You can transfer geometry into Simulation CFD 2015 by directly opening a geometry or CAD file. The following formats are newly supported in Simulation CFD 2015:
When launching from a CAD system, the Design Study Manager opens to help you launch your model into a new or existing design study. The dialog box now includes separate tabs for creating a design study and for updating an existing study. When updating an existing study, you can open a study, add a design to study, or update a design with the current CAD model.
Simulation CFD supports geometry import by launching from several CAD systems. In the 2015 version, direct launch from SpaceClaim is supported. As a result, you can open a SpaceClaim model, and launch it directly into Simulation CFD by clicking the launch icon within the SpaceClaim user interface.
The Inventor commands for launching into Simulation CFD are more space efficient and clear.
Autodesk Inventor Fusion is a useful tool for preparing CAD geometry for simulation. Previously, Simulation CFD included Fusion, but for 2015, it is available as a separate download.
Autodesk® Inventor Fusion is recommended for launching models from several CAD systems including Pro/Engineer Wildfire 3 and earlier versions, One Space Designer, and Solid Edge.
The branches of the Design Study bar now expand and contract in a more logical, user-friendly manner. When you modify the tree state by expanding or contracting branches, these changes persist until you modify the tree again.
The User Interface is now available in Italian.
In the setup modes, you can hide an object by left clicking it, and clicking the Hide icon on the context toolbar. If multiple items are selected, clicking the Hide icon hides all selected items. To show all items, left click off the model, and click the Show all icon from the context toolbar.
To determine the active selection type, right click and view the selection mode on the context menu.
To make the Hide and Show all commands easier to find on the right-click context menu, icons are shown on the menu.
The Learning Map command on the Start & Learn tab is now Learning Path, matching the terminology used in the Simulation Learning Paths.
The Options command is now on the Launch panel. Use this command to customize the user interface to suit your work habits and working environment.
The titles of the angular position indicators on the External volume tab of the Geometry tools dialog box received slight updates to improve clarity. The Pitch Angle, Yaw Angle, and Roll Angle are now +X Angle, +Y Angle, and +Z Angle, respectively. A positive value indicates positive direction rotation about the indicated axis.
You can now define velocity and temperature boundary conditions that vary across a dimension of the applied surface. This functionality is useful for simulating a known velocity or temperature profile caused by phenomena or equipment located upstream of, but not included in, the simulation model. Examples include:
Variable boundary conditions are defined over a single dimension of the applied surface with a Piecewise Linear table. You can specify the data points (value vs. dimension along the specified variable direction) or import a ".csv" file containing the data.
Mesh Adaptation now accounts for more flow phenomena:
These improvements serve to improve solution accuracy. There are several new options on the Adaptation tab of the Solve dialog box.
By default, the element size transition between the mesh enhancement region and the adjacent mesh is instantaneous - from highly anisotropic to isotropic. The Enable enhancement blending option on the Boundary Mesh Enhancement dialog box causes a more gradual transition in this region.
A more gradual transition can improve solution stability and accuracy in certain simulations, especially simulations featuring the new turbulence models.
The titles of the angular position indicators received slight updates to improve clarity. The Pitch Angle, Yaw Angle, and Roll Angle are now +X Angle, +Y Angle, and +Z Angle, respectively. A positive value indicates positive direction rotation about the indicated axis.
In addition to the previously included steam tables, several new materials now have thermodynamics tables included for use with the Simulation CFD phase change capabilities. You can also define and include your own custom thermodynamic tables in your simulations. These tables provide the capability to simulate the thermodynamic phase change in materials such as refrigerants and user-defined materials. The phase change computational algorithms are now more robust, accurate, and achieve better mass and energy balance.
Many electronic assemblies contain highly detailed, physically complex heat sinks that are necessary for proper thermal management throughout the system. Modeling these heat sinks, especially within the context of a complex system, has proven to be time consuming and resource intensive.
The introduction of the heat sink material device addresses this problem. The heat sink material device approximates the flow and thermal characteristics of several different types of heat sinks using a simple ("lumped") geometric model. You define the material properties and geometric characteristics of your heat sink, and Simulation CFD uses correlations to simulate the effects of the heat sink.
Joule heating in and across surface parts now delivers a more realistic temperature distribution. The improved distribution extends the Joule heating capability to include resistance heating in both solid parts and surface parts.
Intelligent Wall Formulation (IWF), introduced to the SST k-omega turbulence models in Simulation CFD 2014, is a scalable wall formulation that enhances stability and accuracy. For Simulation 2015, IWF now provides improved convergence and accuracy with the k-epsilon turbulence model.
The SST turbulence model can solve wall roughness, as prescribed in the material definition. To use it, however, disable the Intelligent Wall Formulation for the SST turbulence models. The wall roughness model works for k-epsilon with and without IWF enabled.
The Report Generator makes it easy to share your results and communicate your findings. After your simulation has run, click the Report Generator command in the Results tab. You can customize the content of the report to include the items of interest. Further you can select which simulations from the design study are included.
To make it easier to control vectors while viewing results, the Vector Settings command is now a primary control on the Planes context ribbon.
You can now map pressure results from your Simulation CFD analysis to boundary conditions for mechanical stress analyses in Autodesk® Simulation Mechanical. After completing your analysis in Simulation CFD, launch the CAD model in Simulation Mechanical. Assign settings to define the stress analysis, and select the Simulation CFD design study file as the pressure source.
This video is a recording of a Simulation Support "Hangout" in which the new features contained in Simulation 2015 are described and demonstrated. A short question and answer session follows.