user defined enthalpy and Cp

Altair Forum User
Altair Forum User
Altair Employee
edited November 2020 in Community Q&A

All, 

I am trying to write a user defined function for Cp and enthalpy, but I found the documentation a little confusing.   

 

the enthalpy and Cp data i have is obtained from RefProp (NIST Reference Fluid Properties database) and attached to this post.  

 

from heat transfer/Thermodynamics equations: deltaH = Cp(T) * deltaT.  But, Acusolve's documentation states that for a user defined function, both enthalpy and Cp must be provided:

'acuSolve has no way of calculating the specific heat from the enthalpy, so both must be supplied by the user defined function' - from the Command Reference Manual.

 

from the file I attached, a Cp and H are provided at a given temperature.  However, I do not know if I should just provide those values to Acusolve, or is there a relationship that i'm missing?  I want to stay away from the phase change and address the latent heat issue later.  For now, i want to focus on either all liquid or vapor analysis.  

 

I come from a structural background, and my CFD skills are a little rusty. So far, I've been able to write user defined functions for density, viscosity, and conductivity, which are working.  I have also been staying away from the phase change temperature, so the problems i've been running stay in the liquid phase.  ultimately, I would like to address the phase change, but that is another problem for another day.  

 

hopefully i was clear enough for somebody to help me.  

 

 

 

Unable to find an attachment - read this blog

Tagged:

Answers

  • acupro
    acupro
    Altair Employee
    edited June 2018

    Given that you have enthalpy as a function of temperature, you should be able to use piecewise linear enthalpy for the specific heat type rather than user function.  The curve fit variable  will be temperature.

  • Altair Forum User
    Altair Forum User
    Altair Employee
    edited June 2018

    Acupro, 

     

    i considered that, unfortunately, I forgot to mention that I also have temperature dependent data at several pressures.  The ultimate goal was to create a user defined functions to account for the pressure.  

     

    Ideally, I would like to use a user defined function that mimics a piecewise linear relationship, but uses different parameters for different pressures.  

  • acupro
    acupro
    Altair Employee
    edited June 2018

    There is an example of a UDF for specific heat in the Command Reference Manual - same chapter to which you referred earlier.  In the element loop it defines both cp[elem] and outvec[elem] which would be the enthalpy.  You may be able to use that as a guide.  You may be better off contacting the support team for assistance.