For customers of Hawk Ridge Systems, one of the most popular uses of SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation has long been predicting the performance of hardware and industrial equipment – things like valves, manifolds, and piping systems. Engineers commonly use Flow Simulation while designing such components to ensure a certain fluid delivery rate, minimize pressure resistance and select the right pumping equipment- even including certain processes like heat transfer or mixing of fluids.
In mixing problems, such as exhaust gas recirculation or blending liquids, it’s always been possible to see mass or volume concentrations, density changes and more- even with as many as ten different fluids- but there was always one major caveat. Until now, it has only been possible to mix fluids of the same phases (gasses with gasses, liquids with liquids), which mean it was impossible to simulate any system with a free-flowing liquid surrounded by a gas- for example, water sloshing in a tank, or aeration in a static gas-liquid mixer.