Drop a 3D model here
STL · OBJ · PLY · STEP · IGES — or click to browse
Turns the body inside the
tunnel — use it for angle of attack, yaw or roll. Forces stay in tunnel axes,
so lift/drag read off the flow direction directly.
Model analysis analyzing…
▾ Previous runs
📂 load folder · ↻
2 Flow conditions
Internal flow: upload the fluid
volume as 3+ separate solids in one STL — the passage walls plus an inlet cap and an
outlet cap. The two smallest parts are taken as the caps (the upstream one, along the flow
direction below, becomes the inlet). Results give Δp, flow rate and pumping power.
Check the axis triad (bottom-right of the 3D view) to see how your
CAD is oriented. Inlet/outlet markers appear once meshing starts.
3 Rotation
The amber arrows in the viewer spin the exact
way the solver will turn the rotor — trust them over any wording.
Set this between the blade tip and the
duct/housing inner wall. Everything within this radius of the axis rotates
(hub + blades); the duct outside it stays stationary. The blue cylinder in the
viewer shows the zone live.
Rotating-frame (MRF) — the standard steady method for propellers, fans and
rotors. Negative RPM reverses direction.
Off — static body. Enable for propellers / fans / rotors.
3 Rotation — by body
4 Mesh settings
▸
✨ These are auto-tuned by the model analysis. Adjust only if you know why.
2
3
⚠ Expensive — for an overnight run. What it does. Normally the first cell sits far from the wall and the near-wall
flow is estimated by a wall function — a flat-plate formula. This option instead
puts the first cell inside the boundary layer so the solver computes the wall
shear. On curved, thin or separating surfaces the wall-function estimate typically
over-predicts skin friction, so drag comes out high and efficiency low. Turn this
on when you need trustworthy drag, forces or efficiency rather than a quick comparison. What changes. The first-cell height is computed from your current speeds
to hit the target y⁺ (rotating parts use the helical resultant
√(V∞² + (ωR)²), not V∞ alone). The layer count is derived to span the boundary layer,
so it replaces the slider above — expect roughly 10–15 layers near y⁺ 5 and
20–25 near y⁺ 1, with a substantially larger mesh and hours, not minutes. Before you rely on it. Set V∞ and RPM before meshing — changing them
afterwards invalidates the sizing. After meshing check the layer coverage in Mesh
details (low coverage means the layers failed to insert), and after solving check the
reported y⁺ actually lands near your target.
1.2
0.4
65
4
1
1.0
Extra cells behind the body (or around a rotor's jet)
so the wake doesn't smear out on the coarse tunnel mesh.
Symmetry: upload the HALF body cut on that plane — forces are for the half.
Ground: a moving road — the floor sits at the body's underside and translates at the
inlet speed, so no false floor boundary layer grows (car/truck ground effect).
Progress
Starting…0%
Mesh details
Results
more iterations
RE-RUN ON THIS MESH — new conditions
Meshing is reused; only V∞ / RPM / direction
change. Creates a new linked run so results sit side by side.
⚠ Not suited for…
▸
High-speed / compressible flow — valid below ~Mach 0.3
(≈100 m/s in air). No shocks, no supersonic, no gas dynamics.
For rotors this limit applies to the blade-tip speed, not the inlet
velocity — a large fan at modest inflow can be transonic at the tips
(the blade sees √(V∞² + (ωR)²), often several times V∞).
Heat & temperature — one isothermal fluid only. No thermal
analysis, buoyancy or conjugate heat transfer.
Multiphase — no free surfaces, sloshing, cavitation or sprays.
Moving geometry — rotors always use the frozen-rotor MRF
approximation, in both steady and transient modes: the blades never
physically move, so blade passing and rotor–stator interaction are not
resolved. No sliding mesh, no deforming or flapping bodies. (Transient
is supported for other unsteadiness — bluff-body wakes, vortex
shedding, unsteady inflow.)
Combustion, chemistry, particles, acoustics — out of scope.
Turbulence fidelity — RANS models only (transient runs are
URANS); no LES/DNS.
Near-wall turbulence — by default the boundary layer is
modelled with wall functions, not resolved. On curved, thin or
separating surfaces that tends to over-predict skin friction, so drag
reads high and efficiency low. Turn on Resolve boundary layer in
Mesh settings for a wall-resolved mesh (much larger; hours, not minutes).
Certification-grade numbers — meshes are auto-generated and, by
default, coarse at the wall. Check y+, layer coverage and mesh independence
before trusting absolute values; strongest for trends and comparisons.
Internal flow needs the fluid volume as 3+ separate solids
(walls + inlet cap + outlet cap) — a plain pipe solid won't work.
Section plane
50%
Hover: value probe · Click: line plot across the plane