I am interested in measuring the lift/drag performance of various (especially traditional) sail designs. I am just learning CFD.
I created a geometry of a sail with fabric between two poles. I modeled the fabric as a single surface, zero thickness. but after creating the mesh it seems to have disappeared and when I ran the simulation it looks like it’s still gone. I certainly do not see any flow moving around it.
Is there something I need to specify to model a surface? simscale did not complain at all…
Hi @dominictarr ,
Sounds like an interesting project. In short, sheet bodies are a no-go for CFD (unless it’s PWC/LBM).
The warning message is actually in the geometry window:
If you inspect the flow region that was created, you will notice that the sheet body was completely disregarded (which is expected). In short, I would recommend adding some thickness to the sail, otherwise the simulation will not work as intended.
For the initial studies, adding a thickness of 5-10 cm should be a good idea, just so you can get a feeling for the mesh size. Then, after the initial tests, you should be able to iterate the geometry if necessary.
Cheers
