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Elements Reference | Part I, Element Library |

FLUID30
3-D Acoustic Fluid
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Product Restrictions
FLUID30 Element Description
FLUID30 is used for modeling the fluid medium and the interface in fluid/structure interaction
problems. Typical applications include sound wave propagation and submerged structure dynamics. The
governing equation for acoustics, namely the 3-D wave equation, has been discretized taking into
account the coupling of acoustic pressure and structural motion at the interface. The element has eight
corner nodes with four degrees of freedom per node: translations in the nodal x, y and z directions and
pressure. The translations, however, are applicable only at nodes that are on the interface. Acceleration
effects, such as in sloshing problems, may be included.
The element has the capability to include damping of sound absorbing material at the interface. The
element can be used with other 3-D structural elements to perform unsymmetric or damped modal, full
harmonic response and full transient method analyses (see the description of the TRNOPT command).
When there is no structural motion, the element is also applicable to static, modal and reduced harmonic
response analyses. See FLUID30 in the Theory Reference for ANSYS and ANSYS Workbench for more
details about this element.
Figure 30.1 FLUID30 Geometry

FLUID30 Input Data

The geometry, node locations, and the coordinate system for this element are shown in Figure 30.1:
"FLUID30 Geometry". The element is defined by eight nodes, a reference pressure, and the isotropic
material properties. The reference pressure (PREF) is used to calculate the element sound pressure level
(defaults to 20x10-6 N/m2). The speed of sound ( ) in the fluid is input by SONC where k is the
bulk modulus of the fluid (Force/Area) and ρo is the mean fluid density (Mass/Volume) (input as
DENS). The dissipative effect due to fluid viscosity is neglected, but absorption of sound at the interface
is accounted for by generating a damping matrix using the surface area and boundary admittance at the
interface. Experimentally measured values of the boundary admittance for the sound absorbing material
may be input as material property MU. We recommend MU values from 0.0 to 1.0; however, values
greater than 1.0 are allowed. MU = 0.0 represents no sound absorption and MU = 1.0 represents full

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sound absorption. DENS, SONC and MU are evaluated at the average of the nodal temperatures.
Nodal flow rates may be specified using the F command where both the real and imaginary components
may be applied.
Element loads are described in Node and Element Loads. Fluid-structure interfaces (FSI) may be
flagged by surface loads at the element faces as shown by the circled numbers on Figure 30.1:
"FLUID30 Geometry". Specifying the FSI label (without a value) [SF, SFA, SFE] will couple the
structural motion and fluid pressure at the interface. Deleting the FSI specification [SFDELE,
SFADELE, SFEDELE] removes the flag. The flag specification should be on the fluid elements at the
interface. See Acoustics in the Coupled-Field Analysis Guide for more information on the use of the
fluid-structure interaction flag. The surface load label IMPD with a value of unity should be used to
include damping that may be present at a structural boundary with a sound absorption lining. A zero
value of IMPD removes the damping calculation. The displacement degrees of freedom (UX, UY and
UZ) at the element nodes not on the interface should be set to zero to avoid zero-pivot warning
messages.
Temperatures may be input as element body loads at the nodes. The node I temperature T(I) defaults to
TUNIF. If all other temperatures are unspecified, they default to T(I). For any other input pattern,
unspecified temperatures default to TUNIF.
KEYOPT(2) is used to specify the absence of a structure at the interface and, therefore, the absence of
coupling between the fluid and structure. Since the absence of coupling produces symmetric element
matrices, a symmetric eigensolver [MODOPT] may be used within the modal analysis. However, for
the coupled (unsymmetric) problem, a corresponding unsymmetric eigensolver [MODOPT] must be
used.
Vertical acceleration (ACELZ on the ACEL command) is needed for the gravity, even for a modal
analysis.
A summary of the element input is given in "FLUID30 Input Summary". A general description of
element input is given in Element Input.
FLUID30 Input Summary

Nodes
I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P
Degrees of Freedom
UX, UY, UZ, PRES if KEYOPT (2) = 0
PRES if KEYOPT (2) = 1
Real Constants
PREF - Reference pressure
Material Properties
DENS, SONC, MU
Surface Loads
Fluid-structure interface flag:
face 1 (J-I-L-K), face 2 (I-J-N-M), face 3 (J-K-O-N),
face 4 (K-L-P-O), face 5 (L-I-M-P), face 6 (M-N-O-P)
Impedance:
face 1 (J-I-L-K), face 2 (I-J-N-M), face 3 (J-K-O-N),
face 4 (K-L-P-O), face 5 (L-I-M-P), face 6 (M-N-O-P)

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Body Loads
Temperatures --
T (I), T (J), T (K), T (L), T (M), T (N), T(O), T(P)
Special Features
None
KEYOPT(2)
Structure at element interface:
0 --
Structure present at interface (unsymmetric element matrix)
1 --
No structure at the interface (symmetric element matrix)
KEYOPT(7)
Free surface effect:
0 --
Do not include sloshing effect
1 --
Include sloshing effect on face of elements located on Z = 0.0 plane (elements must not have positive Z
coordinates)

FLUID30 Output Data

The solution output associated with the element is in two forms:

z Nodal displacements and pressures included in the overall nodal solution

z Additional element output as shown in Table 30.1: "FLUID30 Element Output Definitions".

A general description of solution output is given in Solution Output. See the Basic Analysis Guide for
ways to view results.
The Element Output Definitions table uses the following notation:
A colon (:) in the Name column indicates the item can be accessed by the Component Name method
[ETABLE, ESOL]. The O column indicates the availability of the items in the file Jobname.OUT. The R
column indicates the availability of the items in the results file.
In either the O or R columns, Y indicates that the item is always available, a number refers to a table
footnote that describes when the item is conditionally available, and a - indicates that the item is not
available.
Table 30.1 FLUID30 Element Output Definitions
Name Definition O R
EL Element Number Y Y
NODES Nodes - I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P Y Y
MAT Material number Y Y
VOLU: Volume Y Y
XC, YC, ZC Location where results are reported Y 2
TEMP T(I), T(J), T(K), T(L), T(M), T(N), T(O), T(P) Y Y

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PRESSURE Average pressure Y Y

PG(X,Y,Z,SUM) Pressure gradient components and vector sum Y Y
VL(X,Y,Z,SUM) Fluid velocity components and vector sum 1 1
SOUND PR. LEVEL Sound pressure level (in decibels) 1 1

1. Output only if ANTYPE,HARMIC

2. Available only at centroid as a *GET item.

Table 30.2: "FLUID30 Item and Sequence Numbers" lists output available through the ETABLE
command using the Sequence Number method. See The General Postprocessor (POST1) in the Basic
Analysis Guide and The Item and Sequence Number Table of this manual for more information. The
following notation is used in Table 30.2: "FLUID30 Item and Sequence Numbers":

Name
output quantity as defined in the Table 30.1: "FLUID30 Element Output Definitions"
Item
predetermined Item label for ETABLE command
E
sequence number for single-valued or constant element data

Table 30.2 FLUID30 Item and Sequence Numbers

ETABLE and ESOL Command Input
Output Quantity Name
Item E
PGX SMISC 1
PGY SMISC 2
PGZ SMISC 3
VLX SMISC 4
VLY SMISC 5
VLZ SMISC 6
PRESSURE NMISC 1
PGSUM NMISC 2
VLSUM NMISC 3
SOUND PR. LEVEL NMISC 4

FLUID30 Assumptions and Restrictions

z The element must not have a zero volume.

z Element nodes may be numbered either as shown in Figure 30.1: "FLUID30 Geometry" or may
have planes IJKL and MNOP interchanged.
z The element may not be twisted such that it has two separate volumes. This occurs usually when
the element nodes are not in the correct sequence.
z All elements must have 8 nodes. A prism-shaped element may be formed by defining duplicate K
and L and duplicate O and P nodes (see Triangle, Prism and Tetrahedral Elements). A tetrahedron
shape is also available.

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z We do not recommend using degenerate shapes with KEYOPT(7) = 1.

z The acoustic pressure in the fluid medium is determined by the wave equation with the following
assumptions:
{ The fluid is compressible (density changes due to pressure variations).
{ Inviscid fluid (no dissipative effect due to viscosity).
{ There is no mean flow of the fluid.
{ The mean density and pressure are uniform throughout the fluid. Note that the acoustic
pressure is the excess pressure from the mean pressure.
{ Analyses are limited to relatively small acoustic pressures so that the changes in density are
small compared with the mean density.
z The lumped mass matrix formulation [LUMPM,ON] is not allowed for this element.

FLUID30 Product Restrictions

ANSYS Multiphysics.

z KEYOPT(7) is valid only in ANSYS Multiphysics

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