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    SimScale DocumentationSimulation SetupBoundary ConditionsFan Boundary Condition

    Fan Boundary Condition

    A fan boundary condition allows the user to assign a fan curve to a boundary of the computational domain. It is especially useful when the user has the fan curve of their equipment, but they don’t know for sure how much flow rate it generates.

    Depending on the configuration of the fan boundary condition, it can act as an inlet or an outlet —the sections below will expand on the usage and setup of this boundary condition.

    Fan Boundary Condition

    The fan boundary condition is available for the following analysis types:

    Find below an overview of the necessary configuration entries. Depending on the analysis type, the list of parameters may be slightly different:

    fan boundary condition configuration window
    Figure 1: Configuration window of the fan boundary condition
    • The Fan Type dictates if the flow is going in or out of the domain. Valid options are Inlet (going in) and Outlet (going out).
    • Under Fan pressure, the user can click on the table icon and define the fan curve via table input. Note that the fan pressure is based on total pressure values.
    • The Ambient total pressure defines the total pressure at the boundary. Please note that this will be a gauge total pressure for incompressible analysis types, and total absolute pressure for compressible simulations.
    • In the case of analysis types involving temperature, the algorithm also requests the temperature of the fluid when the fan is in Inlet mode.

    Fan Curve Definition

    Initially, to access the table definition, you can click on the table icon highlighted below:

    accessing table input
    Figure 2: The icon highlighted in blue allows you to access the table definition.

    In the window that opens, you can define your fan curve. Please note that the curve consists of volumetric flow rates and their respective fan total pressures:

    fan curve pressure volumetric flow rate definition
    Figure 3: The fan curve is often provided by the fan manufacturer and can be used for the setup of CFD simulations.

    With this configuration, the CFD simulation will calculate the resulting volumetric flow rate based on the pressure drops experienced within the computational domain.

    If you are interested in seeing a sample project with a fan curve boundary condition, please refer to this article.

    Did you know?

    The fan boundary condition allows the definition of fan curves to boundaries of the computational domain. In case you are interested in defining fan curves internal to a flow region, this is possible with momentum sources.

    Last updated: June 5th, 2023

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