The features in blue are newly-released in FLOW-3D v12.0.

Meshing & Geometry

• Structured finite difference/control volume meshes for fluid and thermal solutions
• Finite element meshes in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates for structural analysis
• Multi-Block gridding with nested, linked, partially overlapping and conforming mesh blocks
• Conforming meshes extended to arbitrary shapes
• Fractional areas/volumes (FAVOR™) for efficient & accurate geometry definition
• Closing gaps in geometry
• Mesh quality checking
• Basic Solids Modeler
• Import CAD data
• Import/export finite element meshes via Exodus-II file format
• Grid & geometry independence
• Cartesian or cylindrical coordinates

Flow Type Options

• Internal, external & free-surface flows
• 3D, 2D & 1D problems
• Transient flows
• Inviscid, viscous laminar & turbulent flows
• Hybrid shallow water/3D flows
• Non-inertial reference frame motion
• Multiple scalar species
• Two-phase flows
• Heat transfer with phase change
• Saturated & unsaturated porous media

Physical Modeling Options

• Fluid structure interaction
• Thermally-induced stresses
• Plastic deformation of solids
• Granular flow
• Moisture drying
• Solid solute dissolution
• Sediment transport and scour
• Sludge settling
• Cavitation (potential, passive tracking, active tracking)
• Phase change (liquid-vapor, liquid-solid)
• Surface tension
• Thermocapillary effects
• Wall adhesion
• Wall roughness
• Vapor & gas bubbles
• Solidification & melting
• Mass/momentum/energy sources
• Shear, density & temperature-dependent viscosity
• Thixotropic viscosity
• Visco-elastic-plastic fluids
• Elastic membranes & walls
• Evaporation residue
• Electro-mechanical effects
• Dielectric phenomena
• Electro-osmosis
• Electrostatic particles
• Joule heating
• Air entrainment
• Molecular & turbulent diffusion
• Temperature-dependent material properties
• Spray cooling

Flow Definition Options

• General boundary conditions
  • Symmetry
  • Rigid and flexible walls
  • Continuative
  • Periodic
  • Specified pressure
  • Specified velocity
  • Outflow
  • Outflow pressure
  • Outflow boundaries with wave absorbing layers
  • Grid overlay
  • Hydrostatic pressure
  • Volume flow rate
  • Non-linear periodic and solitary surface waves
  • Rating curve and natural hydraulics
  • Wave absorbing layer
• Restart from previous simulation
• Continuation of a simulation
• Overlay boundary conditions
• Change mesh and modeling options
• Change model parameters

Thermal Modeling Options

• Natural convection
• Forced convection
• Conduction in fluid & solid
• Fluid-solid heat transfer
• Distributed energy sources/sinks in fluids and solids
• Radiation
• Viscous heating
• Orthotropic thermal conductivity
• Thermally-induced stresses

Numerical Modeling Options

• TruVOF Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method for fluid interfaces
• Steady state accelerator for free-surface flows
• First and second order advection
• Sharp and diffuse interface tracking
• Implicit & explicit numerical methods
• Immersed boundary method
• GMRES, point and line relaxation pressure solvers
• User-defined variables, subroutines & output
• Utilities for runtime interaction during execution

Fluid Modeling Options

• One incompressible fluid – confined or with free surfaces
• Two incompressible fluids – miscible or with sharp interfaces
• Compressible fluid – subsonic, transonic, supersonic
• Stratified fluid
• Acoustic phenomena
• Mass particles with variable density or diameter

Shallow Flow Models

• General topography
• Raster data interface
• Subcomponent-specific surface roughness
• Wind shear
• Ground roughness effects
• Manning’s roughness
• Laminar & turbulent flow
• Sediment transport and scour
• Surface tension
• Heat transfer
• Wetting & drying

Turbulence Models

• RNG model
• Two-equation k-epsilon model
• Two-equation k-omega model
• Large eddy simulation

Advanced Physical Models

• General Moving Object model with 6 DOF–prescribed and fully-coupled motion
• Rotating/spinning objects
• Collision model
• Tethered moving objects (springs, ropes, breaking mooring lines)
• Flexing membranes and walls
• Porosity
• Finite element based elastic-plastic deformation
• Finite element based thermal stress evolution due to thermal changes in a solidifying fluid
• Combusting solid components

Chemistry Models

• Stiff equation solver for chemical rate equations
• Stationary or advected species

Porous Media Models

• Saturated and unsaturated flow
• Variable porosity
• Directional porosity
• General flow losses (linear & quadratic)
• Capillary pressure
• Heat transfer in porous media
• Van Genunchten model for unsaturated flow

Discrete Particle Models

• Massless marker particles
• Multi-species material particles of variable size and mass
• Solid, fluid, gas particles
• Void particles tracking collapsed void regions
• Non-linear fluid-dynamic drag
• Added mass effects
• Monte-Carlo diffusion
• Particle-fluid momentum coupling
• Coefficient of restitution or sticky particles
• Point or volumetric particle sources
• Initial particle blocks
• Heat transfer with fluid
• Evaporation and condensation
• Solidification and melting
• Coulomb and dielectric forces
• Probe particles

Two-Phase & Two-Component Models

• Liquid/liquid & gas/liquid interfaces
• Variable density mixtures
• Compressible fluid with a dispersed incompressible component
• Drift flux with dynamic droplet size
• Two-component, vapor/non-condensable gases
• Phase transformations for gas-liquid & liquid-solid
• Adiabatic bubbles
• Bubbles with phase change
• Continuum fluid with discrete particles
• Scalar transport
• Homogeneous bubbles
• Super-cooling
• Two-field temperature

Coupling with Other Programs

• Geometry input from Stereolithography (STL) files – binary or ASCII
• Direct interfaces with EnSight^®, FieldView^® & Tecplot^® visualization software
• Finite element solution import/export via Exodus-II file format
• PLOT3D output
• Neutral file output
• Extensive customization possibilities
• Solid Properties Materials Database

Data Processing Options

• State-of-the-art post-processing tool, FlowSight™
• Batch post-processing
• Report generation
• Automatic or custom results analysis
• High-quality OpenGL-based graphics
• Color or B/W vector, contour, 3D surface & particle plots
• Moving and stationary probes
• Visualization of non-inertial reference frame motion
• Measurement baffles
• Arbitrary sampling volumes
• Force & moment output
• Animation output
• PostScript, JPEG & Bitmap output
• Streamlines
• Flow tracers

User Conveniences

• Active simulation control (based on measurement of probes)
• Mesh generators
• Mesh quality checking
• Tabular time-dependent input using external files
• Automatic time-step control for accuracy & stability
• Automatic convergence control
• Mentor help to optimize efficiency
• Units on all variables
• Custom units
• Component transformations
• Moving particle sources
• Change simulation parameters while solver runs
• Launch and manage multiple simulations
• Automatic simulation termination based on user-defined criteria
• Run simulation on remote servers using remote solving
• Copy boundary conditions to other mesh blocks

Multi-Processor Computing

• Shared memory computers
• Distributed memory clusters

FlowSight

• Particle visualization
• Velocity vector fields
• Streamlines & pathlines
• Iso-surfaces
• 2D, 3D and arbitrary clips
• Volume render
• Probe data
• History data
• Vortex cores
• Link multiple results
• Multiple data views
• Non-inertial reference frame
• Spline clip