Moving Reference Frame (MRF)

Moving Reference Frame (MRF) allows users to easily model steady state problems with rotating parts. It is computationally inexpensive and accurate enough for most industrial problems.

An Icepak 3D component fan may sometimes behave differently from real fan behavior. Typically this is due to flow features like swirl and centrifugal spread resultant from the spinning fan rotor as well as the rotor blade geometry. In an Icepak fan-based setup, this swirl is estimated and calculated off a 2D annular flow face rather than off the physical surfaces of the blade.

The MRF approach allows for a more accurate representation of the internal geometry of the fan and therefore results in a better modeling of the flow features. In Icepak MRF simulations, a fluid block rotates into contact with surfaces to create a spinning flow.

Below are images that illustrate spinning flow using a cut plane with speed vectors.