Mechanical APDL Basic Analysis Guide - Ansys

7.2.1.6. Particle Flow and Charged Particle Traces
A particle flow trace is a special form of graphics display that shows how a particle travels in a flowing fluid.
A charged particle trace is a graphics display that shows how a charged particle travels in an electric or
magnetic field. See Creating Geometric Results Displays (p. 249) for more information on graphic displays and
see Animation (p. 267) for information on particle trace animation. See the Theory Reference for the Mechanical
APDL and Mechanical Applications for simplifying assumptions on electromagnetic particle tracing.
A particle flow or charged particle trace requires two functions:
1. The TRPOIN command (Main Menu> General Postproc> Plot Results> Flow Trace> Defi Trace Pt).
Either defines a point on the path trajectory (starting point, ending point, or anywhere in between).
2. The PLTRAC command (Main Menu> General Postproc> Plot Results> Flow Trace> Plot Flow Tra).
Either produces the flow trace on an element display. Up to 50 points can be defined and plotted
simultaneously.
A sample PLTRAC plot is shown below.
Figure 7.8 A Sample Particle Flow Trace
The Item and Comp fields on PLTRAC allow you to see the variation of a specified item (such as velocity,
pressure, and temperature for a particle flow trace or electric potential for a charged particle trace). The
variation of the item is displayed along the path trajectory as a color-contoured ribbon.
Figure 7.9 A Sample Charge Particle Trace in Electric and/or Magnetic Fields
Tracing a particle moving in a pure magnetic field might look like this:
The path of that particle moving through a pure electric field might look like this:
Release 13.0 - © SAS IP, Inc. All rights reserved. - Contains proprietary and confidential information
of ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.
Notes
143