Fluid Flow Analysis of Howitzer Recoil Mechanism

[opmal7]

I'm looking to do a fluid flow analysis on the recoil mechanism of a howitzer. The analysis will involve simulating oil flowing through some complex orifice profiles. There will be 2 fluids (oil & nitrogen) in different parts of the recoil mechanism.

The results I would like from the analysis are pressure contours, fluid velocity profiles, and hopefully an animation of the recoil mechanism during a firing cycle. I am a student at a university and have access to Solidworks and Ansys software.

If there are any CFD buffs, can I expect to get the results I'm looking for from these software packages? What are the limitations on the academic versions of the software? Which software is the best/most intuitive to use? Are there other software packages that might be better to use for this application?

 

[Mech_Engineer]

The biggest limitation will be in the academic version of ANSYS- I think its models are limited in node count, and what you're proposing will be a very complex coupled problem. It seems to me this kind of problem would take a team of CFD engineers a couple of months to solve with some level of confidence in the results; I'm not sure a student with no CFD experience will be able to do it honestly.

 

[opmal7]

I know the Ansys academic might not be able to handle the size of problem we are considering. Buying a professional version of Ansys could be an option, depending on what the capabilities are. Can you make animations with Ansys Fluent or CFX?

I have data on the recoil characteristics to compare results to, and the analysis isn't being used for a new design, so the results don't have to be super accurate. It's basically an intern project to help the kid learn and help us learn more about what CFD can do, and could possibly be used in some marketing material.