1. PHOENICS 2006 December PHOENICS Today
Computer Simulation of Fluid Flow, Heat Flow, Chemical Reactions and Stress in Solids.
PHOENICS Today
PHOENICS
2006 December

2. Contents
PHOENICS Today
This presentation shows some of the new features in PHOENICS 2006
The talk is in four parts:
Pre-processor (VR-Editor)
Post-processor (VR-Viewer)
Solver (Earth)
General improvements (common to all modules)
Special Purpose versions

3. VR Editor Improvements
PHOENICS Today
An auto meshing feature has been added. For most cases the Editor will generate a reasonable grid with little or no user input.
The grid distribution is based on a maximum cell size (as a fraction of the domain size), and a maximum change in cell size across region boundaries.

4. VR Editor Improvements
PHOENICS Today
The default grid can then be easily refined

5. VR Editor Improvements
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The treatment of Polar geometries has been significantly updated.
As a reminder, in polar co-ordinates
X is θ, the angle (in radians!)
Y is r, the radius
Z is z, the axial distance.

6. VR Editor Improvements
PHOENICS Today
For objects using the default 'polcu' geometries, the size is set in (dθ,dr,dz) and position in (θ,r,z) as before.
For non-'polcu' geometries, including STL imports, the size is in Cartesian (dx,dy,dz), but position is still in (θ,r,z).

7. VR Editor Improvements
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As the Cartesian size is used, the shape and size of the object are preserved with no distortion.

8. VR Editor Improvements
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This allows us to use more suitable grids…

9. VR Editor Improvements
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The treatment of INLET objects in Polar co-ordinates has been improved. The inflow can now be specified as:
Cartesian velocity components
Polar (grid-directed) velocity components
Volumetric flow rate
Mass flow rate

10. VR Editor Improvements
PHOENICS Today

11. VR Editor Improvements
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The 'Slide velocity' can be set for blockages as well as for plates.
By setting the surface velocity, a range of cases involving steady movement can be treated as steady-state.

12. VR Editor Improvements
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In Cartesian co-ordinates, the 'Spin' option sets the surface velocity as if the object were rotating about its axis.

13. VR Editor Improvements
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In Polar co-ordinates , the slide velocity can be in m/s or radians/s.

14. VR Editor Improvements
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Heat-transfer between the blockage and the surrounding fluid is controlled by the blockage external heat-transfer coefficient.
By default, this is obtained from the wall-functions.
Alternatively, a user-set constant value can be supplied.

15. VR Editor Improvements
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A new object type TRANSFER has been introduced.
It allows the outflow from one solution to be used as the inflow to another.

16. VR Editor Improvements
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INLET and OUTLET objects can also be ‘tagged’ to act as Import or Export TRANSFER objects
Only the shape of the Import/Export object needs to be the same between runs – the grid does not need to be identical
The data to be transferred is held in an ASCII text file

17. VR Editor Improvements
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The new object types ANGLED-IN and ANGLED-OUT have been introduced.
These allow inlets and outlets of any arbitrary shape to be placed on the outer surface of any arbitrarily-shaped blockage.
The area of action is the area of intersection between the object and any blockage.

18. VR Editor Improvements
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19. VR Editor Improvements
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A new object type ASSEMBLY has been introduced.
The assembly object acts as a ‘container’ for any number of other objects, which go together to make a component.
Objects are added to an assembly object through the Hierarchy dialog.

20. VR Editor Improvements
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Components can be added or removed from an assembly

21. VR Editor Improvements
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All size and position changes made to the assembly object are also applied to all the components.

22. VR Editor Improvements
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All the objects in the assembly can then be exported to a single file.

23. VR Editor Improvements
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The saved assembly objects can then be imported into another model.

24. VR Editor Improvements
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Objects can be partially pushed out of the domain, to allow:
Solution over one half of a body, or
Solution over any part of a large STL

25. VR Editor Improvements
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The Editor can output the entire geometry in TECPLOT format.
Each object is shown in TECPLOT as a 'zone'.

26. VR Editor Improvements
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The Editor can also output the entire geometry as a FieldView unstructured file.
Each object is shown in FieldView as a Boundary.

27. VR Editor Improvements
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This is what the Editor makes of it.

28. VR Viewer Improvements
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When PARSOL is active in Polar co-ordinates,  the contours and vectors in the cut cells are displayed correctly.

29. VR Viewer Improvements
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Valve simulation

30. VR Viewer Improvements
PHOENICS Today

31. VR Viewer Improvements
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When cyclic boundary conditions are active, an extra tab appears on the Viewer Options dialog.
From here it is possible to repeat the image in the X direction as many times as wanted .

32. VR Viewer Improvements
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The original geometry

33. VR Viewer Improvements
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Repeated 9 times

34. VR Viewer Improvements
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The contours repeated

35. VR Viewer Improvements
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The colour palette can be reversed

36. VR Viewer Improvements
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Streamlines can also be repeated

37. VR Viewer Improvements
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The sources and sinks for an object can be displayed:

38. VR Viewer Improvements
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For selected objects, the surface contour values can be output to a file which can be read into Excel or Autoplot.
3D Nav.Sto.Flow Around A Moving Van
Pressure surface values for object BODY2
X Y Z Pressure
1.0000E E E E+01
8.7500E E E E+00
8.7500E E E E+01
1.0000E E E E+01
8.7500E E E E+01
1.0000E E E E+01

39. VR Viewer Improvements
PHOENICS Today
For selected objects, a surface profile on the current plotting plane can be output to a file which can be read into Excel or Autoplot.
X Y Z Pressure
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01
E E E E+01

40. VR Viewer Improvements
PHOENICS Today
Pressure profile on an aerofoil

41. Earth Improvements
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For buoyancy-driven flows, the effect of buoyancy on turbulence can be significant.
In stably-stratified flows, such as smoke layers, turbulence can be damped. Conversely, in the vicinity of plumes, the turbulence can be enhanced.
These effects are implemented in the K-ε models via an additional source term.

42. Earth Improvements
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The choice between stable or unstable stratification was previously made by setting a constant to 0.0 or 1.0, and so could never be universally correct.
An 'auto' function has been introduced which switches between the stable and unstable forms depending on the local flow direction.
This should produce better results for cases with zones of both stable and unstable stratification.

43. Earth Improvements Geometry of standard room fire test
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Geometry of standard room fire test
62.9MW steady fire

44. Earth Improvements Buoyancy constant = 0 -> layered flow
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Buoyancy constant = 0 -> layered flow

45. Earth Improvements
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Buoyancy constant = 1 -> Plume

46. Earth Improvements
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Calculated buoyancy constant

47. Earth Improvements Auto solution is somewhere between plume and layer!
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Auto solution is somewhere between plume and layer!

48. Earth Improvements The solution can be output in TECPLOT format.
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The solution can be output in TECPLOT format.
An output file, TECDATA.DAT, containing two TECPLOT zones for each PHOENICS domain is written.
The first zone contains data at the cell centres (adjusted for PARSOL cut cells), and the second contains data at the cell corners.
The first is better for plotting vectors, the second for plotting contours and iso-surfaces.

49. Earth Improvements
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The geometry and solution from Library case V146 displayed in TECPLOT 10.

50. Earth Improvements
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The solution can be output to FieldView in PLOT3D format.
Two output files, FVDATA.G and FVDATA.F, containing two grids for each PHOENICS domain are written.
The first zone contains data at the cell centres (adjusted for PARSOL cut cells), and the second contains data at the cell corners.
The first is better for plotting vectors, the second for plotting contours and iso-surfaces.

51. Earth Improvements
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The geometry and solution from Library case V146 displayed in FieldView 11.

52. VR Viewer Improvements
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In addition to the normal multi-coloured vectors, we can have
Vectors all in one colour
Or any thickness
Or with the size of long vectors limited

53. General Improvements A ‘quick-zoom’ function has been added
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A ‘quick-zoom’ function has been added
Press the control key then move the mouse sideways to drag a zoom-box.

54. General Improvements
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The axes can be ‘unlocked’ from the domain origin, and placed anywhere

55. General Improvements
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The hand-set icons appear on the tool bar, so the hand-sets can be turned off

56. General Improvements The image can be annotated with text strings
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The image can be annotated with text strings

57. General Improvements
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We are now testing a 64-bit Windows version of PHOENICS
It does not suffer from the memory limitations of the 32-bit versions
Preliminary tests seem to show that performance is very similar, however many bits there are!

58. General Improvements
PHOENICS Today
The location of the PHOENICS installation is now held in an environment variable.
This makes it possible to install PHOENICS into any convenient location, not just the root of a drive.
It also makes network installations neater, as only the environment variable and a working directory need be present on client machines.

59. SPP Improvements
PHOENICS Today
The following Special-purpose versions have been brought into the VR environment:
CVD, for Chemical Vapour Deposition
ESTER, for Electrolytic Smelting of Aluminium
Both have dedicated Main menus and object types

60. FLAIR
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Now a few words about the FLAIR Special-Purpose version of PHOENICS.
Some people have asked ‘What is FLAIR?’

61. What is FLAIR?
PHOENICS Today
FLAIR is a Special-Purpose version of the general CFD code PHOENICS.
It is aimed at the HVAC community.
It has been created by removing many unneeded generic features, and adding several specific features.

62. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
FLAIR uses the PHOENICS VR-Editor to set the problem up, with the following additional items:
ISO 7730 Comfort index calculations: PMV, PPD.
ISO 7730 Draught rating.
CIBSE dry resultant temperature.
Humidity calculations, with output of humidity ratio and relative humidity.
Smoke movement calculation, with output of PPM, smoke density and visibility.
Mean age of air calculation.
Fan operating point calculation for single and multiple fans.
System-curve calculations.

63. FLAIR Features
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In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Round

64. FLAIR Features
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In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Vortex

65. FLAIR Features
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In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Rectangular

66. FLAIR Features
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In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Directional

67. FLAIR Features
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In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Grille

68. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Displacement

69. FLAIR Features PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire

70. FLAIR Features PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire

71. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire
Person (standing
or sitting facing any
Direction)

72. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire
Person
Crowd
To represent a large number of people as distributed source of heat

73. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire
Person
Crowd
Sunlight
Created in
Shapemaker

74. FLAIR Features
PHOENICS Today
In addition, the following object types have been added:
Diffuser
Fire
Person
Crowd
Sunlight
Spray head

75. FLAIR Features PHOENICS Today
Spray-head represents sprinklers user for fire-suppression.
It uses GENTRA to model the droplet paths.
Evaporation is considered, and is linked to the FLAIR humidity model.
The GENTRA inlet table is written automatically.

76. FLAIR Features PHOENICS Today
Spray-head represents sprinklers user for fire-suppression.
It uses GENTRA to model the droplet paths.
Evaporation is considered, and is linked to the FLAIR humidity model.
The GENTRA inlet table is written automatically.

77. Geometry Creation
PHOENICS Today
We are often asked to create geometry from unusual sources.
Recently we received a PDF file which contained this image-

78. Geometry Creation The numbers represent the height of the building
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The numbers represent the height of the building

79. Geometry Creation
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The solution was to save the image as a GIF file, then use it as a backdrop in AC3D
We could trace round each part, then extrude

80. Geometry Creation The resulting geometry was then exported to PHOENICS
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The resulting geometry was then exported to PHOENICS

81. PHOENICS Today