29.1.3. Material Details View: Pure Substance

The following topics will be discussed:

29.1.3.1. Basic Settings Tab

The Basic Settings tab is used to set the type of material, its state, an optional description and an optional coordinate frame.

  1. Set the Material Group.

    For details, see Material Group.

  2. The Material Description field is optional.

    For details, see Material Description.

  3. Select the Thermodynamic State.

    For details, see Thermodynamic State.

  4. Optionally set a custom coordinate frame for any material properties that depend on expressions in X, Y, or Z.

    For details, see Coordinate Frame, Coordinate Frames, and Coordinate Frames in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

29.1.3.2. Material Properties Tab

There are two main categories specifying properties of a pure substance: General Material and Table. A General Material can have its thermodynamic, transport and radiation properties defined in the most general manner using any of the built-in flow solver models, constants, or CEL expressions. A table material uses an RGP file to look up the required values. For details, see Table.

29.1.3.2.1. General Material

General Materials can have their Equation of State set to the following options:

For details on equations of state, see Equation of State in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

29.1.3.2.1.1. Equation of State - Value

The following tab appears when Equation of State is set to Value. Value uses whichever model for density that is supplied by the user. For example, the equation of state model could be a constant or a CEL expression.

  • Equation of State > Option. For details, see Option in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

  • Specify the Density and Molar Mass. An expression can be used for Density that depends on temperature and/or pressure. In this case, the CFX-Solver may build property tables in order to calculate enthalpy and entropy. If you use this option, check the table generation settings.

Additional information on Material Properties is available in:

29.1.3.2.1.2. Equation of State - Ideal Gas
  • If you set the specific heat capacity using a CEL expression, the solver will build tables for enthalpy and entropy. If you use this option, check the table generation settings.

  • For an ideal gas, specify the Molar Mass. For details, see Molar Mass in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

Additional information on ideal gas is available in:

29.1.3.2.1.3. Equation of State - Real Gas

The Real Gas option can be specified to model non-ideal gases and some liquid phase properties. Set Model to one of the following:

  • Aungier Redlich Kwong (the default model)

  • Peng Robinson

  • Soave Redlich Kwong

  • Standard Redlich Kwong.

To load the Real Gas materials into CFX-Pre:

  1. On the Outline tab, right-click Materials and select Import Library Data.

  2. In the Select Library Data to Import dialog box, click Browse   and open the MATERIALS-redkw.ccl, MATERIALS-sredkw.ccl, or MATERIALS-pengrob.ccl file, which contain pre-defined real gas materials model.

  3. Select the group of materials to load and click OK.

  4. Complete all of the data fields on the Materials Properties tab to use a Real Gas equation of state, then click OK.

Additional information on Real Gas models is available in:

29.1.3.2.2. Table

Table uses a Real Gas Property (RGP) file to load real fluid property data (see Real Fluid Properties in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide). You can load all of the RGP files that are supplied with CFX quickly by following the instructions given in Loading an .rgp file in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide. When defining materials that use data in tables not supplied with CFX, the definition is carried out separately by specifying the filename and component name for each material in turn. When Table is selected, the following form appears:

RGP file Table Format is the only type supported for CFX.

  1. Click Browse   beside Table Name to browse to the file containing the Real Gas Property Table data.

  2. Enter the Component Name (as an RGP file can contain many components).

    The component name corresponds to the name of a component in an RGP file. You may need to open the RGP file in a text editor to discover the exact name of the component you want to select. For details, see Detailed .rgp File Format in the CFX-Solver Modeling Guide.

29.1.3.2.3. Table Generation

For some equation of state and specific heat capacity settings (such as Redlich Kwong, IAPWS, and general materials having variable density and specific heat set with CEL expressions), the CFX-Solver builds internal property tables for efficient property evaluation. The most commonly required table is enthalpy as a function of temperature and possibly pressure. This table is built if the specific heat capacity is a function of temperature, and, possibly pressure. Entropy tables are also used to convert static and total pressure (or vice versa). For example, at a boundary condition you may specify the total pressure and the flow solver will use entropy tables to calculate the static pressure. When using CEL expressions for density and specific heat capacity the solver uses an adaptive algorithm to control the generation of the tables. In some cases, it may be necessary to alter some table generation details, as described by the following parameters:

29.1.3.2.3.1. Minimum and Maximum Temperature

These correspond to the lower and upper temperature bounds of the table. The selected values should exceed the expected temperature range somewhat, but to keep the size of the table from becoming too big, it should not exceed the expected range by a factor much greater than 2.

29.1.3.2.3.2. Minimum and Maximum Absolute Pressure

These correspond to the lower and upper absolute pressure bounds of the table. As with the temperature bounds, the selected values should exceed the expected absolute pressure range, but not by too much.

29.1.3.2.3.3. Error Tolerance

The table generation algorithm used by the solver is adaptive, and may cluster values where needed to resolve nonlinearities in the property definitions. The table generation is required to satisfy an error tolerance, defined as the relative error between the interpolation error and the exact value. The default tolerance (0.01 for enthalpy and 0.03 for entropy) is usually adequate.

29.1.3.2.3.4. Maximum Points

This parameter specifies the maximum number of points (values) for each table dimension. Fewer points may be required if the error criterion is met sooner. The default value of 100 is usually adequate.


Note:  If the error tolerance cannot be met with the specified maximum number of points, the CFX-Solver will revert to a uniform table with a resolution set to the maximum number of points.


29.1.3.2.3.5. Pressure/Temperature Extrapolation

This controls the solver behavior when evaluating properties at temperatures or pressures beyond the table range. If extrapolation is activated, the property will be extrapolated based on its slope at the table boundary; otherwise, the value at the table boundary will be used. In either case, a message is written to the CFX-Solver Output file that an out-of-bounds has occurred. If this happens, you should consider increasing the table range accordingly.