Displaying Streamlines

For fluid flow simulations, streamlines help you visualize the lines traveled by massless particles that are released from all inlets in the physics region. You can also use streamlines to identify the source of a particle for which you know the final destination.

  1. In the Results arc, click Streamlines to display the pathlines of the fluid flow.
  2. To emit streamlines from an inlet, click the Emitter control. An emitter, represented by a spherical marker with a bounding ring, is added to the first inlet where streamlines will travel from that seed location.
    To emit streamlines from a different location, click and drag the emitter to the desired location.
  3. To include additional emitters, click Add emitter. The new emitters will be added to subsequent inlets and finally offset from one another at the last inlet. A maximum of 10 emitters can be added.

    You can add emitters to multiple selected geometries.

    To place an emitter anywhere on your model, select any geometry (except bodies) as the location and right-click to choose Add a Streamline Emitter from the context menu. Depending on the geometry type, the emitter bounding ring might be elliptical rather than circular.

    Note: When adding an emitter to a line, Discovery uses the length of the line as the radius and the normal to be the starting point.
  4. Select a variable from the Results legend list to color your streamlines by a different variable.
    You can display streamlines colored by Velocity, Pressure, Temperature, or Vortices Lambda. Temperature is only available if you have added a temperature condition, and Vortices Lambda is available only in Explore.
  5. Analyze and display your results in different ways using the streamlines options.
    Tubes By default, streamlines are displayed as Tubes. In Refine, you can display them as Ribbons to see the bends and curves of streamlines.
    Arrows Determines the direction of the streamline. Available in Refine.
    Thickness Adjusts the thickness of the streamlines.
    Tail length Modifies the length of each streamline by trimming away some of the history of where streamlines have been. Available in Refine.
    Count Increases or decreases the number of streamlines displayed.
    Reversed Reverses the direction of the streamlines or traces streamlines to the emitter.
  6. Modify the streamlines by clicking the marker and using the Move handles to rotate it and move it along the axes. Click and drag the bounding ring to change its size and in turn the density of streamlines displayed.
    An emitter can be Reset to the default emitter to relocate it to its original position. Additional emitters will be removed.
    To remove emitters, click the spherical marker and right-click to select Remove Emitter from the context menu.