Meshing & Geometry

• Structured finite difference/control volume
• Multi-Block Gridding with:– Nested blocks– Linked blocks
• Fractional areas/volumes (FAVOR^TM) for efficient & accurate geometry definition
• Solids Modeler
• Imports most CAD files
• Grid & geometry independence

Flow Type Options

• Internal, external & free-surface flows
• Three, two & one dimensional problems
• Transient flows
• Cartesian or cylindrical coordinates
• Inviscid, viscous, laminar & turbulent flows
• Non-inertial reference frames
• Multiple scalar species
• Two-phase flows
• Heat transfer with phase change
• Saturated & unsaturated porous media

Thermal Modeling Options

• Natural convection
• Forced convection
• Conduction in fluid & solid
• Fluid-solid heat transfer– Conduction– Specified heat flux– Specified solid temperature
• Heat transfer to voids from fluid/obstacles
• Distributed energy sources/sinks in fluids or solids
• Radiation by emissivity
• Viscous heating
• Temperature-dependent material properties

Numerical Modeling Options

• Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method for fluid interfaces-TruVOF
• First, second or third order advection
• Sharp fluid interface tracking
• Implicit & explicit modeling options
• Point, line relaxation & GMRES pressure solvers
• User-defined variables, subroutines & output
• Utilities for runtime interaction during execution

Flow Definition Options

• General initial and boundary conditions– Symmetry– Rigid walls– Continuative– Periodic– Specified pressure– Specified velocity– Outflow– Grid overlay– Hydrostatic– Custom– Volume flow rate– Linear and non-linear surface waves

• Restart previous simulation– Continuation of a simulation– Overlay boundary conditions from a previous simulation – Change mesh– Add, delete or change model

parameters

Fluid Modeling Options

• One incompressible fluid – confined or with free surfaces
• Two incompressible fluids – miscible or with sharp interfaces
• Compressible fluid – subsonic, transonic, supersonic
• Stratified fluid
• Acoustic phenomena
• Mass particles with variable density or diameter

Physical Modeling Options

• Multi-species scour deposition & bedload transport
• Cavitation
• Phase change (liquid-vapor, liquid-solid & liquid-gas)
• Surface tension
• Thermocapillary effects
• Wall adhesion
• Wall roughness
• Vapor & gas bubbles
• Solidification & melting (heat-of-transformation table)
• Mass/momentum/energy sources
• Shear, density & temperature-dependent viscosity
• Thixotropic viscosity
• Elastic stress
• Electric field
• Elastic membranes & walls
• Evaporation residue
• Dielectric phenomena
• Electro-osmosis
• Electrostatic particles
• Electro-mechanical effects
• Joule heating
• Air entrainment
• Molecular & turbulent diffusion
• Temperature-dependent material properties

Data Processing Options

• Automatic or custom graph requests
• Interactive OpenGL-based graphics (grid overlay optional)
• Color or B/W vector, contour, 3D surface & particle plots
• Moving history & probe data
• Force & moment computations
• Animation output
• PostScript, JPEG & Bitmap output
• Streamlines
• STL geometry viewer

Metal Casting Models Turbulence Models Chemistry Models

• Solidification & melting
• Solidification shrinkage with interdendritic feeding
• Microporosity
• Binary segregation during solidification
• Solid-fraction dependent latent heat release
• Thermal die cycling
• Thermal stress & deformations
• Defect tracking
• Cavitation potential
• Lost-foam casting
• Semi-solid material
• Moisture in sand & molds
• Core gas generation
• Back pressure & vents
• Shot sleeves
• Air Entrainment
• Temperature-dependent material properties

Two-Phase & Two-Component Models

• Liquid/liquid & gas/liquid interfaces
• Two-fluid mixtures
• One compressible fluid with a dispersed incompressible component
• Two-component drift-flux
• Two-component, vapor/non-condensible gases
• Phase transformations for gas-liquid & liquid-solid
• Adiabatic bubbles
• Bubbles with phase change
• Continuum fluid with discrete particles
• Scalar transport

Discrete Particle Models

• Massless marker particles
• Mass particles of variable size/mass
• Linear & quadratic fluid-dynamic drag
• Monte-Carlo diffusion
• Particle-Fluid momentum coupling
• Coefficient of restitution or sticky particles
• Point or volumetric particle sources
• Charged particles
• Probe particles

• Prandtl mixing length
• One-equation transport
• Two-equation κ-ε model
• RNG κ-ε model
• Large eddy simulation

Porous Media Models

• Variable porosity
• Directional porosity
• General flow losses (linear & quadratic)
• Capillary pressure
• Unsaturated flow
• Heat transfer in porous media
• Porous baffles & solid objects with linear & quadratic flow losses

Advanced Physical Models

• General Moving Object model with 6 Degrees of Freedom–user specified motion or fully-coupled with fluid flow
• Rotating/spinning objects
• Collision model
• Moving object assemblies
• Tethered moving objects (springs & ropes)
• Flexing membranes and walls

Shallow Flow Models

• Shallow water model
• General topography
• Wetting & drying
• Wind shear
• Ground roughness effects

User Conveniences

• Mesh & initial condition generators
• Time-step control for accuracy & stability
• Automatic limited compressibility
• Convergence control
• Mentor help to optimize efficiency
• Change solution parameters as solver runs
• Manage & launch multiple simulations
• Automatic termination based on user-defined criteria

• Stiff equation solver for chemical rate equations
• Stationary or advected species

Coupling with Other Programs

• Geometry input from Stereolithography (STL) files – binary or ASCII
• Geometry input from ANSYS or I’DEAS tetrahedral data
• Direct interfaces with EnSight, FIELDVIEW & Tecplot visualization programs
• PLOT3D output
• Neutral file output
• Extensive customization possibilities
• Topographic data

Supported Platforms

Hardware Requirements

The hardware requirements to run FLOW-3D depend on the number of physical models active during the simulation. An iso-thermal, inviscid simulation requires roughly 1GB of memory for 2.5 million computational cells in double precision. Activating turbulence & heat transfer increases the memory requirements by about 30%. A single precision solver reduces the memory requirements by roughly 40%.

FLOW-3D & TruVOF are registered trademarks in the USA and other countries.