KTI uses the Computational Fluid Dynamics package PHOENICS for its detailed 3D computational analysis for its design and analysis of furnaces. CFD concerns the computation of the mass, heat and momentum transport equations. A structural grid is used for the computational domain. The CFD program is extended with a radiation model and combustion based on mixing. The boundary conditions for the radiation model are the wall temperatures, which are updated by a separate process model. For these boundary conditions several additional quantities are defined. Unfortunately, the quantities are not stored and cannot be visualized with standard PHOENICS.
We wanted a general visualization environment that is able to fulfill our wishes. Using the CLI and macro modules we created an user interface for the CFD visualizations. Output capabilities to Postscript and GIF were added for presentation purposes. Objects can easily be turned on and off. A configuration pop-up panel is available for every object. A data interface module is developed to read the PHOENICS result files. The user is able to select the variables to be actually read and the patches to be shown.
Using this user interface we were able to speed up our analysis time and quickly produce clarifying pictures for reports and presentations. The user interface can easily be extended and modified for any users wishes. Examples of furnace design and the user interface will be shown during the presentation.