ANSYS CFX Introduction

ANSYS CFX Introduction
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ANSYS CFX Introduction
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Table of Contents
1. Computational Fluid Dynamics ........................................................................................................... 5
The History of CFD ............................................................................................................. 5
The Mathematics of CFD ...................................................................................................... 5
Uses of CFD ....................................................................................................................... 6
CFD Methodology ............................................................................................................... 6
Creating the Geometry/Mesh ................................................................................................. 8
Defining the Physics of the Model .......................................................................................... 8
Solving the CFD Problem ..................................................................................................... 8
Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor ............................................................................. 9
Further Background Reading ................................................................................................. 9
2. Overview of ANSYS CFX ................................................................................................................ 11
The Structure of ANSYS CFX .............................................................................................. 11
CFX-Pre .......................................................................................................................... 12
CFX-Solver ...................................................................................................................... 12
CFX-Solver Manager .......................................................................................................... 13
CFD-Post ......................................................................................................................... 13
Getting Started with ANSYS CFX ......................................................................................... 13
Running ANSYS CFX ........................................................................................................ 13
CFX Help, Tutorials, and Reference Information ...................................................................... 14
The Directory Structure of ANSYS CFX ................................................................................ 14
CFX File Types ................................................................................................................. 15
Starting ANSYS CFX Components from the Command Line ..................................................... 16
Obtaining System Information with the cfx5info Command ....................................................... 16
3. What's New in CFX ........................................................................................................................ 19
New Meshing Application and Automatic Virtual Topology ........................................................ 19
Automatic Virtual Topology ................................................................................................. 19
Physical Models and Solver Improvements ............................................................................. 19
CFX Compiler in Windows .................................................................................................. 19
ANSYS FSI Coupling ......................................................................................................... 20
Moving Mesh Extensions .................................................................................................... 20
Problem Size and Efficiency Improvements ............................................................................ 20
Expression Language Advances ............................................................................................ 20
Particle Tracking Extensions ................................................................................................ 20
Turbulence Modeling .......................................................................................................... 21
Combustion and Radiation Improvements ............................................................................... 21
Domain Interfaces .............................................................................................................. 22
Boundary Conditions and Boundary Sources ........................................................................... 22
Eulerian Multiphase Extensions ............................................................................................ 22
CFX-Pre .......................................................................................................................... 22
Default Domain and Interface Generation ............................................................................... 23
CFD-Post ......................................................................................................................... 23
Beta Features .................................................................................................................... 24
Supported Platforms ........................................................................................................... 24
4. Customizing ANSYS CFX ............................................................................................................... 25
ANSYS CFX Resource Configuration Files ............................................................................ 25
The Site-wide Configuration Files ......................................................................................... 25
User's Configuration Files ................................................................................................... 25
Syntax of CFX Resource Configuration Files .......................................................................... 26
Resources Set in cfx5rc Files ................................................................................................ 26
5. Using the CFX Launcher .................................................................................................................. 29
Starting the CFX Launcher .................................................................................................. 29
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information of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. iii
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6. ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench .................................................................................................. 31

The ANSYS Workbench Interface ......................................................................................... 31
Toolbox ........................................................................................................................... 32
Project Schematic .............................................................................................................. 33
View Bar .......................................................................................................................... 34
Properties View ................................................................................................................. 34
Files View ........................................................................................................................ 35
Sidebar Help ..................................................................................................................... 36
Shortcuts (Context Menu Options) ........................................................................................ 36
An Introduction to Workflow within ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench .................................... 36
Data Flow in Systems and Between Systems ........................................................................... 39
Known Limitations of Using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench .............................................. 39
7. Help On Help ................................................................................................................................ 41
CFX Documentation Structure .............................................................................................. 41
Document Conventions ....................................................................................................... 42
Spelling Conventions .......................................................................................................... 42
File and Directory Names .................................................................................................... 43
User Input ........................................................................................................................ 43
Input Substitution ............................................................................................................... 43
Optional Arguments ........................................................................................................... 43
Long Commands ............................................................................................................... 43
Operating System Names .................................................................................................... 43
Accessing Online Help ........................................................................................................ 44
If CHM Files Cannot be Accessed Over a Network ................................................................... 44
Adjusting Font Sizes in Online Help ...................................................................................... 44
Using the Help Browser Index .............................................................................................. 44
Using the Search Feature ..................................................................................................... 45
Bookmarking Useful Help Pages ........................................................................................... 45
8. Contact Information ........................................................................................................................ 47
How to Contact ANSYS Customer Service ............................................................................. 47
ANSYS Customer Portal ..................................................................................................... 47
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Chapter 1. Computational Fluid

Dynamics
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a computer-based tool for simulating the behavior of systems involving fluid
flow, heat transfer, and other related physical processes. It works by solving the equations of fluid flow (in a special
form) over a region of interest, with specified (known) conditions on the boundary of that region.
This chapter discusses:
• The History of CFD (p. 5)
• The Mathematics of CFD (p. 5)
• Uses of CFD (p. 6)
• CFD Methodology (p. 6)
• Further Background Reading (p. 9)
The History of CFD

Computers have been used to solve fluid flow problems for many years. Numerous programs have been written to
solve either specific problems, or specific classes of problems. From the mid-1970's, the complex mathematics required
to generalize the algorithms began to be understood, and general purpose CFD solvers were developed. These began
to appear in the early 1980's and required what were then very powerful computers, as well as an in-depth knowledge
of fluid dynamics, and large amounts of time to set up simulations. Consequently, CFD was a tool used almost exclusively
in research.
Recent advances in computing power, together with powerful graphics and interactive 3D manipulation of models,
have made the process of creating a CFD model and analyzing results much less labor intensive, reducing time and,
hence, cost. Advanced solvers contain algorithms which enable robust solutions of the flow field in a reasonable time.
As a result of these factors, Computational Fluid Dynamics is now an established industrial design tool, helping to
reduce design time scales and improve processes throughout the engineering world. CFD provides a cost-effective and
accurate alternative to scale model testing, with variations on the simulation being performed quickly, offering obvious
advantages.
The Mathematics of CFD

The set of equations which describe the processes of momentum, heat and mass transfer are known as the Navier-Stokes
equations. These partial differential equations were derived in the early nineteenth century and have no known general
analytical solution but can be discretized and solved numerically.
Equations describing other processes, such as combustion, can also be solved in conjunction with the Navier-Stokes
equations. Often, an approximating model is used to derive these additional equations, turbulence models being a
particularly important example.
There are a number of different solution methods which are used in CFD codes. The most common, and the one on
which CFX is based, is known as the finite volume technique.
In this technique, the region of interest is divided into small sub-regions, called control volumes. The equations are
discretized and solved iteratively for each control volume. As a result, an approximation of the value of each variable
at specific points throughout the domain can be obtained. In this way, one derives a full picture of the behavior of the
flow.
Additional information on the Navier-Stokes equations and other mathematical aspects of the CFX software suite is
available. For details, see Basic Solver Capability Theory (p. 13) in the ANSYS CFX-Solver Theory Guide.
information of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. 5
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Uses of CFD
CFD is used by engineers and scientists in a wide range of fields. Typical applications include:
• Process industry: Mixing vessels, chemical reactors
• Building services: Ventilation of buildings, such as atriums
• Health and safety: Investigating the effects of fire and smoke
• Motor industry: Combustion modeling, car aerodynamics
• Electronics: Heat transfer within and around circuit boards
• Environmental: Dispersion of pollutants in air or water
• Power and energy: Optimization of combustion processes
• Medical: Blood flow through grafted blood vessels
CFD Methodology
CFD can be used to determine the performance of a component at the design stage, or it can be used to analyze difficulties
with an existing component and lead to its improved design.
For example, the pressure drop through a component may be considered excessive:
The first step is to identify the region of interest:
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The geometry of the region of interest is then defined. If the geometry already exists in CAD, it can be imported directly.
The mesh is then created. After importing the mesh into the pre-processor, other elements of the simulation including
the boundary conditions (inlets, outlets, etc.) and fluid properties are defined.
The flow solver is run to produce a file of results that contains the variation of velocity, pressure and any other variables
throughout the region of interest.
The results can be visualized and can provide the engineer an understanding of the behavior of the fluid throughout
the region of interest.
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This can lead to design modifications which can be tested by changing the geometry of the CFD model and seeing the
effect.
The process of performing a single CFD simulation is split into four components:
1. Creating the Geometry/Mesh (p. 8)
2. Defining the Physics of the Model (p. 8)
3. Solving the CFD Problem (p. 8)
4. Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor (p. 9)
Creating the Geometry/Mesh

This interactive process is the first pre-processing stage. The objective is to produce a mesh for input to the physics
pre-processor. Before a mesh can be produced, a closed geometric solid is required. The geometry and mesh can be
created in ANSYS Meshing or any of the other geometry/mesh creation tools. The basic steps involve:
1. Defining the geometry of the region of interest.
2. Creating regions of fluid flow, solid regions and surface boundary names.
3. Setting properties for the mesh.
This pre-processing stage is now highly automated. In CFX, geometry can be imported from most major CAD packages
using native format, and the mesh of control volumes is generated automatically.
Defining the Physics of the Model

This interactive process is the second pre-processing stage and is used to create input required by the Solver. The mesh
files are loaded into the physics pre-processor, CFX-Pre.
The physical models that are to be included in the simulation are selected. Fluid properties and boundary conditions
are specified.
Solving the CFD Problem

The component that solves the CFD problem is called the Solver. It produces the required results in a
non-interactive/batch process. A CFD problem is solved as follows:
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1. The partial differential equations are integrated over all the control volumes in the region of interest. This is
equivalent to applying a basic conservation law (for example, for mass or momentum) to each control volume.
2. These integral equations are converted to a system of algebraic equations by generating a set of approximations
for the terms in the integral equations.
3. The algebraic equations are solved iteratively.
An iterative approach is required because of the non-linear nature of the equations, and as the solution approaches the
exact solution, it is said to converge. For each iteration, an error, or residual, is reported as a measure of the overall
conservation of the flow properties.
How close the final solution is to the exact solution depends on a number of factors, including the size and shape of
the control volumes and the size of the final residuals. Complex physical processes, such as combustion and turbulence,
are often modeled using empirical relationships. The approximations inherent in these models also contribute to
differences between the CFD solution and the real flow.
The solution process requires no user interaction and is, therefore, usually carried out as a batch process.
The solver produces a results file which is then passed to the post-processor.
Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor

The post-processor is the component used to analyze, visualize and present the results interactively. Post-processing
includes anything from obtaining point values to complex animated sequences.
Examples of some important features of post-processors are:
• Visualization of the geometry and control volumes
• Vector plots showing the direction and magnitude of the flow
• Visualization of the variation of scalar variables (variables which have only magnitude, not direction, such as
temperature, pressure and speed) through the domain
• Quantitative numerical calculations
• Animation
• Charts showing graphical plots of variables
• Hardcopy and online output.
Further Background Reading

The following is a selection of books related to fluids, thermodynamics, CFD and computing:
• An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics, The Finite Volume Method
H K Versteeg and W Malalasekera; Longman, 1995. An excellent introduction to the theory of CFD with
well-presented derivations of the equations.
• Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

C T Shaw; Prentice Hall, 1992. An introduction to the practical aspects of using CFD.
• Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

S V Patankar; Taylor & Francis, 1980. A standard text on the details of numerical methods.
• Engineering Thermodynamics: Work and Heat Transfer

G F C Rogers and Y R Mayhew; Longman, 1996. An undergraduate thermodynamics text book.
• Mechanics of Fluids
Bernard Massey, Spon Press, 1998. An undergraduate fluid mechanics text book.
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• Viscous Fluid Flow

F M White; McGraw Hill, 2005. An advanced text on fluid dynamics.
• Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook (7th Edition)

McGraw Hill Professional Publishing, 1997. A superb reference for the physical properties of fluids.
• An Album of Fluid Motion

Milton Van Dyke, The Parabolic Press, 1982. Fluid flow phenomena demonstrated in pictures.
If you are unfamiliar with using the UNIX operating system or with UNIX system administration, you may like to
obtain and read the following books:
• UNIX in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition
Daniel Gilly and the staff of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc, 2005. An excellent UNIX
reference book.
• Learning the UNIX Operating System

Grace Todino-Gonguet, John Strang, and Jerry Peek; O'Reilly & Associates, Inc, 2002.
• Essential System Administration

Æleen Frisch; O'Reilly & Associates, Inc, 2002.
• A Scientist's and Engineer's Guide to Workstations and Supercomputers

Rubin H Landau and Paul J Fink Jr., John Wiley and Sons Inc., 1993. A clear and practical guide to powerful
computers that use the UNIX operating system.
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Chapter 2. Overview of ANSYS CFX

ANSYS CFX is a general purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software suite that combines an advanced
solver with powerful pre- and post-processing capabilities. It includes the following features:
• An advanced coupled solver that is both reliable and robust.
• Full integration of problem definition, analysis, and results presentation.
• An intuitive and interactive setup process, using menus and advanced graphics.
CFX is capable of modeling:
• Steady-state and transient flows
• Laminar and turbulent flows
• Subsonic, transonic and supersonic flows
• Heat transfer and thermal radiation
• Buoyancy
• Non-Newtonian flows
• Transport of non-reacting scalar components
• Multiphase flows
• Combustion
• Flows in multiple frames of reference
• Particle tracking.
• The Structure of ANSYS CFX (p. 11)
• CFX-Pre (p. 12)
• CFX-Solver (p. 12)
• CFX-Solver Manager (p. 13)
• CFD-Post (p. 13)
• Getting Started with ANSYS CFX (p. 13)
• The Directory Structure of ANSYS CFX (p. 14)
• CFX File Types (p. 15)
• Starting ANSYS CFX Components from the Command Line (p. 16)
The Structure of ANSYS CFX

ANSYS CFX consists of four software modules that take a geometry and mesh and pass the information required to
perform a CFD analysis:
Draft CFX-Pre Draft
CFX File Types (p. 15) show the file types involved in this data flow.
CFX-Pre
The next-generation physics pre-processor, CFX-Pre, is used to define simulations.
Multiple meshes may be imported, allowing each section of complex geometries to use the most appropriate mesh.
Analyses, which consist of flow physics, boundary conditions, initial values and solver parameters are also specified.
A full range of boundary conditions, including inlets, outlets and openings, together with boundary conditions for heat
transfer models and periodicity, are all available in ANSYS CFX through CFX-Pre; for details, see CFX-Pre Basics
(p. 15).
Complex simulations are assembled from one or more configurations, each of which combines an analysis definition
with other related tasks such as remeshing. Control over the configuration execution order and inter-configuration
solution dependencies then facilitates the setup of relatively common simulations like those involving the initialization
of a transient analysis using results from a steady state analysis. Use of multiple configurations and control also
facilitates the setup of increasingly complex simulations of, for example, performance curves for turbo-machines or
internal combustion engines with evolving geometry and physics.
CFX-Solver
CFX-Solver solves all the solution variables for the simulation for the problem specification generated in CFX-Pre.
One of the most important features of ANSYS CFX is its use of a coupled solver, in which all the hydrodynamic
equations are solved as a single system. The coupled solver is faster than the traditional segregated solver and fewer
iterations are required to obtain a converged flow solution.
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Additional information on the CFX-Solver models is available; for details, see Basic Capabilities Modeling (p. 19) in
the ANSYS CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.
CFX-Solver Manager
The CFX-Solver Manager module provides greater control to the management of the CFD task. Its major functions
are:
• Specify the input files to the CFX-Solver.
• Start/stop the CFX-Solver.
• Monitor the progress of the solution.
• Set up the CFX-Solver for a parallel calculation.
Additional information on the CFX-Solver Manager is available; for details, see CFX-Solver Manager Basics (p. 9)
in the ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager User's Guide.
CFD-Post
CFD-Post provides state-of-the-art interactive post-processing graphics tools to analyze and present the CFX simulation
results.
Important features include:
• Quantitative post-processing
• Report generation (see Report (p. 41)).
• Command line, session file, or state file input (see File Types Used and Produced by CFD-Post (p. 93)).
• User-defined variables
• Generation of a variety of graphical objects where visibility, transparency, color, and line/face rendering can be
controlled (see CFD-Post Insert Menu (p. 111) in the ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide).
• Power Syntax to allow fully programmable session files (see Power Syntax in ANSYS CFX (p. 287) in the ANSYS
CFX Reference Guide).
Additional information on CFD-Post is available; for details, see Overview of CFD-Post (p. 15) in the ANSYS CFD-Post
User's Guide.
Getting Started with ANSYS CFX

This section helps you learn the basics of using ANSYS CFX, such as running ANSYS CFX, accessing tutorials, and
using the context-sensitive online help. It assumes that you have installed the ANSYS software, a process that is
described in the installation documentation.
The following topics will be discussed:
• Running ANSYS CFX (p. 13)
• CFX Help, Tutorials, and Reference Information (p. 14)
Running ANSYS CFX

To run ANSYS CFX on this operating system: Do this:
UNIX Enter cfx5 in a terminal window.
Windows Select Start > All Programs > ANSYS 12.0 > CFX > ANSYS
CFX 12.0
Draft CFX Help, Tutorials, and Reference Information Draft
This opens the CFX Launcher, from which all other components of ANSYS CFX can be accessed. You will usually
want to start by setting your Working Directory (where all files will be written to) and then opening CFX-Pre by
clicking the CFX-Pre button.
Note
You can also start ANSYS components from the command line. See Starting ANSYS CFX Components
from the Command Line (p. 16).
CFX Help, Tutorials, and Reference Information

Access to the CFX online help system is available through a number of routes:
• To view tutorials, user guides, and reference manuals in online-help form, select Help from the ANSYS product's
menu bar.
• To view context-sensitive help on an item of interest, press the F1 key (or on Sun workstations, the Help key) when
the focus is on that item.
• The CFX documentation is also provided in PDF format. To view the tutorials, user guides, and reference manuals
in PDF format, go to <CFXROOT>..\commonfiles\help\en-us\CFX\help\pdf\ on Windows or
<CFXROOT>../commonfiles/help/en-us/CFX/help/pdf/ on UNIX. On Windows you can also
access PDF files from the menu bar by selecting Help > PDF.
You will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader (available from http://www.adobe.com) to view or print these
PDF files.
For more information, see CFX Documentation Structure (p. 41).
The Directory Structure of ANSYS CFX

The directory in which ANSYS CFX is installed is referred to as <CFXROOT>. This directory contains all the files
you will need to run ANSYS CFX. <CFXROOT> is release-specific to enable you to run more than one release of
ANSYS CFX. The release-specific directory often contains directories for each operating system on which you may
want to run the CFX software. These will contain the system-dependent binary executable files needed by CFX.
Some of the important directories immediately under <CFXROOT> are:
bin The bin directory contains all the commands that are normally run directly by users. It contains
mostly “wrapper” scripts that call the appropriate script for the release you are running in the
release-specific subdirectory, for example, CFX.
config The config directory contains the host definition file for CFX software.
etc The etc directory contains various data files common to all supported system types.
examples The examples directory contains files that will help you work through the CFX tutorials. There
are some sample meshes, CAD files, session files, CFX expression language files, User Fortran
examples, and example C source code files.
help The help directory contains the CFX documentation in online (.jar and .chm) and printable
(.pdf) formats.
include The include directory contains header files used by parts of the CFX software.
lib If it is present, the lib directory contains various libraries needed to relink the CFX-Solver or
user-defined mesh import or mesh export.
tools Contains software tools such as cygwin, mpi, mpich, perl, pvm (UNIX only), and qt.
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CFX File Types

During the process of creating the model, running the CFX-Solver and analyzing the results, a number of different
files are created by the various modules of the software. This section describes some of these files and their purposes.
The use of these files with their default extension is shown in the following flowchart. The standard files used and
produced are indicated with solid black lines; other possible uses are indicated with dotted lines.
Details of the main file types can be found in:

• CFX-Pre File Types (p. 26)
• CFX-Solver Files (p. 33)
• File Types Used and Produced by CFD-Post (p. 93)
• Supported Mesh File Types (p. 66) in the ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide
For information on producing files for input into other post-processors, see File Export Utility (p. 143) in the ANSYS
CFX-Solver Manager User's Guide.
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Starting ANSYS CFX Components from the

Command Line
The components of CFX can all be started from the command line, as well as from within other modules of CFX.
Additional information on command lines in Windows is available; for details, see Command Line (p. 15). A typical
command consists of the command name, followed by various arguments, many of which are optional.
For example, to start up CFX-Pre and play the session file, open a terminal window and enter the command:
cfx5pre -play StaticMixer.pre
The following table lists some of the commands you can use to start up CFX components.
Component Command Arguments
CFX Launcher cfx5 See Starting the CFX Launcher (p. 29).
or
cfx5launch
CFX-Pre cfx5pre See Starting CFX-Pre from the Command Line (p. 15) in the
ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide.
CFX-Solver Manager cfx5solve See Starting the CFX-Solver from the Command Line (p. 121)
in the ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager User's Guide.
CFD-Post cfdpost See Starting CFD-Post (p. 19) in the ANSYS CFD-Post User's
Guide.
To display a full list of all the possible arguments and a short description for any command, type the command followed
by -help. For example:
cfdpost -help
Typing the argument -verbose after a command launches the software specified and displays a summary of the
currently set environment variables.
Obtaining System Information with the cfx5info Command

You can use the command cfx5info to obtain information about your installation and your system. The optional
command arguments are given in the following table:
Argument Usage
-arch Displays the long architecture string for the current machine.
-cmds Prints the location of some common commands, if they can be found in the PATH.
-config If any site-specific or user-specific configuration files are in use, this option will display
their locations and contents.
-full Displays a full report on the installation and configuration of CFX, suitable for emailing
to the CFX support desk. This includes the output of the -inst and -system options.
-help Shows available command line options and descriptions.
-host Displays the current host name.
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Argument Usage
-host-addr <host> Looks up the named <host> in the network database, and displays some information
about it.
-inst Displays information about the installation directory, and available versions of CFX.
This is the default if no arguments are passed.
-os Displays the short architecture string for the current machine.
-patches Shows information for all installed patches.
-reltype Displays the release type, which will be “development,” “prerelease” or “release.”
-subsets Shows information about which subsets are installed. This option is valid only for
UNIX platforms.
-system Displays information about the system on which CFX is running.
-verbose Prints information about the environment variables that are currently set. An alternative
form for this argument is -v
-whereis <cmd> Displays all available versions of <cmd>, as found on the PATH. This option can be
repeated.
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Chapter 3. What's New in CFX

This chapter describes:
• New Meshing Application:
The new Meshing Application within ANSYS Workbench provides access to many ANSYS meshing tools in a
single location. In the Meshing Application, a different "Meshing Method" (for example, CFX-Mesh, Sweeping,
hex-dominant) can be applied to each Part in the geometry.
• Fluid Structure Interaction in ANSYS Workbench:

This release allows set up of a full two-way Fluid Structure Interaction simulation (coupling the ANSYS and CFX
solvers) within ANSYS Workbench.
• Turbomachinery:
TurboSystem allows the automatic set up of a single-blade-passage TurboMachinery simulation in ANSYS
Workbench. This includes BladeGen, CFX-Mesh, and improved capability in Turbomachinery Pre- and
Post-processing. Project page tasks automate the ‘Geometry-to-Post-processing' workflow and include a variety
of report templates.
• CFX DesignXplorer (CFX-DX):

The ability to set up CFX parametric studies within ANSYS Workbench has been added as a demonstration feature.
You can use expressions to define input and output parameters.
New Meshing Application and Automatic Virtual

Topology
A new Meshing Application in ANSYS Workbench provides access to many of the ANSYS meshing tools in a single
location. A different “Meshing Method” can be applied to each part in the geometry. All meshes will be written back
to a common database (.cmdb) that can be opened in CFX-Pre. The available Meshing methods are: Automatic, All
Tet, Hex dominant, Sweep, and CFX-Mesh. CFX-Mesh integration enables you to launch CFX-Mesh on a part in a
separate tab using a right-click operation. Volume Mesh can be generated in CFX-Mesh and committed back to the
Meshing Application. These meshing capabilities are also available in the standard Simulation tab (correct licenses
required).
A meshing options panel that appears when the meshing application is first opened and the ANSYS Workbench
preferences area enable you to set a preferred meshing method. CFX customers should use CFX-Mesh or the Patch
Independent mesher as their preferred method.
Automatic Virtual Topology

Automatic Virtual Topology, a “one-click” method of creating groups of virtual faces, is available in the Meshing
Application and in the CFX-Mesh tab. Automatic VT respects Named Selections and existing controls (that is, inflation,
face controls, etc.).
Physical Models and Solver Improvements

CFX Compiler in Windows
The CFX compiler for Windows is Intel Fortran 9.0.
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ANSYS FSI Coupling

It is now possible to fully set up FSI cases, end-to-end, inside the ANSYS Workbench environment. The new streamlined
workflow includes setting up the mechanical analysis in the Simulation tab, defining the complete FSI setup in CFX-Pre,
starting ANSYS and CFX solvers, monitoring data in CFX-Solvermgr;, and finally viewing ANSYS and CFX results
files in CFD-Post.
In addition to the standard profile preserving interpolation available in ANSYS CFX 10.0, a fully conservative,
profile-preserving interpolation option has been implemented in ANSYS CFX 11.0. This option is enabled by default
for transfers of conservative variables such as force or heat flows. The new option enforces local conservation of the
transferred variable as well as the integrated total force and heat flow for the entire interface. The new option is more
robust to gaps, mesh density changes, and non-overlap regions. Non-overlap regions are treated with zero flux boundary
conditions within CFX-Solver.
Moving Mesh Extensions

A significant capability in CFX-11.0 is the extended support of Moving Mesh with General Grid Interfaces. By default,
the mesh displacements are coupled through interfaces while maintaining the geometrical consistency of the two sides
of the interface.
In addition, Built-in mesh stiffness options are available that enable you to increase stiffness near small volumes or
boundaries.
The Moving Mesh capability has been extended to support steady-state Moving Mesh in addition to transient simulations.
Second-order transient calculations have been significantly improved; this is particularly important for closed systems
where conservation of initial mass is now ensured.
Problem Size and Efficiency Improvements

A new large-problem partitioner that uses 64-bit integers has been introduced. The new partitioner can be accessed
from the Solver Manager and is capable of partitioning cases with more than 100 million nodes (on computer hardware
that has enough memory). As of release it has been tested on cases with up to 1 billion tetrahedral elements in a single
domain.
Other improvements in CFX-11.0 include better scaling for multidomain cases. The improvements are most notable
in cases that have a large number of ‘Stage' interfaces. Best performance is achieved with the multidomain coupled
partitioning option available on the advanced controls tab in CFX-Solver Manager. Simulations with a large number
of GGIs will also have a significantly reduced memory requirement for partitioning and the CFD simulation.
HP MPI Run Modes have been upgraded on all Linux platforms to use the latest version of HP MPI. All high speed
interconnects supported by HP MPI are supported by CFX on linux ia32, linux amd64 and linux ia64, This currently
includes TCP/IP (Ethernet), luDAPL, VAPI, OpenFabrics (IB), GM-2, MX (Myrinet), Elan4 (Quadrics), QLogic
InfiniPath, and EtherFabric (Level 5 Networks).
Expression Language Advances

Several improvements have been made to CFX Expression Language (CEL) functionality in this release. Non-attached
regions (regions that have not been used for boundary conditions, domains, or subdomains) can now be used as locators
for evaluating integrated quantity functions (for example, massFlow or massFlowAve).
New CEL functions were added to CFX-11.0. These include a new type of function similar to the “subdomain” function:
inside()@<Locator>. This function evaluates to unity when evaluated at points within the specified locator.
Particle Tracking Extensions

Transient Lagrangian Particle Tracking functionality has been extended to allow modeling Transient Particle Tracking
with Moving Mesh.
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Draft Turbulence Modeling Draft
New primary breakup spray injector models include BLOB, Enhanced BLOB, and the LISA model. They are available
via “Cone with Primary Breakup” Particle injection. Using the BLOB Model, atomization and break-up within a
primary break-up zone can be simulated by injecting spherical droplets of uniform size. The Enhanced BLOB Model
allows the droplets to dynamically change size and have different injection velocities due to nozzle cavitation.
The LISA model, or Linearized instability Sheet Atomization, is mostly used for direct-injection spark-ignition engines
and is also available from the GUI.
For transient simulations with Lagrangian particles, it is very helpful to define integrated quantities. Penetration-depth
post-processing for transient particles has been added to allow easy access to spray diagnostics.
Turbulence Modeling
A significant addition in CFX-11.0 is the SAS (Scale Adaptive Simulation)-SST model. The main use of this model
is for unsteady CFD simulations, where steady-state simulations are not of sufficient accuracy and do not properly
describe the true nature of the physical phenomena. Cases which may benefit from using the SAS-SST model would
include unsteady flow behind a car or strong mixing behind blades and baffles inside stirred chemical reactors, unsteady
cavitation inside vortex core (fuel injection system) or fluid-structure interaction (unsteady forces on bridges, wings,
etc.).
For these problems and others, the SAS-SST model provides a more accurate solution than URANS models, where
steady-state simulations are not of sufficient accuracy and do not properly describe the true nature of the physical
phenomena
Transition turbulence has been improved and in CFX-11.0; it is fully supported for multiphase flows.
Combustion and Radiation Improvements

Several extensions to Reacting Flow modeling are introduced in CFX-11.0:
• Eddy-dissipation maximum-flame temperature modifications enable you to stop a reaction below a specified
temperature limit.
• The 'Partially premixed and laminar Flamelet PDF' combustion model now runs an alternative mixture fraction -
reaction progress treatment called the ‘Weighted Reaction Progress' Model. It has a significantly improved mechanism
for primary/secondary air mixing while maintaining backwards compatibility with the previous treatment. Several
Turbulent Burning velocity correlations can be used: Zimont, Peters, and Muller.
• Chemistry (NOx) post-processing is a significant addition to CFX-11.0: pollutants are solved at the end of the run,
so this is a truly post-processing step that is faster and more efficient than directly including NOx reactions within
the chemistry.
• A spark ignition model for transient simulations has been implemented which is appropriate for specifying the
location of conditions to start the combustion process. The model describes the initial growth of the spark kernel
until the mesh can adequately resolve the start of the combustion process.
Improvements to radiation in CFX-11.0 include faster run times for Monte Carlo and the DTM radiation solver, and
noticeable speed improvements for Radiation simulation with GGI interfaces.
A new Thermal Radiation Transfer mode option has been added. This controls whether the Radiation solver runs in a
‘Surface to Surface' or ‘Participating Media' mode. The 'Participating Media' mode is the same as what was available
in previous releases. The ‘Surface to Surface' option is an enhancement for non-participating media cases and works
with both DTM and Monte Carlo models. This mode neglects the volumetric radiation sources due to emission and
absorption. Volumetric source effects are neglected by coarsening the radiation mesh to include only the smallest
possible number of volumetric radiation elements, while keeping the full boundary mesh.
Draft Domain Interfaces Draft
Domain Interfaces
There have been a number of extensions to domain interfaces in CFX-11.0. The most significant is the support of
periodic GGI with specified pressure change or mass flow rate. Using this new functionality, fully developed duct
flow, flows through tube banks, or screens/fans can be modeled at interfaces.
Boundary Conditions and Boundary Sources

Incremental improvements have been made to the specification of boundary conditions. Total Enthalpy boundaries for
energy equation can now be used for all flow regimes and support the following material types: ideal gas, real gas, wet
steam, mixtures. Dry or wet compressible flow cases with phase change can both be modeled using this boundary
condition. 'Zero Gradient' inlets has been extended for volume fraction equation in CFX-11.0. These inlets are applicable
for MPF cases, specifically Free Surface problems. The availability of Boundary source terms has been extended to
inlets and outlets in CFX-11.0.
Eulerian Multiphase Extensions

There have been a number of model extensions within Eulerian Multiphase models in CFX-11.0. A Non-Equilibrium
Nucleation model has been implemented that supports one gas phase with dispersed liquid droplet phases (morphology
for dispersed phase can be set in the interface to ‘Droplets with Phase Change'). A homogeneous nucleation model
automatically computes the number and location of where droplets form. The diameter distribution is predicted assuming
that the droplets are monodisperse. Both homogeneous (single velocity field) and inhomogeneous (velocity field for
each phase) multiphase can be used with this model.
Further, a new equation of state for Water, the IAPWS-IF97 industrial standard, has been added. This equation of state
provides built-in properties for:
• Superheated vapor
• Compressed liquid
• Supercritical fluids
• Liquid and vapor saturation properties
• Metastable vapor and liquid properties.
This model can be used for modeling both equilibrium and non-equilibrium boiling, cavitation, evaporation, and
condensation, in addition to single-phase dry steam simulations.
Significant Multiphase numeric improvements have also been made for Free Surface calculations by adding a Coupled
Volume Fraction (CVF) non-linear iterative strategy. This method strictly couples V, P, and volume fractions. The
Segregated coupling algorithm (SVF) is still the default, but CVF can be easily activated in the GUI on the solver
controls tab. It has been found to be especially effective on free surface flow applications.
CFX-Pre
As well as supporting all new physical models, CFX-Pre offers continued improvements in usability and performance
for CFD physics pre-processing:
Region Creation and Editing:

The ability to create/edit 2D regions by picking mesh faces has been introduced. A variety of picking modes are
available: face, flood and polygon.
Usability:
The new design removes clutter from the interface, simplifies your view of the simulation, and makes the product
easier to use. New tree presentation and actions have been introduced and right-click options in the tree are context-based.
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Draft Default Domain and Interface Generation Draft
The tabbed workspace has also been overhauled for this release. All physics editors are now embedded as tabs and
there are fewer pop-ups.
‘Viewer right-click' for creation and editing of objects options are available.
Quick setup mode has been extended to support ‘Multi-component' and ‘Multiphase' flows. Inlet and Outlet boundaries
are auto-created.
Default Domain and Interface Generation

When a mesh is imported, a ‘Default Domain' is created encapsulating all of the 3D mesh regions that are currently
unassigned. This complements the ‘Default Boundary' mechanism from previous releases. In addition, ‘Default Domain
Interfaces' are generated between (and within) domains where their regions are topologically connected. The ANSYS
‘Contact Detection' capability is used to determine where meshes are in contact. These interfaces are generated
dynamically when a domain of boundary changes, rather than at the ‘Write Solver Input File' stage, as in previous
releases of the software.
CFD-Post
CFX-11.0 contains a number of new features that represent significant advancements in the interactivity and usability
of working within CFD-Post: automatic report generation, saving of plots as figures, the ability to load multiple results
files, ANSYS structural results support, the ability to add timesteps, magnification of mesh displacements, and the
ability to modify solution variables. Details are given below.
ANSYS .rst file support:

CFD-Post supports loading and post-processing of ANSYS files: .rst, .rth, .rmg, and .rft. Transient ANSYS
data can be processed and displacement magnification is available. Shell Elements are also supported.
Multiple Data files:

Two or more data files can now be loaded into Post in a single session. An offset can be applied for viewing. This is
a very useful feature for loading both CFX .res files and ANSYS .rst (or other formats) results files, and viewing
them in the same session. Global Variable ranges are common to all files.
Immediate mode object dragging:

When dragging planes, isosurfaces, or lines, the object gets recalculated on-the-fly and not only when releasing the
button.
Report generation:
All charts, tables, figures, and comments automatically become report content. The report component order can be
adjusted and figures can be 3D Viewer files or bitmaps. Different output formats are available, including HTML.
Turbo Post:
The Turbo Post environment now includes Mass and Area weighted distributions of Hub-Shroud points. Also, a new
Blade Aligned Streamwise Location coordinate can be used to align the Hub-Shroud lines with the leading and trailing
blade edges.
Replacing of solution variables with expressions:

Any solution variable can be redefined in CFD-Post 11.0 via an expression and written back to the results file. This is
supported only for CFX files, not for timesteps or in multifile mode.
Draft Beta Features Draft
Beta Features
ANSYS CFX 12.0 includes Beta Features. These features have received limited testing and are provided for your
comments. Refer to the CFX Release Notes for details.
Supported Platforms
The following table outlines the operating system and platform support for CFX-11.0:
Vendor/Chip Supported Operating Systems

CFX Standalone CFX in ANSYS Workbench
Sun (UltraSPARC) Solaris 9/10 Solaris 9/10
IBM (Power RISC) AIX 5.3
HP-Compaq Tru64 Unix 5.1 (Solver only)
HP-UX PA-RISC HP-UX 11i v1
Intel Itanium 2 (IA 64) -HPUX HP-UX 11i v2
Intel Itanium 2 (IA 64) -Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
SLES 9.x
SGI Propack 3/4
Intel IA32 and AMD Athlon Windows XP Windows XP

Windows 2000 Windows 2000
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
SLES 9.x SLES 9.x
SuSE Professional 9.x/10.0 SuSE Professional 9.x
Intel IA64 and AMD Athlon Windows XP 64 Windows XP 64

SLES 9.x SLES 9.x
SuSE Professional 9.x/10.0 SuSE Professional 9.x
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Draft Draft
Chapter 4. Customizing ANSYS CFX

• ANSYS CFX Resource Configuration Files (p. 25)
ANSYS CFX Resource Configuration Files

When ANSYS CFX starts up, it reads several resource configuration files. By creating your own local and site-wide
configuration files, you can modify the behavior of ANSYS CFX to meet your needs. A common use for configuration
files is to set the path to the license file or the license server.
The Site-wide Configuration Files

If you are accessing your ANSYS CFX files from a remote file system, your System Administrator may create site-wide
resource configuration files. ANSYS CFX first looks for such files in the following order:
1. <CFXROOT>/config/cfx5rc-<host>.txt
2. <CFXROOT>/config/cfx5rc-<arch>.txt
3. <CFXROOT>/config/cfx5rc-<os>.txt
4. <CFXROOT>/config/cfx5rc.txt
5. <CFXROOT>/config/cfx5rc-site.txt
where:
• host is the hostname of the machine on which ANSYS CFX is running.
• arch is the architecture of the machine on which ANSYS CFX is running.
• os is the operating system of the machine on which ANSYS CFX is running.
You can find the value of host, arch, and os by selecting Show > Show System from the menu bar of the CFX Launcher.
On Windows, the value of os is winnt.
Note
Any resources set in these files will affect all users of ANSYS CFX, unless users override these variables
in their personal user's ANSYS CFX resource configuration files.
User's Configuration Files

After searching for site-wide configuration files, ANSYS CFX looks for the following user's configuration files:
• cfx5rc-<host>.txt
• cfx5rc-<arch>.txt
• cfx5rc-<os>.txt
• cfx5rc.txt
(and for the same files without .txt appended) in the following directories:
• On Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\CFX-5\12.0\ if it exists,
otherwise%HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%\.cfx\12.0\ where %USERPROFILE%, %HOMEDRIVE% and
%HOMEPATH% are environment variables.
.
• On UNIX: ~/.cfx/12.0/ and ~/CFX/12.0/
Draft Syntax of CFX Resource Configuration Files Draft
where ~ means your home directory (if you have one).
Syntax of CFX Resource Configuration Files

ANSYS CFX resource configuration files should consist only of:
• Lines beginning with # (which are comments).
• Variable assignments such as: CFX5EDITOR="textedit"
The right hand side of an assignment may include references to previously assigned variables by prefixing the variable
name with $; for example,
CFX5BROWSER="$CFX5EDITOR"
Note
In previous releases of ANSYS CFX, these files could contain arbitrary Bourne shell commands. These are
no longer supported.
Resource Names
ANSYS CFX software makes use of variable names that start with the following strings:
• CFDS_
• CFX_
• CFX4
• CFX5
• CUE_
You must not set any variable of your own with a name beginning with these letters.
Resources Set in cfx5rc Files

You can find out which ANSYS CFX resources have been set by using the Show > Show Variables option from the
menu bar of the CFX Launcher. This displays a list of all the resources that have been set. Although you can change
the values of most of the resources shown in this list, it is generally useful to change only a few of them. These few
are described in the following table:
Resource Description
CFX5BROWSER Sets the program to use when browsing files in ANSYS CFX.
On Windows, the default browser is Notepad.
On UNIX, the default value is system-dependent, but the Common Desktop
Environment file browser, dtpad, is used if possible. The command must start its
own X window, so if you wanted to use view, for example, you could only do so by
setting
CFX5BROWSER="xterm -e view"
CFX5EDITOR Sets the program to use when editing files in ANSYS CFX.
On Windows, the default editor is Notepad.
On UNIX, the default value is system-dependent but the Common Desktop
Environment file editor, dtpad, is used if possible. The command must start its own
X window, so if you wanted to use vi, for example, you could only do so by setting
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Draft Resources Set in cfx5rc Files Draft
Resource Description
CFX5EDITOR="xterm -e vi"
CFX5XTERM Creates a window to interact with the operating system.

On Windows, the default window is a Windows command prompt set up to run the
ANSYS CFX commands.
On UNIX, the default value is system-dependent but the Common Desktop
Environment terminal emulator, dtterm, is used if possible.
CFX_FORMAT If set to F, this command causes ANSYS CFX programs to write formatted CFX-Solver
input and results files instead of binary files.
If set to U, then the files generated will be in binary format, but not compressed.
If not set, then the files generated will be binary and compressed. This is the default.
CFX_IMPORT_EXEC Sets the name of the user-defined executable for CFX Volume Mesh Import.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH This is a colon-separated list of directories which will be searched for shared libraries
on Sun and Compaq Tru64 UNIX systems. If you have installed system libraries in
directories that are not included in this list, use this command to add these directories.
LD_LIBRARYN32_PATH This is a colon-separated list of directories which will be searched for shared libraries
on SGI systems. If you have installed system libraries in directories that are not
included in this list, use this command to add these directories.
LIBPATH This is a colon-separated list of directories which will be searched for shared libraries
on IBM systems. If you have installed system libraries in directories that are not
included in this list, use this command to add these directories.
LM_LICENSE_FILE If you have license keys in a file other than <CFXLICENSEROOT>/license.dat,

you may have to set the value of this resource to be either
i) port@host where the license daemon is listening for requests on port number port
on the machine called host
or
ii) the full pathname of the license file.
SHLIB_PATH This is a colon-separated list of directories that will be searched to look for shared
libraries on HP systems. If you have installed system libraries in directories that are
not included in this list, then add them to it.
Setting Environment Variables

You should set the variables in your cfx5rc file. You must not create environment variables that start with CFX.
Draft Draft
Chapter 5. Using the CFX Launcher

CFX can be run in two modes:
• CFX Standalone, which refers to CFX running as a standalone application independent of the ANSYS Workbench
software
• CFX Workbench, which refers to CFX running as a component inside of the ANSYS Workbench software. This
is described in ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench (p. 31).
CFX Standalone has the CFX Launcher, which makes it easy to run all the modules of CFX without having to use a
command line. The launcher enables you to:
• Set the working directory for your project
• Start CFX and ANSYS products
• Access various other tools, including a command window that enables you to run other utilities
• Access the online help and other useful information
• Customize the behavior of the launcher to start your own applications.
The CFX Launcher automatically searches for installations of CFX and ANSYS products including the license manager.
Depending on the application, the search includes common installation directories, directories pointed to by environment
variables associated with CFX and ANSYS products, and the Windows registry. In the unlikely event that a product
is not found, you can configure the CFX Launcher using steps outlined in Customizing the Launcher (p. 16).
• Starting the CFX Launcher (p. 29)
For more information about the launcher, see The Launcher Interface (p. 13) and Customizing the Launcher (p. 16).
Starting the CFX Launcher

You can run the CFX Launcher in any of the following ways:
• On Windows:
• From the Start menu, go to All Programs > ANSYS 12.0 > CFX > ANSYS CFX 12.0.
• In a DOS window that has its path set up correctly to run CFX, enter cfx5 (otherwise, you will need to enter
the full pathname of the cfx5 command).
• On UNIX, enter cfx5 in a terminal window that has its path set up to run CFX.
Draft Draft
Chapter 6. ANSYS CFX in ANSYS

Workbench
ANSYS CFX components can be run in two modes:
• As standalone applications started from the ANSYS CFX Launcher and independent of the ANSYS Workbench
software. This mode is described in Using the CFX Launcher (p. 29).
• As components launched from ANSYS Workbench as required to solve fluid flow (CFD) problems.
This chapter describes using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench:
• The ANSYS Workbench Interface (p. 31)
• An Introduction to Workflow within ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench (p. 36)
• Known Limitations of Using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench (p. 39)
Note
This chapter assumes that you are familiar with using ANSYS CFX in standalone mode. You should consult
the ANSYS Workbench help for more detailed information on ANSYS Workbench.
Tip
For examples of using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench, see the following tutorials:
• Oscillating Plate with Two-Way Fluid-Structure Interaction (p. 391) in ANSYS CFX Tutorials
• Aerodynamic & Structural Performance of a Centrifugal Compressor (p. 429) in ANSYS CFX Tutorials
The ANSYS Workbench Interface

You launch ANSYS Workbench from the Start menu. The full path is Start > All Programs > ANSYS 12.0 > ANSYS
Workbench.
The ANSYS Workbench interface is organized to make it easy to choose the tool set that will enable you to solve
particular types of problems. Once you have chosen a system from the Toolbox and moved it into the Project Schematic,
supporting features such as Properties and Messages provide orienting information. These features and the status
indicators in the system cells guide you through the completion of the System steps.
The figure that follows shows ANSYS Workbench with a Fluid Flow (CFX) analysis system open and the properties
of cell A2 (Geometry) displayed:
Draft Toolbox Draft
The following sections describe the main ANSYS Workbench features.
Toolbox
The Toolbox shows the systems available to you:
Analysis Systems
Systems that match the workflow required to solve particular types of problems. For example, the Fluid Flow
(CFX) system contains tools for creating the geometry, performing the meshing, setting up the solver, using the
solver to derive the solution, and viewing the results.
Component Systems
Software elements upon which Analysis Systems are based. For example, the CFX component system contains
Setup (CFX-Pre), Solution (CFX-Solver Manager), and Results (CFD-Post). The Results component system
contains only Results (CFD-Post).
Custom Systems
Systems that combine separate analysis systems. For example, the FSI: Fluid Flow (CFX) > Static Structural
system combines ANSYS CFX and Mechanical to perform a unidirectional (that is, one-way) Fluid Structure
Interaction (FSI) analysis.
Design Exploration
Systems that enable you to see how changes to parameters affect the performance of the system.
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Draft Project Schematic Draft
Note
Which systems are shown in the Toolbox depends on the licenses that exist on your system. You can hide
systems by enabling View > Toolbox Customization and clearing the check box beside the name of the
system you want to hide.
To begin using a system, drag it into the Project Schematic area.
Project Schematic
The Project Schematic enables you to manage the process of solving your CFD problem. It keeps track of the your
files and shows the actions available as you work on a project. At each step you can select the operations that process
or modify the case you are solving.
When you move a system from the Analysis Systems toolbox to the Project Schematic, you will see a set of tools
similar to the following:
Each white cell represents a step in solving a problem. Right-click the cell to see what options are available for you to
complete a step.
Draft View Bar Draft
Many cells launch specialized software that enables you to perform the task required by that step. For example, in a
Fluid Flow (CFX) system:
• Geometry > New Geometry launches DesignModeler.
• Mesh > Edit launches the Meshing Application (from which you have the option of running CFX-Mesh).
• Setup > Edit launches CFX-Pre.
• Solution > Edit launches CFX-Solver Manager.
• Results > Edit launches CFD-Post.
View Bar
You control which views are displayed by opening the View menu and setting a check mark beside the view you want
to display. If you minimize that view, it appears as a tab in the View Bar and the check box is cleared from the View
menu.
Properties View
The Properties view is a table whose entries describe the status of a system. These entries vary between system cells
and are affected by the status of the cell. Some entries in the Properties area are writable; others are for information
only.
To display the Properties for a particular cell, right-click on the cell and select Properties. Once the Properties view
is open, simply selecting a cell in the Project Schematic will display that cell's properties.
The following properties are specific to ANSYS CFX components:
Setup Cell Properties

Physics Status Provides information about the current settings in ANSYS CFX-Pre and describes how
to adjust them.
Solution Cell Properties
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Draft Files View Draft
Initialization Optiona Update from Current Solution Data if possible causes ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager
to use the physics and mesh information from the previous solution run (if these exist)
and to generate a new CFX-Solver Results file.
If there is no previous solution run, ANSYS Workbench will also check for the existence
of an upstream solution cell and for the presence of Initial Values definitions on the Define
Run dialog of ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager.
Note
This is the default setting, which is not desirable for the second and subsequent
updates of transient cases, for starting from initial conditions provided by
another system, or for a situation in which you have divergent results and do
not want to start an update from those bad results.
Update from Initial Conditions causes ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager to use the physics
and mesh information from the current state of the Setup cell.
Update Option Controls whether the update proceeds as a Background Task or a Foreground Task.
Multi-configuration Post Choose Load only the last results to load only the last configuration of a
Processor Load Options multi-configuration results file, or only the last results from a results file that contains a
run history, into CFD-Post.
Choose Load complete history as: a single case to load all configurations of a
multi-configuration run as a single case, or all of the results history from a results file that
contains a run history. In either case, only one set of results will appear in the CFD-Post
viewer, but you can use the timestep selector to move between results. This option is not
fully supported.
Choose Load complete history as: separate cases to load all configurations from a
multi-configuration run into separate cases. If a results file with run history is loaded,
CFD-Post loads the results from this file and the results for any results file in its run history
as separate cases. Each result appears as a separate entry in the tree.
Results Cell Properties

Generate Report Select this check box to automatically publish a report. The location of the report is
displayed in the Files view.
a
This setting synchronizes interactively with changes in the Initialization Option setting in the ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager's Define Run dialog.
Files View
The Files view shows the files that are in the current project. The project files are updated constantly, and any “save”
operation from the ANSYS CFX components will save all files associated with the project.
Draft Sidebar Help Draft
Sidebar Help
In addition to having a visual layout that guides you through completing your
project, you can also access Sidebar Help by pressing F1 while the mouse focus
is anywhere on ANSYS Workbench. Sidebar Help is a dynamically generated
set of links to information appropriate for helping you with questions you have
about any of the tools and systems you currently have open.
Shortcuts (Context Menu Options)

You can access commonly used commands by right-clicking in most areas of ANSYS Workbench. These commands
are described in the section Context Menu Options in the ANSYS Workbench help. In addition to those shortcuts, there
are commands that are specific to CFX Solution cells:
Display Monitors
Opens the ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager and shows the results of the previous run.
Import Solution
Displays the Open dialog, where you can specify the CFX Solver Results file to load. When the results file is
loaded, the system will display only the Solution cell and the Results cell.
Continue Calculation
Performs an update of the Solution cell, completing a previously stopped run (if one is available), or otherwise
restarts the current run.
Clear Execution Control
When a solver run is started, the settings from the Define Run dialog are stored for the Solution cell that launched
the solver; these are the execution control settings for that cell. The Clear Execution Control command removes
those settings.
An Introduction to Workflow within ANSYS CFX

in ANSYS Workbench
This section walks through an example of using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench to perform a fluid-flow analysis.
This walkthrough assumes familiarity with the basic ANSYS Workbench and ANSYS CFX applications and does not
discuss the details of the steps within each application.
The data flow between cells (and systems) drives the workflow.
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Draft An Introduction to Workflow within ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench Draft
1. You begin by launching ANSYS Workbench, which opens as an unsaved project and displays the available
analysis systems.
2. In your file system you create a directory in which to store your project files. You then select File > Save As and
save your new project to that directory. This automatically sets your working directory for this project.
3. In the Analysis Systems toolbox, double-click on Fluid Flow (CFX) to create a fluid-analysis system in the
Project Schematic. (Notice that if you “hover” over systems in the Toolbox, a tool tip appears.)
Draft An Introduction to Workflow within ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench Draft
The fluid-analysis system in the Project Schematic shows the steps in performing a fluid analysis:
1. Create or import a geometry.
2. Create a mesh for the geometry.
3. Set up the analysis that will be sent to the solver.
4. Control and monitor the solver to achieve a solution.
5. Visualize the results in a post-processor and create a report.
4. In addition to showing those steps in appropriately named cells, each cell can launch a tool that will enable you
to perform the task it names. Right-click on the Geometry cell to see your options for adding a geometry to your
project:
5. As you move through the cells from Geometry to Results, you can choose to launch the tool that will enable you
to complete the cell's step: create a new geometry with ANSYS DesignModeler, create a new mesh with ANSYS
CFX-Mesh, edit the case with ANSYS CFX-Pre, control the solver's solution with ANSYS CFX-Solver Manager,
and control the display of the results with ANSYS CFD-Post.
Note
You could open a Fluid Flow (CFX) system and go immediately to the Setup cell to import an existing
case. When the case is loaded, the now-unnecessary Geometry and Mesh cells disappear.
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Draft Data Flow in Systems and Between Systems Draft
6. When the analysis is complete and the project is finished, you save the project (and therefore the associated files).
Once a project has been saved, it can be re-opened at a later date for review or modification of any aspect of the
simulation.
Data Flow in Systems and Between Systems

The cells in a system communicate status with each other. For example, when you change a mesh in the Mesh cell,
the Setup cell will report that its software (CFX-Pre) requires a refresh to re-read the “upstream” data.
Similarly, the same type of data flow occurs between systems. For example, if you have an FSI: Fluid Flow system
(as shown in the image below), data and status from the Fluid Flow (CFX) Geometry cell will flow both to the Fluid
Flow (CFX) Mesh cell and the Static Structural (ANSYS) Geometry cell. Data flow between systems is shown by
interconnecting lines:
Known Limitations of Using ANSYS CFX in

ANSYS Workbench
The general use of ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench is known to be limited by the following:
• CFX-Pre and CFD-Post can play session files (or tutorial session files) when launched from ANSYS Workbench
only when you have enabled Beta features in CFX-Pre or CFD-Post.
• You must use absolute paths for CFX-Solver runs making use of user FORTRAN in ANSYS CFX in ANSYS
Workbench.
• The Units on the settings on the ANSYS Workbench menu bar have no effect on the units used in ANSYS CFX
applications.
• Generating a volume mesh for a Mesh cell does not update the cell or the project. This is because you will often
want to generate a mesh without going through the time-consuming process of writing all of the project files.
The use of ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench for multi-configuration simulations is known to be limited by:
• The way that multi-configuration files and transient files open in CFD-Post must be set beforehand in CFD-Post
or in the Properties settings for the Solutions cell; you cannot configure these settings from a Results cell.
• • Avoid editing the Solution cell for solved or user-interrupted multi-configuration simulations; this will corrupt
the Execution Control CCL. Make any necessary changes by editing the Setup cell (that is, by using CFX-Pre).
If the CCL has been corrupted in this way, an error will be generated when the simulation is continued. Repair the
corrupted CCL by selecting one of the following options from the right-click menu of the Solution cell:
• Clear Execution Control: restore the execution control to their previous values.
Draft Known Limitations of Using ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench Draft
• Reset: return the Solution cell to its initial unsolved state (and then re-solve the entire simulation using the
corrected execution control settings).
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Draft Draft
Chapter 7. Help On Help

• CFX Documentation Structure (p. 41)
• Document Conventions (p. 42)
• Accessing Online Help (p. 44)
• Using the Help Browser Index (p. 44)
• Using the Search Feature (p. 45)
• Bookmarking Useful Help Pages (p. 45)
CFX Documentation Structure

The CFX documentation can be found in PDF form in
<CFXROOT>..\commonfiles\help\en-us\CFX\help\pdf\ on Windows and in
<CFXROOT>../commonfiles/help/en-us/CFX/help/pdf/ on UNIX. In the PDF names that follow, “*”
can be:
• fp for ANSYS CFD-Post
• x for ANSYS CFX
For example, fptutr.pdf is the ANSYS CFD-Post Tutorials; xtutr.pdf is the ANSYS CFX Tutorials.
Book Description PDF Name
Installation Guide How to install CFX n/a
Release Notes How to import a mesh and specify all of the settings *rel.pdf
required to write a CFX-Solver input file for the
CFX-Solver
ANSYS CFX Introduction An overview of CFD and the CFX software xintr.pdf
Tutorials A set of tutorials that demonstrate the workflow *tutr.pdf
CFX-Solver Modeling Guide How to use the physical models implemented in the xmod.pdf
CFX-Solver
CFX-Solver Theory Guide Describes the mathematical details of the models used xthry.pdf
in the CFX-Solver and also how the CFX-Solver
solves flow equations
CFX-Solver Manager User's How to use the CFX-Solver Manager to control a xmgr.pdf
Guide CFD simulation
ANSYS CFD-Post User's How to post-process a results file (fppost.pdf is for fpuser.pdf,
Guides the standalone version of ANSYS CFD-Post; xpost.pdf
xpost.pdf is for ANSYS CFD-Post in ANSYS CFX)
ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide How to use ANSYS CFX-Pre, the pre-processor for xpre.pdf
ANSYS CFX
Reference Guides Best-practices guides and complete details for APIs, *ref.pdf
CFX Command Language, CFX Expression
Language, functions, and variables
Draft Document Conventions Draft
All documentation is also available in PDF format on the ANSYS Customer Portal. For a link to this web site, or to
contact a CFX representative, see Contact Information (p. 47).
Document Conventions
This section describes the conventions used in this document to distinguish between text, file names, system messages,
and input that you need to type.
Spelling Conventions
ANSYS CFX is developed both in North America and Europe, so you will find both American and British spelling:
• atomization and atomisation
• color and colour
• customization and customisation
• discretization and discretisation
• initialization and initialisation
• meter and metre
• normalization and normalisation
• vapor and vapour
• vaporization and vaporisation
When using the documentation's Index, it is useful to search both for American and British spellings. When using the
documentation's Search function, it is generally best to use American spellings.
For: Search for:

Colour Map Color Map (or try Color Map Command (p. 164) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Colour Mode Color Mode (or try Color Mode (p. 144) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Colour Scale Color Scale (or try Color Scale (p. 33) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Colour Tab Color Tab (or try Color Details Tab (p. 33) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Customisation Customization (or try Customization (p. 51) in ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide)
Domain Initialisation Domain Initialization (or try Domain: Initialization Tab (p. 143) in ANSYS CFX-Pre User's
Guide)
Global Initialisation Global Initialization (or try Initialization (p. 143) in ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide)
Initialisation Tab Initialization Tab (or try Initialization Tab (p. 120) in ANSYS CFX-Pre User's Guide)
Turbo Initialisation Turbo Initialization (or try Turbo Initialization (p. 214) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Auto-initialise Auto-initialize (or try Requirements for Initialization (p. 214) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's
Guide)
Uninitialise Uninitialize (or try Uninitializing Components (p. 215) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Initialise All Components Initialize All Components (or try Initialize All Components (p. 215) in ANSYS CFD-Post
User's Guide)
Undefined Colour Undefined Color (or try Undefined Color (p. 34) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
Synchronise Camera Synchronize Camera (or try Case Comparison (p. 209) in ANSYS CFD-Post User's Guide)
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Draft File and Directory Names Draft
File and Directory Names

File names and directory names appear in a plain fixed-width font (for example, /usr/lib). Note that on UNIX,
directory names are separated by forward slashes (/) but on Windows, back slashes are used (\). For example, a directory
name on UNIX might be /CFX/bin whereas on a Windows system, the same directory would be named \CFX\bin.
User Input
Input to be typed verbatim is shown in the following convention:
mkdir /usr/local/cfx
Input Substitution
Input substitution is shown in the following convention:
cfx5 -def <def_file>
you should actually type cfx5 -def, and substitute a suitable value for <def_file>.
Optional Arguments
Optional arguments are shown using square brackets:
cfx5export -cgns [-verbose] <file>
Here the argument -verbose is optional, but you must specify a suitable file name.
Long Commands
Commands that are too long to display on a printed page are shown with “\” characters at the ends of intermediate
lines:
cfx5export -cgns [-boundary] [-corrected] [-C] \

[-domain <number>] [-geometry] [-help] [-name <file>] \
[-summary] [-timestep <number>] [-user <level>] [-norotate] \
[-boundaries-as-nodes|-boundaries-as-faces] [-verbose] <file>
On a UNIX system, you may type the “\” characters, pressing Enter after each. However, on a Windows machine you
must enter the whole command without the “\” characters; continue typing if the command is too long to fit in the
command prompt window and press Enter only at the end of the complete command.
Operating System Names

When we refer to objects that depend on the type of system being used, we will use one of the following symbols in
the text:
<os> refers to the short form of the name which CFX uses to identify the operating system in question. <os> will
generally be used for directory names where the contents of the directory depend on the operating system but do not
depend on the release of the operating system or on the processor type. Wherever you see <os> in the text you should
substitute with the operating system name. The correct value for a UNIX system can be determined by running:
<CFXROOT>/bin/cfx5info -os
On a Windows system, <os> will always be windows.
<arch> refers to the long form of the name that CFX uses to identify the system architecture in question. <arch> will
generally be used for directory names where the contents of the directory depend on the operating system and on the
release of the operating system or the processor type. Wherever you see <arch> in the text you should substitute the
appropriate value for your system, which can be determined by running the UNIX command:
Draft Accessing Online Help Draft
<CFXROOT>/bin/cfx5info -arch
Accessing Online Help

There are several different ways to access the online help system:
• Select one of the appropriate commands from the Help menu of the ANSYS CFX Launcher or ANSYS Workbench.
• Click on a feature of the CFX interface to make it active and, with the mouse pointer over the feature, press the F1
key (the Help key on Sun workstations) for context-sensitive help. Not every area of the interface supports
context-sensitive help.
If CHM Files Cannot be Accessed Over a Network

Microsoft Security Update 896358 makes it impossible to view parts of a CHM file that is stored on a network drive,
although the CHM Viewer will open. Network Configuration installations typically require you to open the CHM file
on a network shared folder.
If all the computers on your intranet are secure, you can perform the following steps to lower the restrictions on the
Local Intranet zone and thus enable CHM files to display:
1. Click Start > Run. The Run dialog box opens.
2. Type regedit and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x\ItssRestrictions
If this registry subkey does not exist, create it.
4. Right-click the ItssRestrictions subkey and select New > DWORD Value.
5. Type MaxAllowedZone and then press Enter.
6. Right-click the MaxAllowedZone value, and then select Modify.
7. In the Value data field, type 1 and then click OK.
8. Quit the Registry Editor.
If this solution does not work for you, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896358 and
http://support.microsoft.com./kb/896054 for more information.
Adjusting Font Sizes in Online Help

If you are viewing the help in UNIX, you can change the font size on your display by tapping + and –.
If you are viewing the help in Windows, you can increase/decrease the font size by holding down the Ctrl key and
sliding the mouse wheel up or down.
Using the Help Browser Index

The Index tab of the help browser allows you to search for index terms and display the associated topics.
To find a topic using the index:
1. In the field at the top, type the first few letters of a keyword. The keyword list scrolls to the relevant keywords as
you type. As keywords are selected, one or more topic titles appears in the topics list below.
2. Select a topic from the list, then click the Display button (Windows) or Open button (UNIX).
Results from the Help index will not be exhaustive, so you should consider using the Search function as well. See
Using the Search Feature (p. 45).
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Draft Using the Search Feature Draft
Using the Search Feature

The Search tab of the help browser enables you to perform searches through the online help.
If you are running on Windows, you can search for a phrase by wrapping the phrase in quotes. In this case, you may
want to turn off the Match similar words option to avoid returning extra search results for phrases made from similar
words.
Note
The Search titles only option restricts searches to titles of chapters and major sections, but not all sections.
Bookmarking Useful Help Pages

Windows users who come across a help page that they expect to refer to in the future can add it to a Favorites page.
With the help page displayed, click on the Favorites tab, then click Add.
Draft Bookmarking Useful Help Pages Draft
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Draft Draft
Chapter 8. Contact Information

• How to Contact ANSYS Customer Service (p. 47)
• ANSYS Customer Portal (p. 47)
Technical Support for ANSYS products is provided either by ANSYS, Inc. directly or by one of our ANSYS Support
Providers. Please check with the ANSYS Support Coordinator (ASC) at your company to determine who provides
support for your company. Support provider contact information is available from the ANSYS Customer Service page
on the ANSYS Website (www.ansys.com) under Solutions > Services and Support > Customer Service. The direct
URL is: http://www.ansys.com/services/ss-customer.asp. If your support is provided by ANSYS, Inc., please use the
contact information listed in the following sections.
How to Contact ANSYS Customer Service

ANSYS aims to provide high-quality software, documentation, and product support. To help achieve this goal, we
maintain technical support centers around the world.
If you have problems contacting any of our offices, please contact:
Web: Select the Support tab on the ANSYS Customer Portal

(http://www1.ansys.com/customer)
Toll-Free Telephone: 1.800.711.7199
Telephone: 724.514.3600
Fax: 724.514.5096
Email techsupp@ansys.com
To help us respond quickly to your question, we will request the following information from you:
• Customer information (your name and company name)
• Product and platform information (computer type and operating system; product name and version; and a detailed
description of the question/problem)
• Any files relevant to your problem.
If you send files via email from a UNIX system, please compress and uuencode the files before sending them.
If you have system-related problems once the software has been installed, information about any local customization
of CFX which may have taken place can be obtained as follows:
Run the CFX launcher, choose the Show > Show All command from the menu, and save the messages to a file. Include
this file with your email.
ANSYS Customer Portal

The ANSYS Customer Portal is available from the ANSYS web site (http://www.ansys.com) by clicking CUSTOMER
AREA, then clicking ANSYS Customer Portal on the page that appears. You can also go there directly:
http://www1.ansys.com/customer/
One of the many useful features of the Customer Portal is Online Support > Knowledge Base Search, which enables
you to find solutions to various types of problems, much like an FAQ.

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ANSYS CFX Introduction

ANSYS CFX Introduction

6. ANSYS CFX in ANSYS Workbench .................................................................................................. 31

Chapter 1. Computational Fluid

The History of CFD

The Mathematics of CFD

The first step is to identify the region of interest:

Creating the Geometry/Mesh

Defining the Physics of the Model

Solving the CFD Problem

Visualizing the Results in the Post-processor

Further Background Reading

• Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

• Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

• Engineering Thermodynamics: Work and Heat Transfer

• Viscous Fluid Flow

• Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook (7th Edition)

• An Album of Fluid Motion

• Learning the UNIX Operating System

• Essential System Administration

• A Scientist's and Engineer's Guide to Workstations and Supercomputers

Chapter 2. Overview of ANSYS CFX

The Structure of ANSYS CFX

Getting Started with ANSYS CFX

Running ANSYS CFX

UNIX Enter cfx5 in a terminal window.

CFX Help, Tutorials, and Reference Information

For more information, see CFX Documentation Structure (p. 41).

The Directory Structure of ANSYS CFX

CFX File Types

Details of the main file types can be found in:

Starting ANSYS CFX Components from the

Component Command Arguments

Obtaining System Information with the cfx5info Command

-help Shows available command line options and descriptions.

-host Displays the current host name.

-patches Shows information for all installed patches.

-system Displays information about the system on which CFX is running.

Chapter 3. What's New in CFX

• Fluid Structure Interaction in ANSYS Workbench:

• CFX DesignXplorer (CFX-DX):

New Meshing Application and Automatic Virtual

Automatic Virtual Topology

Physical Models and Solver Improvements

ANSYS FSI Coupling

Moving Mesh Extensions

Problem Size and Efficiency Improvements

Expression Language Advances

Particle Tracking Extensions

Combustion and Radiation Improvements

Boundary Conditions and Boundary Sources

Eulerian Multiphase Extensions

Region Creation and Editing:

Default Domain and Interface Generation

ANSYS .rst file support:

Multiple Data files:

Immediate mode object dragging:

Replacing of solution variables with expressions:

Vendor/Chip Supported Operating Systems

Intel IA32 and AMD Athlon Windows XP Windows XP

Intel IA64 and AMD Athlon Windows XP 64 Windows XP 64

Chapter 4. Customizing ANSYS CFX

ANSYS CFX Resource Configuration Files