Optimum Flow Simulation

[Hitokiri03]

I am designing a laboratory glovebox and I am having trouble with flow simulation. I have a full enclosure with one vacuum port and one ambient air entry port. I am wanting to essentially tell the program that the vacuum will get turned on, the ambient air entry port will be opened, and the volume of contaminated air in the interior will be vacuumed out. I want to perform a time/optimization study that can tell me when the interior air particulates have been completed evacuated and only new particles of air remain. How do I perform this within Solidwork Flow Simulation?

 

[kellnerp]

Have you ever done CFD or any kind of air flow calculation before?

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

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[Hitokiri03]

Not outside of college and never in Solidworks.

 

[kellnerp]

Assuming that you at least have training in Flow so you know how to setup a problem you would set the inlet and outlet pressures and the outlet flow rate. You probably don't know the outlet flow rate so you would have to calculate or model the piping back to the fan or plenum. And you would probably want to model a big plenum to feed the box.

You would also want to simplify the volume inside the box, removing any small features that in your judgment wouldn't effect the flow regime.

If you have never been trained in running flow I would suggest getting trained. You company should be willing to pay for that.

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

http://www.niswug.org

http://www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

Phenom IIx6 1100T = 8GB = FX1400 = XP64SP2 = SW2009SP3
"Node news is good news."

 

[Hitokiri03]

The problem is that this kind of project is not one that is normally encountered at my job, so I don't think training is an option, especially considering I need to have the CFD finished this week. know the volumetric flow rate of the outlet and the inlet pressure is static, but I don't know how to model a time dependent study that will have a time dependent animation that I can have in my presentation. This is one of those projects where the bio department needed an engineering control for a hazardous process and I need to make a 65% model of what could solve the issue. I would not be going in depth into the flow as much as I am except for the fact that this project is also doubling as an engineering technical project that I need to present to my boss' boss, as well as his boss. If I go in there with a less than stellar CFD analysis, even though it is only a 65% model and I have no training, it will not be pretty. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kellnerp]

Hitokiri
I've gone about as far as I can go. The time dependent part alone makes the compute time go up quite a bit. You might not even get the runs done in a week if you are doing transient flow.

I'm not sure that transient flow is what you want either. If you are trying to do particulate matter or aerosols suspended in the air flow you can't do that in Flow. There are other codes for that. You can look for stagnant flow in the box with Flow and optimize the flow.

If the box is in place can't you run a test and determine what you need to know?

Given the consequences of not getting it right and your lack of experience maybe you should find someone there that has those qualifications. Sorry, this is probably not what you want to hear.

TOP
CSWP, BSSE

http://www.engtran.com

http://www.niswug.org

http://www.linkedin.com/in/engineeringtransport

Phenom IIx6 1100T = 8GB = FX1400 = XP64SP2 = SW2009SP3
"Node news is good news."