How Easy to Migrate from SolidWorks Flow to SimScale for Large Porous Media Model

Using SimScale Fluid Flow / CFD
1

I’m a consultant working for a low battery startup. I’ve run several designs using SolidWorks Flow Simulation, but the size of the models have now outstripped my hardware(8 CPU’s, 32 G RAM) and I’d like to migrate to SimScale. The model includes flow through a porous media (Darcy flow).

The nice thing about SolidWorks Flow is that: it creates the the flow volume between the inlet and outlet ports using lids; able to use the assembly model; and easy identity to apply properties of the porous media.

How straight forward would it be to run the same model using SimScale. I’ve looked at the Pipe flow tutorial, and it looks like you need to use a solid of the flow volume (the negative of the solid model of the pipes). I could use SolidWorks to generate this volume, but I’m not sure about the porous media: maybe I’d end up getting two volumes.

2

Hi @twillard and welcome to SimScale!

Very happy you found your way to us :slight_smile:

The SimScale platform is indeed able to simulate flow through porous media also including Darcy-Forchheimer coefficients as mentioned in the documentation: Porous Media

Hint: Setting the Forchheimer coefficients f to zero will give you the Darcy equation.

Concerning the CAD preperation, you may have a look at the explanation of @dheiny in this post: Geometry for porous region

Also have a look at that interesting discussion about the setup of this kind of simulation: Setting Up a Simulation Using Porous Media

Was that what you were looking for?

Looking forward helping you with your first simulation!

Happy simulating!

Jousef