17.6.2.31. System Coupling Region

The System Coupling Region condition is used to expose surface and volume regions for use in couplings to other products using System Coupling.

This page includes the following sections:

Analysis Types

System Coupling Region is available for the following analysis types:
Note:

  • For all Coupled Field analyses, the application supports the System Coupling Region object when the analysis includes either structural or thermal physics, or both physics types.

  • When resuming legacy databases that includes a System Coupling Region marked as underdefined when only structural or thermal physics was included, Mechanical now automatically marks the object as fully defined. However, in Workbench, the Setup cell in workbench may still indicate an underdefined condition. This condition is resolved automatically when the system is solved.

Mechanical Structural - AEDT/Maxwell

System Coupling Region interfaces define the interfaces between thermal solids in the Mechanical system by making available thermal stress to the Maxwell system. These interfaces are defined on bodies alone in the Mechanical model. Data is exchanged across these interfaces during the solution process between the systems. To enable coupling steps, see Completing Participant Setups in the System Coupling User's Guide.

To transfer temperature and heat flow loading conditions from Mechanical, you must define the interfaces faces only and on volumes with thermal stresses. When scoped to a face, a System Coupling Region boundary condition is used to identify the interface where the transfer of loads to and from external fluid solvers CFX or Fluent occur. And, when scoped to a body, it enables the exchange of thermal stress information from the external Maxwell solver.

Additional System Coupling references are available at the end of the section.

Dimensional Types

The supported dimensional types for the System Coupling Region boundary condition include:

  • 3D Simulation

Geometry Types

The supported geometry types for the System Coupling Region boundary condition include:

  • Solid

  • Surface/Shell

Topology Selection Options

The supported topology selection options for System Coupling Region include:

  • Body

  • Face

Applying a System Coupling Region Boundary Condition

To apply a System Coupling Region:

  1. On the Environment context tab, right-click and select Insert > System Coupling Region. You can also right-click in the Geometry window when the Environment object is active and select Insert > System Coupling Region.

    Note:  This object is inserted into the Outline differently based on the analysis type. During structural analyses, it is inserted via the Loads drop-down menu and during thermal analyses it is inserted via the Conditions drop-down menu.

  2. Define the scoping for the object. Body and Face scoping is supported either through geometry picking or the use of a Named Selection.

    The Environment object provides the context menu (right-click) option, Write System Coupling Files. For supported analysis types, this option creates an input (.dat) file as well as a system coupling (.scp) file that is needed to run a System Coupling analysis that was created in one of System Coupling 's user interfaces.

Details Pane Properties

The selections available in the Details pane are described below.

CategoryProperty/Options/Description
Scope Scoping Method: Options include:

  • Geometry Selection: Default setting, indicating that the boundary condition is applied to a geometry or geometries, which are chosen using a graphical selection tool.

    • Geometry: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Geometry Selection. Displays the type of geometry (Body) and the number of geometric entities (1 Body) to which the boundary has been applied using the selection tools.

  • Named Selection: Indicates that the geometry selection is defined by a Named Selection.

    • Named Selection: Visible when the Scoping Method is set to Named Selection. This field provides a drop-down list of available user-defined Named Selections.

Definition

Type: Read-only field that displays boundary condition type System Coupling Region.

Interface Number: Incremental value for each new interface. This value can be overridden if desired.

Export Results: Thermal analyses only. The default value for this property is No. When this property is set to Yes, thermal data is written to .axdt files for use with External Data and System Coupling, which can connect to Fluent to transfer thermal data to a CFD analysis for a one-way transfer of static data. The file format for an External Data File (.axdt) is described in the External Data File Format section in the Workbench User's Guide.

Data to Transfer [Expert]: Options include Program Controlled (default) and All System Coupling Data Transfers. When set to All System Coupling Data Transfers, the coupling interface regions can participate in force, displacement, and thermal coupling through System Coupling.

Note:  The Data to Transfer expert setting is used only to run coupled field analyses using command snippets, which is no longer necessary because coupled field co-simulations are now supported for System Coupling in Workbench.

Note:

  • For an analysis that does not include a Physics Region object (a single analysis), you must set this property to All System Coupling Data Transfers to enable the interface regions to participate in structural-thermal coupling.

  • For the Coupled Field Static and Coupled Field Transient analyses, this property is read-only. Based on the scoping of this object and the physics type of the corresponding Physics Region object, the application determines the participating interface regions.

Suppressed: Include (No - default) or exclude (Yes) the boundary condition.

System Coupling Region References

Note the following additional references for the use of the System Coupling Region: