I understand (I think) what you are wanting to do and I am not sure that trying to accomplish this within NX is going to give you the answers you need. Have you looked at any of the aftermarket CFD applications that will interface directly with NX? Also, are you wanting to look only at CFD or are you wanting to include the combustion process as well?
We would be only looking for a compression CFD, no combustion. The application would be forced induction (Turbo/Supercharger) flow on an engine.
We have looked into other CDF programs as well, but I was hoping to use NX5 Flow or Advanced Flow if it is possible to accurately calculate this type of compressed flow.
You will need NX Advanced Flow for this application. It handles compressible fluid flows extremely well up to Mach 3, and relatively well up to Mach 4. Actually, not only it gives very accurate answers but compared to other CFD programs, it leverages the full NX modeling capabilities which are a lot more powerful than any other CFD pre-processor out there for generating associative fluid domains. The automatic runtime mesher is also very useful and includes automatic boundary layer meshing on selected surfaces for areas where you want very accurate shear forces or heat transfer coefficient being calculated. Recently we have been using the Direct Modeling "Delete Face" command to obtain the "fluid volume" geometry off complex assemblies containing 100s of parts. Can't do that efficiently with other tools.
Since I use both the design and machining modules of NX I am more than an advocate of utilizing as much interoperability as possible. Guess I need to look into the cost of this module. My biggest complaint has been finding a "someone" within the NX organization that can lead you to the discovery of what modules work with what.
Yep, design modifications triggers updates the CFD model automatically if accepted by the user (ie you can still wish not to update everytime). I agree it is difficult to find someone but the Siemens folks seem a little more responsive from what I can see so far.
Part of the problem is that both the NX Flow and NX Thermal products were developed, and are maintained and enhanced, by a 3rd party organization under contract to Siemens PLM. This means that there is less in-house expertise in these products than in most of the others which are, almost 100% of the time, developed in house by Siemens PLM development groups and as a result of that we do have people well versed in them as opposed to say the Flow and Thermal products, although the people who did development them are a very professional and dedicated groups of individuals and they do provide much support to our customers some direct, some indirectly.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
Actually I am getting great technical support for NX Flow from your internal guys. My comment was more in response to Larry earlier about finding someone to tell you that the module exist in the first place and to find out what the module can do or not do. We are very happy with the support we get from your internal people on NX Flow and NX Advanced Flow...very professional support and very quick turn around to get answers.
Actually my previous comments were not completely accurate. While it is true that NX Flow and NX Thermal were developed by a non-Siemens company, they are NOT 3rd party products. They are fully the property of Siemens PLM and are not sold under any other name or brand. As such, we are solely responsible for supporting these products and while our people have been fully trained by the organization who originally developed the software, they still provide us 2nd level support, where appropriate, yet always delivered directly by Siemens PLM to our customers.
Sorry if this has confused anyone since that was not my intention.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
NX Design
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Cypress, CA
