ANSYS Fluent Getting Started
Lecture 3.1: Basic SpaceClaim
Operations
Release 2020 R1
©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Overview
In this module we will learn about:
‐ Volume Extraction
‐ Enclosure
‐ Shared Topology
2 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Volume Extraction (1)
• Volume Extraction
‐ This tool is used to create a fluid volume based on the
volume enclosed by a single solid body or set of solid
bodies (including meshes)
‐ A solid named Volume is created in the Structure tree
Display in the Structure panel that shows you each of
the objects in your design. You can expand or collapse
the nodes of the tree to view the objects. You can
rename objects, create, modify, replace, and delete
objects, as well as work with components and the
bodies used to generate the volume are temporarily
transparent when the volume is created.
3 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Volume Extraction (2)
• Tool Guide
The Select Edges tool guide selects edge loops that enclose a region. Edges are used to stop the propagation of face
selection, emanating face-wise outward, starting at the selected seeds.
The Select Faces tool guide activates by default when you select the Volume Extract tool, and selects faces whose edges
seal an enclosed region. This is a shortcut for selecting all the edges that are detected in a face. You can Ctrl+ Select
multiple seed faces, and then choose to click on a different tool guide.
The Select Cap Faces tool guide selects optional capping faces. This is important when an internal edge loop is either not
simply fillable, or when you want some non-standard fill geometry to be created.
The Select Seed Face tool guide selects a face that lies within the volume you want to enclose. If this is not chosen, then
SpaceClaim chooses an arbitrary face to start from, and test whether any bounded volumes are created. If they are not,
another face will automatically be selected and the algorithm will re-start. Select a face here to save this iteration time.
The Complete tool guide creates the volume solid based on the edges and seed face you select.
4 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Volume Extraction (3)
• Options
‐ Merge Create Volume: Merge the Created Volume into outer shell to
effectively fill in the inner cavity
• Imprint Capping Edges: Leave the capping faces intact to see the location of inlet and
outlets
‐ Preview inside faces: Use the scroll bar to preview selection of inner
faces and detect leaks
No merge, only Merge and
Fluid volume from Merge on Imprints
Cavity is extracted
5 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Volume Extraction (4)
• Options: Preview inside faces
― After proper selection of Faces/edges defining inlets and outlets of the
cavity and seed faces, the Preview inside faces tool gets activated.
― You can slide the slider of the tool to see “wetted” faces and check if
there are any leaks in the selected volumes
6 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Volume Extraction (5)
• Updating extracted volume after modifications
to Parent solid(s)
‐ Right-click the volume part (always named Volume) in
the Structure tree. Select one of the following
commands:
• Update Volume Body as Created updates the volume body
based on objects that were visible when the volume was
created (regardless of their current visibility). Use this option
for simple regeneration.
• Update Volume Body in Context updates the volume body
based on objects that are currently visible in the design area.
Use this option to remove bodies from the volume calculation.
‐ Note: If parent solids are parametric, and they are
modified by updating parameters from Workbench,
then you must manually update the fluid volume in
SpaceClaim
7 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Enclosure (1)
• Enclosure
‐ In SpaceClaim, Enclosure tool is available in Analysis group on Prepare tab
‐ An enclosure is a solid around a body or bodies that has a cushion around the enclosed solid(s). The
enclosure can be a box, cylinder, or sphere, as shown below.
‐ Enclosures are used by analysis tools to simulate fluid surrounding a solid object
• e.g. External aero simulation
8 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Enclosure (2)
• Tool guides and Options
This is a percentage of the minimum enclosure size,
Use the Select Bodies tool guide to select the and determines the distance between the enclosed
bodies that will be enclosed. Default
object(s) and the closest point of the enclosure to
cushion
the objects. You can change adjust the distances by
Use the Set Orientation tool guide to change the typing in the fields in the Design window.
orientation of the enclosure relative to your
design or the axis of a coordinate system. Select an enclosure shape from the list. If you select
Enclosure
Use the Custom Shape tool guide to select a solid Custom shape, you must use the Custom Shape tool
type
to use as the custom shape when you set the guide to select a solid to use as the enclosure shape.
enclosure type to Custom in the Options panel.
Forces the dimensions to remain symmetric.
Symmetric Deselect this option if you want to enter values for
Click the Complete tool guide when you are
dimensions dimensions and you don't want the opposite
finished.
dimensions changed.
9 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Why do we need Shared Topology?
In SpaceClaim, multiple bodies may be grouped into multibody parts
Thanks to Shared Topology, Multibody parts share common boundaries
‐ The resulting mesh is conformal at the shared boundaries
• Example:
With Shared Topology,
Common nodes are
shared by adjacent
bodies
Without Shared Topology,
no conformal mesh at the
shared boundary
10 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Shared Topology (1)
• Shared Topology
- Since R18.1 Shared topology has been moved into a set of tools in the Workbench tab
11 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
Shared Topology (2)
• Share:
‐ Will identify and share topology among the bodies in the model
a) It will search the visible bodies for sharing opportunities by imprinting the bodies with
each others. Potential topologies are shown in red
b) You can choose topologies to exclude by clicking the Exclude Problem tool guide, which
will then appear in green
c) Remaining candidates are shared after selecting the Complete button
12 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
DEMO & Workshop 3.1 – Mixing Elbow: Geometry
13 ©2020 ANSYS, Inc. Unauthorized use, distribution, or duplication is prohibited.
End of presentation
