Content
Introduction
This article briefly explains which (types of) problems can be solved using ColdStream. The first chapter delves deeper into the definition of a case, a term that is heavily used throughout the documentation page. The second chapter explains the different types of cases. The next two chapters go more in depth on these different case types. The final chapter goes more in depth into the flow of a case after it is submitted.
What is a case?
In the platform, we define a “case” as one instance of an engineering problem you want to simulate or design for. A case comprises a set of:
- Geometric entities
- Material properties and physics
- Boundary conditions
which defines your problem. When you vary one of the settings of the items above, you have a new case. Variations can easily be created by starting a new case from an existing one using the 'Duplicate case'-button.
Case type: simulation versus design
There are 2 types of cases: simulations and designs.
- Simulation: this is a case where you want to predict temperatures, heat flows and/or fluid flows. It can be used to assess the performance of a design you already have.
- Design: this is a case where you want a design to be created for you. You start from an “empty” geometry and fill the geometry in order to get the best performance and/or meet certain specifications. As a result, you will get both a new geometry representing your design, as well as its performance.
When you create a new case, ColdStream will ask you to name this new case and what type of case it is.
Simulation
These are the steps when setting up a new simulation:
- Upload geometry file(s)
- Define material properties, physics and sources for each region
- Define boundary conditions for each boundary
As long as the case has the "Created" status, you are able to upload geometric entities if some regions or boundary patches are missing.
When you are ready with the case setup, you can go through the submission process by clicking on the 'Submit'-button, selecting the desired refinement level and what amount of credits to assign. The case is then sent to our supercomputers.
The refinement level will be the sole input for our automatic meshing algorithm, so you do not have to worry about complicated mesh settings. If you like to know more about the submission process, click on this link.
Design
A design is very similar to a simulation, but requires extra input. You can also start your design case from your simulation case. The steps for a completely new design case are:
- Upload geometry file(s)
- Define material properties, physics and sources for each region
- Define boundary conditions for each boundary
- Indicate where the generative design tool can create the custom structures.
- Define targets
For design cases, you have the option to define targets on each geometrical entity. Follow this link if you like to know more about our targets.
As long as the case has the "Created" status, you are able to upload geometric entities if some regions or boundary patches are missing.
When you are ready with the case setup, you can go through the submission process by clicking on the 'Submit'-button, selecting the desired refinement level and what amount of credits to assign. The case is then sent to our supercomputers.
The refinement level will be the sole input for our automatic meshing algorithm, so you do not have to worry about complicated mesh settings. If you like to know more about the submission process, click on this link.
Case calculation
After submitting your case, our supercomputer (or HPC cluster) picks it up and will start your simulation or design run. You will see your case status changing to “Running”. For simulations, results will be available after a day, for conceptual design 2 weeks and for a detailed design 4 weeks. When the results are available, the status will change to “Finished”.