Where can I look to find information on Flow Simulations general information? I'm wanting to know the difference between global goals and normal to "y" goals. I'm new to flow simulation and I am experimenting with different shapes and vehicles and will continue to do so but it would be nice to know what the button means before I push it.
Thanks
Global goals means a scalar quantity like temperature that can be averaged on the whole domain of calculation.
A surface goal is a scalar or vector that can be averaged or measured on a surface like a pressure or a fluid velocity that passes through that surface in case it is an inlet or an outlet. Or it can be mass flow rate that is defined by a surface.
I don't know what normal to "y" means but I suppose it is a direction so it could be a vector quantity goal.
Goals can be quantities that either are monitored by the user during solving or they are used by the solver to check the convergence.
When you define the goals you have the option to use them or not for convergence criteria.
If you have a steady state flow problem you need at least one goal that converges at some point in CPU time which would be the criteria for stopping the calculation. If it does not converge the problem is unstable or at least the definition of the initial conditions and the boundary conditions are badly defined so it needs the intervention of the user to correct the problem definition.
If you have a transient flow (time parameter is important and is used in calculations) then you don't need a goal, you will have anyways all the quantities calculated at the end of the solution and you can visualize them any way you want. But the solution or the stability of the solution it is very sensitive to the time step interval so it is more complicated than the steady state flow problems.
Launch Flow Simulation, then go to Help> SOLIDWORKS Simulation> Flow Simulation Online Help or Flow Simulation Tutorials or Flow Simulation Technical Reference
There are also some documents that should be in the folder:
Program Files/SOLIDWORKS Corp/SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation/lang/english/Docs
- solvingengineeringproblems.pdf
- technicalreference.pdf (which is the same document that you can find in the Help menu)
- Tutorial.pdf