Flownex Version 9.0.0 is here, bringing powerful new functionality to expand your simulation capabilities and improve modeling efficiency. This release introduces a new Network Builder for Autodesk Revit, significantly reducing non-productive engineering hours by streamlining the process of building flow networks from piping models. The addition of a SPICE DC electrical library enables seamless co-simulation of fluid and electrical networks, while enhancements to the Network Builder for Ansys Mechanical further refine fluid-mechanical integration. You can now search all help files, co-simulate with Ansys Mechanical on a Linux HPC cluster, customize variable names and units in generic charts, and utilize the Beggs & Brill correlation for two-phase pressure drop calculations. These enhancements are designed to boost efficiency, improve accuracy, and streamline your workflows. Check out the full release notes to explore everything that’s new in Flownex 9.0.0!
Flownex Version 9.0.0 is here, bringing powerful new functionality to expand your simulation capabilities and improve modeling efficiency. This release introduces a new Network Builder for Autodesk Revit, significantly reducing non-productive engineering hours by streamlining the process of building flow networks from piping models. The addition of a SPICE DC electrical library enables seamless co-simulation of fluid and electrical networks, while enhancements to the Network Builder for Ansys Mechanical further refine fluid-mechanical integration. You can now search all help files, co-simulate with Ansys Mechanical on a Linux HPC cluster, customize variable names and units in generic charts, and utilize the Beggs & Brill correlation for two-phase pressure drop calculations. These enhancements are designed to boost efficiency, improve accuracy, and streamline your workflows. Check out the full release notes to explore everything that’s new in Flownex 9.0.0!
The complete Release Notes containing detailed descriptions of the enhancements in the latest Flownex SE 9.0.0 release are available under the Help ribbon in the latest Flownex SE release.
The Flownex Network Builder for Autodesk Revit, is a Revit plugin that significantly accelerates the generation of Flownex networks directly from within a Revit project. Piping and HVAC elements are extracted from Revit and an equivalent 3D geometry is constructed in Flownex. Advanced healing algorithms are employed that automatically resolve commonly encountered issues. With this plugin, constructing a large, solvable cooling water or HVAC network in Flownex can now be completed in a matter of hours — a process that previously took up to several days due to the many errors that were present in PCF file exports from Revit that had to be fixed manually.
A search mechanism has been added to search through all the PDF help files that are included in Flownex. The search option is available on the Start Page, but also available as a tab when opening any help file. The search provides a ranked search through all the PDFs, which includes the demo networks, tutorials and other help files.
A new help file viewer has been created to view PDF files. The new help file viewer removes the need for end users to install any external PDF viewer software to read the help file manuals.
The new help file viewer includes a tab with the search functionality to search through all help files.
The input property grid will now show changed inputs in bold, allowing users to easily see which inputs have been changed. An item to the context menu has also been added that allows users to reset the changed value to its default value. Note that this does not work for item properties in lists (e.g., material layers in a heat transfer component) and for script-defined inputs.
The new Electrical Library in Flownex enables users to design and simulate DC electrical circuits. It supports seamless co-simulation with the Flow Solver, allowing detailed analysis of coupled electrical and fluid systems in both steady-state and transient conditions.
The library includes circuit elements such as dependent and independent voltage and current sources, resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Leveraging the SPICE engine for accurate circuit calculations, it provides a user-friendly interface for intuitive circuit design directly within Flownex.
The Electrical module is required for the Electrical library.
The Result Layer editor has been improved to make it more intuitive to use. An example of the Result Layer editor is seen in Figure 8.
The Result Layer display that used to be at the bottom of a drawing page has been removed and replaced with a legend that is displayed on a drawing page, as seen in Figure 9.
The Result Layer functionality has also been enhanced to include several additional features.
Result Layers can now be activated on the Results ribbon as seen in Figure 9 and the built-in Result Layers can now be edited. The Result Layers can also be copied using the copy context menu item.
Once activated, all the result layer features can be accessed by right-clicking on the result layers legend as shown in Figure 10.
This release delivers enhanced stability and improved performance to streamline project synchronization and data exchange in coupled simulations. Added key features include:
Labyrinth seal clearances are now dynamically updated during solving when using a Coupled Field analysis in Mechanical coupled to a Flownex simulation. This enables the prediction of labyrinth seal clearances at different engine operating conditions.
Co-simulations can now be executed with Ansys Mechanical running on either Windows or Linux HPC (High-Performance Computing) clusters via Ansys RSM (Remote Solve Manager).
A new method for data transfer allows data to be exchanged after Flownex has converged instead of at the beginning of each temperature solution. This leverages the fast solving speed of Flownex and allows for fewer Mechanical iterations in a typical co-simulation.
Co-simulations can now be initiated directly from Flownex. This enables multiple runs to be controlled seamlessly using the Designer, Optimizer, or Sensitivity Analysis tools.
The following enhancements have been made to the Flownex Network Builder within Ansys Mechanical:
The ribbon buttons have been rearranged to represent the most likely workflow followed by users when generating Mechanical workloads for analysis.
The Flownex Network Builder can now construct thermal fluid lines from selected entities on Nodes and HTPipes. This should save a significant amount of time for a user as manual construction can be time-consuming in 3D models. This forms part of the incremented data transfer between Mechanical and Flownex.
The Flownex Flow Slover Coupling can now co-simulate dynamic gaps on labyrinth seals by utilising Ansys Mechanical’s Connection type. To assist the user with this configuration, the Flownex Network Builder can automatically generate the necessary contact regions.
The Clear and Generate button can now be used to fully reconstruct a model in Flownex. When a user clicks the button, the existing page and its components will be removed and then regenerated. Rebuilding the model ensures that the model is always synchronized, and ensures that actions in Mechanical such as renaming and connection changes etc. do not result in a mismatched Flownex model.
The Update Properties button will only update properties without applying any network changes. This should be used when the component inputs in Mechanical change but no new components are added, no components are deleted and no connections are changed. Using this option allows for a significant speed improvement when updating the Flownex model inputs following small changes in the Mechanical user interface.
The Set Page Background button allows a user to set an image of the Ansys Mechanical model as the background on a Flownex drawing page, as seen in Figure 20.
The multi-page export enhancement is a valuable improvement for exporting large models with components in 2D planes. Each group of components in Mechanical can be configured to build Flownex components on its own drawing page and the orientation and scale can also be specified for each page.
The Flownex Network Builder now includes a Boundary component which eliminates the need to manually insert Boundary Conditions in Flownex after a network has been rebuilt.
The Flownex Network Builder now contains inputs on nodes for the fluid selection. This eliminates the need to manually specify the fluids in Flownex after a network has been built.
The Flownex Network Builder grouping component’s Export Plane and Rotate options now use the same convention as Mechanical’s views.
After changing a group’s name in Flownex Network Builder, child component names can all be batch updated with the new Update Names context menu option.
The Analysis Type can now be specified as 2D, 3D or All on the Flownex Network Builder node. The analysis type specified is used to hide inputs options that are not relevant for the selected analysis type.
The Fluent Server link has been updated to use the Python Fluent interface. This makes the initial configuration simpler. It also allows the user to link to Fluent running on different computers on the network running on any operating system.
The capability has been added to specify a name, as well as a unit type for the variables in the Generic 4D charts, as shown in Figure 28.
New generic charts are available for two-dimensional and three-dimensional data as seen in Figure 29 and Figure 30:
The data transfer functionality has been enhanced to transfer data as soon as a solver is completed, instead of waiting for all solvers to complete before data is transferred. This enhancement ensures that data is always consistent when multiple solvers execute in parallel.
The extendibility feature has been updated to write C# code for user plugins, as C# is much easier to use and quicker to implement.
The following enhancements have been made to the inputs for the Finned Tube Heat Exchanger:
- There is now an option to calculate the heat transfer coefficient using Dittus-Boelter on the fin side of the Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger.
- The Colburn J equation has been implemented as a convection coefficient option on the fin side of the Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger.
- Implemented the smooth pipe wall friction factor equation on the fin side of the Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger.
- Implemented a Rectangular tube option on the tube side of the Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger.
- The laminar and turbulent Reynolds numbers can now be edited and defined by a user on heat exchanger components and heat transfer components, as seen in Figure 35.
- Added convection coefficient entrance length effects to the Composite Heat Transfer element, as seen in Figure 36.
- Implemented a recovery factor for the Composite Heat Transfer element connected to the Rotating Channel.
- Implemented the capability to model incremented cavity heat transfer when the Composite Heat Transfer component is connected to a Rotor-Stator or Rotor-Rotor cavity.
- Detailed tooth results have been added for discretised Labyrinth Seals in the Sub-Element results, as shown in Figure 39.
- Several geometry inputs for the Labyrinth Seal have been made dynamic, such as the tooth tip width, tooth pitch, tooth clearance and seal diameter.
- The Beggs and Brill correlation has been added as an option for two phase pressure drop calculations, as seen in Figure 40.
For detailed descriptions of each update and how to use it, please refer to the complete Release Notes available on Flownex 9.0.0.