2.10 Working With Input and Output Parameters in Workbench

Workbench uses parameters and design points to allow you to run optimization and what-if scenarios. You can define both input and output parameters in FLUENT that can be used in your Workbench project. You can also define parameters in other applications including ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS CFD-Post. Once you have defined parameters for your system, a Parameters cell is added to the system and the Parameter Set bus bar is added to your project. Arrows representing input and output parameters connect the bus bar to each system in which you have defined parameters.

Double-click on the Parameter Set bus bar to open the Parameters workspace. The parameters workspace includes the Outline of All Parameters table that lists all of the parameters in your project as well as the Table of Design Points table in which you can specify design points.

To create a new design point, enter the input parameter values that you want to use for that design point in the Table of Design Points in the row with an asterisk (*) in the first column. You can create several design points. Once you have finished specifying design points, you can right-click on the row for one design point and select the Update Selected Design Point option from the context menu to compute the output parameters for that design point. Alternatively, you can select Update All Design Points from the Toolbar to update all of your design points in sequence.

Only the data from the design point in the row labeled Current is saved with the project. If you want to post-process the results from a different design point in either ANSYS FLUENT or ANSYS CFD-Post, click on the box in the Exported column for that design point before you update that design point. Otherwise, the data for that design point is automatically deleted after the output parameters for that design point are updated. If you choose to export a design point, the data associated with that design point is exported to a new project. The new project is located in the same directory as the original project. The name of the project is the same as the name of the original project, except that it is appended with _dpn, where n is the row number that corresponds to the design point in the original project's Table of Design Points.

Note that you cannot create, edit, delete, or rename parameters in FLUENT if any iterations (or time-steps) have been performed. If you want to create, edit, delete, or rename parameters in FLUENT for a case with an existing solution, you must first initialize the solution.

For more information about input and output parameters in FLUENT, see the FLUENT User's Guide.

For more information about parameters, design points, what-if scenarios and optimization studies in Workbench, see the Workbench on-line documentation.