the default prompts) are converted to the new
unit system. If you have completed a simulation in SI units but you would like to report
the results in any other units, you can alter the unit system and FLUENT will convert
all of the problem data to the new unit system when results are displayed. As noted
above, all problem inputs and results are stored in SI units internally. This means that
the parameters stored in the case and data files are in SI units. FLUENT simply converts
these values to your unit system at the interface level.

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Unit Systems

5.1 Restrictions on Units

It is important to note that the units for some inputs in FLUENT are different from the
units used for the rest of the problem setup.

• You must always define the following in SI units, regardless of the unit system you
are using:
– boundary profiles (see Section 7.26: Boundary Profiles)
– source terms (see Section 7.28: Defining Mass, Momentum, Energy, and Other
Sources)
– custom field functions (see Section 31.5: Custom Field Functions)
– data in externally-created XY plot files (see Section 29.8.3: XY Plots of File
Data)
– user-defined functions (See the separate UDF Manual for details about user-
defined functions.)

• If you define a material property by specifying a temperature-dependent polynomial

or piecewise-polynomial function, remember that temperature in the function is
always in units of Kelvin or Rankine. If you are using Celsius or Kelvin as your
temperature unit, then polynomial coefficient values must be entered in terms of
Kelvin; if you are using Fahrenheit or Rankine as the temperature unit, values
must be entered in terms of Rankine. See Section 8.2: Defining Properties Using
Temperature-Dependent Functions for information about temperature-dependent
material properties.

5.2 Units in Grid Files

Some grid generators allow you to define a set of units for the mesh dimensions. However,
when you read the grid into FLUENT, it is always assumed that the unit of length is me-
ters. If this is not true, you will need to scale the grid, as described in Section 6.7.1: Scal-
ing the Grid.

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 5.3 Built-In Unit Systems in FLUENT

5.3 Built-In Unit Systems in FLUENT

FLUENT provides four built-in unit systems: British, SI, CGS, and “default.” You can
convert all units from one system to another in the Set Units panel (Figure 5.3.1), using
the buttons under the Set All To heading.
Define −→Units...

Figure 5.3.1: The Set Units Panel

To choose the English Engineering standard for all units, click on the british button;
to select the International System of units (SI) standard for all units, click on the si
button; to choose the CGS (centimeter-gram-second) standard for all units, click on the
cgs button; and to return to the “default” system, click on the default button. The
default system of units is like SI, but uses degrees instead of radians for angles. Clicking
on one of the buttons under Set All To will immediately change the unit system. You
can then close the panel if you are not interested in customizing any units.
Changing the unit system in the Set Units panel causes all future inputs that have units
to be based on the newly selected unit system.

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Unit Systems

5.4 Customizing Units

If you would like a mixed unit system, or any unit system different from the four supplied
by FLUENT (and described in Section 5.3: Built-In Unit Systems in FLUENT), you can
use the Set Units panel (Figure 5.3.1) to select an available unit or specify your own unit
name and conversion factor for each quantity.

Listing Current Units

Before customizing units for one or more quantities, you may want to list the current
units. You can do this by clicking on the List button at the bottom of the Set Units
panel. FLUENT will print out a list (in the text window) containing all quantities and
their current units, conversion factors, and offsets.

Changing the Units for a Quantity

FLUENT will allow you to modify the units for individual quantities. This is useful for
problems in which you want to use one of the built-in unit systems, but you want to
change the units for one quantity (or for a few). For example, you may want to use SI
units for your problem, but the dimensions of the geometry are given in inches. You can
select the SI unit system, and then change the unit of length from meters to inches.
To change the units for a particular quantity, you will follow these two steps:

1. Select the quantity in the Quantities list (they are arranged in alphabetical order).

2. Choose a new unit from those that are available in the Units list.

For the example cited above, you would choose length in the Quantities list, and then
select in in the Units list. The Factor will automatically be updated to show 0.0254
meters/inch. (See Figure 5.3.1.) If there were a non-zero offset for the new unit, the
Offset field would also be updated. For example, if you were using SI units but wanted
to define temperature in Celsius instead of Kelvin, you would select temperature in the
Quantities list and c in the Units list. The Factor would change to 1, and the Offset would
change to 273.15. Once you have selected the quantity and the new unit, no further
action is needed, unless you wish to change the units for another quantity by following
the same procedure.

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 5.4 Customizing Units

Defining a New Unit

To create a new unit to be used for a particular quantity, you will follow the procedure
below:

1. In the Set Units panel, select the quantity in the Quantities list.

2. Click on the New... button and the Define Unit panel (Figure 5.4.1) will open. In
this panel, the selected quantity will be shown in the Quantity field.

Figure 5.4.1: The Define Unit Panel

3. Enter the name of your new unit in the Unit field, the conversion factor in the
Factor field, and the offset in the Offset field.

4. Click on OK in the Define Unit panel, and the new unit will appear in the Set Units
panel.

For example, if you want to use hours as the unit of time, select time in the Quantities
list in the Set Units panel and click on the New... button. In the resulting Define Unit
panel, enter hr for the Unit and 3600 for the Factor, as in Figure 5.4.1. Then click on
OK. The new unit hr will appear in the Units list in the Set Units panel, and it will be
selected.

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Unit Systems

Determining the Conversion Factor

The conversion factor you specify (Factor in the Define Unit panel) tells FLUENT the
number to multiply by to obtain the SI unit value from your customized unit value.
Thus the conversion factor should have the form SI units/custom units. For example, if
you want the unit of length to be inches, you should input a conversion factor of 0.0254
meters/inch. If you want the unit of velocity to be feet/min, you can determine the
conversion factor by using the following equation:

ft 0.3048 m min m
x × × =y (5.4-1)
min ft 60 s s
You should input a conversion factor of 0.0051, which is equal to 0.3048/60.

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