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Chapter 5. Unit Systems

This chapter describes the units used in

FLUENT

and how you can control them. Infor-mation is organized into the following sections:

•

Section5.1:Restrictions on Units

•

Section5.2:Units in Grid Files

•

Section5.3:Built-In Unit Systems in

FLUENT

•

Section5.4:Customizing Units

FLUENT

allows you to work in any unit system, including inconsistent units. Thus, forexample, you may work in British units with heat input in Watts or you may work in SIunits with length deﬁned in inches. This is accomplished by providing

FLUENT

with acorrect set of conversion factors between the units you want to use and the standard SIunit system that is used internally by the solver.

FLUENT

uses these conversion factorsfor input and output, internally storing all parameters and performing all calculationsin SI units. Both solvers always prompt you for the units required for all dimensionalinputs.Units can be altered part-way through a problem setup and/or after you have completedyour calculation. If you have input some parameters in SI units and then you switch toBritish, all of your previous inputs (and the default prompts) are converted to the newunit system. If you have completed a simulation in SI units but you would like to reportthe results in any other units, you can alter the unit system and

FLUENT

will convertall of the problem data to the new unit system when results are displayed. As notedabove, all problem inputs and results are stored in SI units internally. This means thatthe parameters stored in the case and data ﬁles are in SI units.

FLUENT

simply convertsthese values to your unit system at the interface level.

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Unit Systems

5.1 Restrictions on Units

It is important to note that the units for some inputs in

FLUENT

are diﬀerent from theunits used for the rest of the problem setup.

•

You must always deﬁne the following in SI units, regardless of the unit system youare using:

–

boundary proﬁles (see Section7.26:Boundary Proﬁles)

–

source terms (see Section7.28:Deﬁning Mass, Momentum, Energy, and Other Sources)

–

custom ﬁeld functions (see Section31.5:Custom Field Functions)

–

data in externally-created XY plot ﬁles (see Section29.8.3:XY Plots of File Data)

–

user-deﬁned functions (See the separate UDF Manual for details about user-deﬁned functions.)

•

If you define a material property by specifying a temperature-dependent polynomialor piecewise-polynomial function, remember that temperature in the function isalways in units of Kelvin or Rankine. If you are using Celsius or Kelvin as yourtemperature unit, then polynomial coefficient values must be entered in terms of Kelvin; if you are using Fahrenheit or Rankine as the temperature unit, valuesmust be entered in terms of Rankine. See Section8.2:Defining Properties Using Temperature-Dependent Functionsfor information about temperature-dependentmaterial properties.

5.2 Units in Grid Files

Some grid generators allow you to deﬁne a set of units for the mesh dimensions. However,when you read the grid into

FLUENT

, it is always assumed that the unit of length is me-ters. If this is not true, you will need to scale the grid, as described in Section6.7.1:Scal- ing the Grid.

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5.3 Built-In Unit Systems in

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5.3 Built-In Unit Systems in

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provides four built-in unit systems: British, SI, CGS, and “default.” You canconvert all units from one system to another in the

Set Units

panel (Figure5.3.1), usingthe buttons under the

Set All To

heading.

Deﬁne

−→

Units...

Figure 5.3.1: The

Set Units

PanelTo choose the English Engineering standard for all units, click on the

british

button;to select the International System of units (SI) standard for all units, click on the

button; to choose the CGS (centimeter-gram-second) standard for all units, click on the

cgs

button; and to return to the “default” system, click on the

default

button. Thedefault system of units is like SI, but uses degrees instead of radians for angles. Clickingon one of the buttons under

Set All To

will immediately change the unit system. Youcan then close the panel if you are not interested in customizing any units.Changing the unit system in the

Set Units

panel causes all future inputs that have unitsto be based on the newly selected unit system.

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