 DAY 1 :

Our Fluent Course

• INTRO TO FEA
• INTRO TO ANSYS
(WORKBENCH AND USER INTERFACE)
• INTRO TO SPACECLAIM (ANSYS CAD SOFTWARE)
 DAY 2 :
• SPACECLAIM : (MORE EXAMPLES)
DAY 3
 MESHING:
DIFFERENT MESH METHODS
ADVANCED MESHING
 DAY 4
 CFX
 DAY 5 & 6
 FLUENT
 POST PROCESSING
 DAY 7
 PROJECTS
DAY 1
• intro to FEA
• Intro to workbench
• intro to Space claim
Intro to FEA

Simple intro…..
What is the main concept of FEA??
 Converting the governing equations (fluid, structure, thermal,
...etc. ) into codes (approximations) ; to be able to calculate the properties
(solve the equations) for the whole domain.

Why do we need the FEA ??

 To predict what will happen in the real world ‘approximately’ (using the governing equations)
 To optimize the design of the models with least cost
 To avoid disasters and accidents
How does FEA work ??
 Its core idea is transforming PDEs (partial differential equations) into simple
d
difference equations
 FEA i
i +1

 In another way converting the integration into summation


What is the importance of the PDEs ??
 The governing equations in the differential form are complicated PDEs
 Structural (static & dynamic): Bridges , Roads , Cars ,…..
 Fluid dynamics : Ships , pipe networks ,….
 Aerodynamics : Airplanes , Rockets , Cars ,….

 FEA are codes -usually written in C language- to represent these governing

equations
 For solving a model using FEA there are two ways:
1. to write your own code that solves the governing equations for your own
problem
 Representation of PDEs numerically
FEM FVM FDM
(Finite element method) (Finite volume method) (Finite difference method)
(Ansys-structural) (Ansys-Fluent/CFX) (Ansys-Thermal)
*Uses the integral form of the *Uses the integral form of the governing *Uses the PDE form of the governing
governing equations equations equations

*Discretizes the domain into
finite elements and calculates the
properties in every node
• The properties are calculated for
every cell (at cell center) (Fluent)
* better for irregular mesh
*Mostly for defined geometries which
could be represented by structured
grids
* Approximating the higher order
terms in Taylor’s series which is used
to linearize the PDE. This is called as
truncation error.

* the properties are calculated at nodes

All these methods are approximations

 Verification & Validation
 There are two main important questions when viewing the results
from FEA:
- Am I solving the right problem?? (Verification)
- Am I solving the problem right?? (Validation)
 Validation is done by comparing the results I get with the experimental
results, while Verification is done by checking if the results make sense
(logical)
 How does Ansys work ?
 Internally, the codes are written for the governing equations
 The domain (geometry) is divided into number of elements (Meshing)

 Then the governing equations are solved for its parameters (i.e.: pressure, velocity,
temperature, stress, deformation,…etc) at each element center / nodes.
 Finally these results are sent to ‘Post processing’ to plot the velocity/pressure contours,
stress/deformation distributions