ACU-T: 7100 DOE Study of an HVAC Duct

Prerequisites

To run this simulation, you will need access to a licensed version of HyperWorks CFD, HyperStudy, and Inspire Studio.

Prior to running through this tutorial, copy HyperWorksCFD_tutorial_inputs.zip from <Altair_installation_directory>\hwcfdsolvers\acusolve\win64\model_files\tutorials\AcuSolve to a local directory. Extract the following files from HyperWorksCFD_tutorial_inputs.zip.

  • HVAC_Duct.istudio
  • HVAC_DUCT.hmtpl
  • HVAC_DUCT.tcl
  • acuRun_HST.bat

Problem Description

The outline for this tutorial is shown in the figure below.



Figure 1.

You will be looking at a DOE study of an HVAC duct containing 10 parameters with values ranging from 0 to 100. You will be interacting with three of Altair’s products, namely Inspire Studio, HyperWorks CFD, and HyperStudy. The following list of files need to be present in your working directory before proceeding with the design study:

HVAC_Duct. hmtpl
Contains the template which will be used to execute the boundary conditions, mesh, and solver commands in HyperWorks CFD.
HVAC_Duct. ist2hst
Contains the parameter list along with the range of values for which the design study must be carried out.
HVAC_Duct. tcl
Contains the script to execute HyperWorks CFD. This is a generic tcl and you only need to edit the script to define the global mesh size in line 18 of provided the tcl file.
acuRun_Hst.bat
Contains the execution lines for the above files, AcuSolve solver, and output generation. This file is problem dependent and you have to change AcuSolve/AcuTrans arguments according to the given problem.
Important:
  • The executable (.exe), batch(.bat), and problem directory paths present in the acuRun_Hst.bat need to be updated with their respective locations on your machine. This can be carried out using any text editor (for example, Notepad).
  • For this process, the .hmtpl, .ist2hst, .tcl, and .iStudio files must have same name.

You will start this tutorial with a pre-setup of the HVAC model in a studio file with a set of 10 parameters and the template file to execute the various steps in HyperWorks CFD.

Generate the Design Variable File Using Inspire Studio

  1. Open Inspire Studio from the start menu or the desktop.
  2. From the Home tools, Files tool group, click the Open Model tool.


    Figure 2.
  3. Browse to the directory where you saved the model file. Select HVAC_Duct.istudio and click Open.
  4. Navigate to the Analysis ribbon.
  5. Click the Design Table tool.


    Figure 3.

    A Design Table dialog opens containing a list of pre-assigned parameters for the HVAC model.



    Figure 4.
  6. Add or remove parameters based on your preferred design study.
  7. Click Export and save the .ist2hst file to your working directory.

Generate the HVAC Parasolid Model

  1. From the menu bar, click File > Save As.
  2. Select Parasolid from the file types drop-down list.
  3. Name the file HVAC_Duct then click Save.
  4. Close Inspire Studio.

Define the Template File in HyperWorks CFD

  1. Open HyperWorks CFD from the start menu or the desktop.
  2. From the menu bar, click File > Import > Geometry Model.
  3. Browse to your working directory, select the HVAC_Duct.x_b Parasolid file, then click Open.
  4. In the Geometry Import dialog, leave all settings as their default values then click Import.
  5. Click the arrow next to the Home tool set, then select Template Manager.


    Figure 5.
  6. Click in the Template Manager dialog and select an existing template, in this case HVAC_Duct.hmtpl.
  7. Click Open to load the template file.
    The template is populated as shown in Figure 6. Any modifications to the template can be carried out here.


    Figure 6.
  8. Click to save and export the template file.
    Overwrite the existing file with the newly modified template file.
  9. Close HyperWorks CFD.

Open HyperStudy and Create a Project

  1. Open Inspire Studio from the start menu or the desktop.
  2. Click the New tool.


    Figure 7.
  3. Enter HVAC_Duct for the label.
  4. Set the HyperStudy directory to be the same as the working directory where the other pre-requisite files are stored.
  5. Click OK.

Add the Inspire Studio Model

  1. Under the Define models tab, select Add Model.


    Figure 8.
  2. Select the Inspire Studio icon from the available options.
  3. Click OK.

Set Up the Model File

  1. Click in the Resource column.
  2. Locate and select the HVAC_Duct.ist2hst file then click Open to import the path.
  3. Rename the default HVAC_Duct.stl file type to HVAC_Duct.x_t in the Solver Input File column.


    Figure 9.
  4. In the Solver Execution Script column, select Register New Solver from the drop-down.
  5. In the script table, click Add Solver Script.
  6. Select the Other Application icon.
  7. Rename the Label and Varname to HWCFD and hw_cfd, respectively.
  8. Click OK.


    Figure 10.
  9. Click in the Path field of the newly created script.
  10. Locate the acuRun_Hst.bat file and click Open.
  11. Click OK.
  12. Select the newly registered Solver, HWCFD, in the Solver Execution Script column.
  13. Click Import Variables.
  14. Click Next.
    Define Input Variables is now displayed with the list of variables populated in the Bounds tab.


    Figure 11.
  15. Click Next again.

Execute Test Models

  1. Click Write under the Test column.


    Figure 12.
    A green check mark appears next to the Write command to indicate that the operation has been successfully executed.
  2. Click Execute under the Test column.
    A green check mark appears next to the Execute command to indicate that the operation has been successfully executed.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Click Add Output Response.
  5. In the Label column, rename the Output response label to Outlet1_massflux or any name of preference to indicate the output variable that will store the value for the mass flux at the first outlet port.
  6. Click in the Expression column.


    Figure 13.
  7. Select the Data Sources tab in the new dialog.
  8. Click Add Data Source.
  9. Click in the File column.
  10. In the Data Source Builder dialog, click to load the outlet flux values of the first port.
  11. Search for the Outlet1_MassFlux.osi file in the m_1 folder and click Open.
    Observe a preview of the dataset as shown in the Figure 14 to ensure that the file was loaded properly.


    Figure 14.
  12. Click OK to exit the dialog.
  13. Click the arrow next to the Insert Varname button and select Last Element from the drop-down.


    Figure 15.
  14. Click Insert Varname.
    Observe that the expression box has been updated to ds_1[numpts(ds_1)-1].
  15. Click OK to exit the Data Source dialog.
  16. Follow steps 4-14 to generate output responses for outlets 2, 3, and 4.
    Your dialog box should look like the one in Figure 16 after this step.


    Figure 16.
  17. Select Test Models from the Setup drop-down.


    Figure 17.
  18. Click Extract.
    A green check mark appears next to the Extract command to indicate that the operation has been successfully executed.
    The Value column in the Define Output Responses tab is now populated with the Last iteration value of the dataset.


    Figure 18.
    The HyperStudy file is now set up to carry out the Design of Experiments run. The Design study can be initiated adding it as a part of the Study file.


    Figure 19.