Acusolve Intro Training v18b

AcuSolve Introductory Training
Innovation Intelligence®
Copyright © 2012 Altair Engineering, Inc. Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Sec. No. Description Slide No.
1 Introduction A.5
2 AcuSolve Overview A.9
3 AcuSolve Features A.15
4 AcuConsole Overview A.25
5 Demo Problem – Pipe Flow A.31
6 Acusim Programs A.45
7 Workshop1 – Conjugate Heat Transfer A.57
8 Solver Commands A.89
9 Workshop2 – Blower (Using Reference Frame) A.117
10 Input File Review (Workshop2) A.135
Table of Contents (Continued)
11 Workshop3 – Blower2 (Using Sliding Mesh) A.145

12 Post Processing A.171
13 Program Options A.183
14 Workshop4 – Compressible Nozzle A.191
15 AcuSolve Mesh Files A.209
16 Boundary Conditions A.215
17 Workshop5 – Rigid Body Motion A.225
18 Solution Strategy A.243
19 Workshop6 – Flexible Ring (P-FSI) A.257
20 Restarting Simulations A.293
Table of Contents (Continued)
21 Heat Transfer Modeling A.303

22 Workshop7 – Natural Convection A.325
23 Turbulence Modeling A.353
24 Workshop8 – Honey in Tea (Species Concentration) A.365
25 Working with Expressions and Units A.381
26 Setting User Preferences A.389
Introduction
Introduction
• ACUSIM Software, Inc. acquired by Altair Engineering, Inc. January 2011

• AcuSolve development mission:
• Develop a fast, robust, and accurate finite element based Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) solver
• First AcuSolve customer established in 1997
• Current AcuSolve customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, Japan,
England, France, Germany, Brazil, Singapore, China
• AcuConsole - The Pre-Processor for AcuSolve
• Support
• E-Mail
• support@acusim.com
• Phone (USA based, country code +1)
• 650-988-9700 - ext 2
A.6
Altair HyperWorks : Licensing System
HWU Pool
• Licensing system based on HyperWorks Units (HWU) not per product

• The use of units is spread out
• All HyperWorks software shares the pool of HWU’s
A.7
AcuSolve Overview
AcuSolve Overview
• A general-purpose incompressible and weakly compressible flow solver

• Uses a finite element formulation
• Good to Mach number 0.7-0.8
• Enables rapid, quality solutions without iterating on solution procedures
• Robustness, Speed, Accuracy, Functionality
• Provides engineers and scientists with seamless integration into design and
analysis applications
A.9
AcuSolve Overview
• Flow solver
CAD Package
Third Party Mesh Pre-Processor

Generator and/or
Input File Writer AcuConsole
Analysis Direct Coupling Structural

Fluid/Structure Solver
AcuSolve Interaction
Acoustic CAA Translators / Third Party

Analysis Output Direct Readers Post-Processor
A.10
AcuSolve Overview
• Markets currently using AcuSolve:

• Automotive
• Electronic cooling
• Chemical mixing
• Home Appliances
• Medical and medical equipment
• Oil/Gas and offshore platforms
• Boat design
• Train aerodynamics
• Universities
• National labs
• Renewable Energy Particle Paths from AcuTrace
• Etc. . .
A.11
AcuSolve Overview
• Why choose AcuSolve?

• AcuSolve’s differentiation via Finite Elements:
• Robustness
• Relatively insensitive to element topology and mesh quality
• Superior performance on anisotropic tetrahedral meshes
• Most problems solved on first attempt
• Speed
• Scalable parallel on shared and distributed memory parallel machines
• Customers have solved 2,000,000 elements on a 2 GB memory Windows PC and over
400,000,000 on large Linux clusters
A.12
AcuSolve Overview
• AcuSolve’s differentiation via Finite Elements:

• Accuracy
• Highly accurate in space and time while globally and locally conservative
• All variables, including turbulence properties are discretized to second order accuracy
• AcuSolve has demonstrated up to fourth order accuracy on some specific cases (turbulent
channel flow)
• Functionality
• Rich set of features
• Robustness, Speed, Accuracy, Functionality
Better Technology….Better Results!
A. 13
AcuSolve Features
AcuSolve Features
• Conservation equation systems in 3D

• Incompressible Stokes and Incompressible / Weakly-Compressible Navier-Stokes
equations
• Thermal analysis and conjugate heat transfer
• Multi-layered thermal shell
• Multi-species transport equations
• Radiation
• Gray body enclosure radiation
• View factor computation
• Solar radiation
• Computational Aero-Acoustic (CAA)
• Pseudo-compressibility
• CAA output/interface support
Vehicle Cabin Heating / Cooling
A.15
AcuSolve Features
• Turbulence Models
• One-equation Spalart-Allmaras RANS model
• Standard Wall Function – no lowerbound y+ limit
• Low-Re formulation
• k-ω model
• Shear Stress Transport (SST) model
• Smagorinsky and dynamic subgrid LES models
• Hybrid RANS/LES models
• Arbitrary Lagrange Eulerian (ALE) Mesh Motion
• Flexible mesh movement
• Free surface modeling
• Sliding mesh
• Rigid body motion
• Fluid/Structure Interaction (FSI)
• Modal Analysis – P-FSI Rigid Body Motion
• External Code – DC-FSI with Free Surface
A.16
AcuSolve Features
• Rotating Flows
• Multiple frames of reference
• Rotating/Sliding mesh
• Component Technology
• Fan component
• Heat exchanger component
• Rich Set of Material Options
• Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids
• Porous media
• Melting and heat of formation Sliding Mesh - Train Passing
• User-defined function Fixed Railcar
A.17
AcuSolve Features
• Full Set of Boundary Conditions

• Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions
• Periodic and axisymmetric conditions
• Thermal periodic condition
• Integrated surface boundary condition
• General two-point constraint
• Experimental data imposition
• Dynamic BC activation
• Non-reflecting Boundary Conditions
• User-defined function
• External Code Surface
A.18
AcuSolve Features
• Highly Effective Solver Technology

• Fast and robust iterative linear solvers
• A novel and highly efficient iterative solver for the fully coupled pressure/velocity equation
system
• A companion fully coupled temperature/flow iterative equation solver
• Fully parallel on shared/distributed memory machines, transparent to user
• Solution Strategy
• Fast steady state solver
• Second-order time-accurate transient analysis
• No CFL based stability limit
• Automatic time-stepping algorithms
A.19
AcuSolve Features
• Advanced finite element technology

• Galerkin/Least-Squares finite element method
• Equal-order (nodal) interpolation for all solution fields, including pressure
• Unstructured mesh:
• 4-node tetrahedron
• 5-node pyramid
• 6-node wedge
• 8-node brick
• 10-node tetrahedron
• Particle Tracer
• Laminar
• Turbulent diffusion
• Parallel computation
A.20
AcuSolve Features
Supported Platforms
Platform OS
LINUX Kernal version: 2.6.32-37 and newer
LINUX64 Kernal version: 2.6.9-67 and newer
WIN Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (IA32)
WIN64 Windows XP/Vista/7/HPC (x64)
A.21
AcuSolve Features
• All links below are password protected, so you need an account via
www.acusim.com - Client Login link at upper-right!!!
• Software Distribution
• http://www.acusim.com/webapps/document/release/
• Documentation and Training
• http://www.acusim.com/webapps/document/documentation/
• Tutorials
• AcuSolve
http://www.acusim.com/webapps/document/as_tutorials/
• AcuConsole
http://www.acusim.com/webapps/document/ac_tutorials/
A.22
AcuConsole Overview
AcuConsole Overview
• A GUI-based pre-processor for AcuSolve

• Visualization Area - mesh and geometry display
• Data tree
• Data tree Manager
• View Manager
• Information Area
• Panel Area
• Geometry Reader
• No Geometry clean-up
• Mesh Generator
• AcuSolve launcher
• AcuSolve process monitor
A.24
AcuConsole Overview
• Import ( water-tight models)

• CAD: Parasolid, Pro-E, ACIS, Discrete (STL, Surf Mesh, etc.), Catia reader
• Raw mesh (from ICEM-CFD, Harpoon, etc.)
• AcuSolve input file (.inp)
• Third party formats: Fluent .cas/.msh file, Patran Neutral file, etc.
• Mesh Generation
• Generates mesh directly on the CAD model
• Auto Tet mesh with boundary layer, Extrusion, Periodicity
• AcuSolve
• Problem set-up : Global parameters, Boundary conditions, etc.
• Generate AcuSolve input files
• Launch AcuSolve : Directly or via PBS/LSF
• Monitor solution via AcuProbe
• Launch visualizers : AcuFieldView, FieldView, EnSight, ParaView etc.
A.25
AcuConsole Overview
AcuMeshSim AcuSolve AcuPrep
AcuConsole
AcuImport AcuView AcuProbe
PYTHON INTERFACE
Database, Graphics, GUI Engine,

CAD Reader, AcuSolve Utilities
A.26
AcuConsole Overview
• AcuMeshSim, AcuSolve and other executables can be run on a different machine /

OS from that running AcuConsole.
• Python interface simplifies AcuConsole customization.
• Ideal for CAE Automation
• Modular architecture allows us to substitute different components without major
changes in the code.
• Database uses HDF5 format, which is efficient for storing large amounts of data.
A.27
AcuConsole Demo
Pipe Flow
AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow
• Objectives
• Learn the basic interaction with AcuConsole
• Import geometry into AcuConsole
• Set-up the problem to solve a laminar pipe-flow
• Launch and Monitor AcuSolve
• Post-Process using AcuProbe and AcuFieldView
• Given
• CAD model of a simple pipe
A.30
• Launch AcuConsole
• For Windows users, go to
• Start →programs →Acusim Software →AcuConsole V1.8b
• For Linux users, type
• acuConsole
• Create a new database

• In the menu bar click on
• File → New
• New database dialog opens
• Navigate to the folder in which the simulation files are to be stored
• Type demo as the File name and click Save
• The File name (demo.acs) will be seen in the title bar
• ‘Visible entity’ is set to ‘None’ as there is no Geometry/Mesh
A.31
• Data tree
• Global
• Mesh/geometry
independent
• Model
• Mesh/geometry
dependent
A.32
• Problem Description
• Double-click or right-click → open on Problem Description beneath Global in the Data
tree
• In the Panels area, set problem parameters
• Title: pipe flow
• Sub Title: Re about 1000
• Turbulence equation: laminar
• Mesh type: Fixed
A.33
• Auto Solution Strategy

• Use the defaults
• Steady state analysis
• Max time steps: 100
• Flow only
A.34
• Import CAD
• In the menu bar click on File → Import
• “Choose a file to open” dialog opens. Change the “Files of Type” to “Acis File” or “Parasolid
File”.
• Navigate to the directory in which the CAD model is present and select “pipe.sat ” or
“pipe.x_t”. Click Open
• “Import Geometry” dialog opens.
• If Acis file is loaded, change the “Geometry units”
• Visible entity changes to Geometry
A.35
• Right-click on Model and select Purge.

• The region is in “default” Volume group and 3 faces in “default” Surface.
• Rename “default” volume to “Fluid”.
• Surface Grouping
• Surfaces → New to create two
groups, “inflow” and “outflow”
• Rename “default” to “wall”
• Right-click on “inflow” → “Add To” and
pick inflow face.
• Repeat with “outflow” and “wall”
A.36
• Global Mesh Attributes

• Click ‘MSH’ in Datatree Manager
• Mesh size type: Relative
• Relative mesh size: 0.05
• Tools → Generate Mesh
• Click ‘Ok’ in Launch AcuMeshSim dialog
A.37
• Monitor the mesh generation process in AcuTail window

• Check the mesh statistics in AcuTail window
• To view the mesh on CAD model
• Right click on ‘Surfaces’ and select
‘display type’ as ‘solid & wire’
A.38
• Fluid
• Water
• Inflow
• Mass flux: 0.5 kg/sec
• Outflow
• Outflow
• Wall
• Wall
A.39
• Launch AcuSolve
• Click Tools > AcuSolve
• Problem name: demo
• Generate AcuSolve input files On
• Launch AcuSolve On
• Click Ok
A.40
• Progress monitor
• AcuSolve log data
• Tools → AcuProbe
A.41
• Post process in AcuFieldView

• Tools → AcuFieldView
• ‘Ok’ to specify demo.1.Log file
• Surface pressure contours are displayed
• Refer to AcuFieldView help section for more details
A.42
Acusim Programs
Acusim Programs
• Simulation process consists of running multiple programs:

• acuConsole - construct models, write input files
• acuMakeLib/acuMakeDll - compile user functions
• acuRun - script to run preparatory and solver programs
• acuPrep - read input files and prepare data for solver run
• acuView - compute view factor for radiation problems
• acuSolve - perform the CFD simulation
• acuTrans - translate the output of acuSolve
• Refer to the Programs Reference Manual downloadable via Client Login
A.44
Acusim Programs
• AcuConsole
• Construct models using two main modes of operation
• Import geometry, generate mesh, set up CFD simulation
• Import existing mesh/input file, set up CFD simulation
Data tree
Data tree Manager Visualization

Area
Panels Information
Area Area
CPU Usage
Monitor
A.45
Acusim Programs
• acuMakeLib/acuMakeDll
• Compile User Defined Functions (UDF)
• acuMakeLib - Unix and Linux platforms
• acuMakeDll – Windows
These scripts compile user coding, then create a dynamic shared library (Linux/Unix) or a dynamic
linked library (Windows) that is loaded by AcuSolve at runtime and executed when necessary.
• Example:
• To compile user functions that are in a file named usrFunction.c, execute the following
command:
• Linux/Unix: acuMakeLib -src usrFunction.c
• Windows: acuMakeDll -src usrFunction.c
A.46
Acusim Programs
• acuRun
• Script that runs appropriate programs to launch simulations on single processor or
parallel computer systems.
acuRun has various different functions that will be executed depending on the type of physics
being solved:
• prep: prepare the input data for acuSolve
• view: perform the view factor computation
• solve: launch the solver
• prep,solve: prepare the input data for acuSolve, then launch the solver
• all: run all necessary modules for the simulation (prep, view, solve)
A.47
Acusim Programs
• acuRun
• To execute from within acuConsole, point to the icon in the Tools menu or on the main
toolbar:
The following panel appears:
Equivalent command line argument:
acuRun -do all -pb demo -np

2
Both methods run a problem named demo, write
the results to the directory ACUSIM.DIR, run
all necessary solver modules (acuPrep, acuView,
acuSolve), and utilize a single processor.
A.48
Acusim Programs
• acuRun
We could also accomplish the same results by executing each command in
succession without using acuRun:
Equivalent series of command line arguments:
Prepare the input:

acuPrep -pb demo -nsd 1
Compute the view factors:

acuView -pb demo -np 1
Launch the solver:

acuSolve -pb demo -np 1
Remember: There are many options for each of the programs….. -h option lists them all.
A.49
Acusim Programs
• acuSig
• Signal a running AcuSolve job
• Stop job at end of current time step (clean stop)
• acuSig -stop
• Stop job as soon as possible
• acuSig -halt
• Stop job after a certain time step is completed
• acuSig –sts 200
• Signal job to output results at end of current time step
• acuSig -out
• Many more options
• acuSig -h
A.50
Acusim Programs
• acuTrans / acuOut
• Programs to translate solution data for post processing
To execute from within acuConsole, point to the icon in the Tools menu or
on the main toolbar:
The following panel appears:
Equivalent command line argument:
acuTrans –out to table

acuTrans –out –to stats
acuTrans –out –to info
A.51
Acusim Programs
• Additional acuTrans Examples

• Get statistics on nodal velocity at steps 5 through 15
• acuTrans –out –outv velocity –to stats –ts 5:15
• Translate mass flux at inflow to a raw table
• acuTrans –osi –osiv mass –osis "inflow" –to table
• Translate heat flux at nodes of the wall to a raw table
• acuTrans –osf –osfv heat –osfs "wall surface" –to table
• Translate heat fluxes of all surface output nodes to a raw table
• acuTrans –out –extout -outv surface_heat_flux –to table
• **Note that internal nodes will have a value of zero
• Visualize all nodal and surface node data with AcuFieldView
• acuTrans –out –extout –to fieldview
A.52
Acusim Programs
• There are many more utility programs

• Some available through AcuConsole, some not
• See MANIFEST.txt in the distribution for complete list
bin (supported programs):
===========================================================================
| File | Type | Description |
===========================================================================
|+acuDmg | Python | Directory management tool |
| acuDplace | Perl | Determine optimum dplace value for Altix |
| acuEnSight6To5 | Script | Convert an EnSight6 file to EnSight5 |
| acuFmt | Exec | ASCII/binary conversion of AcuSolve files |
| acuGetData | Exec | Get AcuSolve results data |
| acuImport | Exec | Import CFD files to AcuSolve |
...
bin (unsupported programs):

===========================================================================
| File | Type | Description |
===========================================================================
| acuCheckBadTets | Script | Check for tets with internal no-slip BC |
| acuCheckTets | Script | Check/correct node ordering of tet mesh |
| acuCp | Perl | Copy an input file(s) in a new directory |
| acuCpi | Exec | Standard MPI PI (3.1415) test |
A.53
Workshop 1
Conjugate Heat Transfer
Workshop 1 - Conjugate Heat Transfer
• Create the database

• File → New
• Browse to Workshop1 directory
• Enter name as ‘conj_pipe’
• Select ‘Save’
• Import the geometry
• File → Import
• Set type to Acis File or Parasolid
• Select ‘cht_pipe.SAT’ or ‘cht_pipe.x_t’
• If Acis file is selected, change ‘Geometry units’ from 1000 mm to 1 m
• ‘Volume’ and ‘Surface Group Option’ = By part name’
• ‘Separate internal faces’ = ‘On’
• ‘Ok’ to import
• ‘Visible entity’ set to ‘Geometry’
A.56
• Click ‘PRB’ from the Data tree Manager

• Expand the ‘Global’ branch
• Double-click ‘Problem Description’
• Set ‘Title’ to ‘pipe flow’
• Set ‘Sub title’ to ‘conjugate heat transfer’
• Set ‘Temperature equation” to “Advective diffusive”
• Set ‘Turbulence equation to ‘Spalart-Allmaras’
• Double-click ‘Auto Solution Strategy’
• Review the default settings to be used
A.57
• Click ‘MAT’ from the Data tree Manager

• Right-click ‘Material Model’ and select ‘New’
• Right-click ‘Material Model 1’, select ‘Rename’ and
type ‘Steel’
• Enter on keyboard to accept
• Double-click ‘Steel’
• Set ‘Medium’ to ‘Solid’
• Set ‘Density’ to 7865 kg/m3
• Set ‘Specific Heat’ to 460 J/kg-K
• Set ‘Conductivity’ to 61 W/m-K
A.58
• Click ‘MSH’ on the Data tree Manager

• Double-click ‘Global Mesh Attributes’
• Set ‘Relative mesh size’ to ‘0.03’
• 3% of bounding box largest edge
• Minimize the ‘Global’ branch
• File → Save
• Expand ‘Model’ and ‘Volumes’ branches
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Display off’
• Right-click ‘Volumes’ and select ‘Purge’
• Right-click ‘Volumes’ and select ‘Volume Manager’
• Set ‘Display’ to ‘on’ for both volumes
• Change name of ‘inner_pipe’ to ‘water’ and
‘outer_pipe’ to ‘steel’
A.59
• Click on ‘Columns’ to see those available for Volume Manager

• Make sure ‘Medium’ and ‘Material Model’ are active - then ‘Ok’
• For the ‘water’ volume, set ‘Medium’ to ‘Fluid’ and ‘Element Set Material Model’ to
‘Water’
• For the ‘steel’ volume, set ‘Element Set Medium’ to ‘Solid’ and ‘Element Set Material
Model’ to ‘Steel’
• Click ‘Close’ when finished
• Minimize ‘Volumes’
• Set display of ‘Volumes’ off and ‘Surfaces’ on
A.60
• Expand ‘Surfaces’
• Surfaces are based on their original parent Volume
• The surfaces between the two volumes are separated into two different groups
• Right-click surfaces and select ‘Purge’
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Surface Manager’
• Select ‘New’ twice to create two new groups
• Click on ‘Columns’ and enable ‘Simple BC Type’
A.61
• In the Surface Manager, rename ‘Surface 1’ to ‘Inlet’ and click ‘Add to’
• Select the circular surface at the minimum X end and hit ‘Done’
• Set ‘Display’ for Inlet to ‘off’
• Set ‘Simple BC Type’ to ‘Inflow’
A.62
• Rename ‘Surface 2’ to ‘Solid_Outer’ and click ‘Add to’

• Select the outermost cylinder surface and click ‘Done’
• Set ‘Display’ for ‘Solid_Outer’ to ‘Off’
• Rename ‘inner_pipe’ to ‘Outlet’ - a single surface at the maximum Y end
• Set ‘Simple BC Type’ to ‘Outflow’ - set ‘Display’ to ‘off’
• Rename ‘outer_pipe’ to ‘Solid_Ends’ - the two end surfaces of the solid pipe volume - set
‘Display’ to ‘off’
A.63
• In the Surface Manager, rename ‘inner_pipe_int’ to ‘Fluid_int’ - the surface between solid
and fluid, but attached to the fluid volume
• Rename ‘outer_pipe_int’ to ‘Solid_int’ - the matching surface, but attached to the solid
volume
• Click ‘Close’ to close the Surface Manager
A.64
• Click ‘BC’ from the Data tree Manager

• Expand ‘Inlet’ under ‘Surfaces’
• Double-click ‘Simple Boundary Condition’
• Set ‘Inflow type’ to ‘Mass flux’
• Set ‘Mass flux’ to 5 kg/sec
• Set ‘Temperature’ to 273 K
• Expand ‘Solid_Outer’
• Set ‘Temperature BC type’ to ‘Value’
A.65
• Define boundary layer elements growing from Fluid wall

• Click ‘MSH’ in the Data tree Manager
• Expand ‘Fluid_Int’
• Click in the box next to ‘Surface Mesh Attributes’
• Set ‘Mesh size type’ to ‘None’
• No additional control on size
• Set ‘Boundary layer flag’ to ‘On’
• Set ‘Resolve’ to ‘Total layer height’
• Calculated from other settings
• Set ‘First element height’ to 0.02m
• Set ‘Growth rate’ to 1.3
• Set ‘Number of layers’ to 5
A.66
• Launch the mesh generator

• Tools → Generate Mesh or use the
icon
• Accept the defaults
• Click ‘Ok’
• NOTE: The mesh generator works

directly on the CAD model stored in
the database, rather than a faceted
representation.
A.67
• Monitor the mesh generation process in the AcuTail window

• Check the mesh statistics in the AcuTail window
• ~12000 Nodes
• ~66000 volume elements
• By default the boundary layer prisms are
split to tets
A.68
• Notice that ‘Visible entity’ is now set to ‘Mesh’

• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Display On’
• Change the display type
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’
• Select ‘Display type’
• Select ‘solid & wire’
Boundary Layers
A.69
• Cut-Plane Visualization
• Right-click ‘Model’ and select ‘Cut Plane’
• Set ‘Clip’ to ‘on’
• Set ‘Clip’ to ‘Down’ to reverse clip
• Set ‘Display’ to ‘mesh’
• Set ‘Color’ to ‘volumes’
• Hold ‘Ctrl’ key to change view while moving mouse
A.70
• Explore the features in Cut-plane dialog to visualize the mesh at various locations
and with different settings.
• Hold the ‘Ctrl’ key and use the mouse to maneuver the geometry without changing the
cut plane
A.71
• Scale the mesh from L/D = 5 to L/D = 15 for the

simulation
• Simulate 3X length with the same mesh count
• MeshOp → Transform Coordinates
• Set the ‘Scaling factors in X/Y/Z’ to 3.0, 1.0, 1.0
• Click ‘Apply’ to perform the scaling
• Click ‘Close’ to close the dialog
A.72
• Launch AcuSolve
• Tools → AcuSolve
• Or, click on the red arrow icon in the toolbar.
• Click ‘Ok’ with defaults
A.73
• Monitor dialog provides two options

• Stop run - ‘stop’: Signals AcuSolve to stop the
analysis at end of current time step
• Output results - ‘output’: Signals AcuSolve to
output results at end of current time step
A.74
• Monitor the residuals in acuProbe

• Click Tools → AcuProbe
• Expand ‘Residual ratio’
• Right-click ‘Final’ and select ‘Plot All’
• Review other options for plotting surface integrations, etc.
A.75
• Post process in AcuFieldView

• FieldView is a premium post-processor designed specifically for CFD applications
• AcuFieldView is the HyperWorks OEM version of FieldView 13 from Intelligent Light.
• AcuFieldView is shipped as an integral part of AcuSolve within the HyperWorks 11.0
software suite and can be accessed through AcuConsole
• AcuFieldView offers the interactive review of transient data with sweep caching, along
with CFD data management capabilities
• It can handle steady and unsteady data of any size with high speed, enabling engineers to
interrogate and visualize complex flow simulations within AcuSolve
A.76
• AcuFieldView GUI
Menu Bar
Menu Toolbar
Side Toolbar
Transform Controls Toolbar
Viewer Toolbar
Visualization
Panel options
Visualization area
A.77
• Launch AcuFieldView from AcuConsole

• Click ‘Tools’ → ‘AcuFieldView’ or click on the AcuFieldView icon in Toolbar
• In the ‘Launch AcuFieldView’ dialog make sure path to the log file(conj_pipe.1.Log) is
provided.
• Click ‘Ok’ to accept it.
• AcuFieldView GUI opens with the model loaded
displaying all the boundary surfaces.
A.78
• AcuFieldView
• AcuFieldView opens with all boundary surfaces displayed.
• To change background color, click on ‘View’ > ‘Background color’
in the menu bar
A.79
• Boundary Surfaces
• Turn off the display of Surface ID 1 by unchecking
‘Visibility’ in the Boundary Surface Panel
• Boundary Surface Panel can be opened by clicking on
‘Boundary Surface’ in the toolbar of by clicking
‘Visualization Panels’ > ‘Boundary Surface..’ from the
menubar dropdown list
• Click ‘Create’ for creating a new surface ID
• Check the ‘Visibility’ to On
• Under ‘BOUNDARY TYPES’, select the surfaces to be
displayed. In this model, select ‘Solid_int’ and click ‘OK’.
The inner surface of the pipe will be displayed.
• Change the ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’.
A.80
• Boundary Surfaces (Cont’d)

• Under ‘Scalar Function’, click on ‘Select’. In the ‘Function Selection’ panel select
‘pressure’ and click ‘Calculate’. The boundary surface is colored by pressure.
• Change the ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Smooth’
A.81
• Iso-surface
• Turn off the display of Boundary Surfaces by unchecking
‘Visibility’ in the Boundary Surface Panel
• Open Iso-Surface Panel by clicking on ‘Iso’ in the toolbar or
by clicking ‘Visualization Panels’ > ‘Iso-Surface..’ from the
menubar dropdown list
• Click ‘Create’ for creating a new Iso-Surface.
• ‘Iso-Surface Create’ dialop opens. Click on ‘Define Iso
Function…’. ‘Function Selection’ dialog opens. Select
‘temperature’ and click ‘Calculate’.
• By default, X coordinate plane is selected. Set it to Z plane by
selecting ‘Z’ in ‘COORD PLANE’
• Below ‘Iso Function’ the ‘Min’, ‘Current’ and ‘Max’
temperatures are shown. Set the ‘Current’ to 285 and hit
enter.
A.82
• Iso-surface (Cont’d)
• Change the ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’
‘pressure’ and click ‘Calculate’. The Iso-Surface is colored by pressure.
A.83
• Coordinate Surfaces
• Turn off the display of Iso-Surface by unchecking
‘Visibility’ in the Iso-Surface Panel
• Open Coordinate Surface Panel by clicking on
‘Coordinate Surface’ in the toolbar or by clicking
‘Visualization Panels’ > ‘Coordinate Surface..’ from
the menubar dropdown list
• Click ‘Create’ for creating a new coordinate surface.
• By default, X coordinate plane is selected. Set it to Z
plane by selecting ‘Z’ in ‘COORD PLANE’
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• Coordinate Surfaces (Cont’d)

• Change the ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’
‘pressure’ and click ‘Calculate’. The coordinate plane is colored by pressure.
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• Velocity vectors
• In the Coordinate Surface panel, under ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ select ‘Vectors’.
• Velocity vectors are displayed on the coordinate plane.
• For additional control over the vectors click on ‘Options’ button next to ‘Vectors’. ‘Vector
Options’ panel pops up.
• Play with the options like ‘VECTOR HEAD’, ‘Vector Scale’ and ‘TYPE’ etc.
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Solver Commands
Solver Commands
• All solver commands are read by acuPrep from an ASCII text file (“input file”)
• This file may be generated in a number of ways:
• Using AcuConsole
• Using mesh generators that support AcuSolve as an export format
• Manually
• We will discuss the format of the input file and show some examples of commands, but
the main focus of the training, as you have seen, is on generating the file using
AcuConsole
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Solver Commands
• Commands have the following general syntax:

COMMAND ( qualifier ) {
parameter1 = value1
...
parameterN = valueN
}
• COMMAND is the name of the command, such as ANALYSIS
• qualifier (including the parentheses) is a mandatory qualifier
• parameter1 to parameterN are optional parameters.
• Commands are format free and case insensitive, except in double quoted strings.
• All text after a hash mark, “#”, is a comment; except in double-quoted strings.
ANALYSIS {
mode = static # Run as static for now

}
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Solver Commands
• There are two types of commands: Functional & Declarative

• Functional commands perform operations at the time they are read:
• AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY
• RESTART
• RUN
• INCLUDE
• ASSIGN
• QUIT
• Placement of functional commands is important.
• Declarative commands define the problem parameters.
• They are order independent.
• NODAL_BOUNDARY_CONDITION commands may be specified before or after the COORDINATE
command; even though the former depend on the latter.
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Solver Commands
• Some commands require a qualifier

• Qualifiers distinguish one use of the command from another:
MATERIAL_MODEL( "air" ) {
density_model = "air at std. atm."
viscosity_model = "air"
}
MATERIAL_MODEL( "aluminum" ) {
density_model = "aluminum"
conductivity_model = "aluminum"
}
• If a command accepts a qualifier, one must be given.

• If a command does not require a qualifier, there must be none.
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Solver Commands
• There are two types of qualifiers:

• User-given name:
• Any double-quoted string: “air”, “my #1 BC”.
• Used to reference a command by another command
DENSITY_MODEL( "air at std. atm." ) {
density = 1.225
}
MATERIAL_MODEL( "air" ) {
density_model = "air at std. atm."
viscosity_model = "air"
}
• Enumerated:
• Select from a specific list of values:
NODAL_INITIAL_CONDITION( velocity ) {
default_values = { 1, 0, 0 }
}
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Solver Commands
• Commands have zero or more parameters

• Most parameters have default values
• Parameters are persistent; they change only if the command is reissued with that
parameter:
DENSITY_MODEL( "air with bouyancy" ) {
density = 1.225
}
DENSITY_MODEL( "air with bouyancy" ) {
density = 1.2
}
• Seven types of parameters:

• String, Enumerated, Boolean, Integer, Real, List and Array
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Solver Commands
• String is any user-given value enclosed in a pair of double-quotes.

• Typically used to refer to a particular issuance of another command
• May contain up to 1023 characters
SIMPLE_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( "inflow" ){
element_set = "channel"
}
• Enumerated is a set of options available for a given parameter.

• Parameter shape of ELEMENT_SET command accepts: four_node_tet,
five_node_pyramid, six_node_wedge, eight_node_brick and ten_node_tet
ELEMENT_SET( "channel" ) {
shape = eight_node_brick
}
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Solver Commands
•Boolean turns an option on or off.

• Values on, yes and true are equivalent; so are off, no and false.
TIME_INCREMENT {
auto_time_increment = on
}
•Integer is an integer value.

• An integer parameter may have a valid range.
• Some integer values may have special meaning.
NODAL_OUTPUT {
output_frequency = 10
}
•Real is a floating point value.

• A real parameter may have a valid range.
NODAL_OUTPUT {
output_time_interval = 0.3
} A.95
Solver Commands
• List is a set of strings providing a list of user-specified commands:

• Order of strings in the list is important
TIME_SEQUENCE {
Staggers = { "flow stagger", "turb stagger" }
}
• Array is a set of integers, floating point numbers, or both:
• The array may be specified directly in the input file:
PERIODIC_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( "axisymmetric PBC" ) {
rotation_axis = { 0, 0, 0 ; 0, 0, 1 }
}
• The array may be read from an external file:
COORDINATE {
coordinates = Read( "channel.crd" )
}
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Solver Commands
• Arithmetic expressions may be used in integer, real and array parameters:

ASSIGN {
variable = SHIFT
value = Sin( PI/8 + Asin(.3) )
}
MULTIPLIER_FUNCTION( "shifted half sin" ) {
type = cubic_spline
curve_fit_variable = time
curve_fit_values = { 0.0, SHIFT + Sin(0.0*PI) ;
0.1, SHIFT + Sin(0.1*PI) ;
1.0, SHIFT + Sin(1.0*PI) ; }
}
• Operations +, -, *, /, ^ (for power) and parentheses are available.

• Standard C math functions, Abs(x), Acos(x), ..., Tanh(x), plus Max(x,y) and
Min(x,y) are available.
• Variables E, PI and EPS (machine precision) are predefined.
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Solver Commands
• Values may be read from an environment variable:

SIMPLE_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( "inflow" ) {
x_velocity = Env( "INLET_VELOCITY" )
}
• In UNIX cshell the variable is set as
cshell-prompt> setenv INLET_VELOCITY 20
• This is particularly useful for parametric studies
foreach vel ( 5 10 15 20 )
echo "Processing velocity " $vel " …"
setenv INLET_VELOCITY $vel
acuRun
acuTrans –out –to stats > STATS.$vel
end
• Strings may also be imported
COORDINATES {
coordinates = Read(Env("PROBLEM") . ".crd")
}
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Solver Commands
• The solver commands are specified entirely through the Data

tree in AcuConsole:
Data tree
Each branch
houses different
commands
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Solver Commands
• The commands are organized into the “Global” and “Model” branches
• Global commands are mesh independent (problem name, physical models to use,
material models, etc.)
• Model commands involve information about the mesh (boundary values for specific
faces, nodes, etc.)
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Solver Commands
• Double clicking on a node in the tree shows the options for specific commands:
• For example, double clicking on “Problem Description” brings up the following options
• Global  Problem Description
The current settings will cause the following

lines to be written to the input file:
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Solver Commands
• Common Global Commands

• Auto Solution Strategy
• Automatically determine the appropriate linear solver settings and time stepping strategy based
on the equations present
• Global  Auto Solution Strategy
Equivalent input file command:
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Solver Commands

• Multiplier Function
• Multiplier Function is visible only when “All” or “PB*” is selected from “Data tree Manager”.
• Right-click on “Multiplier Function” and select “New”. “Multiplier Function 1” is generated.
Rename to “Linear Ramp”. Double click on “Multiplier Function 1” to view the properties in
“Panels Area”.
• Time varying scale factor that can be applied to boundary conditions, time step size, etc.
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Solver Commands
Equivalent input file commands:

• Material Model
• Specify material properties
• Global  Material Model  “Water”
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Solver Commands

• Body Force
• Define momentum, species, and thermal body forces
• Global  Body Force  “Gravity”
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Solver Commands

• Nodal Output
• Define the frequency at which to write nodal results to disk
• Global  Output  Nodal Output
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Solver Commands

• Nodal Initial Condition
• Specify the initial conditions for the simulation
• Global  Nodal Initial Condition
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Solver Commands
• Overview of Modeling Commands

• Modeling commands apply to 1 of 4 types of entities
• Volume Elements (Volumes)
• Surface Elements (Surfaces)
• Periodic node pairs (Periodics)
• Nodes (Nodes)
• Each entry can be expanded to show the available sets and options for this type of entity:
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Solver Commands
• Common Modeling Commands

• Element Set
• Define a group of volume elements and assign attributes
• Model  Volumes  “Name”  Element Set
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Solver Commands

• Simple Boundary Condition
• Apply boundary conditions to a set of surface faces
• Model  Surfaces  “Name”  Simple Boundary Condition

SIMPLE_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( “Inlet” ){
surfaces = Read(“...”)
shape = tri3
element_set = “Fluid”
type = inflow
inflow_type = mass_flux
mass_flux = 20
temperature_type = value
temperature = 422.04
}
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Solver Commands

• Periodic Boundary Condition
• Apply periodic conditions to a set of node pairs
• Model  Periodics  “Name”  Periodic Boundary Condition

PERIODIC_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( “Periodicity” ){
variable = all
type = periodic
nodal_pairs = Read( “...” )
}
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Solver Commands

• Nodal Boundary Condition
• Apply boundary conditions to a set of nodes for a specific variable
• Model  Nodes  “Name”  Variable Name

NODAL_BOUNDARY_CONDITION( “Test Data x-vel” ){
nodes = Read( “...” )
variable = x_velocity
type = scattered_data
scattered_data = Read( “...” )
active_type = always
precedence = 1
reference_frame = none
multiplier_function = none
}
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Solver Commands
• Many more commands exist

• Most are available within AcuConsole
• Expand the branches in the model tree to see what is there
• For a complete list, see AcuSolve Command Reference Manual
A.113
A.114
Workshop 2 – Blower
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Purposes of the Workshop

• Import geometry and create Surface and Volume sets
• Build Reference Frame and discuss rotating problems
• Define Global and Surface mesh parameters
• Define Boundary Conditions
• Apply the Reference Frame to Volumes and Surfaces
• Generate an all-tet mesh
• View a mesh cut plane
• Run AcuSolve
• Monitor solution with AcuProbe and create a UDF
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Workshop 2 - Blower

• File → New
• Enter name as blower1
• Import the geometry
• File → Import
• Set type to Acis File or Parasolid
• Select ‘blower_asm.SAT’ or ‘blower_asm.x_t’
• If Acis file is selected, change the ‘Geometry units’ from
1000 mm to 1 m
• Set ‘Volume’ and ‘Surface Group Option’ to ‘By part name’
• Toggle ‘Separate internal faces’ ‘On’
• ‘Ok’ to import
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Workshop 2 - Blower

• Set ‘Title’ to ‘Blower CFD’
• Set ‘Sub title’ to ‘reference frame’
• Set ‘Turbulence equation to ‘Spalart-Allmaras’
• Double-click ‘Nodal Initial Condition’
• Set ‘Eddy viscosity’ to ‘1.e-5’
**Note: The turbulent eddy viscosity (νt) is typically set to 10-20 x laminar kinematic
viscosity ν
A.118
Workshop 2 - Blower
• The analysis will first be done with a rotating

reference frame
• Click ‘PB*’ from the Data tree Manager
• Right-click ‘Reference Frame’ and select ‘New’
• Right-click the created ‘Reference Frame 1’ and
select ‘Rename’
• Change the name to ‘Impeller_RF’ and press ‘Enter’ on
keyboard
• Double-click ‘Impeller_RF’
• Select ‘Open Array’ for ‘Angular velocity’
• Set ‘Z-component’ to ’10.47’ rad/sec
• Angular velocity is 10.47 rad/sec (or 100 RPM) about Z-
axis
• Click ‘OK’
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Workshop 2 - Blower
• Build a coarse mesh to shorten the workshop solution time

• Click ‘MSH’ from the Data tree Manager
• Double-click ‘Global Mesh Attributes’
• Set ‘Relative mesh size’ to ‘0.04’
• Minimize the ‘Global’ branch
• Right-click ‘Model’ and select ‘Purge’ to delete empty
groups
• File → Save
• For a reference frame analysis, the reference frame is
applied to the volume close to the impeller. Nothing needs to
be done to the boundary between the stationary volume and
the reference frame volume.
A.120
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Expand ‘Model’ and ‘Volumes’ branches

• ‘blower_main’ is the bulk volume
• ‘blower_imp’ is the volume near the impeller
• Right-click ‘Volumes’ and select ‘Volume Manager’
• Click on ‘Columns’ and activate ‘Reference Frame’
• Rename ‘blower_main’ to ‘Fluid_Main’
• Rename ‘blower_imp’ to ‘Fluid_Impeller’
• Set ‘Material Model’ to ‘Water’ for both volumes
• Set ‘Reference Frame’ to ‘Impeller_RF’ for ‘Fluid_Impeller’
• Close the panel
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Workshop 2 - Blower
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Surface Manager’
• Click on ‘Columns’ to make sure ‘Simple BC Type’ is enabled
• Click ‘New’ twice to create two new surfaces
• Rename ‘Surface 1’ to ‘Inlet’
• Click ‘Add to’ for ‘Inlet’, pick the circular surface at the
maximum Z-location, and middle-click
• Set ‘Simple BC Type’ for ‘Inlet’ to ‘Inflow’
• Set ‘Display’ to ‘off’ for ‘Inlet’
• Rename ‘Surface 2’ to ‘Outlet’
• Click ‘Add to’ for ‘Outlet’, pick the circular surface at the
maximum Y-location, and middle-click
• Set ‘Simple BC Type’ for ‘Outlet’ to ‘Outflow’
• Set ‘Display’ to ‘off’ for ‘Outlet’
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Workshop 2 - Blower
• The remaining surfaces in ‘blower_main’ are the outer walls of the blower
• Rename ‘blower_main’ to ‘Walls’ and turn off its display
• The surfaces in ‘blower_imp_int’ and ‘blower_main_int’ are between the two volumes. In
this case they can be in the same group.
• Rename ‘blower_main_int’ to ‘Interface’ and turn off its display
• Select ‘Add to’ for ‘Interface’, select the 3 surfaces of the disk (currently in
‘blower_imp_int’) and middle-click
• Click on ‘blower_imp_int’ (now empty) and hit ‘Delete’
• Set ‘Simple BC Active’ for ‘Interface’ to ‘off’
• No boundary condition needed between the volumes
• The remaining surfaces are the blower impeller
• Rename ‘blower_imp’ to ‘Impeller’
• Click ‘Close’ to close the surface manager
A.123
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Expand ‘Interface’
• Activate ‘Surface Mesh Attributes’
• Set ‘Absolute mesh size’ to 0.01 m
• Expand ‘Walls’
A.124
Workshop 2 - Blower

• Expand ‘Inlet’
• Set ‘Inflow type’ to ‘Mass flux’
• Set ‘Mass flux’ to 2.0 kg/sec
A.125
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Expand ‘Impeller’
• The impeller is a no-slip wall in the rotating
reference frame
• Set ‘Reference frame’ to ‘Impeller_RF’
• Click ‘MSH’ from the Data tree Manager
• With the meshing parameters defined, the
model is ready to be meshed
• Save the database
A.126
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Select Tools → Generate Mesh

• Items to check
• .ams file name
• This is the meshing control file written by AcuConsole
• Mesh output directory
• The location of the mesh files to be written by
AcuConsole
• Click ‘Ok’ to start the meshing process
• Monitor the process via the AcuTail window that
opens
• Mesh has ~27,000 nodes
• Watch for notification that meshing is complete
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Workshop 2 - Blower
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’, select ‘Display On’

• Right-click ‘Surfaces’, select ‘Display type’, and ‘solid & wire’ to see surface
mesh
• Turn on/off display of various surfaces
• Right-click on surface name
• ‘Display on’ / ‘Display off’
• Experiment with Transparency
A.128
Workshop 2 - Blower
• View a mesh cut plane

• Right-click ‘Model’ and select ‘Cut Plane’
• Select ‘Mid Z’ to position plane
• Use the wheel to move the position to approximately Z = 0
• Turn ‘Clip’ to ‘on’ with the radio button
• Set ‘Display’ to ‘mesh’ via the pull-down
• Set ‘Color’ to ‘volumes’
• To modify the position of the model (rotate, pan, etc.) hold
the ‘Ctrl’ key on the keyboard while performing mouse
operations
• Set ‘Cut Plane Visible’ to ‘false’
• ‘Close’
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Workshop 2 - Blower
• The model is ready to solve

• Tools → AcuSolve
• Verify:
• Problem name
• Problem and Working directories
• ‘Generate AcuSolve input files’ and ‘Launch
AcuSolve’ set to ‘On’
• Click ‘Ok’ to start the solver
• AcuTail starts with the .Log file history
• The AcuSolve Controller opens
A.130
Workshop 2 - Blower
• The .Log file shows residual and solution ratios

for each equation
• Residual Ratio - measure how well the solution
matches the governing equations
• Solution Ratio - measure how the answers
change from iteration to iteration (also time step
to time step for a steady state problem)
• AcuSolve controller
• ‘stop’ - stops the run and writes requested output
at end of current time step
• ‘output’ - writes requested output at end of
current time step
• About 25 time steps to converge
A.131
Workshop 2 - Blower
• Tools -> AcuProbe to track pressures

• Expand ‘Surface Output’
• Right-click ‘pressure’ and hit ‘Plot’
• Expand ‘Outlet’
• Right-click ‘pressure’ and hit ‘Plot’
• The pressure rise is about 475 Pa
• Build a UDF to monitor pressure rise
• Click the User Function icon
• Enter ‘Name’ as ‘Press_Rise’
• Define ‘Function’ as shown
• Right-click appropriate quantity and ‘Copy Name’,
then ‘Paste’ in Function
• ‘Apply’ when complete
• Expand ‘User function’ and plot ‘Press_Rise’
A.132
Input File Review

Input File Review
• Open input file from Workshop 2 - blower1.inp

• Problem Description panel
• Writes ANALYSIS and EQUATION commands
A.134
Input File Review
• Auto Solution Strategy panel

• Writes AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY command
• Advanced Solution Strategy branch controls the following commands:
• TIME_SEQUENCE
• Individual STAGGER commands
• TIME_INCREMENT
• TIME_INTEGRATION
• LINEAR_SOLVER_PARAMETERS
• CONVERGENCE_CHECK_PARAMETERS
• These are not written unless needed!
A.135
Input File Review
• Reference Frame panel

• Called ‘Impeller_RF’
• Writes REFERENCE_FRAME command
A.136
Input File Review
• Material model panel for Water

• Predefined in AcuConsole
• Writes MATERIAL_MODEL command
A.137
Input File Review
• Nodal Output panel

• Defaults for AcuConsole
• Writes NODAL_OUTPUT command
A.138
Input File Review
• Element Set panel

• Writes ELEMENT_SET command
A.139
Input File Review
• ‘Inlet’ Simple Boundary Condition panel

• Writes SIMPLE_BOUNDARY_CONDITION command (truncated here)
A.140
Input File Review
• Surface Output panel

• Activated by default in AcuConsole (can be turned off by default in the preferences if you
like)
• Writes SURFACE_OUTPUT command
A.141
Input File Review
• Other important commands handled automatically in AcuConsole

• COORDINATE command
• RUN command
A.142
Workshop 3 – Blower 2
Workshop 3 - Blower2

• Modify the previous blower database to run as a sliding mesh case
• Open and modify an existing database
• Build Mesh Motion
• Apply the Mesh Motion to Volumes and Surfaces
• Write AcuSolve input files
• Project solution from Workshop2 to mesh of Workshop3
• Import Nodal Initial Condition files
• Run AcuSolve
A.144
• Open existing database

• File -> Open
• Select the ‘blower2’ database
• NOTE: Could also continue from existing database
• File -> Save As to change name to ‘blower2.acs’ in the Workshop3 directory
A.145

• Set ‘Sub title’ to ‘sliding mesh’
• Set ‘Analysis type’ to ‘Transient’
• Set ‘Mesh type’ to ‘Fully specified’
• Verify ‘Analysis type’ set to ‘Transient’
• Set ‘Initial time increment’ to ‘0.002’ sec
• Set ‘Max stagger iterations’ to ‘3’
• Gives better convergence at each time step
• Verify ‘Flow’ and ‘Turbulence’ ‘On’
A.146
• Click ‘ALE’ from the Data tree Manager to

define the mesh motion
• Right-click ‘Mesh Motion’ and select ‘New’
• Right-click ‘Mesh Motion 1’ and ‘Rename’
• Rename to ‘Impeller_Rot’ and press ‘Enter’
• Double-click ‘Impeller_Rot’ to open the panel
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Rotation’
• Select ‘Open Array’ for ‘Angular velocity’
• Set ‘Z-component’ to ’10.47’ rad/sec
• Click ‘OK’
• NOTE: Simulation set to run for 0.2 sec = 1/3
revolution. Usually take meaningful data after
running 1 or 2 full revolutions.
A.147
• Click ‘OUT’ from the Data tree Manager

• Expand ‘Output’
• Double-click ‘Nodal Output’
• Set ‘Time step frequency’ to ‘2’
• Writes nodal output every 2 time steps
• Set ‘Output initial condition’ to ‘On’
• Writes initial condition file
• Right-click ‘Time History Output’ and select ‘New’
• Rename ‘Time History Output 1’ to ‘monitor’
• Double-click new name ‘monitor’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Coordinates’ via pull-down
• Click on ‘Open Array’ for ‘Coordinates’
• Set coordinate to ( 0.095, 0.105, 0.0 )
• Center of outlet nozzle entry region
A.148

• Expand ‘Model’ and ‘Volumes’
• Expand ‘Fluid_Impeller’ and double-click
‘Element Set’
• Set ‘Mesh motion’ to ‘Impeller_Rot’
• Rotate the entire element set
• Set ‘Reference frame’ to ‘None’
• Minimize ‘Volumes’
• ‘Fluid_Main’ remains as in Workshop 2
• Expand ‘Surfaces’ and ‘Impeller’
• Set ‘Reference frame’ to ‘None’
• Set ‘Mesh motion’ to ‘Impeller_Rot’
• Rotate the impeller surfaces
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• Click ‘ALE’ from the Data tree Manager

• Expand ‘Interface’
• For the moving mesh problem, this is the sliding
boundary
• Activate ‘Interface Surface’
• Set ‘Gap factor’ to 0
• Values of 0 for ‘Gap factor’ and/or ‘Gap’ yield no
limit on match search distance
• Surface must be split to yield two sets of nodes
and surfaces
• Right-click ‘Interface’, select ‘Mesh Op.’ and
‘Split Internal Faces’
• Splits nodes with one set attached to ‘Fluid_Main’
and one attached to ‘Fluid_Impeller’
• ~ 27,000 nodes >> ~30,000 nodes
A.150
• Tools -> AcuSolve

• Verify:
• Problem name ‘blower2’
• ‘Generate AcuSolve input files’ set to ‘On’ and
‘Launch AcuSolve’ set to ‘Off’
• Click ‘Ok’ to generate the input files
• blower2.inp and MESH.DIR directory
A.151
• Project Workshop 2 solution to Workshop 3 mesh to use as initial conditions

• Open AcuSolve Command Prompt and use ‘cd’ to change to Workshop 2 directory
• acuProj -crd ../Workshop3/MESH.DIR/blower2.crd
• Creates blower1.eddy.nic, blower1.pres.nic, blower1.vel.nic in Workshop2 directory
• Multi-column nodal-initial-condition files with node number and quantity or quantities
• Import Nodal Initial Condition files to Workshop 3
• Return to AcuConsole GUI for Workshop 3 with ‘BAS’ selected in tree manager
• Expand Global and double-click ‘Nodal Initial Condition’
• Set ‘Pressure initial condition type’ to ‘Nodal Values’
• Click ‘Open Array’ for ‘Nodal Values’ under Pressure
• Click ‘Read’ from Array Editor window
• Set ‘Files of type’ to ‘All files (*.*)’ and browse to Workshop2 directory
• Select ‘blower1.pres.nic’ and select ‘Open’
• Repeat for Velocity (use blower1.vel.nic) and Eddy viscosity (use blower1.eddy.nic)
A.152
• The model is ready to solve

• Verify:
• Problem name ‘blower2’
• ‘Generate AcuSolve input files’ and ‘Launch
AcuSolve’ set to ‘On’
• Click ‘Ok’ to start the solver
• AcuTail starts with the .Log file history
• The AcuSolve Controller opens
A.153
• Advanced Boundary Conditions

• Rather than define the mass flow at the inlet, let
AcuSolve calculate the mass flow and pressure rise
based on the impeller rotation
• Set ‘Inflow type’ = ‘Stagnation pressure’
• Set ‘Stagnation pressure’ to 0.0
• Set ‘Eddy viscosity’ to 1.e-6
• Run the problem as before
A.154
• Tools -> AcuProbe to plot time history point

• Expand ‘Time History’
• Expand ‘node 1’
• Right-click ‘x-velocity’ and select ‘Plot’
A.155
• Tools -> AcuFieldView

• Launch AcuFieldView dialog opens. Click ‘Ok’ to launch AcuFieldView with model loaded.
• Model can also be loaded manually by separately launching AcuFieldView. In this

workshop, model is loaded using the direct reader option.
A.156
Reading data to AcuFieldView

• Launch AcuFieldView
• Read Data : Open File → Data Input → AcuSolve[Direct Reader]. The
AcuFieldView direct reader will open. ‘Replace’ mode is set by default for
replacing current dataset. The ‘Append’ mode will append the dataset, and is
used for comparing the results. ‘Read Grids & Result Data’ option is default and
will read complete mesh and results. ‘Read Boundary Data Only’ option can be
used to read surface data only.
A.157
• Reading data to AcuFieldView

• Select the ‘Replace’ mode and ‘Read Grids & Result Data’ option. This will open the file
browser window. Select ‘blower2.1.Log’ from problem directory.
• Choose the functions needed or ‘Select All’ (default) from ‘Function Subset Selection’
dialog box and select ‘OK’. Choose the time step from the ‘Time Step Selection’ dialog box,
and select ‘OK’.
• Change the background and remove the outline of the model. Select View → Background
Color, and choose ‘white’ from the ‘Background Color’ dialog box. Select View → Outline
to turn off the outline of the model.
A.158
Boundary Surfaces – Surface mesh Visualization

• Go to Visualization Panels → Boundary Surface. This will
open ‘Boundary Surface’ dialog box.
• Select ‘Create’ to create new boundary surface. Select
‘SBC: Impeller’ from ‘BOUNDARY TYPES’, and click ‘OK’.
• Change ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Mesh’. Choose ‘Geometric’ for
‘COLORING’, and change the ‘Geometric Color’ to Black.
Select ‘Thin’ for ‘Line Type’.
• Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for remaining SBC surfaces,
SBC: Walls, SBC: Inlet and SBC: Outlet.
A.159
Boundary Surfaces – Color by Pressure

• Select ‘Boundary Surface 1’, click on the
surface or change Surface ID to 1 in
‘Boundary Surface’ dialog box.
• Change ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Smooth’.
Choose ‘Scalar’ for ‘COLORING’.
• Select ‘pressure’ from the ‘Scalar Function’
dialog box.
• Select other boundary surfaces and
perform steps 2 and 3. Change the
‘Transparency’ of ‘Boundary Surface 2’ to
37.5 %.
• Change ‘Colormap’ to ‘NASA-1’ for all
boundary surfaces and select ‘Show
legend’ for ‘Boundary Surface 4’.
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Coordinate Surface – Colored by velocity

• Turn off visibility for all boundary surfaces.
• From menu bar, select View → Defined Views, and select ‘+Z’
for ‘VIEWING DIRECTION’.
• Click ‘Coord’ icon from Tool bar on left side. Select ‘Create’ to
create new Coordinate Surface.
• Change ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Smooth’, ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’,
and select ‘velocity_magnitude’ for ‘Scalar Function’.
• Change ‘COORD PLANE’ to ‘Z’ and current to 0.015625.
• Change ‘Colormap’ to ‘NASA-1’, select ‘Local’ and click on
‘Show legend’
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Animation to visualize transient data.

• Go to Tools → Flipbook Build Mode. Click ‘OK’ to close the
warning window
• Go to Tools → Transient Data. Move the slider back to 0 and click
‘Apply’ in ‘Transient Data Controls’ panel.
• Select ‘Build’ to build the animation with all available time steps.
• The ‘Flipbook Controls’ are available after the build is complete.
Change the ‘Frame Rate’ to 0.10.
• Pause the animation and click ‘Save’ to save the animation.
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Streamlines
• Turn off ‘Visibility’ for the ‘Coordinate surface’.
• Turn on ‘Visibility’ and change ‘Scalar Function’ to
‘velocity_magnitude’ for all ‘Boundary Surfaces’.
• For ‘Boundary Surface 2’,
• change ‘COLORING to Geometric’,
• select Grey color from ‘Geometry color’ panel
• Change ‘Transparency’ to 87.5%.
• Turn off ‘Visibility’.
• Turn off legend for ‘Boundary surface 4’.
• Go to Visualization Panels → Streamlines.
• Select ‘Create’, change ‘Mode’ to ‘Seed a Surface’
• Increase ‘Seeds to Add’ to 100.
• Click CTRL-M1 to select ‘Boundary Surface 1’
(Impeller) and click OK,
• Unselect ‘Show Seeds’.
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• Streamlines (Continued)
• Under ‘Calculation Parameters’ change ‘Step’ to 9 and ‘Direction’ to ‘Both’.
• Click ‘Calculate’.
• Change ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’, ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Filament & Arrows’,
• Change ‘Colormap’ to ‘NASA-1’ and select ‘Show Legend’.
• Open Boundary Surface panel and turn On Visibility for ‘Boundary Surface 2’
• Again open Streamlines panel and click ‘Animate’ to see streamlines
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Streaklines
• Go to Tools → Flipbook Build Mode. Click ‘OK’ to skip the warning
• Go to Tools → Transient Data. Move the slider back to 0 and click
‘Apply’ in ‘Transient Data Controls’ panel.
• Select ‘Build’ and click ‘Yes’ in popped up Streakline Export panel.
Save the .fvp export file. The export file will save streaklines to a
particle path file, and simplifies future import and display.
• The ‘Flipbook Controls’ panel is available after the build is complete.
• Change the ‘Frame Rate’ to 0.10.
• Pause the animation and click ‘Save’ to save the animation
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Particle Paths
• Turn off ‘Visibility’ for the Streamlines.
• Go to Visualization Panels → Particle Paths. Select ‘Import’,
browse to previously saved .fvp file and select the file.
• Change ‘COLORING’ to ‘Scalar’, ‘Scalar Variable’ to
‘Emission Time’, ‘DISPLAY TYPE’ to ‘Spheres’, ‘Colormap’ to
‘NASA-1’ and select ‘Show Legend’.
• Go to ‘Tools’ → ‘Transient Data’. Move the Slider to
‘Maximum Time Step’ and click ‘Apply’.
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Animate streak lines to visualize the Emission Time

• Go to Tools → Flipbook Build Mode. Click ‘OK’ to skip the warning
• Go to Tools → Transient Data. Move the slider back to 0 and click ‘Apply’ in
‘Transient Data Controls’ panel.
• Select ‘Build’ to build the animation.
• The ‘Flipbook Controls’ are available after the build is complete. Change the
‘Frame Rate’ to 0.10.
• Pause the animation and click ‘Save’ to save the animation.
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A.168
Post Processing
Post Processing
• AcuSolve generates four types of output data

• Nodal, such as nodal output at a certain time step
• Time Series, such as integrated mass flux at inlet as a function of time/time step or the
solution at a specific location
• Surface Nodes, such as heat flux at each node of a wall surface at a certain time step
• CAA sample data, such as divergence of Lighthill stress
• acuTrans (or acuOut for a GUI) may be used to translate from internal format to
the desired format
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Post Processing
• All internal files are stored in ACUSIM.DIR directory

• They are accesses through ADB (libadb.a) C-callable API &
• Python through “import acudb”
• Perl through “use Acudb ;”
• Shell through acuGetData program
• All programs (e.g., acuTrans, acuOut) are written on top of ADB
• Vast majority of the files are in binary
• ADB handles all cross platform binary compatibilities
• Files written on one platform may be read on any platform
• All supported programs can read ASCII files generated on Windows
• The Windows end-of-line carriage return (Ctrl-M) character is properly handled on all
platforms
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Post Processing
• Many Options for Processing AcuSolve Results

• Export data to files using acuTrans & acuTrace
• Nodal results, surface integrals, volume integrals, statistical quantities, streamlines, etc.
• Import nodal results into visualization packages
• Display boundary surfaces, iso-surfaces, coordinate surfaces, vectors, etc.
• Plot various solution quantities using acuProbe
• Time history of integrated surface and volume quantities, values at specified nodes,
convergence measures, etc.
• Write custom scripts to extract data from the AcuSolve database
• API exists for C, Python, Perl, C-Shell
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Post Processing
• Translating data using AcuTrans

• Export data to tables, visualization packages, compute statistics, etc
• Refer to the Programs Reference Manual
• Examples (command line):
• Translate surface integrated velocity to table format:
acuTrans -osi -osiv step,velocity -to table
• Translate time history data to table format:
acuTrans -oth -othv step,velocity,temperature -to table
• Compute statistics of the nodal pressure and velocity fields:
acuTrans -out -to stats -outv pressure,velocity
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Post Processing
• Translating data using AcuOut

• GUI wrapper for acuTrans available through acuConsole or Command-Line ‘acuOut’
A.174
Post Processing
• Particle tracing using AcuTrace

• Computes the trajectory of massless particles through the simulation domain
• Particles do not affect the flow
• Operates on steady and transient flow solutions
• Tracing performed in the downstream direction only
• Also able to perform interpolation of the results to specific points without doing any
tracing
• Examples:
• Trace the trajectory of particles whose coordinates are defined in the file
seed_coordinates.dat
acuTrace -seed seed_coordinates.dat -to table
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Post Processing
• Visualization within AcuFieldView

• Launch AcuFieldView from AcuConsole and automatically read results from solution
database (no additional files written):
• Translate to FieldView format using AcuTrans

• Regions, split grid/results files supported
acuTrans –out –to fieldview
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Post Processing
• Visualization within ParaView

• Launch ParaView from AcuConsole and automatically read results from solution database
(no additional files written):
• Translate to EnSight using AcuTrans, then import into ParaView:

acuTrans –out –to ensight
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Post Processing
• Visualization within EnSight

• Launch EnSight from AcuConsole and automatically read results from solution database
(no additional files written):
• Translate to EnSight using AcuTrans

• EnSight gold and EnSight 6 formats supported
acuTrans –out –to ensight
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Post Processing
• Plotting with AcuProbe

• Launch AcuProbe from the command line using:
acuProbe
• Launch from AcuConsole by clicking the following icon:
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Program Options
Program Options
• Each program requires zero or more options

• Options may be given on the command line:
acuRun -pb channel -np 2
• Options may be placed in the configuration file, Acusim.cnf:

problem= channel
num_processors= 2
and the program invoked as:

acuRun
• Command line options take precedence over configuration files and defaults.
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Program Options
• Each option has a (long) descriptive and a (short) abbreviated name:

• Following are equivalent:
acuRun -pb channel
acuRun -problem channel
• Following configuration options are equivalent:
pb= channel
problem= channel
• Short names are typically used for command line option and long names for the
configuration file.
• Most options also have default values
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Program Options
• Environment variable ACUSIM_CNF_FILES is used to specify multiple configuration

files.
• By default, it is set to four files:
• ./Acusim.cnf
• Typically contains current problem configuration
• ~/Acusim.cnf
• Typically contains user’s most used configurations
• $ACUSIM_HOME/$ACUSIM_MACHINE/$ACUSIM_VERSION /script/Acusim.cnf
• Typically contains system and installation configurations
• $ACUSIM_HOME/Acusim.cnf
• Typically contains site specific configurations
• These configuration files are searched in sequence
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Program Options
• To get a list of options and values, issue the command with “-h”:
acuRun –h
• This produces results such as:

acuRun: Usage:
acuRun: acuRun [options]
acuRun: Options:
acuRun: -h print usage and exit
acuRun: help= TRUE [command-line]
acuRun: -pb <str> problem name
acuRun: problem= channel [./Acusim.cnf]
acuRun: -v <int> verbose level
acuRun: verbose= 1 [default]
acuRun: Configuration Files:
acuRun:
/Acusim.cnf:~/Acusim.cnf:/acusim/LINUX64/V1.8b/script/Acusim.cnf
acuRun: Release: 1.8b

A.185
Program Options
• Options may be:

• String
acuRun -pb channel
problem= channel
• Enumerated (from a list of available options)
acuTrans -to ideas
translate_to= ideas
• Boolean
acuRun -echo
acuRun -no_echo
echo_input=TRUE
echo_input=FALSE
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Program Options
• Integer
acuRun -np 2
num_processors= 2
• Real
acuSurf -angle 89.9
max_angle= 89.9
• To specialize an option for a program and/or a machine

prepend them to the option:
SGI64.host_lists= eagle,hawk,falcon
acuSurf.verbose= 2
SGI64.acuSurf.verbose= 3
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A.188
Workshop 4
Compressible Nozzle
Workshop 4 - Compressible Nozzle

• Use Ideal Gas density relation and discuss absolute temperature and pressure offset
• Import mesh using arm file
• Use Surface Manager to create surface sets
• Examine mesh using cut plane
• Define boundary conditions and material properties
• Run AcuSolve
• Monitor solution with AcuProbe
• Perform solution checks with AcuProbe
A.190
• Ideal Gas Background

• When using Ideal Gas relation to model density, we need to know the absolute
temperature and pressure of the gas
• Two options for specifying temperature values
• Work in absolute units (Kelvin, or Rankine)
• Work in Fahrenheit or Celsius, then have AcuSolve add a constant internally to convert to
absolute units (absolute temperature offset)
• Pressure may be specified as relative or absolute
• When relative pressures are specified at boundaries, then absolute pressure offset should
be used to enable AcuSolve to compute the absolute pressure.
A.191

• File  New
• Enter name as Nozzle
• Import the mesh
• File  Import
• Select file type to load as ACUSIM Raw Mesh (*.arm)
• Navigate to: Workshop4\MESHIN.DIR and open
acusolve.arm
• Mesh will be loaded
A.192
• Set the Data tree Manager to “BAS”

• Set the surface display settings
• Expand ‘Model’ in the tree
• Right-click on ‘Surfaces’
• Set the volume display settings
• Right-click on ‘Volumes’
• Select ‘wireframe’
• Select ‘Display on’
A.193
• Examine the mesh

• Zoom in/out
• Rotate model
• Create cut plane
• Right click on ‘Model’
• Select ‘Cut Plane’
• Experiment with settings, rotations, etc.
A.194
• Set up global parameters

• Expand ‘Global’ branch
• Enter the Title and Sub title
• Enter 101325 Pa as Abs. pressure offset
• Set ‘Temperature equation' to ‘Advective diffusive’
• Verify turbulence is set to Laminar and Analysis type is
Steady State
• Set solution strategy
• Set the ‘Convergence tolerance’ to 1.0e-04
• Verify that ‘Flow’ and ‘Temperature’ are set to ‘On’
A.195
• Specify material properties

• Expand ‘Material Model’ branch
• Double-click ‘Air’
• Select ‘Density’ tab
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Ideal Gas’
• Specify initial conditions

• Double-click ‘Nodal Initial Condition’ branch
• Set ‘Pressure’ to 0 N/m2
• Set ‘X velocity’ to 40 m/s
A.196
• Rename the volume element set

• Collapse the ‘Global’ branch
• Expand the ‘Model’ branch
• Expand the ‘Volumes’ branch
• Rename the volume set to Fluid
• Modify settings for the volume elements

• Expand the ‘Fluid’ branch
• Double-click on ‘Element Set’
• Ensure that ‘Material Model’ is set to ‘Air’
• Toggle ‘Compression Heating’ ‘On’
A.197
• Create surface sets

• Expand the ‘Surfaces’ branch
• Right click on ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Surface
Manager’
• Click on ‘New’ 4 times to create 4 new surfaces
• Rename the surfaces according to the following
list by double-clicking on the name in the ‘Surface
Name’ column then entering the new name:
• default  inlet
• Surface 1  upstream walls
• Surface 2  contraction walls
• Surface 3  downstream walls
• Surface 4  outlet
A.198
• Assign elements to surface sets

• Select the ‘Add to’ button in the row of the surface set that you want to operate on
• Assign all surfaces according to the adjacent figure
outlet (+x face)
contraction walls
upstream
walls
downstream walls
inlet (-x face)
A.199
• Assign simple boundary condition types through

the surface manager
• Click on ‘Columns’ and verify ‘Simple BC Type’
is active
• Select the ‘Simple BC Type’ button in the row
of the surface set that you want to operate on
• Set the boundary condition types according to
the following list:
• contraction walls  Slip
• downstream walls  Slip
• inlet  Inflow
• outlet  Outflow
• upstream walls  Slip
• Experiment with the ‘Columns’ button to see
what you can assign via the Surface Manager
A.200
• Close the Surface Manager

• Set the inlet boundary condition
• Expand the ‘inlet’ branch in the model tree under
ModelSurfacesinlet
• Double-click on ‘Simple Boundary Condition’
• Set ‘Inflow type’ to ‘Stagnation pressure’
• Set ‘Stagnation pressure’ to 1500 N/m2
A.201
• Set the Outlet Pressure

• Expand the ‘outlet’ branch in the model tree
under ModelSurfacesoutlet
• Double Click on ‘Simple Boundary Condition’
• Ensure that the ‘Pressure’ is set to 0.0 N/m2
• Remember that we are setting relative pressure.
The absolute pressure at the outlet is equal to
the value set at the boundary plus the absolute
pressure offset (101325 Pa).
A.202
• Create a time history output point in the center

of the contraction
• Determine the dimensions of the contraction by
right clicking on the ‘contraction walls’ entry in
the model tree and selecting ‘Info’
• Examine the max and min coordinates that are
displayed in the message window
• We will create a time history output point at 0,0,0
• Expand the ‘Global’ branch of the model tree
• Expand the ‘Output’ branch
A.203
• Right click on ‘Time History Output’ and select

‘New’
• Rename ‘Time History Output 1’ to
‘Contraction center point’
• Double-click ‘Contraction center point’
• Change ‘Type’ to Coordinates
• Click on ‘Open Array’
• Enter 0,0,0 as the coordinates, then close the
array editor by selecting ‘OK’
A.204
• Save the model

• Click on the save icon in the toolbar,
or type Ctrl+S
• Run the model
• Click on the solve icon in the toolbar,
or type Ctrl+Shift+S
• Ensure that ‘Problem name’ is Nozzle
• ‘Problem directory’ is set to
path\Workshop4 directory
• ‘Working directory’ is set to
path\Workshop4\ACUSIM.DIR
• Select ‘Ok’ to launch AcuSolve
A.205
• Inspect the solution using acuProbe

• Plot the residuals using acuProbe
• ToolsAcuProbe
• Expand ‘Residual ratio’
• Right-click on ‘Final’, select ‘Plot All’
• Plot the Mach Number at the time history output
node using a UDF:
u u = flow velocity (m/s)

Mach = γ = adiabatic constant = 1.4
γRT
Number R = gas constant = 8.314
M (J/mol K)
T = absolute temperature (K)
M = molecular weight = .02895
(kg/mol)
A.206
AcuSolve Mesh Files

AcuSolve Mesh Files
• The coordinates file (typically *.crd) is referenced by the COORDINATE command

• Four columns: nodeID, x, y, z
55 2.665469971e+00 -1.166600037e-01 5.348399658e-01
56 2.706250000e+00 -5.883300171e-01 5.315200195e-01
57 3.203280029e+00 -6.015100098e-01 4.880200195e-01
• The element connectivity file (typically *.cnn) is referenced by the ELEMENT_SET

command
• Multi-columns: elementId, node1, ..., nodeN (e.g., 4-node tet):
121 85 102 86 90
122 85 102 90 89
123 102 90 89 178
124 85 101 102 89
A.208
AcuSolve Mesh Files
• The surface connectivity file (typically *.ebc) is referenced by the following

commands:
• ELEMENT_BOUNDARY_CONDITION
• FAN_COMPONENT
• FREE_SURFACE
• GUIDE_SURFACE
• HEAT_EXCHANGER_COMPONENT
• INTERFACE_SURFACE
• PARTICLE_SURFACE
• RADIATION_SURFACE
• SIMPLE_BOUNDARY_CONDITION
• SOLAR_RADIATION_SURFACE
• SURFACE_INTEGRATED_CONDITION
• SURFACE_OUTPUT
• TURBULENCE_WALL
• EXTERNAL_CODE_SURFACE
A.209
AcuSolve Mesh Files
• Surface connectivity file

• Multi-columns: elementID, surfaceID, node1, ..., nodeN (e.g., 3-node triangle):
121 1 85 102 86
122 2 85 102 90
123 3 102 90 89
124 4 85 101 102
• Program acuSurf may be used to extract and/or convert into this format
A.210
AcuSolve Mesh Files
• The periodic boundary condition file (typically *.pbc) is referenced by the

PERIODIC_BOUNDARY_CONDITION command
• Three columns: pairId, node1, node2:
1 55 155
2 65 165
3 75 175
• The parent surfaces for the first and second node for each pair must be consistent
throughout
• Each node from the first column of nodes must be from one surface
• Each node from the second column of nodes must be from the other surface
A.211
A.212
Boundary Conditions
Boundary Conditions
• AcuSolve supports three different types of boundary conditions

• Nodal  Specifies the value at nodes
• Element  Specifies the flux at element faces
• Periodic  Enforces a relationship between pairs of nodes
• Using Finite Element terminology, Nodal and Element boundary conditions can
also be referred to by the names in the following table:
Nodal BC Element BC
Dirichlet Neumann
Strong Weak
Essential Natural
A.214
Boundary Conditions
• Nodal Boundary Conditions

• Used to fix the solution at a desired value
• Values are assigned on sets of nodes in AcuConsole
• Model  Nodes Set Name
• Model  Surfaces  Set Name  Advanced Options  Nodal Boundary Conditions
• The solution will always satisfy these nodal constraints exactly!
Equivalent input file command
A.215
Boundary Conditions
• Element Boundary Conditions

• Element boundary conditions are used to fix the flux of a variable on a surface
• These values are assigned on sets of surface faces in AcuConsole
• Model  Surfaces  Set Name  Advanced Options  Element Boundary Conditions
• Nodal values adjust “naturally” to satisfy these conditions across the surface face
A.216
Boundary Conditions
• Periodic Boundary Conditions

• Enforce a relation between pairs of nodes (equal, ratio, transformation, etc.)
• Applied to periodic sets (pairs of nodes) in AcuConsole
• Model  Periodics  Set Name
• Typically used to model infinite domains with a finite model (i.e. fully developed
pipe flow)
• Can also be used to model axisymmetry
A.217
Boundary Conditions
• Simple Boundary Conditions

• Knowing what type of condition (nodal BC, element BC) to specify at different types of
boundaries can be challenging
• “Simple Boundary Condition” was introduced to automatically specify the appropriate
conditions for common scenarios (inlet, outlet, wall, symmetry)
• Simple boundary conditions are applied to surfaces in AcuConsole
• Model  Surfaces  Set Name  Simple Boundary Condition
A.218
Boundary Conditions
• Simple Boundary Conditions (cont’d)

• The simple boundary condition command actually applies a mixture of nodal and element
boundary conditions based on which type of condition is specified.
• For example, consider the outflow boundary condition that was prescribed on the
previous slide
• Behind the scenes, a number of element boundary conditions were generated
• Pressure set to 0.0 via Element B.C.
• Mass flux set to a special case of “free” via Element B.C.
• Tangential traction set to “free” via Element B.C.
• Turbulence flux set to “free” via Element B.C.
• Heat flux set to “free” via Element B.C.
• Species flux set to “free” via Element B.C.
Note: “free” means
the value is extracted
from the solution
A.219
Boundary Conditions
• Simple Boundary Conditions (cont’d)

• Consider another example that sets a surface to an “inflow” via simple boundary
condition
• The following element boundary conditions are created
• Mass flux set to a special case of “free”
• Tangential traction set to “free”
• Pressure set to “free”
• The following nodal boundary conditions are created
• x,y,z components of velocity are set
• Eddy viscosity is set
• Temperature is set
• Species values are set
• Specified individually, many variables would need to be set
• Simple boundary conditions simplify this to a single specification
A.220
Boundary Conditions
• Precedence
• It is possible to over-specify a boundary condition (specify it twice) by using combinations
of Element, Nodal, and Simple B.C.’s
• The following table is used to resolve these conflicts
• Nodal boundary conditions may also be “favored” over another by setting the precedence
parameter to a higher value
Nodal BC Element BC Consequence
Specified Specified Nodal BC is satisfied; Element BC is ignored
Specified Not specified Nodal BC is satisfied
Not specified Specified Element BC is satisfied
Not specified Not specified Element BC with zero/free value is assumed and satisfied
A.221
Boundary Conditions
• Summary
• AcuSolve contains a rich set of boundary conditions
• Combinations of Nodal, Element and Periodic boundary conditions can be used to model
extremely complex scenarios.
• Simple boundary conditions are intended to automate the application of standard
conditions such as walls, inlets, outlets, symmetry planes, etc.
A.222
Workshop 5
Rigid Body Motion
Workshop 5 - Rigid Body Motion

• Open and modify an existing database
• Review Mesh Motion - Rigid Body Dynamics
• Use Nodal Boundary Conditions to scale mesh motion
• Run AcuSolve
A.224
• Open existing database

• File → Open
• Select the ‘rigid1’ database
• Loads the existing 2-D mesh
• The cylinder is 0.01 m diameter, centered at ( 0.05, 0.05, 0.00125 )
• Z-depth is 0.0025 m
A.225
• Click on ‘BAS’ in the Data tree Manager

• Double-click on ‘Problem Description’
• Set ‘Title’ to ‘Vibration at Re = 100’
• Set ‘Sub title’ to ‘Rigid Body Motion’
• Set ‘Mesh type’ to ‘Fully specified’
• Expand the ‘Solution Strategy’ branch
• Verify and Set attributes
• ‘Analysis type’ set to ‘Transient’
• ‘Flow’ is ‘On’
• ‘Max time steps’ to 1000
• ‘Initial time increment’ to ‘0.002’ sec
• ‘Max stagger iterations’ to ‘4’
A.226
• Create a Material Model

• Right-click the created ‘Material Model 1’ and select ‘Rename’
• Change the name to ‘Fluid’
• Double-click ‘Fluid’ to open the panel
• Verify ‘Medium’ is ‘Fluid’
• Set ‘Density’ to 1.0 kg/m3
• Set ‘Viscosity’ to 0.0001kg/m-sec
A.227
• Click on ‘ALE’ in the Data tree Manager to gain

access to the mesh motion options
• Expand ‘Mesh Motion’
• ‘vibrating cylinder’ has been pre-defined
• Double-click to open and review
• ‘Type’ is ‘Rigid body dynamic’
• Items not default:
• Look at ‘inactive’ displacement/rotation
• ‘Center’ array
• ‘Mass’
• ‘Dyadic’ array
• ‘Stiffness’ array
• ‘Surface outputs’ list
• ‘BODY’ is the cylinder surface
• See AcuSolve Command Reference Manual for more
details
A.228
• Set the ‘Data tree Manager’ back to basic mode

by clicking on ‘BAS’
• Expand ‘Output’
• Double-click ‘Nodal Output’
• Set ‘Time step frequency’ to 3
• Double-click ‘Restart Output’
• Set ‘Number of saved states’ to 2
• Only 2 restart sets will remain on disk
A.229
• Right-click ‘Time History Output’ - select ‘New’

• Rename ‘Time History Output 1’ to ‘monitor points’
• Double-click ‘monitor points’ to open panel
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Coordinates’
• Click ‘Open Array’ to define ‘Coordinates’
• Click ‘Add Row’ to yield a total of 5 rows
• Enter values as shown - ‘OK’ when finished
1 2 3 4 5
A.230

• Set ‘X velocity’ to 1.0 m/sec
• Expand ‘Model’ and ‘Volumes’
• Expand ‘FLUID’ and double-click ‘Element Set’
• Set ‘Material model’ to ‘Fluid’
A.231
• Expand ‘Surfaces’ branch

• Expand ‘BODY’
• Verify ‘Surface Output’ is active
• Set ‘Mesh motion’ to ‘vibrating cylinder’
• Expand ‘BOTTOM’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Symmetry’
• Set ‘Mesh displacement BC type’ to ‘Slip’
• Nodes will move in original plane
• IMPORTANT - Repeat the above steps for ‘BOTTOM’
for ‘TOP’, ‘SYMM1’, and ‘SYMM2’.
A.232
• Expand ‘INFLOW’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Inflow’
• Set ‘X velocity’ to 1.0 m/sec
• Expand ‘OUTFLOW’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Outflow’
• Essentially, all the boundary mesh is allowed to move
in its original plane
A.233
• Select ‘BC*’ in the Data tree Manager to view all

boundary condition settings in the data tree
• IMPORTANT - The following steps need to be followed
for ‘SYMM1’ and ‘SYMM2’ - or use Propagate
• Described for ‘SYMM1’ - but need to be repeated for
‘SYMM2’
• Expand ‘SYMM1’, ‘Advanced Options’, and ‘Nodal
Boundary Conditions’
• Activate ‘Z-Velocity’
• Accept default ‘Type’ of ‘zero’
• No out-of-plane flow in the 2D problem
• Activate ‘Mesh Z-Displacement’
• Accept default ‘Type’ of ‘zero’
• No mesh motion out of plane
A.234
• Activate ‘Mesh X-Displacement’

• Set ‘Type’ to ‘linear’
• Set ‘Curve fit variable’ to ‘x reference coordinate’
• The original nodal ‘x’ coordinate
• Click ‘Open Array’ to define the ‘Curve fit values’
• Click ‘Add’ to yield 4 rows
• Enter values as shown
• Click ‘Plot’ to see curve fit line plot
• ‘OK’ to close panel
A.235
• Mesh X-Displacement curve fit

• Inlet is at X = 0 (X-value = 0 in curve fit) >> boundary is fixed in
the X-direction (Y-value = 0 in curve fit)
• X = 0.03 is 2 diameters upstream of cylinder >> mesh displaces in
X-direction with the rigid body motion (Y-value = 1.0 in curve fit -
matches motion)
• X-displacement ramps linearly from fixed at X = 0 to matching rigid
body at X = 0.03
• X = 0.07 is 2 diameters downstream of cylinder >> mesh displaces
in X-direction with rigid body
• Mesh from X = 0.03 to X = 0.07 moves exactly with rigid body in
X-direction
• Outlet is at X = 0.2 >> boundary is fixed in the X-direction
• X-displacement ramps linearly from matching rigid body at X = 0.07
to fixed at X = 0.2
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• Activate ‘Mesh Y-Displacement’

• Set ‘Type’ to ‘linear’
• Set ‘Curve fit variable’ to ‘y reference coordinate’
• The original nodal ‘y’ coordinate
• Click ‘Open Array’ to define the ‘Curve fit values’
• Click ‘Add’ to yield 4 rows
• Enter values as shown
• Click ‘Plot’ to see curve fit line plot
• ‘OK’ to close panel
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• Mesh Y-Displacement curve fit

• Bottom is at Y = -0.04 (X-value = -0.04 in curve fit) >>
boundary is fixed in Y-direction (Y-value = 0 in curve fit)
• Y = 0.03 (X-value = 0.03 in curve fit) is 2 diameters below
cylinder >> mesh displaces in Y-direction with the rigid body
motion (Y-value = 1.0 in curve fit - matches motion)
• Y-displacement ramps linearly from fixed at Y = -0.04 to
matching rigid body at Y = 0.03
• Y = 0.07 (X-value = 0.07 in curve fit) is 2 diameters above
cylinder >> mesh displaces in Y-direction with rigid body
• Mesh from Y = 0.03 to Y = 0.07 moves exactly with rigid body in
Y-direction
• Top is at Y = 0.14 (X-value = 0.14 in curve fit) >> boundary is
fixed in Y-direction
• Y-displacement ramps linearly from matching rigid body at Y =
0.07 to fixed at Y = 0.14
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• IMPORTANT - Make sure the Nodal Boundary Conditions described above have
been applied to both ‘SYMM1’ and ‘SYMM2’
• Save the database
• The model is ready to run
• Verify settings and click ‘Ok’
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• Monitor X- and Y- mesh displacements in AcuProbe
X-Displacement of first monitor point Y-Displacement of first monitor point
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Solution Strategy
Solution Strategy
• AcuSolve provides users with complete control over the solution process
• Equations that are solved
• Number of times that they are solved per step
• Order in which they are solved
• Linear solver to use for each equation
• Convergence tolerance for each equation
• Etc.
• Solution strategy can be set using a combination of commands
• Can also be set using a single input file command
• AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY
• We’ll look at this command in detail, then talk about how it works in AcuConsole
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Solution Strategy
• Simplest way to set a strategy is via AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY

ANALYSIS {
type = transient
}
EQUATION {
flow = navier_stokes
temperature = advective_diffusive
radiation = enclosure
turbulence = spalart_allmaras
}
AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY {
max_time_steps = 100
initial_time_increment = 1
}
• AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY is a functional command

• Its position in the file is important
• Reads parameters of ANALYSIS and EQUATION commands
• Devises a solution strategy, writes it in file <problem>.ss.inc
• It includes the file in its place
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Solution Strategy
• The <problem>.ss.inc file includes several commands:

• TIME_SEQUENCE
• STAGGER for each equation
• TIME_INCREMENT
• TIME_INTEGRATION
• LINEAR_SOLVER_PARAMETERS
• CONVERGENCE_CHECK_PARAMETERS
• ALGEBRAIC_MULTIGRID_PARAMETERS
• Each of these commands sets a different aspect of the solution strategy
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Solution Strategy
• TIME_SEQUENCE
TIME_SEQUENCE {
min_time_steps = 1
final_time = 0
convergence_tolerance = 0
termination_delay = 0
lhs_update_initial_times = 1
lhs_update_frequency = 1
min_stagger_iterations = 2
max_stagger_iterations = 2
stagger_convergence_tolerance = 0.001
stagger_lhs_update_frequency = 1
staggers = { "flow",
"turbulence“ }
}
• convergence_tolerance - steady-state convergence
• min/max_stagger_iterations - passes through equations per time step
• stagger_convergence_tolerance – convergence of each equation at each step
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Solution Strategy
• TIME_INCREMENT
TIME_INCREMENT {
auto_time_increment = off
local_time_increment = off
min_time_increment = 0
max_time_increment = 0
cfl_control = off
cfl_number = 1000
initial_cfl_number = 1
min_cfl_number = 0
time_increment_decrease_factor = 0.25
time_increment_increase_factor = 1.25
time_increment_increase_delay = 4
min_time_increment_ratio = 0.1
multiplier_function = "none"
}
• Use auto_time_increment to vary time increment automatically during a transient run
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Solution Strategy
• Although AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY is sufficient for most problems, you can

create custom strategies using many techniques
• For example, the parameters AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY generates may be
overwritten by other commands:
}
TIME_SEQUENCE {
}
• For a transient problem the default min/max stagger_iterations is 2 / 2
• The above settings would allow 1-4 iterations at each time step before proceeding to the
next time step.
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Solution Strategy
• Example: Steady-state problem

ANALYSIS {
type = steady
}
initial_time_increment = 1.e+10
convergence_tolerance = 1.e-3
num_krylov_vectors = 10
relaxation_factor = 0
flow = on
}
• Take large time steps to reach steady-state solution
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Solution Strategy
• Example: Transient problem

ANALYSIS {
type = transient
}
final_time = 0
auto_time_increment = off
min_time_increment = 0
max_time_increment = 0
convergence_tolerance = 1.e-3
num_krylov_vectors = 10
temperature_flow = off
relaxation_factor = 0
}
• Additional transient parameters in bold
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Solution Strategy
• Time stepping process

Loop over time steps
Predict all active solution fields
Loop over staggers
Stagger 1:
Loop over nonlinear iterations
Form stagger residual and if needed LHS matrix
Solve linear equation system
Update stagger solution field(s)
Check nonlinear convergence
End nonlinear loop
...
Stagger N:
Loop over nonlinear iterations
Form stagger residual and if needed LHS matrix
Solve linear equation system
Update stagger solution field(s)
Check nonlinear convergence
End nonlinear loop
Check stagger convergence
End stagger loop
Check time step convergence
Optionally compute and output results
Determine time increment of the next time step
End time step loop
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Solution Strategy
• Setting solution strategy in AcuConsole

• “Auto Solution Strategy” branch contains the settings from the
AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY command
• This writes the AUTO_SOLUTION_STRATEGY command to the input file
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Solution Strategy
• Every time the Auto Solution Strategy panel is exited, the “Advanced Solution
Strategy” branches are updated
• For this example, the appropriate solution staggers were created
• By default, the “Advanced Solution Strategy” commands are NOT written to the input file
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Solution Strategy
• Modifying the Advanced Solution Strategy Settings

• All changes made after leaving the “Auto Solution Strategy” panel will be written to the
input file
• By default, all changes will be lost the next time you visit the “Auto Solution Strategy”
• This panel updates the settings every time it is exited!
• To prevent this, use “Protect Parameters”
• Only available under “Advanced Solution Strategy”
• Forces command to be written to input file
• Prevents Auto Solution Strategy from updating
• Will override settings from the Auto Solution Strategy
• Be very careful when using this!
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A.254
Workshop 6 – Flexible Ring

Workshop 6 - Flexible Ring

• Learn the different types of Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) that AcuSolve supports
• Set up a Practical FSI simulation (P-FSI)
• Set up a Direct Coupled FSI simulation (DC-FSI)
• Gain experience using ALE mesh motion
• Use Surface Manager to assign boundary condition types
• Use the “Propagate” feature to copy settings from one group to another
• Run AcuSolve
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• Fluid Structure Interaction Background

• ACUSIM defines FSI as follows:
• FSI is the simulation of the bi-directional interaction (coupling) between fluid flow and a
deforming solid/structural model.
• This definition of FSI does not include:
• Fluid and thermal solid/structure analysis (ie., Conjugate heat transfer)
• Fluid coupling with rigid body dynamics
• These simulation types are supported by AcuSolve, but we classify them differently
• AcuSolve supports two different types of FSI
• Practical FSI (P-FSI)
• Direct Coupled FSI (DC-FSI)
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• Practical Fluid Structure Interaction

• The fluid and solid codes are run independently and separately
• The solid code is used for a modal or frequency analysis
• No run time coupling is required
• Each may be run with a different time increment and duration
• No fluid mesh size limitation imposed by FSI
• Significantly more stable than alternative approaches
• Eliminates high wave number modes, yields smooth solution
• Very efficient
• Problem setup
• CPU time
• Applicable only for linear structural problems
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• Direct Coupled Fluid Structure Interaction

• The fluid and solid codes are run in tandem
• Data is passed between the codes on wetted surfaces
• AcuSolve provides forces and/or heat fluxes to structural code
• Structural code returns displacements and/or temperatures to AcuSolve
• No third party software involved
• AcuSolve performs all interpolation between dissimilar meshes
• Applicable for linear and nonlinear deformations
• Current application of this technique is for direct coupling with Abaqus and MD Nastran
A.259
• Flexible Ring Problem Description

• In this workshop, we begin by performing a P-FSI simulation of a thin flexible ring
suspended in cross flow. Note that this is a contrived configuration used for training
purposes only.
• The following diagram illustrates the problem set up and the constraints that are placed
on the ring.
OD= .01 m
ID= .009 m
Young’s Modulus = 24000 Pa
Density = 500 kg/m3
Flow Direction Poisson’s Ratio = 0.3
This point is constrained in all

directions to have zero displacement
This point is constrained in the and zero rotation
vertical direction, but is free to move
in the stream wise direction
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• Steps in Performing P-FSI

• Background on P-FSI
• AcuSolve requires the mass, stiffness, and damping array for each mode of the flexible body as
input for P-FSI analyses. It also requires an array describing the eigenvectors of each mode.
• This information can be obtained from a modal analysis in a structural solver, or derived
analytically for simple problems.
• For this analysis, a structural model of the ring was built in RADIOSS and ABAQUS. The resulting
model from RADIOSS is exported into an .op2 file and the result from ABAQUS is exported into
an .odb file. Any of these files can be used for the CFD simulation.
• We will read the .op2 or .odb file using AcuConsole then project the modes onto the fluids
model for the P-FSI simulation.
• With this background info, we can begin constructing the model
A.261
• Open the database

• File  Open
• Choose the file named flexibleRing.acs
• Select ‘Open’
• Model should appear similar to what is
shown to the right
• Same geometry and mesh as Workshop 5,
but we will modify the problem setup
significantly.
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• Set the data tree to “Basic”

• Ensure that the “BAS” button is selected in the Data
tree Manager
• Set the surface display settings
• Expand ‘Model’ in the tree
• Right-click on ‘Surfaces’
• Set the volume display settings
• Right-click on ‘Volumes’
• Select ‘Display off’
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• Set up global parameters

• Expand ‘Global’ branch
• Enter the problem title and subtitle
• Set ‘Analysis Type' to ‘Transient’
• Set ‘Mesh Type' to ‘Arbitrary mesh movement
(ALE)’
• Verify turbulence is set to laminar
• Set solution strategy
• Set ‘Max time steps’ to 1000
• Set ‘Initial time increment’ to .002 sec.
• Verify that ‘Flow’ and ‘Mesh’ are set to ‘On’
A.264
• Create a material model

• Right-click on ‘Material Model’ branch and select ‘New’
• Right click on ‘Material Model 1’ and select ‘Rename’ and
rename it to ‘Fluid’
• Set the material properties

• Double click ‘Fluid’
• Set the material properties as follows:
• Density = 1 kg/m3
• Viscosity = .0001 kg/m-sec
A.265
• Create some monitor points

• Expand the ‘Output branch’
• Right click on ‘Time History Output’ and select ‘New’
• Rename ‘Time History Output 1’ to ‘Monitor Points’
• Double-click ‘Monitor Points’
• Change ‘Type’ to Coordinates
• Click ‘Open Array’ to define ‘Coordinates’
• Click ‘Add Row’ to yield 2 rows total
• Enter values as shown:
• Min X and Max Y of cylinder
A.266
• Set the nodal output frequency

• Double-click on ‘Nodal Output’
• Set ‘X velocity’ to 1.0
• Leave all other values at 0.0
A.267
• Set the data tree to “FSI” mode

• Ensure that the “FSI” button is selected in the
Data tree Manager
• This only shows settings associated with set-up
of FSI models
• Create a Flexible Body
• Right-click on ‘Flexible Body’ and select ‘New’
• Right-click on ‘Flexible Body 1’ and select
‘Rename’  rename to ‘Flexible Walls’
A.268
• Double-click on “Flexible Walls” to open it

• In the panel, click on the ‘Open Refs’ button
next to ‘Surface outputs’
• This opens the list editor to specify the name
of the surface outputs that AcuSolve will use
to determine the forces on the flexible body:
• Select ‘Add Row’, then select ‘BODY’ from the
pull-down
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• Set the data tree back to “Basic”

• Click on the “BAS” button in the Data tree Manager
• Set the element set properties
• Collapse the ‘Global’ branch
• Expand the ‘Model’ branch
• Expand the ‘Volumes’ and ‘Surfaces’ branches
• Expand the ‘FLUID’ branch under ‘Volumes’
• Double-click ‘Element Set’
• Set ‘Material Model’ to Fluid
A.270
• Set the boundary condition types

• Right click on ‘Surfaces’, then ‘Surface Manager’
• Click ‘Columns’ and make sure ‘Simple BC Type’ is
enabled
• Set the boundary conditions using the ‘Simple BC Type’
column according to the following:
• BODY  Wall
• BOTTOM  Slip
• INFLOW  Inflow
• OUTFLOW  Outflow
• SYMM1  Symmetry
• SYMM2  Symmetry
• TOP  Slip
• Close surface manager
A.271
• Set the boundary condition details

• Expand the surface named ‘BODY’
• Ensure that the ‘Surface Output’ box is toggled
on
• Double click on ‘Simple Boundary Condition’
• Ensure that ‘Wall Velocity Type’ is set to ‘Match
Mesh Velocity’
• Set the ‘Mesh displacement BC Type’ to ‘Flexible
Body’
• Set the ‘Flexible Body’ to ‘Flexible Walls’
• These settings tell the mesh on the BODY walls to
move based on the Flexible Body parameters
that we will define later
A.272
• Expand the surface named ‘SYMM1’

• Set ‘Mesh displacement BC Type’ to ‘Slip’
• These settings allow the mesh on the SYMM1
surface to slip tangentially along the surface.
Since this is a 2-d problem, it is required.
A.273
• SYMM1 and SYMM2 are both symmetry planes

that will need to have the same boundary
conditions
• Instead of opening the SYMM2 surface and setting
the mesh displacement type to slip, we will simply
copy the settings from SYMM1:
• Right-click on the “Simple Boundary Condition”
entry under SYMM1 and select “Propagate”
• In the panel that opens, highlight “SYMM2”, then
press “Propagate”.
• This will copy the boundary conditions settings to
SYMM2
A.274
• Expand the surface named ‘INFLOW’

• Set ‘X velocity’ to 1.0
• The remainder of the simple boundary
conditions do not need to be changed and the
case can be run with the default values
• However, it is a good idea to review all of the
settings to familiarize yourself with them.
• Note the mesh displacement options could be
changed from fixed to slip on INFLOW,
OUTFLOW, TOP and BOTTOM….experiment
with this if you have time.
A.275
• We will now create a set of nodes surrounding the

ring that we will force to move in conjunction with the
body
• Right-click on “Nodes” and select “New”
• Rename the node set to “25 Layers”
• Right-click on “25 Layers” and select “Define”
• When the “Node Define” dialog box opens, set the type
to Surface, then select “BODY” as the surface, and set
Number of Layers to 25.
• Select “OK”
• This creates a node set containing 25 layers of nodes
starting from the surface named “BODY”
A.276
• Right-click on the eye-ball icon in front of the node set to

toggle its visibility on
• Right-click on the “25 Layers” node set and set the display
color to black in the color chooser dialog
• Your visualization area should now show the nodes of the
set
• The next step is to import the structural model and project the eigenvectors onto
the CFD mesh
• We’ll project the eigenvectors onto the surface of the ring as well as the node set that was just
created.
• This projection step tells AcuSolve to move the nodes according to the solution of the flexible
body
• The “Eigenmode Manager” will be used to perform this projection and update the boundary
conditions with the appropriate data.
• Note that this projection step relies on nodal coordinates and id’s
• If the mesh is changed, this step needs to be performed again!
A.278
• Open the Eigenvalue manager by clicking on the

appropriate icon in the main toolbar
• Click on “Add”, then type “Modes” for the name.
• Click on “Open” next to Import, then navigate to the
Radioss or Abaqus directory within Workshop 6 and
select the structural data file (Ring.op2 or Modal
Analysis.odb)
• Make sure the file filter is set according to the type of
results file to be loaded
• Click on “Open” to load the file
A.279
• Click on the “Show” tab in the Eigenmode

Manager, then toggle the animation button 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.
A.280
• Click on the “Transfer” tab in the Eigenmode Manager.

• Select “Transfer” next to the Flexible Body label.
• Ensure that “Flexible Walls” is selected, then click on “OK”
• This will transfer the mass, stiffness, and damping arrays
from the structural model over to the “Flexible Walls”
flexible body that was created earlier.
A.281
• Select “Transfer” next to the Simple BC label.

• Select the simple boundary condition named
“BODY” from the Reference Editor, then click on
“OK”.
• This will project the eigenvectors of the structure
onto the nodes of the surface named BODY.
A.282
• Select “Transfer” next to the Nodal BC label.

• Select the node set named “25 Layers”, then click on
“OK”.
• This will project the eigenvectors of the structure
onto the nodes of the set named 25 Layers and
activate the appropriate boundary conditions.
• This projection step causes the nodes of this set to
move directly with the structure
• Note that there is an option to scale the
eigenvectors for more complex applications.
• Close the Eigenmode Manager
A.283
• Save the model

• Click on the save icon in the toolbar, or type
Ctrl+S
• Write the AcuSolve input files and launch the
solver:
• Click on the solve icon in the toolbar, or type
Ctrl+Shift+S
• Ensure that ‘Problem name’ is set to flexibleRing
• Ensure ‘Problem directory’ is set to
path\Workshop6
• Ensure ‘Working directory’ is set to
• Select “OK”.
A.284
• Inspect the solution using acuProbe and AcuFieldView

• Plot the mesh displacements at the time history output points to get an idea of how
much the ring is deforming
• Expand ‘Time History’
• Expand ‘Node 1’ and ‘Node 2’
• Plot the displacements
• Animate the solution using AcuFieldView
A.285
• Perform DC-FSI calculation with Abaqus (if

available on your system)
• File > Save As and enter flexDC as the new database
name
• Expand ‘Global’ and double-click ‘Problem
Descripton’
• Modify ‘Title’ and ‘Sub title’ and set ‘External Code’ to
‘On’
• Select “All” in the Data tree Manager

• Right-click ‘Multiplier Function’ and select ‘New’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Piecewise linear’ and ‘Curve fit variable’
to ‘Time step’
• Click ‘Open Array’ for ‘Curve fit values’ and enter as
shown
• Forces passed to Abaqus will be ramped over 10 time
steps
A.286
• Double-click ‘External Code Parameters’

• Set ‘Socket Initiate’ to ‘Off’
• Enter name of machine running Abaqus in ‘Socket
host’
• Select a ‘Socket Port’ to use - 10000 in this example
• Set ‘Multipler function’ to ‘Multiplier Function 1’
that was just created
• Set ‘Max stagger iterations’ to 4
• This allows for better convergence of flow and mesh
equations
A.287
Workshop 6 - Flexible Body
• Expand ‘Model,’ ‘Surfaces,’ and ‘BODY’

• Disable ‘Simple Boundary Condition’ by clicking in
the check-box
• Enable ‘External Code Surface’ by clicking in the
check-box
• Set Gap factor to 0
• This is the surface used for information exchange
with Abaqus
• Expand ‘Model’, ‘Nodes’, ‘25 Layers’
• Scroll down to the ‘Mesh X-Displacement’ variable
• Change the type to ‘external code’
• Repeat this process for the ‘Mesh Y-Displacement’
and ‘Mesh Z-Displacement’ variables.
A.288
• Launch AcuSolve
• Set ‘Launch AcuSolve’ to ‘On’
• Set ‘Generate Input Files’ to ‘On’
• Hit ‘Ok’ to start the solver
• Launch Abaqus
• Open the Abaqus command prompt and/or
browse to the ‘Abaqus’ directory under
‘Workshop6’
• Issue the abaqus command:
• abaqus -job Ring_FSI -port 10000
• (Use appropriate abaqus command and port
number)
A.289
• Convert AcuSolve results to Abaqus .odb format

• acuOdb -ts a
• Converts all available time steps to the .odb file
• acuOdb -h
• Gives options for the acuOdb command (similar to acuTrans)
• The figure shows contours of fluid pressure from AcuSolve and maximum principal
stress from Abaqus
A.290
Restarting Simulations
• Simulations can be restarted in two different ways.

• From AcuConsole GUI
• From the command line
A.292
• From AcuConsole GUI

• For restarting from previous run with available
restart data, open the acuConsole database and
click on Tools > AcuSolve to open the “Launch
AcuSolve” dialog.
• In the “Launch AcuSolve” dialog under “Main” tab
set the “Restart” option to “On”.
A.293
• Click on the ‘Restart’ tab to customize the

parameters of the restart.
• Any modifications that were made to the database
since the first run will be taken into account.
• The name of the problem and the working
directory from which the simulation will restart is
shown in the boxes next to “From Problem” and
“From directory”.
• Type the run number and time step in the boxes
next to “From run” and “From time step”. Click “Ok”
to start the solver.
• In the image shown, simulation restarts from time
step 3 in run 2.
A.294
• In the “Launch AcuSolve” dialog if the “Reset time step” option is “On”, then the restarted
simulation resets the initial time and starts from time step 1.
• “Reset time increment” option should be “On” if the user changes the “Initial time
increment” for the restart run. If this option is “Off”, then the updated “Initial time
increment” value will not be used by the solver.
• If a steady state simulation needs to be restarted as a transient, change the “Analysis
type” to “Transient” in “Problem Description” and Change the “Initial time increment” in
“Auto Solution Strategy”. In the launch AcuSolve dialog turn “On” the “Reset time step”
and “Reset time increment” options and run the solver.
A.295
• For restarting a simulation in command mode, type

• acuRun -rst
• Writes and runs a file called <problem>.rst
• Includes two commands
• RESTART { }
• RUN { }
• Nothing is changed from original problem setup
A.296
• Restart with modifications

• Create a restart input file <problem>.rst
• Specify that input file at run time
acuRun -inp <problem>.rst
• The restart file starts with RESTART { } and ends with RUN { }
• Any changes/additions to the problem setup are between these commands
• Number of nodes in the problem cannot change
• The reason we cannot use RESTART for Workshop 3
• Run resumes from the latest available restart data
• Can add parameters to the RESTART command
A.297
• A problem may be restarted from any available run and time step with available
restart data
RESTART {
from_problem = "channel"
from_run = 2
from_time_step = 40
}
A.298
• Example: run a steady-state thermal problem in two steps

• Run 1
• Write input file with all flow and thermal conditions defined
• Modify input file so as not to solve temperature equation
...
flow = on
temperature = off
}
• Run acuRun with this input file
• Run 2
• Write the restart file, such as
RESTART { }
flow = off
temperature = on
}
RUN { }
• Run acuRun and specify this restart file
A.299
A.300
Heat Transfer Modeling

• AcuSolve supports many features for the modeling of heat transfer phenomena
• Conjugate heat transfer
• Heat transfer between solids and fluids.
• Radiant heat transfer
• Surface to surface radiation supported for applications having high temperature differences
• Solar Radiation
• AcuSolve supports solar radiation modeling on surfaces such as automotive windshields
• Many, many more
• Convective heat transfer from surfaces, thermal shells, etc.
A.302
• AcuSolve Heat Transfer Methodology

• AcuSolve uses an advective-diffusive equation governing the transport of enthalpy:
∂h
ρ + ρu • ∇h = ∇ • q + ρs
∂t
Where: h = enthalpy, q = heat flux, and s = thermal source terms
• This approach permits conservation of energy within the GLS formulation

• Temperature is derived from h = Cp T
A.303
• Solution Approaches
• Two commonly-used approaches for the solution of thermal problems in AcuSolve
• Solving the enthalpy equation in a sequential manner after solving the coupled flow equations
• This approach is appropriate for cases where the flow is not significantly affected by the
temperature field.
• Coupling the enthalpy equation into the global system and solving it in conjunction with the
flow equations
• This approach is more efficient for flows exhibiting a large degree of coupling between
the temperature and flow fields (i.e. buoyancy driven flows).
A.304
• Overview of Enclosure Radiation approach

• AcuSolve simulates surface-to-surface radiation using a 2 step approach
• Compute the view factors for each facet defining the radiation enclosure as a preprocessing
step.
• Add the radiative heat fluxes (based on the view factors) to the enthalpy transport equation
during the solver run
• Enclosure radiation is only supported on fluid mediums (i.e. the fluid side of fluid/solid
interfaces)
• View factors are not recomputed during the simulation
• This needs to be considered when performing moving mesh simulations
A.305
• View Factor Computation

• View factor determines the amount of radiosity emitted from one surface that is received
by another surface.
• View factor computed using hemicube algorithm that is implemented in acuView
• acuView is fully parallel application (distributed or shared)
Two surface facets of enclosure Hemicube used to determine projection of facets
A.306
• Setting up Radiation Simulations in AcuConsole

• Turn on the temperature equation and radiation
equation in the problem description
• Click ‘RAD’ from the Data tree Manager
• Define the parameters for the view factor and
flux computation using the Radiation Parameters
panel
• Note that symmetry can be modeled using the
Num Symmetry planes settings
A.307
• Setting up Enclosure Radiation in AcuConsole

• Define emissivity models for the different
materials/surfaces in the simulation
• Emissivity models can be constant, or varied using
curve fits or user defined functions
• This enables modeling of complex temperature
dependant properties
• Identify surfaces of the radiation enclosure using
“Radiation Surface”
• This associates an emissivity model to the surface
and also permits the user to specify agglomeration
of facets for the view factor computation.
A.308
• Setting up Enclosure Radiation in AcuConsole

• The radiation surfaces must define an enclosed volume
• Open volumes will cause warning messages from acuView and problems with the simulation
• Display the radiation surfaces by right-clicking on the “Surfaces” entry in the model tree, then
selecting “Show”
• Click ‘wall’ to show all radiation ‘walls’
• AcuView will automatically be run as part of the solution process
A.309
• Overview of Thermal Shell Capabilities

• AcuSolve permits the definition of thermal shells to simulate heat transfer in solid
mediums. This is useful when:
• The thickness of the component makes it inconvenient to resolve.
• Thermal shells are infinitely thin elements
• Must utilize 8 node brick or 6 node prism elements (parallel faces must be of the same
topology)
• Any number of layers/materials may be modeled within the thermal shells
• Shells can contain layers of varying thickness and material properties
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• Thermal Shells
• Shell elements have different node numbers on opposing faces
• This permits variations of pressure and temperature across the elements for shells that are
completely surrounded by fluid.
• One-dimensional conduction equation is solved within the shell elements to determine
the temperature of each layer
• This enforces constant heat flux within the layers of an element
A.311
• Using Thermal Shells

• Thermal shells are defined in the ELEMENT_SET command:
ELEMENT_SET( “Shells” ) {
elements = Read ( “shells.cnn” )
shape = eight_node_brick
quadrature = full
medium = shell
num_shell_layers = 2
shell_thicknesses = { 5.0e-3, 2.0e-3 }
shell_material_models = { “steel”, “aluminum” }
}
• The faces of the thermal shell elements may have boundary conditions applied to them
just as standard solid elements would
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• Overview of Variable Property Support

• Many thermal simulations require the specification of temperature-varying properties
• AcuSolve supports different approaches to define varying properties:
• Standard physical models or approximations (i.e. Bingham Viscosity model or Ideal Gas Law)
• Cubic spline or piecewise linear curve fit of some independent variable
• User defined function
• Written in C, compiled into a library, then loaded at runtime by AcuSolve
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• Variable Density Options

• Many variable density options available
with AcuSolve:
• Boussinesq and Ideal Gas law typically
used for heat transfer applications.
• Boussinesq accounts for density
variation only in the body force
terms
• Ideal Gas accounts for variable
density in all terms of the
momentum equations
• User Function and Curve fit options
enable users to define custom variable
property functions.
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• Variable Specific Heat Options

• For constant properties:
• AcuSolve requires input of a specific heat value
• For variable properties:
• AcuSolve requires input of the enthalpy
• Piecewise linear and Cubic Spline options enable
temperature dependency
• User Function enables more complex behaviors to be
modeled (functions of other/multiple independent
variables)
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• Variable Viscosity Options

• Many options available for viscosity models
• Piecewise Linear and Cubic Spline options enable
dependence on a single variable (temperature, species
concentration, and strain rate)
• User Function enables more complex behaviors to be
modeled (functions of other/multiple independent
variables)
• Power Law, Bingham, and Carreau are used to model
Non-Newtonian fluds.
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• Variable Conductivity Options

• Available conductivity models:
• Piecewise Linear and Cubic Spline options
enable dependence on a single variable
(temperature as well as species
concentration)
• User Function enables more complex
behaviors to be modeled (functions of
other/multiple independent variables)
• Constant Prandtl Number model computes
the conductivity based on the turbulent
Prandtl Number as well as the specific heat
and molecular viscosity.
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• Thermal Boundary Condition Options

• “Simple Boundary Condition” options permit
setting of two types of wall condition
• Fixed temperature (Value)
• Fixed heat flux (Flux)
• Heat flux option enables specification
of a constant heat flux through the
surface
• Enables specification of added
convective flux based on a heat
transfer coefficient and sink
temperature
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• “Element Boundary Conditions” options permit
more advanced settings for surface conditions:
• Different types of heat flux can be modeled
separately
• Radiation and Convective are functions of
a reference temperature
• Element Boundary Condition allows specification
of these different fluxes as a function of a single
variable via cubic spline and piecewise linear
curve fits or many variables via user function.
A.319

• “Nodal Boundary Conditions” options permit
more advanced settings for nodal temperature
values:
• Functions of a single variable can be specified via
the cubic spline and piecewise linear options
• Functions of multiple variables can be
implemented using user functions
• Experimental data (or other tabulated data) can
be interpolated onto the boundary using scattered
data and scattered data time series.
A.320

• “Periodic Boundary Condition” options permit
specification of periodic nodal temperature:
• Single unknown offset and single unknown ratio
can be used to model periodic flows with heat
addition
• Typically used with “Integrated Boundary
Condition” to set a bulk temperature value
on a plane
• User defined periodicity also available for
temperature field to model more complex
behaviors
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• Heat Source Options

• Heat sources can be specified for both fluid and
solid elements sets
• Two different types of source can be specified
• Applied per unit mass
• Applied per unit volume
• The sources can be constant, functions of a single
variable via curve fit or cubic spline, or functions of
multiple variables via a user function.
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Workshop 7 – Natural Convection


• Gain experience with the different heat transfer mechanisms simulated by AcuSolve
• Gain experience with simulations involving no inlet or outlet boundary conditions.
• Set up a heat transfer problem involving natural convection
• Load mesh by importing arm file
• Use the coupled Temperature/Flow solver
• Use Surface Manager to assign boundary condition types
• Create an analysis template and use it to perform a mesh sensitivity study
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• Supported Heat Transfer Functionality

• Conjugate Heat Transfer
• Solid Conduction
• Forced and Natural convection
• Enclosure radiation
• Solar radiation
• Thermal shell elements
• Volumetric heat generation
• Surface convection
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• Natural Convection Problem Description

• In this workshop, we will perform a steady state simulation of buoyancy driven laminar
flow caused by an internally heated cylinder contained within an air-filled cylinder. Both
cylinders are assumed to be infinitely long and the system will be modeled using half
symmetry.
• The following diagram illustrates the problem set up and the boundary conditions for the
simulation.
Cylinder filled T∞ =353 K

with air
No-slip
Solid cylinder Walls
producing heat at
a rate of 10,000 W/m3
Symmetry plane
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• Relevant Physics
• Let's review the different types of heat transfer and assumptions that are present in this
simulation before getting started:
Heat Transfer Mechanisms: Assumptions:
Conjugate heat transfer • Convective heat transfer between

between solid/fluid outer cylinder and surroundings
is being neglected
• Conduction within the outer cylinder
walls is being neglected.
• Radiation effects are negligible
All of these mechanisms could be

Conduction within simulated using AcuSolve if desired!
the solid
Natural convection
within the fluid
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• Create a new database

• Launch AcuConsole, then select File--> New
• Navigate to the Workshop 7 directory, and
name the case NaturalConvection
• Save the case
• Import the mesh into the database
• Click on 'File' 'Import' from the main
toolbar
• Select ‘ACUSIM Raw Mesh (*.arm)' from the
File Type selection box
• Select the file named 'Mesh_1.arm'
• Click on 'Open'
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• Set the Data tree Manager to ‘BAS’

• Set the display properties of model
• Expand the 'Model' branch of the model tree
• Right-click on 'Volumes' and select 'Display off'
• Right-click on 'Surfaces' and select 'Display type',
select 'solid & wire'
• Inspect the model
• Click and drag in the graphics window to rotate the
model into an isometric viewing position
• Model should appear as a simple half circle as shown
• Note: Group color schemes will vary
A.329
• Set up the global model parameters

• Expand the 'Global' branch in the Data tree
• Double-click 'Problem Description'
• Set the Title and Subtitle
• Ensure that the 'Analysis type' is set to Steady
state
• Set the 'Temperature equation' to Advective
diffusive to enable thermal computation
• This simulation is below the transition Rayleigh
Number for concentric cylinders, so leave the
'Turbulence equation' set to Laminar
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• Set the solution strategy

• Double-click 'Auto Solution Strategy'
• Ensure that the 'Analysis type' is set to 'Steady
state'
• Set the convergence tolerance to 1.0E-4
• Set the 'Num Krylov vectors' to 40
• Set the 'Relaxation factor' to 0.25
• Toggle the 'Temperature flow' button to 'on'
• This specifies that we are going to use the fully-
coupled flow/temperature solution approach
A.331
• Define the material models

• Expand 'Material Model'
• Double-click 'Air'
• Set Density 'Type' to 'Boussinesq'
• This will create a temperature varying density
that will drive the natural convection flow
• Create a new Material Model by right-clicking
'Aluminum', then selecting 'Duplicate'.
• Right click on the new model and choose
'Rename' to change the name to 'Stainless
Steel'
• Double-click 'Stainless Steel' and set the
properties according to the table below
Density Specific Heat Conductivity

8000 kg/m^3 500 J/(kg K) 16.2 W/(m K)
A.332
• Create the heat source

• Expand the 'Body Force' branch in the Global tree
• Right-click 'Body Force' and select 'New'
• Rename the newly created Body Force to 'Heat
Source'
• Double-click 'Heat Source' to edit the properties
• Set the 'Medium' to Solid
• Set the ‘Type' to Per Unit Volume
• Set the Volume Heat source to 2,000 W/m3
• This heat source will later be applied to the internal
cylinder to simulate an internal heat generation
process
A.333
• Examine the 'Gravity' Body Force

• Double-click 'Gravity' then open the Array
Editor to ensure that gravity is set to act in the -
Y direction
• Click on 'OK' to exit the array editor
• Set the Output intervals
• Expand the 'Output' branch in the Data tree
• Double-click 'Nodal Output' and set 'Time step
frequency' to 10
A.334
• Double-click 'Derived Quantity Output'

• Set the time-step frequency to 10
• This enables output of density
• Right-click 'Time History Output' and select 'New'
• Rename 'Time History Output 1' to 'Monitor Points'
• Double-click 'Monitor Points'
• Set 'Type' to 'Coordinates'
• Select 'Open Array' to enter the location of the
monitor points
• Select 'Add Row' to create 2 rows.
• Enter the following points, and hit 'OK'
A.335
• Set the initial conditions

• The initial conditions for this analysis are
especially important because we have defined
temperature-dependent properties (density). An
appropriate initial condition for temperature can
significantly reduce the number of iterations
required to reach convergence.
• Double-click 'Nodal Initial Condition'
• Set 'Temperature' to 350K
• The velocity components and pressure can be left
at the default value of zero for this analysis.
A.336
• Assign the properties to the surfaces and volumes

• Collapse the 'Global' branch in the model tree
• Expand the 'Volumes' and 'Surfaces' branches under the 'Model'
branch
• Right-click 'Surfaces' and select 'Display off'
• Right-click 'Volumes' and select 'Display on'
• The volume groups have already been assigned from the data in
the arm file
• Examine the volume groups by clicking on each of the group Fluid Region
names in the model tree to highlight them in the visualization
area.
Solid Region
A.337
• Assign Volume Properties

• Expand the 'SOLID' Volume group
• Enable 'Element Output'
• Double-click 'Element Set' to edit the
properties
• Set 'Medium' to 'Solid'
• Set 'Material Model' to 'Stainless Steel'
• Set 'Body force' to 'Heat Source'
• This associates the internal heat
generation that we created with this
volume group
• Collapse the 'SOLID' branch
A.338
• Expand the ‘FLUID’ Volume group

• Enable 'Element Output'
• Double-click 'Element Set' to edit the properties
• Set ‘Medium’ to Fluid
• Set 'Material Model' to Air
• Set 'Body force' to 'Gravity'
• We have buoyancy-driven flow due to the
spatially varying temperature.
• Collapse the 'FLUID' branch
• Collapse the 'Volumes' branch
• Right-click 'Volumes' and select 'Display off'
A.339
• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Display on’

• Right-click ‘Surfaces’ and select ‘Surface
Manager’
• Click on ‘Columns’ and ensure that ‘Simple
BC Active’ and ‘Simple BC Type’ are enabled
• Set the boundary condition types according
to the values shown in the table below.
• Click ‘Close’ to exit the Surface Manager
A.340
• Assign Thermal Boundary Condition Types

• We are going to use a fixed temperature outer wall
for this analysis, so we need to assign this thermal
boundary condition
• Expand the Surface group named ‘OUTER_WALLS’
• Double-click 'Simple Boundary Condition'
• Set ‘Temperature BC Type’ to ‘Value’
• The default thermal boundary conditions are
appropriate for the remaining surfaces, so we will
not modify them
A.341
• Assign Periodic Boundary Conditions

• We are trying to simulate infinitely long cylinders in
this analysis. To accomplish this, we will use periodic
boundary conditions.
• Right-click 'Periodics' and select 'New'
• Rename 'Periodic 1' to 'Z-Periodicity'
• Right-click 'Z-Periodicity' and select 'Import'
• Load the file 'Mesh_1.pbc' from the
NodalBoundaryConditions directory
A.342
• Expand 'Z-Periodicity' and toggle the 'Periodic

Boundary Condition' to on.
• The periodic boundary condition consists of pairs of
nodes that will be forced to have the same solution.
• The list of node pairs were contained in the
Mesh_1.pbc file that was imported.
• The node pairs will force the solution on each of the
planes perpendicular to the z-axis to be equal.
• The default setting in AcuSolve is to apply this
condition to all variables in the analysis. We will
accept this default setting.
A.343
• Assign Pressure Reference Point

• This analysis has no inlet or outlet boundary conditions. Therefore, there is no boundary
condition that sets the pressure level in the domain. To make the solution more robust,
we will set a pressure reference point using a nodal boundary condition.
• Right-click 'Nodes' and select 'New’
• Rename 'Node 1' to 'Fixed Pressure Node'

• Right-click 'Fixed Pressure Node' and select ‘Define‘.
• In the ‘Node Define Dialog box’ select ‘Selection type’ to ‘Pressure Point’ and ‘Volumes’ to
‘FLUID’. Click ‘OK’.
A.344
• Expand 'Fixed Pressure Node' and enable 'Pressure'

• The default 'Type' of 'zero' sets the nodes in this set to
pressure = 0.0
• This single node will now act as the pressure reference point
for the simulation.
• To examine the location of the node, right-click 'Fixed
Pressure Node' and select 'Display on'
• Then right-click 'Surfaces' and set 'Display type' to 'outline'
• Right-click 'Periodics' and select 'Display off'. You should now Fixed pressure
node
be able to see the fixed pressure node as a point.
A.345
• Save the model

• Click on the save icon in the toolbar, or type Ctrl+S
• Launch AcuSolve
• Click on the solve icon in the toolbar, or type
Ctrl+Shift+S
• Ensure that ‘Problem name’ is set to
'NaturalConvection'
• Ensure 'Problem directory' is set to
path\Workshop7
• Ensure ‘Working directory’ is set to
• Ensure that 'Generate AcuSolve input files' and
'Launch AcuSolve' are toggled 'On'
• Select 'Ok‘ to run the model
A.346
• Monitor the solution in AcuProbe

• Click the acuProbe icon in the main toolbar
• Plot the residuals
• Expand the 'Residual ratio' branch, then right-click 'All' and select 'Plot All'
A.347
• Plot the monitor point output

• Right-click on 'Residual ratio' branch, then select 'Plot None'
• Expand the 'Time History' branch, then expand the 'node 1' and
'node 2' branches.
• Right-click on 'y-velocity' for each of the nodes and select 'Plot'
• Plot the temperature by following this same approach.
A.348
• Save the analysis template

• Close all windows (acuTail, acuProbe, AcuSolve
Controller,etc.) except for the AcuConsole base
window.
• Select the 'Delete Mesh' icon from the main tool bar
• Click on 'Yes' when prompted for confirmation.
• Ensure that the 'Global' branch of the model tree is
collapsed and the 'Model' branch is expanded
• Expand the 'Volumes' and Surfaces' branches
• Note the red circle next to each group indicating
empty sets
• Save the template
A.349
• Import refined mesh

• All of our boundary condition and analysis settings are still
recorded in the database for future use
• Import a new mesh by clicking on the 'Import' icon from
the main tool bar.
• Select ‘ACUSIM Raw Mesh' from the File Type selection box
• Select the file named 'Mesh_2.arm'
• Click on 'Open'
• The refined model now appears on the screen with all
grouping automatically set!
• Inspect the groups to ensure that all surfaces were
properly assigned
• Assign the Pressure Reference point.
• Import the periodic node for Mesh_2 (these were not
included in the imported mesh).
• Run the model
A.350
Turbulence Modeling
Turbulence Modeling
• AcuSolve supports various types of turbulence modeling

• Steady State Simulations
• Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations solved to arrive directly at the time averaged flow
field
• Transient Simulations
• Governing equations are integrated in time to yield a time accurate simulation of transient
flows
• Many different turbulence closures are available for each type of simulation
• We will briefly discuss the closures that are available in AcuSolve in this presentation
A.352
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Background
• Turbulence is a phenomena that involves a vast range of length and time scales
• This is what makes direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent flows of engineering interest
prohibitively expensive
• As the Reynolds Number increases for a given flow, the smallest turbulent eddies decrease in
size
• Therefore, as the Reynolds Number increases, the mesh density required to resolve these
eddies increases, and the required time step size decreases!
• This is the reason DNS is rarely done in industry. However, if you have a computer large
enough, AcuSolve has been shown to perform quite well for DNS!!!
A.353
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Modeling Options

• To enable the simulation of turbulence, we look to turbulence models as a way of
reducing the cost
• There are many different “levels” of turbulence modeling
• The techniques that employ the most assumptions/modeling are typically the least
demanding from a CPU cost standpoint.
• As the number of assumptions made implicit within the model decreases, the cost and
accuracy of the model typically increases.
• Turbulence has been researched for centuries, and is still an evolving science….or should we say
art!
A.354
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Modeling Options

• LES
• Smagorinsky, WALES, Germano dynamic model, VMS
• Detached Eddy Simulation
• SA-DES, DDES, SST-DES, SAS, etc.
Reynolds Stress Models
Computing Cost
•
• Launder-Reece-Rodi, Stress-ω model, etc.
• Three Equation Models
• k-ε-RT, V2F, etc.
• One and Two Equation Models
• Spalart-Allmaras, k-ε, k-ω, SST, etc.
• Algebraic Models
• Mixing Length model, Baldwin-Lomax, Cebeci-Smith, etc.
A.355
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Modeling Options within AcuSolve

• LES
• Smagorinsky, Dynamic model, beta version of VMS
• Detached Eddy Simulation
• SA-DES, SST-DES, DDES
• One-Equation and Two-Equation Models
• Spalart-Allmaras
• Rotation/curvature correction implemented
• Nonlinear S-A model implemented
• k-ω turbulence model
• SST turbulence model
• Additional models can be implemented via User-Defined Function
• Spalart-Allmaras provides an excellent general purpose model for industrial applications
A.356
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulent Boundary Layers

• AcuSolve offers three options for the simulation of turbulent boundary layers
• Option 1: Fully resolved
• Setting “Turbulence wall type” to “Low Reynolds Number” integrates equations directly
to the wall and uses near wall damping functions to produce appropriate behavior
• Option 2: Wall Function
• Setting “Turbulence wall type” to “Wall Function” uses a wall model based on the
standard “Law of the Wall” for turbulent boundary layers
• Option 3: Running Average Wall Function
• Setting “Turbulence wall type” to “Running Average Wall Function” enforces the “Law of
the Wall” on the running average flow field.
A.357
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulent Boundary Layers
• AcuSolve’s wall functions are valid through the viscous sublayer and buffer layer
• There is no lower bound limit on the wall function
• The upper bound limit is y+ ≈ 300
A.358
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Modeling Options in AcuConsole

• Turbulence model is specified in the “Problem
Description” panel
• Different settings of the turbulence model will produce
different menu options in other panels.
• Spalart-Allmaras requires solution of a PDE, so it appears
in the Auto Solution Strategy panel. LES is algebraic, so
no entry would appear
A.359
Turbulence Modeling
• Turbulence Modeling Options in AcuConsole

• Simple Boundary Condition menus will change based
on the choice of laminar vs. turbulent.
• “Turbulence wall type” only appears for turbulent
simulations
• Setting “Turbulence wall type” to “None” omits the
surface from the collection of facets that are used for
the wall distance computation.
• Note that selecting Running Average Wall Function
requires that “Running Average” be toggled on in the
“Problem Description” panel
A.360
Turbulence Modeling
• Summary
• AcuSolve supports a broad range of turbulence modeling options:
• Steady RANS (Spalart-Allmaras) provides the most cost effective approach (single equation
model)
• Unsteady RANS may improve solution for specific applications
• Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) requires finer mesh than RANS, but often provides better
results for complex separated flows
• LES models provide additional accuracy over DES and RANS for most cases, but require fine
mesh density throughout the domain.
• Dynamic model can be used to predict complex phenomena (transition, etc.).
A.361
A.362
Workshop 8 – Honey in Tea

Workshop 8 - Honey in Tea

• Learn how to work with multiple species
• Define properties as functions of species concentration
• Use nodal initial conditions on a subset of nodes via the script option
A.364
• AcuSolve is currently formulated for one fluid

• Scalar transport used to track other species
• Properties can be functions of species concentration
• This models a ‘miscible’ property relative to the mixing of multiple fluids
• ‘Honey’ in ‘Tea’ in this case
• Conservation is only as good as the convergence level achieved
A.365

• File -> New
• Browse to the Workshop8 directory
• Enter name as honey_tea
• Import the mesh
• File  Import
• Select ‘ACUSIM Raw Mesh’ in the file filter
drop-down
• Navigate to: Workshop8/MESHIN.DIR
• Select acusolve.arm and click ‘Open’
A.366
• There are 2 volumes in the mesh

• Cup_Honey - The portion at the top with the species concentration = 1.0 (all honey)
• Cup_Main - The portion with the species concentration = 0.0 (all water)
• There are 2 surfaces in the mesh
• Top - The top of the ‘cup’
• Walls - The walls of the ‘cup’
A.367
• Set the data tree to “Basic”

• Ensure that the “BAS” button is selected in the
Data tree Manager
• Expand ‘Global’ and double-click ‘Problem
Description’
• Set ‘Title’ to ‘Honey in tea’
• Set ‘Sub title’ to ‘Species concentration’
• Set ‘Species equation’ to ‘Advective diffusive’
and ‘Num. species’ to ‘1’
A.368
• Expand ‘Solution Strategy’ and double-click ‘Auto Solution Strategy’

• Set ‘Max time steps’ to ’200’
• Set ‘Initial time increment’ to ‘0.125 sec’
• Yields 25 seconds of simulation time
• Set ‘Convergence tolerance’ to ‘0.0001’
• Set ‘Max stagger iterations’ to ‘6’
• Better convergence per time step
• Set ‘Num. Krylov vectors’ to ’20’
A.369
• Define a new material

• Rename ‘Material Model 1’ to ‘Tea-Honey’
• Double-click its name to set the properties
• For Density set ‘Type’ to ‘Piecewise Linear’
• Set ‘Curve fit variable’ to ‘Species 1’
• Click ‘Open Array’ for ‘Curve fit values’
• Click ‘Add’ to yield a second row
• Enter the values as shown
• Species1 = 0., Density = 1000. (water)
• Species1 = 1., Density = 1500. (honey)
• Linear in between
• Click ‘OK’ to save the values
A.370
• For Viscosity set ‘Type’ to ‘Piecewise Linear’

• Set ‘Curve fit variable’ to ‘Species 1’
• Click ‘Open Array’ for ‘Curve fit values’
• Click ‘Add’ to yield a second row
• Enter the values as shown
• Species1 = 0., Viscosity = 0.001 (water)
• Species1 = 1., Viscosity = 2. (honey)
• Linear in between
A.371
• Define gravity
• Expand ‘Body Force’ and double-click ‘Gravity’
• Click ‘Open Array’ for ‘Gravity’
• Set ‘Y-component’ to ‘0.0’ and ‘Z-component’ to ‘-9.81’
• Expand ‘Output’ and double-click ‘Nodal Output’

• Set ‘Time step frequency’ to ‘2’
A.372
• Double-click on ‘Nodal Initial Condition’

• Toggle ‘Show all variables’ on
• Change “Species 1 initial condition type” to
“Script”
• Toggle ‘Satisfy species_1 BC’ on
• Click on ‘Open Text’ next to ‘Species 1 script’
• Enter the following script to set the species
concentration to 1 in the element set that
represents honey, and 0 elsewhere:
value = 0
if InVolume(“Cup_Honey”): value=1
A.373
• Define Volumes
• Expand ‘Model’ and ‘Volume’
• Expand ‘Cup_Honey’ and double-click ‘Element Set’
• Set ‘Material model’ to ‘Tea-Honey’
• Set ‘Body force’ to ‘Gravity’
• Follow the same steps for ‘Cup_Main’
A.374
• Define Surfaces
• Expand ‘Top’ and double-click ‘Simple Boundary Condition’
• Set ‘Type’ to ‘Slip’
• Default settings for ‘Walls’ are correct
A.375
• Create a reference pressure node

• Right-click on ‘Nodes’ and select ‘New’
• Rename the new node set to “Reference Pressure
Node”
• Right-click on “Reference Pressure Node” and select
‘Define’
• In the “Node Define” dialog box, select “Nearest
Node” and enter {.5,.5,.9} for the target coordinates.
A.376
• Toggle the ‘Pressure’ variable on beneath

‘Reference Pressure Node’
• Set the ‘Type’ to zero.
• For incompressible flows, the absolute pressure
is not needed. Instead, we solve for relative
pressure.
• For most cases, an outflow boundary condition
sets the reference pressure for the solver
• Since we don’t have an outlet in this simulation,
the reference pressure node acts to fix the
pressure at some baseline level.
A.377
• Run AcuSolve
• Set ‘Launch AcuSolve’ to ‘On’
• Set ‘Generate Input Files’ to ‘On’
• Click ‘Ok’ to write the files and launch the solver
A.378
Working with Expressions and Units

• Changing the units

• This can be done in two different ways
• The first method is to type the number and units with a space in between and hit Enter.
• Next method is to click on the units next to the box for entering numbers. A list of units
appears. Select the desired unit.
• When AcuConsole writes the input file all the data is converted to SI units.
A.380
• Variable Manager
• Variable Manager dialog can be opened by clicking on ‘Variable List’ icon in the tool bar.
• Variables are defined in this dialog and are used in the panels area when entering floating
point and integer values.
A.381
• Click on ‘Add’ for defining new Variable. Rename the variable as desired.
• Enter the expression in the ‘Expression column’. Before the expression use equal symbol
(=) or colon equal symbols (:=). The expression is valid only if any of these two symbols
are used.
• (=) just calculates the value of the expression. (:=) updates the value of expression if any
relative variable is changed.
• The value of the expression is shown in ‘Value’ column.
• Information regarding the variable can be included in the ‘Description column’.
• Each row in the Variable Manager has one variable defined. Variables can be deleted,
moved up and down and sorted based on the values using the Del, Move Up, Move
Down and Sort buttons.
• Variables can be imported and exported by clicking on Import and export buttons. Only
ACL file format is used.
A.382
• Mass flow rate (M) is defined in the Variable Manager dialog. This variable is used in Inlet
SBC as shown below.
• Mass flux is specified with a variable (M). Colon equal to symbol (:=) is used before the
variable for automatic update of the expression if any variable in the expression is
changed.
A.383
• Delayed Variable Spreadsheet

• This can be opened by clicking on ‘Delayed List’ icon in the tool bar.
• This functions similar to the Variable Manager.

• In Variable Manager, the variable is defined first and used next, whereas delayed
variables are used first and defined next in the Delayed Variable Spreadsheet.
• This spreadsheet opens only if there is a delayed variable.
A.384
• Usage of Delayed List is explained using the following example.

• For the inlet SBC change the value of X-velocity from 0.0 to ::=Vel and click on the
Delayed List icon.
• Delayed Variable Spreadsheet appears. This sheet has four columns.
• First column gives the item in which the delayed variable is used.
(Model>Surfaces>Inlet>Simple Boundary Condition)
• Second column provides details of the parameter (X-velocity) for which delayed variable
is used.
• Third column gives the name of delayed variable (Vel) used for the parameter.
• Fourth column gives the default value of the parameter.
A.385
• Change the default value to the desired value and click Ok.
• If the delayed variables are not defined, Delayed variable spreadsheet appears when the
variable is needed. User needs to update the spreadsheet if required and click ‘Ok’ for the
process to continue.
A.386
Setting User Preferences

• Preferences
• User can set the preferences by clicking on File > Preferences in the menu bar.
• Full control is provided to the user for adjusting the default settings.
A.388
• General Tab
• Under this section users can modify the number of recent files, change the size of icons in the
AcuConsole GUI, adjust the font style and size etc.
• After generating the mesh user can set not to load the mesh or to load using the ‘Allow auto
load mesh’.
• Default option for appending the mesh can be adjusted by setting ‘Allow mesh append’.
A.389
• Data Base
• In this tab, Auto flush and the option for compressing the data base can be selected.
A.390
• Active
• By default the ‘Surface Output’ under ‘Simple Boundary Condition’ for each surface is set to ‘On’.
This can be set to off by selecting ‘Off’ for ‘Default Surface Output’.
A.391
• Export
• In this tab, user can set the exported mesh file type to be in ASCII or binary format. By default
this set to ASCII.
A.392
• Vis Window
• By using these settings users can set the visualization area as desired.
• Type of transparency, shadings, size of point and width of lines in the visualization area can be
adjusted.
• ‘Highlight Model Entities’ option by default is set to ‘On’. Therefore when volume or surface
elements are clicked on in Data tree the appropriate volume or surface gets highlighted in
visualization area. But for large models this may take more time. In such cases putting this
option off can be helpful.
A.393
• Mesh Display
• If a mesh is loaded then the default entities to be displayed and their display type can be set
under this tab.
• Entities here refer to volumes, surfaces, nodes etc.
• If the option is set to ‘none’ then those elements are set to off.
• Volumes, Surfaces, Node sets generated, PBC surfaces, Edges and zone meshes created can be
set to display by default.
A.394
• Geom Display
• Similar to Mesh Display, the CAD model that is loaded will be displayed as desired by setting the
options under this tab.
A.395
• Surface Highlight
• When clicked on a particular surface in Data tree, appropriate surface will be highlighted in the
visualization area. The display type when highlighted can be different than the original display
type set for that particular surface. This can be set by adjusting this tab.
• For example if a surface has display type set to ‘Solid & Wireframe’. When highlighted, the user
likes to display it as wireframe. This can be done by setting ‘wireframe’ for ‘Solid & Wireframe’
as shown in below image.
A.396
• Volume Highlight
• Similar to surface highlight option, the volume display type can also be set as desired by using
this tab.
• Please refer to ‘Surface Highlight’ for detailed explanation.
A.397
• Color Scheme
• The default scheme for coloring the CAD model when loaded can be set using this tab.
• Three options are available for setting the ‘Outline Line Color’ and ‘Wireframe Line Color’. Users
can set them as desired.
A.398

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AcuSolve Introductory Training

Sec. No. Description Slide No.

Table of Contents (Continued)

Sec. No. Description Slide No.

11 Workshop3 – Blower2 (Using Sliding Mesh) A.145

Table of Contents (Continued)

Sec. No. Description Slide No.

21 Heat Transfer Modeling A.303

• ACUSIM Software, Inc. acquired by Altair Engineering, Inc. January 2011

Altair HyperWorks : Licensing System

• Licensing system based on HyperWorks Units (HWU) not per product

• A general-purpose incompressible and weakly compressible flow solver

Third Party Mesh Pre-Processor

Analysis Direct Coupling Structural

Acoustic CAA Translators / Third Party

• Markets currently using AcuSolve:

• Why choose AcuSolve?

• AcuSolve’s differentiation via Finite Elements:

Better Technology….Better Results!

• Conservation equation systems in 3D

Vehicle Cabin Heating / Cooling

• Full Set of Boundary Conditions

• Highly Effective Solver Technology

• Advanced finite element technology

• A GUI-based pre-processor for AcuSolve

• Import ( water-tight models)

AcuMeshSim AcuSolve AcuPrep

Database, Graphics, GUI Engine,

• AcuMeshSim, AcuSolve and other executables can be run on a different machine /

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Create a new database

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Auto Solution Strategy

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Visible entity changes to Geometry

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Right-click on Model and select Purge.

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Global Mesh Attributes

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Monitor the mesh generation process in AcuTail window

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

AcuConsole Demo - Pipe Flow

• Post process in AcuFieldView

• Simulation process consists of running multiple programs:

• Refer to the Programs Reference Manual downloadable via Client Login

Data tree Manager Visualization

The following panel appears:

Equivalent command line argument:

acuRun -do all -pb demo -np

Equivalent series of command line arguments:

Prepare the input:

Compute the view factors:

Launch the solver:

The following panel appears:

Equivalent command line argument:

acuTrans –out to table

• Additional acuTrans Examples

• There are many more utility programs