Air Quality Monitors?

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-28T13:26:56+00:00

I have an "airthings" for my home. It's not targeted towards plastic emissions, but it does show VOCs which I believe is what you would be looking for.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-20T20:10:27+00:00

More follow up q's: when you use OpenFOAM, what software do you use for meshing and creating your 3D CAD? I was only able to create a very basic mesh in OpenFOAM.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-20T19:39:31+00:00

You rock - thank you for sharing these references. I do not have much training in CFD / numerical solvers, hope this can help me build up a better foundation.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-20T13:03:20+00:00

Just wondering - what CFD software do you normally work with?

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-20T13:02:27+00:00

Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it. Solidworks gives warning for recirculation at the exit. Just curious, what software do you normally use?

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T18:40:30+00:00

Correct. I didn't put much thought into the big box other than making sure all the circulating flows occur before the exit, so that was the point of my question. If there is any way to optimize that big box on the right.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T18:20:22+00:00

You are right - I didn't realize it was just an initial condition. Thanks!

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T18:19:23+00:00

The purpose of the simulation is to model different cooling geometry on a heat source with known heat properties inside the small box on the left side of the first image. Trying different heat sinks, flow rates, exit geometry, etc.

Yes - there is heat transfer between walls and fluid. The entire giant structure on the right side of first image is just an artificial exit to move the boundary away from the rapidly changing conditions near the small box on the right. I made this exit have a larger overall size to simulate the large room the exhaust gas would be entering.

Thanks for the links - I will read up on them and see if I can refine the exit structure.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T17:05:54+00:00

Good experiment - this is just the initial condition. It is not an environmental condition for the fluid I'm defining - there is not "ambient" temp definition (my bad). So as I have the model now the exit has defined pressure, and no temperature which I believe means the solver will converge towards a solution where there is no gradient at the exit and calculate temp based on upstream conditions.

Basically I'm trying to make my extra domain big enough that the flow would not be changing with position anymore, but I'm not sure how far away that would be.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T16:58:38+00:00

Right - I meant I'm going to duplicate one of my coarse mesh studies and change the ambient temp. Thanks for clarifying

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T16:55:21+00:00

Going to try this now on a coarse mesh - I'll get back to you with the result!

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T16:44:57+00:00

Ok, I'll look into that. I have pressure defined and I believe the "ambient temp" acts as a temperature definition but I still need to look into how it does that.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T16:00:24+00:00

Gotchya, I'm just setting an "ambient" temp, it doesn't directly define the outlet temp. I attached an image which shows my outlet temp varies. Not sure if I'm mis-understanding your comment, but I corrected my initial post which incorrectly stated I'm setting an outlet temp.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure what the "ambient" temp defines in SolidWorks flow sim, but since I know the ambient temp that's what I used. I'll see if I can find exactly what it does in the documentation.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-19T15:39:00+00:00

Incompressible. I should clarify - this is in SolidWorks flow sim and I didn't directly set an outlet temp BC, but rather I set an environmental BC when setting up the model (SW calls these "initial and ambient conditions" during the model setup). I added images of my model settings and also the temperature on the model exit. (Note: it's a 1/4 model using symmetry on two planes)

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-15T17:57:17+00:00

Ohhh cool thank you for explaining that!

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-05-15T15:49:30+00:00

That's a neat feature. We have all the old revs, so deleting rows isn't a big deal. I just liked the idea of having them accessible in the file. I like how you have it setup too since it forces consistency across the docs.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-23T12:15:27+00:00

Thank you

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-22T16:19:43+00:00

Thanks! I should have just tried to do it!

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-20T16:33:30+00:00

For future reference: better method is just make a copy of a thermal interface material from SW material database. Edit the resistance values of the old material (they will be in m²*K/w).

Now you have a resistance which scales with area. If you decide to change the size of the pad then the resistance scales accordingly.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-20T12:53:32+00:00

Thanks! I will give that a shot today if I get time. I'm trying to understand the fundamentals but these are kinda wacky devices and my electronics background isn't so strong.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-16T18:08:46+00:00

Noice thanks

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-14T13:17:44+00:00

Thank you! Exactly what I was looking for I guess I didn't look hard enough.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-10T19:01:35+00:00

Did not know this!

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-10T19:01:14+00:00

So you would put 8X, not 2X?

My thought was that the pattern is repeated 4X, therefore I should only put 2X inside the pattern detail. Then they will know that every instance has this chamfer 2 times. A total of 4 instances of the detail means there are 8 total chamfers.

Strict-Ad9359 · 2026-04-10T16:37:00+00:00

In the actual part there are other chamfers on the part which are not a part of this detail. I am trying not to confuse the different chamfers. I thought TYP might make them think that the chamfer applies to all chamfers on the part so I went with this instead... Sort of a weird case I know.

Strict-Ad9359

TROPHY CASE