Hello there,

I have a question about a ducted contra-rotating propeller in Solidworks 2011 Flow simulation.

I 'm a beginner, and i'd like to evaluate the effect (on the flaps) of contra-rotating propeller position along the wing of a concept design aircraft. Using contra-rotating we hope to achieve an purely axial flow

Propellers are buried in the wing. Will have crazy drag interferences, i know...

In previous, similar Solidworks analysis i performed, i used to include in the analysis the complete 3d model of the propeller, then create a rotating region around propeller and so on.

This time, i have not the real propeller model, it is under development, so i would to perform an analysis simulating it just like an actuator disk, knowing its dimensions, and design requirements as power, thrust, so its velocity drop. I don't need anymore. And we are talking about a contra-rotating prop, so no rotational flow is needed to be simulated.

THE PROBLEM:                                                                      

I modeled my wing/duct assembly but....i was not able to assign flow mass inlet and velocity outlet boundary conditions to propeller duct front and rear faces. I used, in the past, Fluent and i remember i made volume domain subtractions, so i always had faces to apply b.c.

Now i have just solid part (wing and duct) faces, and seems that Solidwarks don't let me to create isolated surfaces to apply b.cs, i can just choose existing solid faces and i understand it, i have to put conditions on some domain connected elements. But if i model a volume contained in the fan, just to apply bc's, it won't work because i can't deactivate such solid without loosing bc's applied on it.

I will appreciate a lot if anyone can help me.

Than You in advance,

Marco