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4 Introduction to the ANSYS Workbench Environment

ENGINEERING
Before proceeding to the development of the model it is important to familiarise yourself with
the layout and symbols commonly used. Those particular to a particular part of the program
will be introduced in the relevant section.

4.1 Logging into the application server

The use of ANSYS within the School is through the application server.

• Within the Wits network (either directly or by VPN), navigate to

https://apps.mech.wits.ac.za/ in your browser. While this should work in any browser,
if there are problem it is suggested that you try using Windows Internet Explorer

• If you are using the application on your personal computer for the first time, you will
need to follow these steps:

1. When prompted to do so download the Citrix Receiver installer

2. Install the Citrix Receiver by following the installation prompts given (you will
need administrator rights to do so)
3. Refresh your browser page for the application server

• You should get to a landing page that looks as shown in Figure 2.

2 Log in using your
Mech domain authentication data (i.e. what you use to log into the PC Pool in SWE)

Figure 2: Citrix login page for application server

• Once you have logged in, you will be presented with icons for applications available
on the server, as shown (for example) in Figure 3.
3 If there is a suite of applications it

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will appear as a folder icon and give all available applications within it. You will also
notice the log off button. It is important to understand at this stage that although

ENGINEERING
applications run on your terminal will appear as normal windows they are actually
being run on the application server and only the graphical interface as it would appear
on a local computer is being presented to you. Obviously this also means that without
a network connection to the application server you will not be able to work.

File manager Access to PC Pool computers

Complete list of apps available

App launch icon Home page with your favourite apps

Log out

Figure 3: Application dashboard of Citrix application server

For the purposes of this course we will be using ANSYS© Fluent version 2021 R1.

4.2 General layout

Once you have opened ANSYS Workbench you will be presented with a window which looks
like that shown in figure Figure 4.
4 You can choose to have the tips shown at the start if
you wish (disabled in the current view). You can access the ‘Getting Started’ menu at any
time by going to the Help →Getting Started menu item The Analysis Systems block includes
systems that are packaged to represent the complete work flow of various sorts of model. You
can use these if you wish, but it has proved to be more useful for a new user to work with
component systems so that only part of their work is lost when some part of the model fails.

The component systems are shown in the next tab of the navigation tree on the left of the
ANSYS Workbench window, as shown in Figure 5.
5 The systems available in each area will
depend on the licence available to you. If there are no systems / components shown, it
typically means that licences are unavailable for some reason, typically that the licence has
expired or that the licence server is offline. There are four toggles shown in the Workbench
environment as well:

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ENGINEERING
Toolbox - Analysis Systems

Figure 4: ANSYS Workbench when you first open it

Toolbox - Component Systems

Figure 5: ANSYS Workbench component systems and information toggles

• The Job Monitor toggle: this allows you to show or hide the messages sent through
to Workbench. These may be sent by the other programs being used or may be raised
by Workbench itself

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• The DPS toggle: this allows you to show or hide the Design Point data when you
are using the ANSYSDesign Point Service (DPS) for large parametric studies

ENGINEERING
• The Progress toggle: this allows you to show or hide the monitor of resource usage
and progress when you have multiple jobs queued

• The Messages toggle: this allows you to show or hide the messages sent through to
Workbench. These may be sent by the other programs being used or may be raised by
Workbench itself

The main open area is called the Project Schematic and is the area in which components will
be placed and linked allowing you an overview of the structure of the model created.

4.3 Data Structure

It is important to also have some understanding of the way in which ANSYS Workbench
arranges the data in a simulation. At this stage you have no simulation defined so you will
not be able to refer to your file system but this section should be revisited once your model
has been developed.

When you save a Workbench project, two items are created: a .wbpj file and a folder with
the name of the project followed by ” files”. It is important to realise at this point that
the .wbpj file is only the project header file which contains the information relating to the
relative layout and connections of the component and solution systems used. None of the
actual Computational Mechanics (CM) data are included in this file. Rather, all of the actual
CM data are included in various folders within the files folder. This means that if you want
to move your simulation data to another computer for assistance or to work there, you need to
take both items. It is possible to save the entire group to a repository but this is a compressed
file which will need to be uncompressed on the destination computer before the simulation
can be resumed.

If you open up the files folder you will typically see three or four items:

• dp0: The name of this folder stands for ”design point 0”. This refers to the fact that
you may create models with several design points and the data for each are separately
stored. Simple models normally have only one design point. The design point folders
are the ones which will contain the separated data for each stage of a simulation

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• user files: This is a folder in which some of your user files may be stored. However,
some files, such as UDFs (subsection
subsection 7.3),
7.3 must be stored in the design point folders

ENGINEERING
for proper use

• .project cache: This is another configuration file. You will never need to edit this

• .lock: This is a file created when the workbench project is open to show that it is
locked by another user. If your simulation is unexpectedly shut down (through power
loss, for example) this file will remain and Workbench will prompt you to unlock the
project. At the same time that the .lock file is created, a hidden copy of the entire files
folder is created which is where changes are actually made. Only when finally saving
the project are the changes updated in the main folders

If you open the design point folder, you will see, at various stages of a model, one or more of
the following folders:

• SYS: This is the folder in which files created by the system for use in other component
or solution systems will be saved. There may be various folders within this folder but
you normally won’t need to use this. It is worth noting that part of the meshing data
(the .msh file which can be directly imported to Fluent) is typically stored here

• global: As the name suggests this is a folder the contents of which are accessible by
any component of the simulation. Although there are folders and files which will be
automatically created there by Workbench (such as the remainder of the meshing data
subsection 6.4)),
(subsection 6.4 this location is important as it is where UDFs should be placed for
inclusion in Fluent

• Geom: This folder is created if you use the DesignModeler tool (subsection
subsection 5.7)
5.7 to
create the geometry for your simulation. While it is one that you normally won’t need
to access, the geometry files are stored here and copies of external geometry files that
are imported are also placed here

• FLU or FFF: These folders are created if you use a Fluent (subsection
subsection 7.9)
7.9 component
system or solution system, respectively. Within this folder is the folder, typically named
Fluent, where the case and data files saved by Fluent are automatically stored. This
location is particularly important to note as these are the actual CFD files that you
will need to analyse for your final results

Fluent data are stored in two associated files: the case (.cas.h5) and data (.dat.h5) files.
The case file contains the specification of the solver and the co-ordinates of the mesh nodes
amongst other settings. The data file contains only the associated flow field values at each of

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the nodes. These files have been changed to the Common Fluids Format (CFF) and so are
compressed in the h5 format.

ENGINEERING

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5 Geometry

ENGINEERING
5.1 Introduction

When defining the geometry to be used in a model, there are several considerations to be
borne in mind: domain dimensionality, symmetry, size and layout. Although these decisions
are part of the initial setup of a model, very often one has to revise the geometry in the later
iterations thereof since limitations or improvements are often only identified at those stages.
Meshing and solver constraints inform the layout of the geometry and longer experience in
CFD will enable users to develop more refined models earlier in the process.

5.2 Fluid Domain

A fundamental consideration when creating a CFD model is that it is the fluid to be studied
and not any bodies with which it is interacting that must be modelled e.g. if you want to
model the flow around a car, the geometry of your model domain will be the block of air
around the car and the car will (typically) be a ‘hole’ in the domain.

5.3 Domain Symmetry

One of the simplest ways to reduce the computation time of a model is to reduce the domain
size as far as possible. Before limiting the domain extent for free-flow models, it is important
to consider if symmetry may allow domain reduction. If a flow field is inherently symmetrical
then the use of a symmetry boundary condition will typically halve the computation time
(because only half of the domain is actually computed). It is this reasoning that spurred the
subsection 5.4).
development of the axisymmetric model type (subsection 5.4

It is important when considering the use of a symmetry boundary condition to be aware of

the physical implications thereof. The symmetry boundary type, by definition, cannot allow
flow to cross it as that would define a spontaneous creation or destruction of matter, violating
the continuity of mass. As a result, any flow directed toward the symmetry plane will reflect
totally from that surface. This consideration is most important in three-dimensional (3D)
models. If, for example, a single plane of symmetry is used in the definition of the model it
will preclude the possibility of helical vortex shedding in the wake of a bluff body (such as
a bullet) because a helix has no planes of linear symmetry. While this type of wake is fairly
uncommmon, unless it is known that the wake does not exhibit this behaviour, it cannot be

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assumed. If time or computing resource pressures force you to limit the model in such a way,
this must be borne in mind when analysing the results produced.

ENGINEERING
5.4 Domain Dimensionality

One of the first considerations for a CFD model is the dimensionality i.e. what order of
spatial dimension the model will have. There are two basic types of model and one of them
is sub-divided:

• 3D

• two-dimensional (2D):

– Planar
– Axisymmetric
– Axisymmetric Swirl

5.4.1 Three-dimensional models

While a 3D model is the most complete model that you can make in CFD, the higher di-
mensional order means that, for example, a cubic volume of the same edge length as a plane
square will take 4 - 8 times as long to solve. Thus, 3D models are normally only used if abso-
lutely necessary as dictated by flow behaviour. This is easier to understand when considering
the limitation imposed by a 2D model: when a model is specified as 2D it generally limits the
flow only to the plane of the model. In other words, the value of out-of-plane flow is forced
to be zero. In many cases, especially of models used for initial estimates, this limitation is
suitable but some flow fields inherently require a full 3D description of the flow field and
cannot be modelled two-dimensionally.

5.4.2 Two-dimensional models

As explained above, a two-dimensional model will typically limit the flow to the model plane
and set the out of plane flux to zero. It is worth noting that most solvers are written
exclusively to solve 3D models and that 2D models are solved as special cases where the
out-of-plane dimension is fixed to some unit value.

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5.4.2.1 Planar

ENGINEERING
This is the basic form of the 2D model. This is simply a representation of a field of infinite
depth in which the behaviour at any point through the depth of the field is the same for a
particular location within the plane. This is the method used for most fields described as
being two-dimensional. These models are based on effectively creating a computation block
of unit depth though the mesh itself is represented only as a plane.

5.4.2.2 Axisymmetric

A common type of flow within engineering is flow within or around bodies of revolution.
Examples of this include the flow within pipes or around a bullet. The axisymmetric (a
combination of the words ‘axis’ and ‘symmetric’) formulation is one which allows you to
model these 3D fields using a 2D formulation because the flow field is the same for a given
circle around the axis of revolution. An axisymmetric model is set up so that one of the
boundaries is the axis of the flow field (for example the centrelines of the pipe or bullet), which
is often required to coincide with one of the principal axes of the domain space. Normally
axisymmetric models must be defined in the XY Plane and the axis must lie along the X-
axis. Logically, an axisymmetric model can also have only one axis of symmetry so fields
with multiple bodies of revolution in them will have to be modelled as 3D.

Fluxes in an axisymmetric model are calculated incorporating the distance from the axis.
This means that a point twice as far from the axis with the same flow speed and density will
represent twice the mass flux because it represents the flow though a circular line with twice
the circumference. Flow in an axisymmetric model is constrained to the plane of the model
and this means that there can be no helical flow (i.e. sprial swirl) of the flow.

5.4.2.3 Axisymmetric Swirl

It is well known that many flows in engineering, such as pipe flows, involve swirl. This
means that the flow moves in the tangential, radial, and longitudinal directions. Since the
axisymmetric boundary condition prohibits out-of-plane flow, the axisymmetric swirl model
has been created to allow such helical flow. This is achieved by forcing the flow exiting one
edge of the computational domain (which can be considered as effectively a wedge) to match
that entering the other edge of the domain.

Since the case of overtaking vehicles has no axis of symmetry and has only been defined as a
2D model, the geometry to be created must be planar two-dimensional.

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5.5 Domain Size

ENGINEERING
In the case of a constrained flow, the domain size is limited directly by the system geometry
being modelled. However, for simulations of free-air (or other unconstrained fluid) flows,
some consideration must be given to the size of the domain being modelled. If the domain is
too small for the body and effects being modelled, the enforcement of some of the boundary
conditions by the solver may produce non-physical results or cause the solution to diverge.
Conversely, if the domain is too large the solution will take considerably longer to solve as
this procedure can be computationally very expensive.

The definition of what is too small for a flow is very strongly a feature of the speed. This
is because the size of the zone affected by the presence of a change is a function of the
distance from the change that the information pertaining to that change can propagate. The
speed of propagation of information in a quiescent fluid is the sound speed. In a moving
fluid, the orientation of the flow relative to a phenomenon (an immersed body, a change
in geometry, the introduction of another fluid flow...) will affect the zone affected by the
information emanating from it i.e. if the direction of the flow is toward the phenomenon
then the zone affected by the phenomenon will be smaller upstream of the body since the
information is being ‘washed’ downstream. If the flow is away from the body then the zone
affected downstream will be larger since the information is being ‘washed’ downstream.

Typically, the information most relevant in this is the pressure or velocity changes resulting
from these phenomena which affect other flow properties e.g. the higher pressure / stagnation
of flow at the nose of a car will cause the air upstream of the car to start to lift over the
body of the car some distance upstream of the car itself. The higher the velocity of the flow
/ body, the shorter the distance upstream and the longer the distance downstream that the
field could be affected by the body.

A typical rule of thumb for subsonic flows is that an absolute minimum of 5 characteristic
lengths, though 10 is generally considered more acceptable, must be modelled around a
body. This is to ensure that the effects of the body in the flow are suitably dissipated at
the domain boundary to approximate the far-field condition. Thus, for example, an airfoil
section with chord c should be modelled in a domain with a minimum radius of 5c. In the
case of the flow around a pipe joint (i.e. constrained flow), 5 diameters of the pipe upstream
would probably be sufficient to fully capture the effect of the joint, while as many as 20 pipe
diameters downstream of the joint might be needed to adequately capture the mixing of the
two streams, especially in the case of different temperatures, densities, or fluids themselves
at the joint. Another consideration in the upstream sizing of such a flow is how long it will
take for a developed velocity profile to form within the pipe before the region of interest.

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In supersonic flow, the length of the domain upstream of the body can be significantly reduced,
if necessary, to as little as 2 characteristic lengths since little or no information can propagate

ENGINEERING
upstream of a body in such a flow. However, the downstream domain will need to be as large
as, if not larger than, the downstream domain for a subsonic model. The upstream domain
cannot be zero characteristic lengths as this would produce a singularity at the leading edge
of the body and the model would thus be inaccurate or, more likely, unstable. In hypersonic
cases, the downstream domain may need to be as large as 20 or 30 characteristic lengths to
adequately model the flow.

When defining the characteristic length for the sizing of a domain you need to consider the
dimension of the body relevant in that case. In the example of a car moving down the
road, the length of the car will be the most likely characteristic length in the streamwise
direction. In the directions transverse to the stream (i.e. typically vertically and laterally)
the characteristic length would more likely be height or the width of the car, respectively,
since these are the dimensions that will affect the displacement of the air around the vehicle.

A further consideration when sizing the domain for a model is the motion of any bodies within
the fluid and, related to this, the reference frame used for the simulation. The boundaries
need to be an appropriate distance from the bodies at all times in the simulation and so it
is typically useful to first determine the size of a box which would contain all of the motion
and then add the required distances around this. Although mesh motion is covered further
in subsubsection 5.6.2,
5.6.2 it is important to consider here the necessity of mesh motion.

If a body is going to be modelled moving at constant speed, it is an intuitive transformation

to fix the reference frame of the model in the body and move the fluid past it. The benefit
of such a transformation is that rather than modelling a very large domain to capture the
effects of simple motion, a much smaller domain can be be created. Such a model is also
modelled as steady state.

If you want to model relative motion between multiple bodies, it is often worth transforming
the model into the reference frame of one of the bodies as long as its motion is inertial and
then describe the motion of the other bodies in that reference frame. By necessity, such a
model must also be transient. In CFD, transformation into a non-inertial reference frame
produces an inaccurate model because the total energy state of the moving fluid is incorrect
in that reference frame unless it is modified by external functions.

The smallest geometry that can be used in the demonstration problem will be one where the
reference frame is fixed in the slower vehicle. A simple kinematic calculation would show that
the distance required for the trailing vehicle to overtake the leading one is approximately 58
m. When one adds even only 10 vehicle lengths, as the characteristic length in that direction,

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to the entire domain (5 upstream and downstream respectively), this suggests a minimum
domain length of 94 m.

ENGINEERING
By comparison, if the reference frame is fixed in the slower vehicle, the length of the box
in which the vehicles will move is 7 characteristic lengths (the length of the faster vehicle
in the initial position; the two vehicle lengths separating the vehicles initially; the length of
the slower vehicle; the two vehicle lengths separating the vehicles at the end of the modelled
motion; and the length of the faster vehicle in the final position) and hence a total domain
length of approximately 61 m, only 65% of the domain length without changing the reference
frame.

This approach is also preferable because it reduces the number of moving mesh boundaries
and the complexities that those entail.

The width of the movement box would require only 4.5 m (two vehicle widths and the 0.9
m separation of the vehicles) and then 5 - 10 characteristic lengths, which here would be the
width of the vehicles. A simple calculation suggests a domain width of approximately 23 m.

5.6 Domain layout

A consideration when creating the geometry for a model is the possible necessity of separated
continua. There are several reasons why this may be necessary including: different fluids in
the flow; fluids in different initial states; differences in local meshing behaviour needed; or
zones of mesh motion.

5.6.1 Continua and Blocks

In the first two cases the geometry is divided into the needed number of adjacent geometries
so that when specifying the model the different fluid states can be applied to each. An
example of this is in the modelling of a shock tube where there are two volumes of gas at
different pressures separated by a membrane. It is unnecessary to model the actual membrane
(diaphragm) so most such models will define one block for the high pressure gas and another
for the low pressure gas.

In the third case, as discussed in more detail in section 6,

6 it is often useful to ‘pre-optimise’
the mesh for a model by creating regions of concentration of nodes. In order to do so most
systems require the creation of geometric boundaries to define the zones of refinement.

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5.6.2 Mesh motion

ENGINEERING
The final common cause for dividing a domain into mesh blocks is mesh motion. When
the boundaries of a mesh move, there is typically remeshing which happens adjacent to the
moving boundary. This process can lead to instability of the model if not properly defined and
generally it is preferred that the type of remeshing is kept as simple as possible. Changes in
cell size near bodies of interest would result in complicated remeshing and so these zones are
normally separated so that the entire complicated block can move with the mesh unchanged
while there is simple mesh deformation adjacent to that block. Remeshing processes also
take time and computational power of their own to complete. Thus, remeshing adds to the
total time that a model would take to run and so eliminating this is preferred if possible.

As an example of this, in the demonstration problem there will by necessity be a refined mesh
around each of the vehicles. Since the overtaking vehicle will have to move through the domain
it would be most expedient to create a block around it which will contain the refined mesh and
move in a linear fashion and then blocks to either side so that the extent of the remeshing
is limited and the layering remeshing type can be used (see subsubsection 7.4.2 for more detail)

Thus, the final layout of mesh blocks which should work quite well for this model is as shown
in Figure 6.
6

Slower vehicle block

Faster vehicle Slower vehicle

Shrinking mesh block

Growing mesh block Faster vehicle block

Stationary block

Figure 6: Layout of geometry blocks for demonstration problem (Not to scale)

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5.7 Creation in ANSYS DesignModeler

ENGINEERING
Please note that this guide will focus on the use of DesignModeler. The default geometry
generation tool in ANSYS Workbench is now SpaceClaim. You will need to refer to the
ANSYS Help Guides for more information on how to use SpaceClaim should you wish to do
so.

1. Open ANSYS Workbench

2. Drag a Geometry block from the Component Systems on the left into the workspace and
name it if you wish, as shown in Figure 7.
7 Notice that when it is first placed that there
is a blue question mark icon . This indicates that the information included in the
block is insufficient for the simulation to proceed

Figure 7: ANSYS Workbench with a Geometry component system placed into the Project
Schematic

3. Right-click on the line with the blue question mark in it and Select the DesignModeler
option. This will open ANSYS DesignModeler, the universal geometry editor for AN-
SYS Workbench

4. Once ANSYS DesignModeler has loaded, familiarise yourself with the location of the
most important controls:

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Mouse mode

SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL,
Selector dimensionality
View manipulation

ENGINEERING
Geometry operations

Generator
New sketch

Model tree

Display area

Co-ordinate system icon

Details pane

Figure 8: The most commonly used tools and areas of ANSYS DesignModeler

• Model tree: the block in most ANSYS applications where operations are displayed
and can be selected for: re-ordering; editing; or deletion
• Details pane: the block where the details of the item selected in the model tree
are displayed. Used to edit the parameters of any particular item
• Display area: shows the rendered form of the model described in the model tree.
Also used for the display of other items such as plots
• Mouse mode: allows you to change the mouse operation between single item
select and box select
• Generator: this executes changes made in the model tree. Some operations re-
quire generation before new operations can be added
• New sketch: creates a new sketching plane in the plane selected, which may be
within the base co-ordinate system or a plane within previously-generated geometry
• View manipulation: controls for zooming, rotating, and panning the view of the
model in the display area
• Geometry operations: the most common operations used to create any three-
dimensional geometry. Operations used for creating two-dimensional geometry are
found in the Concept menu
• Selector dimensionality: specifies the dimensionality of the items selected by
the mouse, in ascending order: point; line; surface; volume

5. Most geometric operations begin with creating sketches of the section to be extruded,
either linearly or rotationally. Since this model is to be two-dimensional, the geometry
must be constrained to the XY plane as this is required by Fluent. Select the XYPlane

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item in the model tree and then press the New Sketch button . A new sketch
item will appear beneath the XYPLane item in the model tree

ENGINEERING
6. Select the sketch item in the model tree . Notice that a few items appear in the
Details pane which allow you to change the visibility and name of the sketch. Right-click
on the new sketch item and notice the options which appear:

• Always Show Sketch: making sketches invisible can be necessary to clarify

the view or to prevent creating unwanted dependencies when creating additional
sketches. Showing a sketch or fixing it as permanently visible allows you to check
the relationship between sketches. These options expand when multiple sketches
are present
• Hide Sketch: useful when needing to hide a sketch for clarity or creation of more
sketches
• Look at: this option changes the view to look orthogonally at the sketch plane,
which is useful when creating a sketch versus drawing in a three-dimensional space
• Show Dependencies: objects which depend upon a sketch, such as extrusions or
cut outs, will be undefined if the base object (the sketch) is deleted and so this is
locked by the existence of those objects. This item allows you to confirm that only
those objects which should depend on the sketch
• Delete: a normal part of developing a model but bear in mind that sketches with
dependent objects cannot be deleted
• Generate: an option which appears on almost all objects. Has almost no effect
on sketches
• Rename: allows you to interactively rename the object in the model tree rather
than in the details pane. Also updates the name shown in dependent objects for
the base object

Select Look At. Note that clicking on an axis in the co-ordinate system icon at the
bottom-right (as shown in Figure 8)
8 will change the view to look down that axis while
clicking the blue ball in that icon will change to an isometric view

7. Notice that in the Model tree there is now a second tab labelled Sketching. Select this
tab

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8. There are 5 toolboxes in the Sketching tab which are all various operations for sketching.
Before creating the first sketch, go to the Constraints toolbox

ENGINEERING
9. Using the black scroll arrow at the bottom right of the Sketching Toolboxes pane, scroll to
the bottom of the Constraints toolbox and enable the Auto-constraint options as shown
in Figure 9.
9 While this option is not absolutely necessary, it does expedite the creation
of proper models

Constraints toolbox
Auto-constraints options
Toolbox scroll

Modeling tab
Sketching tab

Figure 9: Enabling Auto-constraints

10. Next open the Draw toolbox

11. Although there are various ways to draw a rectangle, it must be considered that it com-
putationally simpler to draw the base rectangle to represent the faster vehicle such that
the centre of volume (centre of gravity) is at the origin (i.e. (0,0)). Select the Rect-
angle tool and draw a rectangle of arbitrary size that includes the origin as shown in
Figure 10.
10 Although the auto-fillet tool could be used here, leave it disabled for now

Draw toolbox

Rectangle tool (auto-fillet not selected)

Figure 10: First rectangle used in the construction of the faster vehicle body

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12. Now go to the Modify toolbox and select the Fillet tool. Enter a value of 0.3 m and then
click the two lines at each of the corners as shown in Figure 11.
11 You may need to zoom

ENGINEERING
in , pan , or fit the view to fillet all four corners this way

Modify toolbox
Fillet tool (radius defined)

Fillet placed

Figure 11: A filleted corner of the first rectangle by the manual method

13. Now open the Dimensions toolbox. Although there are options to manually define dimen-
sions such as: angles; horizontal and vertical distances; and radii, the semi-automatic
tool is typically sufficient. Select the semi-automatic tool and place the dimensions.
In this case there will need to be two horizontal distances (some combination to form
total length and distance of one edge from the origin), two vertical distances (as with
horizontal), and the radii of the fillets (one dimension may cover them all). Place the

Figure 12: Dimensions placed on faster vehicle boundary

dimensions as shown in Figure 12.

12 Note that once suitably constrained, a line will
change to dark blue from turqoise and that dimensions which over-constrain the model

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will be red. If the dimension suggested by the automatic tool is unsuitable, then make
use of the manual dimensioning tools instead

ENGINEERING
14. The names allocated to the dimensions may not be the most intuitive so, should you
wish to change them, select the dimension in the display area and then edit the name in
the details pane. Note that the dimension names can contain no spaces and any inserted
will be automatically removed. This can be helped for reading by using underscores( ).
You can only select the dimensions for editing in this manner by first changing back to
the Draw toolbox

15. All dimensions associated with the sketch will be shown in the details pane. You can
change the dimensions as needed there or by selecting each and changing the values
individually. To have the vehicle centred on the origin there must be 1.8 to each side
horizontally and 0.9 m vertically. Once dimension values are changed the model auto-
matically adjusts and so it may shrink out of view. In such a case use the fit function
to fit the view, remembering that the dimension lines may now be much larger than the
model itself. The final sketch should appear as shown in Figure 13.
13 (Note that you
may need to enter these values using a comma (,) and not a point (.) as the decimal
separator, depending on the regional settings of your computer)

Figure 13: Fully dimensioned first vehicle sketch

16. Once the sketch is complete, click on the Modeling tab again. Note that if you select the
sketch in the Modeling tab you can also edit the dimensions there. Note also that there
is a checkbox to the left of each of the dimensions. Selecting this marks the dimensions
as a Model Parameter, meaning that it can be automatically varied once the model is
established. Such functionality will not be covered in this course

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17. Since this is to be a two-dimensional model, the geometry must not be created using the
conventional extrusion tools but rather the conceptual tools. Hence, go to the Concept

ENGINEERING
→Surfaces From Sketches menu item, as shown in Figure 14

Figure 14: Concept menu items

18. If it wasn’t selected when you opened the tool, select the faster vehicle sketch either in
the display area or model tree under the Base Objects item of the details for the surface
item which has appeared in the model tree. Notice that the new surface item has a
lightning bolt icon next to it as it still has to be generated. Once you have selected
all of the sketches to be used, click Apply next to the Base Objects item

New surface object

Surface name
Base object(s)
Surface topology type
Surface orientation (normally not used)
Surface thickness

Figure 15: Details for new surface from sketch

19. Next specify the thickness of the surface. This number has no meaning in Fluent since
it recognises surface topologies as two-dimensional so it is recommended that you simply
enter 1. Do not simply leave this as 0 otherwise you will not be able to mesh
the model

20. The final item to specify is the topological type. There are two options for this:

• Add material: this option adds the topology as solid material. If the new volume
intersects any other material volumes their topologies are merged i.e. become one
volume of material. This is analogous to the merging of topologies used with inter-
secting geometries in CAD packages. Typically there is only one material feature
per model

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• Add frozen: this option adds the topology as frozen material. If the new volume
intersects any other volumes, material or frozen, it remains independent of these.

ENGINEERING
This is useful when overlapping continua are needed as part of the development of
a model, either as intermediate geometries or as part of the final geometry

Since this geometry is going to be used to create the ’hole’ in the mesh for the faster
vehicle, add it as a frozen surface

21. Once all settings have been made, click the Generate button to create the surface.
Notice that once it has successfully generated, it will appear slightly transparent as in
Figure 16 because it is a frozen topology

Figure 16: Completed surface item for the first vehicle

22. Based on this, create a rectangle overlapping the initial one to become the faster vehicle
block. Since you don’t want to have the portion of the mesh adjacent to either of the
vehicles be too small, it is recommended that the width of the block on the side between
the two vehicles be half of the distance between them i.e. since the separation of the
vehicles is 0.9 m, the width of the block outside of the faster vehicle block should be
0.45 m. The length of the block is at your discretion, but obviously cannot exceed the
length of the domain downstream of the vehicle (5 characteristic lengths). An example
of the generated block is shown in Figure 17.
17 Note that the two topologies have not been
merged and that both have been renamed to make working with them easier

23. The next sketch to be created will be the block downstream of the faster vehicle, the
growing mesh block. To do this, create another sketch in the XYPlane and then change
to the sketching environment

24. Use the Rectangle by 3 Points tool to create another rectangle. When doing so, start
the rectangle near the top-left corner of the existing surface for the faster vehicle block.

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ENGINEERING
Figure 17: Completed surface item for the faster vehicle block

Notice, as shown in Figure 18 the P icon that appears next to the cursor. This is an
automatic constraint of that point to coincide with the corner vertex caused by enabling
auto-constraints. If the icon is C then it is some point on the line, which is not what is
required.
Thereafter, place the second point of the rectangle on the lower-left point of the faster

Figure 18: First point of new block constrained to existing sketch

vehicle block as shown in Figure 19

Finally, click somewhere to the left of the existing parts. Notice in Figure 20 that the
three right-most lines of the new sketch are dark blue (i.e. constrained) but that the left
line is turquoise (i.e. unconstrained). Add the relevant dimension

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ENGINEERING
Figure 19: Second point of new block constrained to existing sketch

Figure 20: Final point of new block constrained to existing sketch

25. Since it will be adjacent to the faster vehicle block, ensure that the surface created is
of the frozen type, otherwise the topologies will merge. The generated block should look
something like that shown in Figure 21,
21 where the distance downstream of the trailing
edge of the faster vehicle is 5 characteristic lengths

26. Now you can create the additional 4 blocks needed to complete the model (slower vehicle,
slower vehicle block, shrinking mesh block, and stationary block). Once complete, the
blocks should resemble the layout in Figure 22.
22 Note that the sketches were hidden for
purposes of clarity and that there are 7 bodies and 7 parts

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ENGINEERING
Growing mesh block

Faster vehicle block

Faster vehicle

Figure 21: First three blocks of model

Slower vehicle block

Growing mesh block Slower vehicle

Faster vehicle block
Faster vehicle Shrinking mesh block

Stationary mesh block

Figure 22: All blocks of model

27. As previously discussed, the vehicles are modelled as ‘holes’ in the domain and so
an operation is required to accomplish this. Go to the Create →Boolean menu item
(Figure
Figure 23)
23

28. In the details pane you will find the options for the boolean, includeing the type selector:

• Unite: merges several topologies. Spatial equivalent of the AND logical operator
• Subtract: subtracts some topologies from others. Spatial equivalent of the NOT
logical operator
• Intersect: retains the portion where two topologies intersect. Spatial equivalent
of the OR logical operator
• Imprint faces: imprints the intersection of bodies on the boundary faces for
possible future operations

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ENGINEERING
Figure 23: Create menu items

Boolean name
Boolean operation

Tool bodies

Figure 24: Details of a new boolean operation

Change the operation from the default of Unite to Subtract

29. Once you have selected the Subtract operation you will need to make several settings:

Target bodies

Target bodies

Target bodies

Figure 25: Details of the subtract boolean operation

• Target Bodies: these are the topologies from which the tool bodies will be sub-
tracted
• Tool Bodies: these are the topologies to be subtracted from the target bodies. By
default these will be deleted once the operation is complete

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• Preserve Tool Bodies?: By default tool bodies in a subtraction operation are
deleted. Change this option to Yes if you wish to retain these

ENGINEERING
First select the Target Bodies. For the faster vehicle portion of the geometry that will be
the surface called Faster Vehicle Block. Click the surface dimensionality selector option
, select the Faster Vehicle Block, and then click Apply on the Tool Bodies option

30. Next you will need to select the appropriate tool bodies. In this case it would be the
surface called Faster Vehicle. Select this and click Apply next to the Tool Body item.
Note that when selecting items which overlap, an icon will appear at the bottom-left (for
example, for two overlapping topologies) of the display pane. Use this to select the
intended object. It may be necessary to hide overlapping objects in some cases to make
the required selections

31. Finally, since the tool body for the faster vehicle is not going to be needed elsewhere in
the model it can be deleted once done so leave the Preserve Tool Bodies option as No

32. Click Generate . Notice that there are now 6 bodies and 6 parts and that the
surface Faster Vehicle has disappeared

33. Repeat steps 27 to 32 for the slower vehicle after which the model should look as shown
in Figure 26

Figure 26: Final blocks for model

Alternative approaches such as a single large initial block divided by smaller blocks into
the final blocks by boolean operations would have worked equally as well and it is a
matter of preference and experience which approach one uses

34. Save the project on the application server. Files saved on the application server
should ONLY be saved in your S: drive, which is a temporary drive created for your

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session. Once your model is complete, you must transfer your data to another location
otherwise they will be deleted when you log off. Do NOT save to your Z: drive (Wits

ENGINEERING
network storage drive) directly as it will slow down your model. You can transfer files
between your temporary drive and local computer using the UserData app in Citrix.
This tool works like your normal Windows Explorer but also allows you access to your
Z: drive and S: drive

35. Close ANSYS DesignModeler

This is the saved state of the model at the end of the geometry operations.

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