Release Notes for FLUENT 6.3 Fluent Inc.

Release Notes for FLUENT 6.3 Fluent Inc.

1

Introduction The FLUENT 6.3 release contains new features and defect fixes. New features are listed in Section 2 of this document. Section 3 provides a list of supported platforms and FLUENT’s Platform Support Policy. Known limitations are listed in Section 4. Section 5 contains a list of limitations lifted in FLUENT 6.3. A list of known and fixed defects in this release is accessible from our online User Services Center (www.fluentusers.com) in the “Release Information” section under FLUENT 6 “Product Information”.

1

2

New Features in FLUENT 6.3 New features in FLUENT 6.3 are listed below. • Solver Note: The segregated solver from previous versions of FLUENT is now referred to as the pressure-based solver. The coupled solver is now referred to as the density-based solver. – Pressure-based coupled solver: new pressure-velocity coupling scheme for the pressure-based solver (see Section 25.4.3 of the User’s Guide) – Least squares gradient reconstruction (see Section 25.3.3 of the User’s Guide) – Bounded second-order time-advancement scheme for compressible liquids (see Section 23.2.3 of the User’s Guide) – Alternative convergence criteria for pressure-based and density-based solver (see Section 25.18.1 of the User’s Guide) – AUSM scheme for the density-based solver (see Section 25.5.3 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to specify exact end time for density-based solver with explicit time stepping – Improved filtering in AMG solver • Models – Turbulence modeling ∗ LES enhancements · DES using two-equation RANS models (see Section 12.8.2 of the User’s Guide) · Vortex method now considers streamwise fluctuations at velocity inlets (see Section 12.9.4 of the User’s Guide) · Dynamic memory allocation for turbulence synthesizer method · Extension of existing time statistics for LES (see post-processing for more details) (see Section 12.23.2 of the User’s Guide) · Dynamic SGS models for energy and species (see Section 12.9.3 of the User’s Guide) ∗ RSM improvements for low-Re simulations (see Section 12.7.4 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Custom wall function for k- turbulence models (UDF only) (see Section 2.3.23 of the UDF Manual)

2

c Fluent Inc. November 17, 2006

– Heat transfer ∗ Surface-to-surface radiation enhancements · Improved surface clustering algorithm · Compatibility with axisymmetric geometries · Option for multiple cell zone enclosures · Speedup of view factor calculations (parallel only) · New, efficient storage format for the viewfactor file (see Section 13.3.12 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to select and deselect flow boundaries for surface-to-surface radiation calculations (see Section 13.3.15 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Shell conduction model compatible with multiphase flows ∗ Coupled DO radiation with energy equation (high optical thicknesses only) (see Section 13.3.6 of the User’s Guide) – Species transport, reactions, and combustion ∗ Eulerian Unsteady Laminar Flamelet Model for slow chemistry and liquid micro-mixing (see Section 15.5.1 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Diesel Unsteady Laminar Flamelet Model (see Section 15.5.2 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Laminar flame speeds for gasoline provided as functions of pressure and temperature ∗ Ability to model up to 300 species and 1500 reactions when importing chemistry and generating flamelets with the non-premixed and partially pre-mixed combustion models (see Section 15.8.3 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to apply ignition delay to partially-premixed combustion (see Section 19.2.3 of the User’s Guide) ∗ SOx formation model (see Section 20.2 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Improved integration of NOx model with non-premixed combustion models (see Section 20.1.10 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Urea injection model for selective non-catalytic reduction of NOx (see Section 20.1.8 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Diesel fuel added to fluid materials list ∗ User-defined operating pressure for partially-premixed combustion model ∗ Dynamically determined Sc and Pr numbers for non-premixed, LES calculations (see Section 15.2.1 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Maximum number of elements allowed in cpropep increased to 15


3

– Discrete phase modeling ∗ Species concentration for DPM mass exchange computed using local absolute pressure (all solvers) (see Section 22.9.2 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to inject particles from moving surfaces (see Section 22.12.4 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Option to inject particles using the surface normal as the injection direction (see Section 22.12.4 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to generate particle tracking history file in distributed memory parallel ∗ Multicomponent vaporization of droplets and films (see Section 22.4.5 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to specify the number of parcels for the TAB break-up model (see Section 22.11.6 of the User’s Guide) – VOF model ∗ CICSAM scheme (see Section 22.3.2 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to model dynamic wall contact angle (via UDF) (see Section 23.9.8 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Compatibility of open channel flows with outflow boundary condition (see Section 23.3.9 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Ability to control time step size via UDF (see Section 2.2.2 of the UDF Manual) – Eulerian multiphase model ∗ Compressible Eulerian multiphase (see Section 23.9.8 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Second order three time level implicit scheme (see Section 23.2.3 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Compatibility with compressible liquid modeling (see Section 23.9.8 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Frictional viscosity model for granular flows (see Section 23.5.1 of the User’s Guide) – Dynamic mesh modeling ∗ Ability to model steady-state applications (see Section 11.3.5 of the User’s Guide) ∗ Transient table input for crank angle (IC modeling) (see Section 7.1.9 of the User’s Guide)

4


– Mixing plane model ∗ Available with mixture multiphase model ∗ Available with Eulerian multiphase • Boundary conditions – “Mass flow rate” inlet for both compressible and incompressible multiphase flow (see Section 23.9.8 of the User’s Guide) – AUSM scheme for pressure outlets (see Section 7.8.3 of the User’s Guide) • Material properties – Anisotropic diffusivity for user-defined scalars (see Section 9.3.2 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to choose transport properties from the KINetics library when using the KINetics module (see Section 14.1.9 of the User’s Guide) – Multicomponent real gas model (no reactions) (see Section 8.16.2 of the User’s Guide) • Mesh – Conversion to polyhedral meshes in FLUENT (see Section 6.7 of the User’s Guide) – Adaption with polyhedral cells (see Section 26.1.2 of the User’s Guide) – Agglomeration of polyhedral cells in parallel(see Section 6.7 of the User’s Guide) – User-defined boundary deformation (see Section 11.3.2 of the User’s Guide) – Dynamic mesh 2.5D model compatible with user-defined grid motion (see Section 11.7.6 of the User’s Guide) – Shell conduction in parallel with polyhedral cells – Surface-to-surface radiation model in parallel with polyhedral cells • Moving meshes – Support for many-to-many sliding interfaces (see Section 11.4.2 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to create and delete many-to-many interfaces via dynamic mesh events (see Section 11.7.4 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to dynamically switch from the MRF to the sliding-mesh model while retaining the MRF solution as an initial state (TUI only) (see Section 11.4.2 of the User’s Guide)


5

• Porous Media – Ability to specify inertial and viscous resistances in moving porous zones (see Section 7.19.6 of the User’s Guide) – Alternative formulation for inertial resistance (see Section 7.19.6 of the User’s Guide) – Profile/UDF input for porous resistance direction vector (see Section 2.3.13 of the UDF Manual) • Parallel processing – Improvements to case and data file read times – Improvement to data file write times – AMG optimizations – Memory usage optimization for the density-based solver – Ability to assign specific parallel partitions to selected zones and/or registers (see Section 31.5.4 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to partition across non-conformal interfaces using METIS (see Section 31.5.5 of the User’s Guide) – MPICH2 installer (available for download for Windows platforms under Optional Packages, along with installation instructions.) • Graphics, post-processing, and reporting – Report minimum/maximum of field variables on cell-zones (see Section 29.6.2 of the User’s Guide) for volume integrals – Ability to adjust interval for colormap labeling (see Section 28.2.5 of the User’s Guide) – Standard deviation report (see Section 29.5.1 of the User’s Guide) – Volume flow rate report (see Section 29.5.1 of the User’s Guide) – Log 10 option in custom field functions (see Section 30.5.1 of the User’s Guide) – Volume integrals output printed to FLUENT console (see Section 29.6.2 of the User’s Guide) – “Write to file” for reports (see Section 29.6.2 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to monitor surfaces and volumes at every N iterations (see Section 25.18.4 of the User’s Guide) – Option to restrict histogram to one or more cell/face zones (see Section 28.8.7 of the User’s Guide)

6


– Expanded time statistics options for LES (see Section 12.23.2 of the User’s Guide): ∗ Reynolds stresses (uv, uw, vw) ∗ Heat fluxes (uT, vT, wT) ∗ Wall statistics ∗ Species statistics – Report the center of pressure on walls (see Section 29.3.2 of the User’s Guide) – Report actual reference pressure location (TUI only) (see Section 8.15.1 of the User’s Guide) – Post-process incoming incident radiation on a zone (see Section 13.3.17 of the User’s Guide) • Data import and export – Ability to save transient files using flow time (see Section 4.3.4 of the User’s Guide) – Support for Tecplot export in parallel (see Section 4.12.17 of the User’s Guide) – Support for ANSYS export in .cdb format (see Section 4.12.4 of the User’s Guide) – Support for CGNS export in parallel (CGNS data import is supported in parallel for the Linux platform only) (see Section 4.12.7 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to import Hexcore mesh with polyhedral cells from TGrid 4.0 – Support for particle and pathline export in EnSight format (see Section 25.20.2 of the User’s Guide) – Support for cell averaged velocity data export to EnSight (see Section 4.12.9 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to extract meshes from CFX solver files (3d only) (see Section 4.11.3 of the User’s Guide) • User-defined functions (UDFs) and scalars (UDSs) – Ability to solve UDSs in solid zones (see Section 9.3.3 of the User’s Guide) – Ability to disable UDS diffusion at inlets and outlets (see Section 9.3.3 of the User’s Guide) – “Execute at exit” UDF (see Section 2.2.4 of the UDF Manual) – User-defined Cphi in PDF transport model (see Section 2.3.2 of the UDF Manual)


7

• User Interface – Ability to access best practice recommendations and guidelines based on the current case setup (“Case Check”) (see Section 25.21 of the User’s Guide) – Null driver support for graphics export in batch mode (see Section 28.1.6 of the User’s Guide) – Use UP and Down arrows to review/select previous commands in the TUI (see Section 3.1.2 of the User’s Guide) – Add or delete characters anywhere in the TUI command line (see Section 3.1 of the User’s Guide) • 1-D coupling – Ability to post-process WAVE results without overwriting output files • Add-on UDF-based modules – SOFC Fuel Cell Module ∗ Report anode and cathode activation overpotential (see Section 3.5.1 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual) ∗ Ability to assign a value of transfer coefficient in the BV formulation (see Section 4.8 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual) – PEM Fuel Cell Module ∗ Time-dependent solution of water content equation (see Section 2.6.7 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual) ∗ Material-based electrical conductivity (see Section 2.7 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual) ∗ Improved naming of user-scalar and user-defined memory variables (see Section 2.7 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual) ∗ User-friendly units (see Section 2.6.6 of the Fuel Cells Module Manual)

8


3

Supported Platforms for FLUENT 6.3 Platform/OS levels that are supported in the current release can be found in the supported platforms list (http://www.fluentusers.com/platform/flusersindex.htm?path= /WWW/htdocs/fluent/software/platform/&prod=fluent 6.3.26) . Note: For all prior versions of FLUENT 6, the 32-bit version was launched by default on all UNIX platforms. With the release of FLUENT 6.3, the 64-bit version will be launched by default on all supported UNIX platforms, including: Solaris, AIX, HPUX (PA-RISC), and IRIX. In order to launch the 32-bit version of FLUENT 6.3 on these platforms, you will need to specify it explicitly by using the -32 command line option. If no command line option is specified, the 64-bit version of FLUENT 6.3 will be launched. Please note that the 64-bit version of FLUENT requires more memory than the 32-bit version of FLUENT. Customers using WAVE or the CHEMKIN KINetics package on HP-UX PA-RISC platforms (hpux11) will need to start FLUENT with the -32 option.

3.1

Fluent Inc. Platform Support Policy

Fluent Inc. is publishing this platform support policy in order to clearly communicate our plans for future platform support. Fluent Inc. is committed to providing high quality releases for the platforms we support. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary for us to discontinue support for older platforms as they are retired or replaced by newer platforms. In order to help our customers plan for their internal hardware needs, we are communicating the following policy that outlines the guidelines we will apply to dropping support for older platforms: • Fluent Inc. will only support operating systems and hardware systems that are fully supported by the operating system or hardware system vendor. • Fluent Inc. will support an operating system version for no more than 1 year after a newer version of the same operating system is released. (A patch to an operating system is not considered to be a new version. Fluent Inc. may, at any time, require that certain patches be installed in order for the software to operate correctly. Fluent Inc. cannot provide these patches to customers; operating system patches must be obtained through the vendor of the operating system.) • Fluent Inc. will support an operating system or hardware system for no more than 6 months after full support for the operating system or hardware system is discontinued by the vendor.


9

4

Known Limitations in FLUENT 6.3 The following is a list of known limitations in the FLUENT 6.3: • File import/export – The following are the latest supported versions of software from which FLUENT imports files, or to which FLUENT exports files: Format Abaqus Altair HYPERMESH ANSYS ASCII AVS CGNS Data Explorer EnSight 6 (TUI only) EnSight Case Gold FAST FIELDVIEW Gambit I-DEAS LSTC-DYNA NASTRAN PATRAN PTC MECHANICA TECPLOT

Supported Version 6.5 5.1 10.0 – 5.0 2.3 4.2 7.6 7.6 1.3 10.0 2.2 11.0 970 – – 23 9.0

– Data export to ANSYS result file is not available on the lnamd64 and lnia64 platforms. (ANSYS data export to .cdb file is available on all platforms.) – When exporting EnSight Case Gold files for transient simulations, the solver cannot be switched between serial and parallel, and the number of compute nodes cannot be changed for a given parallel run. Otherwise, the exported EnSight Case Gold files for each time step will not be compatible. – EnSight export with topology changes is not supported. – To properly view Fieldview Unstructured (.fvuns) results from a parallel FLUENT simulation ∗ Grid file must be exported from the parallel solver via TUI command fieldview-unstruct-grid ∗ Grid and data files should all be exported from parallel FLUENT sessions with the same number of nodes.

10


• Mesh – Boundary zone extrusion is not possible from faces that have hanging nodes. – The following features are incompatible with polyhedral cell types: ∗ Moving/deforming mesh • Models – FLUENT supports the Chemkin II format for Oppdif flamelet import only. – Non-encapsulated non-conformal and sliding interfaces are possible only with the new, improved interface algorithm. – The surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model does not work with sliding and moving/deforming meshes. – The workpile algorithm is not compatible with the wall film boundary condition. – The shell conduction and dynamic mesh models are not compatible. – The shell conduction model is not applicable on moving walls. – The heat exchanger model is not compatible with grid adaption. – Dynamic solution adaption is not compatible with load balancing. – The FLUENT/REACTION DESIGN KINetics coupling is not available on the following platforms: hpux11 64, lnia64, lnamd64, aix51, irix65 mips4, ultra. – Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) coupling with Abaqus is not supported on the Solaris platform. – DO-Energy coupling is recommended for large optical thickness cases (> 10) only. – The SOFC model is not available on machines running the IRIX OS. – FMG initialization is not available with the shell conduction model. – FMG initialization is not compatible with the unsteady solver. • Parallel processing – Improved error handling for parallel processing not available on hpux11 platform with vmpi. – Metis partitioning is not available with the -pnet message passing interface (mpi). – Significant degradation of parallel performance has been observed using smpi compared to nmpi and net on the lnx86 and lnamd64 platforms. – Zone replacement, activation and deactivation of cell zones is not available in parallel.


11

– These features are currently unavailable in the parallel solver: ∗ Discrete transfer radiation model (DTRM) ∗ Continuous Fiber Model (CFM) add-on module ∗ Conformal grid adaption (hanging-node adaption is available in the parallel solver) ∗ Ray tracing algorithm in the solar loading model ∗ Data export to non-native formats other than EnSight, FIELDVIEW, Tecplot, and the generic heat flux data file • Platform support and drivers – Clusters using the Infiniband interconnect require SuSE 9.1 or Red Hat Enterprise 3.0 as a minimum operating system. – Update 3 is required for the Red Hat Enterprise 3.0 operating system running on the Itanium platform. – The pathname length to the cpropep.so library (including the lib name) is limited to 80 characters. (Linux Opteron cluster using Infiniband interconnect only). – Patch PHSS 33033 is required for the HP-UX 11.11 operating system on the HP PA-RISC platform to use the real gas and ISAT-related combustion models. – A specific Fujitsu port is no longer available. The arch should be manually set to Solaris. – HOOPs does not support running a remote desktop on the Windows XP64 platform. – Visit the User Services Center for the latest Windows graphics FAQ (www.fluentusers.com/support/installation/winfaq/video.htm). • Solver Note: The segregated solver from previous versions of FLUENT is now referred to as the pressure-based solver. The coupled solver is now referred to as the density-based solver. – The non-iterative time advancement (NITA) solver is applicable with only a limited set of models. See the FLUENT User’s Guide for more details. – NITA (using fractional time step method) is not compatible with porous media.

12


– The following models are not available for the density-based solvers: ∗ Volume-of-fluid (VOF) model ∗ Multiphase mixture model ∗ Eulerian multiphase model ∗ Non-premixed combustion model ∗ Premixed combustion model ∗ Partially premixed combustion model ∗ Composition PDF transport model ∗ Soot model ∗ Rosseland radiation model ∗ Melting/solidification model ∗ Shell conduction model ∗ Floating operating pressure ∗ Spark ignition and auto-ignition models ∗ Physical velocity formulation for porous media ∗ Selective multigrid (SAMG) ∗ Porous media – The following models are not available for the pressure-based solver: ∗ Real gas model ∗ Non-reflecting boundary conditions – The pressure-based coupled solver is not available with the following features: ∗ Eulerian multiphase ∗ Porous jump boundary condition ∗ Fixed velocity ∗ Storing monitor data • User-defined functions (UDFs) – Some minor changes to your FLUENT 6 UDFs may be required. See the UDF Manual for details. – The DEFINE RW FILE macro is not supported on the Windows platform. – Interpreted UDFs cannot be used while running in parallel with an Infiniband interconnect. The compiled UDF approach should be used in this case.


13

• Third-party software – GT-power v6.1 is the most recent GT-Power release tested and found compatible with FLUENT. – GT-Power coupling is not supported on the HPUX Itanium and Windows XP64 platforms. – WAVE v7.1 is the most recent WAVE release tested and found compatible with FLUENT. – WAVE coupling is not supported on the HPUX11 64 and Windows XP64 platforms. – When installing GT-Power, the GTIHOME path option used by the FLUENT run script cannot be more than 60 characters. – The KINetics module is not supported on Linux Itanium platform. – FLUENT-Platform LSF integration is not supported on the MS Windows platform. – FLUENT-SGE integration is supported only on the AIX 5.1, IRIX, Sun/Solaris, and Linux platforms. • Other – To use the Remote Simulation Facility (RSF) link on UNIX machines, the FLUENT User Documentation must be installed. Otherwise, FLUENT will not be able to properly launch the browser to the RSF homepage. – The PICT hardcopy format is no longer supported in FLUENT.

14


5

Limitations that no longer apply in FLUENT 6.3 • Geometry based adaption with background mesh is now available in parallel. • Steady state dynamic meshing is now available with in-cylinder and 6-DOF functionality. • The surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model is now available for 2d axisymmetric geometries. • The surface-to-surface (S2S) radiation model may now be used for multiple enclosures. • The shell conduction model is now compatible with the multiphase mixture, VOF, and Eulerian models. • The second-order implicit time-stepping formulation is now available with the multiphase mixture and Eulerian models. • The general multiphase models (VOF, mixture, Eulerian) can now be used with the mixing plane model. • Hexcore meshes may now be read directly into the parallel solver without partitioning in the serial solver first (via the tpoly utility).


15