To optimize the efficiency of processes and products, it is crucial to predict and control the fluid flow. ANSYS CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) gives you the confidence and the power to have optimal performance in your product before the actual prototyping begins. 

Table of Contents (click for easy navigation)

• What is ANSYS CFD?
• Why ANSYS CFD?
• Solve complex fluid problems
• CFD simulation for all types of users
• More CFD solutions than ever before
• Make better decisions in a short time
• The difference between the two ANSYS CFD solvers
• ANSYS Fluent
• ANSYS CFX
• ANSYS PolyFlow
• ANSYS Vista TF (ADD FULL FORM LATER)
• ANSYS Blade modeler
• ANSYS Icepak
• ANSYS AIM integration with ANSYS CFD
• The ANSYS CFD advantage
• References

What is ANSYS CFD?

ANSYS CFD is the fluid flow solver component that is used by industries all over the globe for their thermal and fluid flow related simulations. ANSYS CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) tools include a number of different renowned and well-validated solvers, which includes ANSYS CFX and ANSYS Fluent. ANSYS CFD tools and solvers allow the user to have precise and accurate 3D and 2D fluid flow modeling and see how their prototype or product will perform in the real world. 

Why ANSYS CFD?

In the competitive market today, there exists many different CFD solvers that are both accurate and quite well-validated. However, ANSYS CFD has an added advantage over other solvers due to its exquisite design and features. ANSYS CFD combines different CFD solvers into one suite giving the users more power and working capabilities. Here are some of the prominent aspects that makes ANSYS CFD the right choice of computational fluid dynamics solver for you.

Solve complex fluid problems

ANSYS CFD has the best in class CFD solvers that dramatically extend the limits of what is achievable by you. It maximizes your product’s efficiency and performance better as compared to other solvers in the market. The user can effectively use ANSYS CFD to innovate with breakthrough capabilities in turbulence, fluid dynamics, in-flight icing, and combustion. No matter how complex your fluid problem may seem, ANSYS CFD has the solution for you.

CFD simulation for all types of users

Though many CFD solvers are complex and tailored for the experienced analysts only, ANSYS CFD solvers are designed in such a way so that the users of all skill levels can easily use it for the benefit of their products. The experts modeling rocket ships and racing cars as well the university students doing their science project modeling, both can find ANSYS CFD solvers equally easy to use and understand.

More CFD solutions than ever before

ANSYS CFD allows you to go faster and further with your CFD results across the widest range of specialty and general applications in the market. The tools included in ANSYS CFD, Fluent, and CFX provide fast results for almost any type of fluid simulation. The solvers can also be coupled with the structural component of ANSYS to carry out Fluid-Structural Interface (FSI) simulations.

Make better decisions in a short time

Recent innovations done at the ANSYS research center in CFD meshing, modeling, user environment, HPC, and post-processing capabilities have greatly reduced the processing and working time without affecting the accuracy of the work. This gives opportunities to experienced users to excel and novice users to quickly become productive. The layout is also user-friendly and easy to adapt to, which makes the transitional users carry out their simulations faster without compromising the accuracy of the work done.

The difference between ANSYS CFD solvers

ANSYS has many different CFD solvers that are tailored to different CFD needs of the users. Where one CFD solver is good for the turbomachinery simulations, the other might be good in aerodynamic simulations. Each CFD solver in the ANSYS suite has its own capabilities and advantages. The prominent ANSYS CFD solvers and tools are discussed below.

ANSYS Fluent

Fluent is the most commonly used ANSYS CFD solver. Fluent has broad physical modeling capabilities that are needed for heat transfer, flow modeling and different industrial applications ranging from air flow for aircraft to blood flow in the human body, from semiconductor manufacturing to bubble columns in oil platforms and from combustion in a furnace to wastewater treatment plans. Fluent is the solver to use if you are amateur in CFD and is looking to get the job done without much knowledge of the software. 

A detailed tutorial on ANSYS Fluent can be found here. 

ANSYS CFX

CFX is a high-performance CFD software that delivers accurate and reliable solutions efficiently across a wide array of Multiphysics and CFD applications. ANSYS CFX is widely renowned for its excellent speed and accuracy with turbomachinery such as pumps, compressors, and hydraulic turbines. When it comes to turbo-rotating machinery, CFX is the best in class.

ANSYS PolyFlow

ANSYS PolyFlow focusses primarily over the needs for the materials industry such as mold-filling, thermoforming, polymer processing, and glass production. PolyFlow has the capability to model fluid flow with very complex behavior fluids. Polyflow is fully compatible with modeling and predicting the flow of viscoelastic fluids as well. ANSYS PolyFlow presents the users with unique features such as the ability to carry out complex reverse engineering calculations to figure out the required die-shapes in mold extrusion. PolyFlow can also easily determine the wall thickness in the blow-molding processes.

ANSYS Vista TF

ANSYS Vista TF (throughflow) solver provides excellent preliminary optimization of turbomachinery design over the through-flow analysis. Vista TF is a powerful complement to the high fidelity CFD capabilities of ANSYS.

ANSYS Blade modeler

ANSYS Blade modeler as the name suggests is a dedicated easy-to-use 3D designing software for the blade modeling of rotating machinery such as fans, compressors, expanders, inducers, and turbochargers.

ANSYS Icepak

ANSYS Icepak works in conjunction with the ANSYS Fluent solver. Icepak addresses the thermal management of electronics via accurate prediction of heat transfer and airflow at the cabinet-level, component-level, and board-level. ANSYS Icepak has advanced solver technologies with great meshing options that are designed to provide the users with accurate and fast thermal results for electronics cooling applications.

ANSYS AIM integration with ANSYS CFD

ANSYS AIM is the direct approach taken by ANSYS to come up with preset values and models to allow for straightforward simulations for one-time users or users that need surface level simulation only. ANSYS AIM is integrated with the ANSYS CFD solvers where the users can carry out the pre-processing with one-click settings such as using a preset set of mesh and boundary conditions. The settings in AIM can be directly transferred over to the ANSYS CFD solvers such as Fluent and CFX, where the users can then carry out the in-depth simulations if required. With AIM integration into CFD, users with all skill sets can make use of the simplicity of ANSYS AIM combined with in-depth analysis of the CFD solvers.

The ANSYS CFD advantage

With unparalleled depth and unequaled breadth of engineering CFD solutions, companies, and users all over the globe have been radically transforming their leading-edge design concepts into products and processes that work beyond expectations. Today, almost all the top 100 companies in “Fortune Global 500” invest in excellent engineering software as an important strategy to edge over their competitors in the market. They choose ANSYS and its CFD solvers as their simulation partners, allowing them to deploy the world’s most comprehensive Multiphysics solver for their complex engineering challenges. ANSYS CFD has a track record of 40 years as the industry leaders for the best engineering CFD simulation. If you need CFD solver for your engineering challenge, then ANSYS CFD is the one to use.

We at Sunglass have covered tutorials on different CFD solvers such as CFX and Fluent. If you need to know more about these solvers, then check out our tutorials on the topic.

References

• ANSYS, 2014. ANSYS CFD. [Online]
  Available at: https://www.simutechgroup.com/images/ansys-suites/fluids/ansys-cfd-brochure.pdf [Accessed 20th May 2019].
• Kulp, B., 2017. ANSYS 18 Fluid Dynamics Makes CFD Simulation Practical for Every Engineer. [Online] Available at: https://www.ansys.com/blog/ansys-18-fluid-dynamics [Accessed 19th May 2019].
• RandSim, 2017. ANSYS CFD Premium. [Online] Available at: https://www.randsim.com/software-solutions/fluids/ansys-cfd-premium [Accessed 15th May 2019].