Mesh reuse and simulation extension

Mesh reuse and simulation extension functionalities

This tutorial is based on the glider plane SimWorks tutorial to analyse the mesh reuse capability of SimWorks which allows to duplicate a completed simulation, change some parameters and complete a new simulation without the need to repeat the long meshing phase.

Also we will cover the possibility within SimWorks of extending a completed simulation adding a few iterations at the end of it, if the CFD simulation has not completely converged. Both those funtionalities are designed to save to the user a significant amount of time.

We will start from the completed glider tutorial, duplicate the simulation and increase the flow speed reusing the original mesh. At the end of the second simulation we will

Before starting the tutorial download SimWorks, validate your 14-day free trial and download the tutorial geometry:

Duplication functionality

SimWorks allows the user to duplicate a simulation which has been already defined and then it is possible to modify it. It is now also possible to duplicate simulations which have completed the mesh stage and reuse the existing mesh, for instance when the user wants to change a boundary conditions without the need to rerun the mesh phase.

Complete the glider plane SimWorks tutorial
Right click on the completed simulation
Select Simulation manager and then Duplicate
Click yes when prompted to reuse the existing mesh

A new simulation will appar with the Setup and the Mesh phases completed, when can now modify the setup parameter keeping the same mesh completed before

The Setup and Mesh phases are already completed 100%
Define the End iteration as 100 and Output interval of 10 (this is required to evaluate the run extension phase)
Define the Boundary condtions type layering and define the inlet velocity as 50 m/s

Run the simulation
Click yes when prompted to rerun the Setup phase, in this way all the simulation parameters will be updated

SimWorks will rerun the Setup phase updating all the simulation parameters and will run straight away afterwards the simulation with the new parameters

Extend a simulation

Now that the simulation has run we notices looking at the convergence history that the simulation has not fully converged, so we will extend the simulation. SimWorks allows now to change the End iteration parameter extending the simulation reusing all the previous data therefore just running the additional iterations. This is a significant efficiency improvement when the simulation has not fully converged.

The simulation has not fully converged (still the absolute value of the residuals is too high and the residuals are still reducing)
Increase the End iteration to 300
Run the simulation
Again press Yes when promted to rerun the Setup phase to update the simulation parameters

The simulation has now fully converged after 170 iterations, SimWorks will automatically stop the simulation once it has converged.

We can now load up the 2 simulations results to check the effect of increasing the flow speed, for instance looking at the pressure (legend set between -500 Pa and +500 Pa). As expected the level of suction on the glider wings is roughly 4 times bigger than in the fist case, ince it increases with the square of the speed

Download SimWorks and activate a free 14-day trial or contact us to find out more