The features in blue are newly-released in FLOW-3D v12.0.

Meshing & Geometry

  • Structured finite difference/control volume meshes for fluid and thermal solutions
  • Finite element meshes in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates for structural analysis
  • Multi-Block gridding with nested, linked, partially overlapping and conforming mesh blocks
  • Conforming meshes extended to arbitrary shapes
  • Fractional areas/volumes (FAVOR™) for efficient & accurate geometry definition
  • Closing gaps in geometry
  • Mesh quality checking
  • Basic Solids Modeler
  • Import CAD data
  • Import/export finite element meshes via Exodus-II file format
  • Grid & geometry independence
  • Cartesian or cylindrical coordinates

Flow Type Options

  • Internal, external & free-surface flows
  • 3D, 2D & 1D problems
  • Transient flows
  • Inviscid, viscous laminar & turbulent flows
  • Hybrid shallow water/3D flows
  • Non-inertial reference frame motion
  • Multiple scalar species
  • Two-phase flows
  • Heat transfer with phase change
  • Saturated & unsaturated porous media

Physical Modeling Options

  • Fluid structure interaction
  • Thermally-induced stresses
  • Plastic deformation of solids
  • Granular flow
  • Moisture drying
  • Solid solute dissolution
  • Sediment transport and scour
  • Sludge settling
  • Cavitation (potential, passive tracking, active tracking)
  • Phase change (liquid-vapor, liquid-solid)
  • Surface tension
  • Thermocapillary effects
  • Wall adhesion
  • Wall roughness
  • Vapor & gas bubbles
  • Solidification & melting
  • Mass/momentum/energy sources
  • Shear, density & temperature-dependent viscosity
  • Thixotropic viscosity
  • Visco-elastic-plastic fluids
  • Elastic membranes & walls
  • Evaporation residue
  • Electro-mechanical effects
  • Dielectric phenomena
  • Electro-osmosis
  • Electrostatic particles
  • Joule heating
  • Air entrainment
  • Molecular & turbulent diffusion
  • Temperature-dependent material properties
  • Spray cooling

Flow Definition Options

  • General boundary conditions
    • Symmetry
    • Rigid and flexible walls
    • Continuative
    • Periodic
    • Specified pressure
    • Specified velocity
    • Outflow
    • Outflow pressure
    • Outflow boundaries with wave absorbing layers
    • Grid overlay
    • Hydrostatic pressure
    • Volume flow rate
    • Non-linear periodic and solitary surface waves
    • Rating curve and natural hydraulics
    • Wave absorbing layer
  • Restart from previous simulation
  • Continuation of a simulation
  • Overlay boundary conditions
  • Change mesh and modeling options
  • Change model parameters

Thermal Modeling Options

  • Natural convection
  • Forced convection
  • Conduction in fluid & solid
  • Fluid-solid heat transfer
  • Distributed energy sources/sinks in fluids and solids
  • Radiation
  • Viscous heating
  • Orthotropic thermal conductivity
  • Thermally-induced stresses

Numerical Modeling Options

  • TruVOF Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method for fluid interfaces
  • Steady state accelerator for free-surface flows
  • First and second order advection
  • Sharp and diffuse interface tracking
  • Implicit & explicit numerical methods
  • Immersed boundary method
  • GMRES, point and line relaxation pressure solvers
  • User-defined variables, subroutines & output
  • Utilities for runtime interaction during execution

Fluid Modeling Options

  • One incompressible fluid – confined or with free surfaces
  • Two incompressible fluids – miscible or with sharp interfaces
  • Compressible fluid – subsonic, transonic, supersonic
  • Stratified fluid
  • Acoustic phenomena
  • Mass particles with variable density or diameter

Shallow Flow Models

  • General topography
  • Raster data interface
  • Subcomponent-specific surface roughness
  • Wind shear
  • Ground roughness effects
  • Manning’s roughness
  • Laminar & turbulent flow
  • Sediment transport and scour
  • Surface tension
  • Heat transfer
  • Wetting & drying

Turbulence Models

  • RNG model
  • Two-equation k-epsilon model
  • Two-equation k-omega model
  • Large eddy simulation

Advanced Physical Models

  • General Moving Object model with 6 DOF–prescribed and fully-coupled motion
  • Rotating/spinning objects
  • Collision model
  • Tethered moving objects (springs, ropes, breaking mooring lines)
  • Flexing membranes and walls
  • Porosity
  • Finite element based elastic-plastic deformation
  • Finite element based thermal stress evolution due to thermal changes in a solidifying fluid
  • Combusting solid components

Chemistry Models

  • Stiff equation solver for chemical rate equations
  • Stationary or advected species

Porous Media Models

  • Saturated and unsaturated flow
  • Variable porosity
  • Directional porosity
  • General flow losses (linear & quadratic)
  • Capillary pressure
  • Heat transfer in porous media
  • Van Genunchten model for unsaturated flow

Discrete Particle Models

  • Massless marker particles
  • Multi-species material particles of variable size and mass
  • Solid, fluid, gas particles
  • Void particles tracking collapsed void regions
  • Non-linear fluid-dynamic drag
  • Added mass effects
  • Monte-Carlo diffusion
  • Particle-fluid momentum coupling
  • Coefficient of restitution or sticky particles
  • Point or volumetric particle sources
  • Initial particle blocks
  • Heat transfer with fluid
  • Evaporation and condensation
  • Solidification and melting
  • Coulomb and dielectric forces
  • Probe particles

Two-Phase & Two-Component Models

  • Liquid/liquid & gas/liquid interfaces
  • Variable density mixtures
  • Compressible fluid with a dispersed incompressible component
  • Drift flux with dynamic droplet size
  • Two-component, vapor/non-condensable gases
  • Phase transformations for gas-liquid & liquid-solid
  • Adiabatic bubbles
  • Bubbles with phase change
  • Continuum fluid with discrete particles
  • Scalar transport
  • Homogeneous bubbles
  • Super-cooling
  • Two-field temperature

Coupling with Other Programs

  • Geometry input from Stereolithography (STL) files – binary or ASCII
  • Direct interfaces with EnSight®, FieldView® & Tecplot® visualization software
  • Finite element solution import/export via Exodus-II file format
  • PLOT3D output
  • Neutral file output
  • Extensive customization possibilities
  • Solid Properties Materials Database

Data Processing Options

  • State-of-the-art post-processing tool, FlowSight™
  • Batch post-processing
  • Report generation
  • Automatic or custom results analysis
  • High-quality OpenGL-based graphics
  • Color or B/W vector, contour, 3D surface & particle plots
  • Moving and stationary probes
  • Visualization of non-inertial reference frame motion
  • Measurement baffles
  • Arbitrary sampling volumes
  • Force & moment output
  • Animation output
  • PostScript, JPEG & Bitmap output
  • Streamlines
  • Flow tracers

User Conveniences

  • Active simulation control (based on measurement of probes)
  • Mesh generators
  • Mesh quality checking
  • Tabular time-dependent input using external files
  • Automatic time-step control for accuracy & stability
  • Automatic convergence control
  • Mentor help to optimize efficiency
  • Units on all variables
  • Custom units
  • Component transformations
  • Moving particle sources
  • Change simulation parameters while solver runs
  • Launch and manage multiple simulations
  • Automatic simulation termination based on user-defined criteria
  • Run simulation on remote servers using remote solving
  • Copy boundary conditions to other mesh blocks

Multi-Processor Computing

  • Shared memory computers
  • Distributed memory clusters

FlowSight

  • Particle visualization
  • Velocity vector fields
  • Streamlines & pathlines
  • Iso-surfaces
  • 2D, 3D and arbitrary clips
  • Volume render
  • Probe data
  • History data
  • Vortex cores
  • Link multiple results
  • Multiple data views
  • Non-inertial reference frame
  • Spline clip