3.14. Exporting Solution Data

The current release of Ansys Fluent allows you to export data to ABAQUS, Mechanical APDL Input, ASCII, AVS, CDAT for CFD-Post and EnSight, CGNS, Common Fluids Format - Post, EnSight Case Gold, EnSight DVS, Data Explorer, FAST, FIELDVIEW, I-deas, NASTRAN, PATRAN, TAITherm, and Tecplot formats. Exporting Solution Data after a Calculation explains how to export solution data in these formats after the calculation is complete, and ABAQUS Files to Tecplot Files provide specific information for each type of File Type. For information about exporting solution data during transient flow solutions, see Exporting Data During a Transient Calculation.

Fluent exports to third party software formats in the versions listed in Table 1.2: Supported Versions of Third-Party Software.

For NASTRAN, ABAQUS, Mechanical APDL Input, I-deas Universal, and PATRAN file formats, the following quantities are exported [4]:

  • Nodes, Elements

  • Node Sets (Boundary Conditions)

  • Temperature

  • Pressure

  • Heat Flux

  • Heat Transfer Coefficient

  • Force

    To generate the force data that is exported for nodes at boundaries, Ansys Fluent performs the following steps:

    1. Facial force for each wall face is calculated by summing the pressure force, viscous force and surface tension force of the face.

    2. Partial force for each wall face is calculated by dividing its facial force by its number of shared nodes.

    3. Total force for each wall node is calculated by summing the partial forces of all the wall faces sharing that node.

For additional information, see the following section:

 

3.14.1. Exporting Limitations

Note the following limitations when exporting solution data:

  • When using the parallel version of Ansys Fluent, you can only export to the following packages:

    • ABAQUS 

    • CDAT for CFD-Post and EnSight 

    • ASCII

    • CGNS 

    • Common Fluids Format - Post 

    • EnSight Case Gold 

    • EnSight DVS

    • Fieldview Unstructured

    • Mechanical APDL Input 

    • NASTRAN 

    • TAITherm

      Note that parallel TAITherm export is only available for surface data.

    • Tecplot 

    The exported file will be written by the host process (see Introduction to Parallel Processing). Note that the memory required to write the file may exceed the memory available to the host process.

  • When using the serial version of Ansys Fluent, you can only export surface data for TAITherm software.

  • The solution mode of Fluent cannot import surfaces. Consequently, if you export a file from Ansys Fluent with surfaces selected, you may not be able to read these files back into the solution mode. However, the meshing mode of Fluent can import surface data (see the Fluent Meshing section of the User’s Guide for details).

  • The following file types require a VKI license: ABAQUS, CGNS, Ideas-Universal, NASTRAN, PATRAN, Tecplot.

  • Ansys Fluent supports exporting polyhedral data only for ASCII, CDAT for CFD-Post and EnSight, CGNS, Common Fluids Format - Post, EnSight Case Gold, EnSight DVS, Fieldview Unstructured, NASTRAN, TAITherm, and Tecplot file formats. For further details, see ASCII Files, CDAT for CFD-Post and EnSight, CGNS Files, Common Fluids Format - Post Files, EnSight Case Gold Files, FieldView Unstructured Files, NASTRAN Files, TAITherm Files, and Tecplot Files.

  • If the files that are exported during multiple transient simulations are to be used as a set, you must make sure that all of the simulations are run on the same platform, using the same number of processors. This ensures that all of the files are compatible with each other.

  • Data on user defined/created surfaces is not available for export to EnSight Case Gold file format.

  • (Windows only) You cannot export files larger than 2GB to CGNS format. As a workaround, use a Linux machine to export files larger than 2GB to CGNS format.