49.3. Performing System Coupling in Ansys Workbench

You can perform system coupling in Workbench by connecting a System Coupling component system to your Mechanical system and to your Ansys Fluent fluid flow analysis system.

The following is the list of supported coupling participants:

  • Fluent

  • Static Structural

  • Transient Structural

  • Steady-State Thermal

  • Transient Thermal

  • External Data

Connecting the Setup cell from an Ansys Fluent analysis system to the Setup cell for the System Coupling component system signals the latter system that the Fluent solver will act as a co-simulation participant in a coupled analysis. Most of the coupling related settings for your analysis are made through the System Coupling system's Setup user interface. The few coupling related settings that are required in the Fluent setup are described below, in the section System Coupling Related Settings in Fluent.

Once the coupling setup is complete, you can either run the analysis in Workbench or export it for execution in one of System Coupling's user interfaces.

  • When the coupled analysis is run from Workbench, it is executed by updating the System Coupling system's Solution cell, rather than the same cell in the connected co-simulation participant systems.

  • Should you need to perform a co-simulation run outside of Workbench, you can export the relevant input files (.cas, .dat, .scp) to a specified directory. To do this, right-click the System Coupling Setup cell and select Export System Coupling Setup.

    Figure 49.1: Exporting System Coupling Files from Workbench

    Exporting System Coupling Files from Workbench

For more information, see Using System Coupling in Workbench and Supported Coupling Participants for System Coupling in Workbench.

Note:  In order to have changes made in Fluent systems propagated to downstream System Coupling systems, save your project, synchronize with Workbench, or close Fluent. This will ensure that the information passed to System Coupling matches settings in Fluent. If this is not done, the analysis may be allowed to run but the following Workbench state error will be issued at the end of the run:

Update of the Solution component in System Coupling failed: Update 
of the Solution component in System Coupling did not mark container 
as updated (final state is OutOfDate).