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Using Plane Regions in Autodesk CFD 2019

Matt Bemis
July 6, 2018

With the recent release of Autodesk CFD 2019, an awesome new post processing feature is available that allows you to quantify velocity, temperature, and scalar quantity through a user-defined rectangular or circular region. Previously, the Bulk Calculator would show separate result quantities only if the plane cut through multiple, separate geometric sections.

User define regions is an amazing tool for AEC applications where you want to understand flow between sections of an atrium, separate rooms, or even between different floors of a building.

As you can see below, the Bulk Calculator may only give you a single scalar value. However, you might want to know the scalar value through the left door. The simulation below tracks natural gas entering a room from a blown out stove pilot. You may be trying to quantify how much scalar goes from door 1 vs. door 2, and how much gas is exhausted via the stove hood.

Screenshot of Autodesk CFD, with note that says "Can't Process the Scalar value through this door using the bulk calculator"

While looking at Planes in Results, you will notice on the far right side of the ribbon a new icon called “Regions.”

Screenshot of Autocad CFD with arrow pointing to the softare's regions button located in the ribbon.

 

Once you select “Regions” a dialogue box will appear, and you can add a rectangular or circular region.

Screenshot of Autocad CFD where the Regions Dialogue has been opened by clicking the Regions button in the ribbon.

 

Once the region is drawn, it is stored with the plane for future use. If a region is selected in Step 1, it will be highlighted on the plane. Clicking “Calculate” will show you velocity magnitude, temperature, and scalar value through the region.

Screenshot of Autocad CFD with the regions dialog open.

Right now, velocity magnitude, temperature, and scalar variable are the only available result quantities. However, more result quantities will likely be added in the future. If there is a specific result quantity you’d love to see added, please let us know by voting for it or adding it to the Autodesk CFD Ideastation. If you run into any questions while using the new feature, feel free to start a forum thread or contact us on the technical support team.

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Matt Bemis

About the Author: Matt Bemis is a CFD technical support specialist at Autodesk, responsible for providing customer support in the Americas. Matt spends his days interacting with end users and helping them solve their engineering problems by best leveraging CFD. He is well versed in modeling electronics cooling, turbomachinery, external aerodynamics, automotive, and biomedical applications. Before joining Autodesk, Matt did product support and consulting for an application specific CFD tool that modeled airflow and cooling inside of data centers.

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