A company I consult to want to start to bring CFD in house and have chosen to use FloWorks to do this as they are experienced users of Solidworks. I need to advise them as to the capability of FloWorks, what it can and can't do.

I have played with the software and read the blurb. However what are its limits, the sales blurb seems to claim that it can do anything ! I know that it only offers a k-e turbulence model, and that lagrangien particle modeling is on the limit of its capability. What else can't it do, or from what it can do, what doesn't it do well ?

Thanks, Ruth

It can't mow your grass or take your dog out for a walk. ;-) Just kidding!!

Can you narrow down your question? To give you an idea, it can't do combustion modeling as far as I know, gas-liquid two-phase flow, and it's not well suited to complicated and intracate geometry due to the mesh elements it uses. But it can do non-Newtonian flows. I'd suggest getting some "white papers" and pdf documents on Floworks to know exactly what its capabilities are. Give me some time and I'll see what I can email you.

When someone writes CFD that can mow the grass I'll be the first to buy it.

I have played with FloWorks, and read the white papers, but I find that it is wise to find out what the users think before reaching a concluision. FloWorks claims to be able to do alot, and I have been surprisingly impressed with what I have seen so far.

However, one are that this company would like to model is particles which I understand FloWorks isn't so great at, and another are that might be of interest is micro fluidics. There is less interest in the ability to model combustion.

I also have concerns about its meshing capability, I find that the 'partial' is never quite explained as to how models the geometry.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Ruth

Particles? Hmmm. Are you talking solid particles in a gas or liquid stream or perhaps a spray ( liquid droplets in a gas )?

As far as "micro" fluidics goes, how small? When you get down to the millimeter, micrometer, and even nanometer level, you should consider surface tension forces ( for liquids ) and other often neglected atomic level forces. Where's that pesky physics book? ;-) It's been awhile.

Overall, I'd say Fluent is probably your best bet. But I haven't used it first hand, so I can't say for sure.