FEM ConstraintFlowVelocity

Description
Applies a flow velocity as boundary condition to an edge in 2D or to a face in 3D.

Usage

 * 1) Either press the toolbar button  or select the menu.
 * 2) Select the target Edges or Faces.
 * 3) Press the  button.
 * 4) Uncheck Unspecified to activate the necessary fields for edition.
 * 5) Set the velocity values or  specify a formula.

Formulas
It is possible to define a velocity by specifying the velocity profile as formula. In this case the solver sets the velocities at the different positions according to the profile.

To specify for example the velocity profile

$$\quad v_{x} (y)=6\left(y-1\right)\left(2-y\right) $$

for $$y\in[1;2]$$ (assuming that e.g. a pipe has the wall at y = 1 m and y = 2 m)

enter this to the Formula field:

This code has the following syntax:
 * the prefix Variable specifies that the velocity is not a constant but a variable
 * the variable to calculate the velocity is Coordinate 2, meaning y
 * the velocity values are returned as Real (floating point value)
 * MATC is the prefix for the Elmer solver that the following code is a formula
 * tx is always the name of the variable in MATC formulas, no matter that tx is in our case actually y

That y will only be in the range $$y\in[1;2]$$ is set because MATC only evaluates the tx range where the result is positive. This behavior is a bit special but has the advantage that one does not need to specify the range manually.

It is also possible to use more than one variable. See as example the definition of rotations in the displacement constraint.