The level of accuracy is much higher for calculating the forces in the bolt regions. Error reduces away from the bolt regions. The simulation of bolt connectors involves the internal creation of rigid links which can lead to inaccurate results, particularly stress results, in the bolt areas. The calculation of the thermal expansion/contraction is done automatically by the solver. It simulates the bolt preload using thermal expansion/contraction. SolidWorks Simulation uses a beam element to represent the bolt shank and uses rigid bar elements to connect the beam to the flanges. You can also define a bolt by selecting entities of the same component. You can define bolts through a mixed stack of solids, shells and sheet metal bodies. Contribution of various methods such as k-ε turbulence model, Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian, SIMPLE algorithm which are all still broadly used\(^6\).A Bolt can connect two components, multiple components, or a component and the ground.
The verification of the mathematical model is extremely important to create an accurate case for solving the problem. Moreover, the reliability of a CFD analysis highly depends on the whole structure of the process.
A mathematical model varies in accordance with the content of the problem such as heat transfer, mass transfer, phase change, chemical reaction, etc. This describes changes in all those physical properties for both fluid flow and heat transfer. For instance, the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations are specified as the mathematical model of the physical case.
To virtually generate an accurate solution for a physical phenomenon associated with fluid flow, those properties have to be considered simultaneously.Ī mathematical model of the physical case and a numerical method are used in a CFD software tool to analyze the fluid flow.
In a CFD software analysis, the examination of fluid flow in accordance with its physical properties such as velocity, pressure, temperature, density and viscosity is conducted. With the rise of computers and ever-growing computational power (thanks to Moore’s law!), the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics became a commonly applied tool for generating solutions for fluid flows with or without solid interaction. Usually, the only way for the engineer to optimize his designs is to conduct physical tests on product prototypes. However, aerodynamic processes are not easily quantifiable during the concept phase. a winning race car for the next season, aerodynamics play an important role in the engineering process. When an engineer is tasked with designing a new product, e.g. What is CFD | Computational Fluid Dynamics?Ĭomputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the process of mathematically modeling a physical phenomenon involving fluid flow and solving it numerically using the computational prowess.