Drag coefficient from wind on structure

Using SimScale
1

I have a multibody model of a vehicle with a boom that I want to simulate under wind load. The modeling environment does not easily accept distributed loads so I need to model the distributed wind load as an equivalent drag force acting at a single point on the structure. The magnitude of the force would depend on the direction of the wind relative to the structure, and this should reflect in the viscous damping coefficient used to calculate the force.

Excuse the novice question, but can I use Simscale to get the equivalent viscous damping coefficient of the wind on the overall structure? Any suggestions on how to determine the point of action for the equivalent force?

Thanks!!
Tony

2

Hi Tony and thanks for that interesting question!

I have not performed a simulation to get the viscous damping before but maybe the @cfd_squad can comment on this. What you can get though are the viscous forces on the building from the result control item and then use these to use that as an input for a structural analysis if that is of any help.

Cheers,

Jousef

3

Thanks, Jousef—and sorry for the late reply. It would be enough for me to get the viscous forces on the building—I could calculate the damping coefficient from there. I’m new to Simscale, though, and don’t have a good sense of how to go about this. A few questions:

  1. How can I apply the distributed force due to air (or other fluid) flow?
  2. How can I get the measured drag force as an output during simulation? Is there a specific setting I need to choose?

Thanks again!

4

Hi @tsoares, no worries :slight_smile:

This thread here might be helpful for you: Drag Coefficient result? - #2 by jousefm - let me know if you have any other questions.

Cheers!

Jousef