FloWorks (Flow Express) Volume Goal Setting Issue

rbigelow · November 13, 2009, 15:19

First off, a little background of my situation. I am an undergrad at Texas A&M researching thermal behavior of a particular floor in a building. I have modeled the entire floor, complete with separate rooms (sealed by lids) and doors to outside conditions (also sealed by lids). The lids are suppressed as needed for simulations. There are small heat sources placed in the center of each room. I am investigating the transient thermal behavior of the floor, specifically certain rooms. I need to know when the average temperature of a certain room reaches a certain point. Take a look at the screen shot below.

The circled room is the room of interest right now, but the average temperature of each room as time progresses is desired. Boundary conditions are set on the lids highlighted in red that cause air to flow through the model as heat is supplied to the model by the small blocks in the rooms.

My current method of evaluating "average" temperature of a room involves placing random point goals, like the green dot shown, around the room and determining the time it takes for the average of these points to reach a particular temperature. I know this is not ideal, and am working on a grid system of point goals. I would really like to avoid this if possible.

SO, my question is can I set Volume Goals for each room, so I can get the true average temperature of each room?

I have tried and can only get the average entire volume of fluid in the model. I know that you can assign different volume goals to different bodies of a "multi-body part" or different parts of an assembly. I have tried some simple models to test this, but have not been able to constrict the volume of a volume goal to room.

Is there a way to manually define the volume for a volume goal? Or is there a way to "trick" FloWorks into thinking the room is an individual "body", or just tell it which volume I want to analyze?

I would like to not have to remodel the whole thing, but it may be possible if necessary.

Thanks and Gig 'em,

Ryan Bigelow
rbigelow@tamu.edu
ryantbigelow@gmail.com <--email this one

CP85 · November 16, 2009, 02:32

I haven't worked with FloWorks, but in FloEFD its works this way:
Create a body which fills the room.
Deactivate the body in the FloEFD component control.
Assign the VolumeGoal on the body.

Perhaps there is a simular way in FloWorks.

November 13, 2009, 15:19	FloWorks (Flow Express) Volume Goal Setting Issue	#1
rbigelow New Member Ryan Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: College Station Posts: 3 Rep Power: 17	First off, a little background of my situation. I am an undergrad at Texas A&M researching thermal behavior of a particular floor in a building. I have modeled the entire floor, complete with separate rooms (sealed by lids) and doors to outside conditions (also sealed by lids). The lids are suppressed as needed for simulations. There are small heat sources placed in the center of each room. I am investigating the transient thermal behavior of the floor, specifically certain rooms. I need to know when the average temperature of a certain room reaches a certain point. Take a look at the screen shot below. The circled room is the room of interest right now, but the average temperature of each room as time progresses is desired. Boundary conditions are set on the lids highlighted in red that cause air to flow through the model as heat is supplied to the model by the small blocks in the rooms. My current method of evaluating "average" temperature of a room involves placing random point goals, like the green dot shown, around the room and determining the time it takes for the average of these points to reach a particular temperature. I know this is not ideal, and am working on a grid system of point goals. I would really like to avoid this if possible. SO, my question is can I set Volume Goals for each room, so I can get the true average temperature of each room? I have tried and can only get the average entire volume of fluid in the model. I know that you can assign different volume goals to different bodies of a "multi-body part" or different parts of an assembly. I have tried some simple models to test this, but have not been able to constrict the volume of a volume goal to room. Is there a way to manually define the volume for a volume goal? Or is there a way to "trick" FloWorks into thinking the room is an individual "body", or just tell it which volume I want to analyze? I would like to not have to remodel the whole thing, but it may be possible if necessary. Thanks and Gig 'em, Ryan Bigelow rbigelow@tamu.edu ryantbigelow@gmail.com <--email this one

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November 16, 2009, 02:32		#2
CP85 New Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 10 Rep Power: 17	I haven't worked with FloWorks, but in FloEFD its works this way: Create a body which fills the room. Deactivate the body in the FloEFD component control. Assign the VolumeGoal on the body. Perhaps there is a simular way in FloWorks.