This week a customer asked me a simple question about Flow Simulation:
“How do I know where the minimum and maximum values are on my model?”
This is a good question as it can be very useful to see exactly where the extreme values are located.
For instance, the max temperature hot spot in a heated electronic enclosure or the max velocity point of a liquid through a valve would be useful to know.
Let’s take the example of a racing car front wing …
We can see that there are a range of possible max and min pressure locations, but where are the extremes?
You could right mouse button click on the Results folder and pick ‘Min/Max Table’ but that does not show where the extremes occur – just the numerical values.
The trick is to use the drop-down menus and navigate to …
Tools > Flow Simulation > Results > Display, and then pick the ‘Global Min/Max’ option
This creates 2 small graphical spheres and a new Legend with the numerical values:
In the image below, the minimum pressure is just under the lower wing and the max pressure is on the front / top of one of the upper winglets.
A Cut Plot makes it clear why the Min and Max pressure are at these locations …
I suspect very few people know that this can be done since the setting to reveal the Global Min/Max is not enabled by default – the user has to switch it on.
Hopefully this little tip will save you time when you are searching for extreme result values.
By Andy Fulcher
Group Technical Director
Categories: SOLIDWORKS, SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation, Tips & Tricks