Accelerate your Thermo fluid systems design with 1D simulation services
Today’s products and systems are becoming increasingly more and more complex. Typically, they are a combination of hydraulic, pneumatic, electronic, and mechanical components. The interaction of these components can be very complicated with the physics involved often spanning thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and combustion.
Navier can help you to understand how your thermo-fluid systems will behave in the real world. Our Engineers apply their fundamental fluid mechanics and heat transfer expertise to the 1D modelling of integrated thermo-fluid systems for both steady and transient scenarios.
Essentially, a 1D numerical system model includes a network of connected components such as pipes, valves, pumps, compressors, heat exchanges, and other similar components. Each system component is modelled, and their combined effect is simulated in the system, using empirical laws or performance maps. The network itself is solved based on the numerical solution of the governing equations of fluid dynamics for compressible gas, incompressible liquids, homogeneous two-phase fluids and heat transfer through solid structures
The objective of any thermal-fluid network analysis is usually to determine flow rates, pressures, temperatures and/or heat transfer rates for the components in the network. Every component in a thermal-fluid network must comply with the system specification and the individual components must function correctly as part of the integrated system.
Why use a 1D approach?
- Capture and understand complex component interactions that are tightly related to the dynamics of the overall system
- Model systems that include a vast range of physical lengths scales (from millimeter length scales to kilometers)
- Eliminate uncertainty during the design process
- Fast solve times – typically orders of magnitude faster than an equivalent 3D CFD simulation, enabling the efficient simulation of large real-life complex systems and 1000’s of cases
- Enables a hybrid method where we combine reduced order performance maps from full 3D CFD simulations for complex components where empirical laws do not exist or are unsuitable
- In reverse we can derive accurate transient boundary conditions from a system level model and feed these into a local high fidelity CFD model of an individual component
Where is a 1D modelling approach useful?
- Root cause analysis and fault finding
- Component selection and sizing
- Performance assessments for different design configurations
- Optimisation of operating modes, strategies, and control logic
- Transient response analysis
In particular, Navier are helping the renewable industry to make significant savings by predicting and optimising power yields in some of the following systems:
- Wind Power
- Tidal Power
- Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
- Biomass Gasification
- Geothermal Power
Navier utilises the industry-leading 1D thermal-fluid modelling code Flownex®. Flownex® is developed in an ISO 9001:2008 and NQA1 quality assurance system environment and is the only software of its kind to hold a nuclear accreditation, a testament to the quality, reliability and accuracy of the simulation software. The code was also extended back in 1992 to handle aircraft combustion systems for Rolls-Royce.
Need Help?
Contact Navier on +44(0)115 6979141 or info@navier-flow-consultants.com for a free initial consultation with one of our CFD experts and receive a competitive fixed price quotation, with zero obligation. Alternatively, if you’d like to learn more about how we structure a CFD project, browse our ‘How We Work’ page.