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HTflux

Hygric and Thermal Simulation

Simulation views

General
Overlays
Display settings
Wire-frame view
Materials view
Objects view
Temperature view
Heat-flux view
Humidity view
Vapor-flux view
Partial pressure view

General

While working with HTflux you are able to switch the view mode at any time. However it makes sense to use the materials, wire-frame or object views to perform geometric manipulations. The other view modes available are suitable for displaying the various simulation results. (Though sometimes it might be useful to edit geometry in temperature view mode, e.g. to increase the thickness of an insulation panel)

To change the view mode just click on the appropriate button in the “START” menu:
views menu

Overlays

In every view mode it is possible to overlay additional layers.  You will always find the buttons for turning these layer on or off on the bottom right side of the screen (in the “quick-tool-bar“).
The overlays available are: Tags, Isolines,  Flux-Vectors

tag overlay Tags: The so called tags are used to display result of measurement tool functions. Generally these tags will be displayed in the simulation views. Keep them turned off while editing the model, as the tags could interfere with the drawing functions.
isolines isotherms isobars Isolines:  Depending on the actual view mode isolines will highlight regions having either the same temperature, humidity or partial-pressure. The isolines will help you to precisely perceive the simulation results visually. The offset and distance between the isolines can be altered using the “Display settings” of the specific view. (see below) In this menu you will even be able to change the stroke with or colors of the isolines.
vectors Flux-vectors: The vector overlay allow you to make the direction of a certain flux visible. Depending on the specific view mode the vectors will show the direction of the heat-flux or vapor-flux. Again the density, type, size or color of the vectors can be customized in the “Display settings” menu.

Note: HTflux will “remember” the visibility state of the overlays for each view separately. E.g. if you will activate the isolines in the temperature view, the will always be visible when returning to this mode. This allows you to customize each view according to your needs. This customization of each view will also be used for the image or PDF-export report functions. The views exported into graphics will look just like the ones that you have customized on your screen (“wysiwyg”).

Display settings

If you click on the  display settings button
button at the bottom of the screen a new menu panel will get visible. Depending on the actual view mode this display settings panel will allow you to customize the current view. There are many options (such as changing the color palette, scaling, isolines and so on) that will help you to optimize the view for the current task.
Thermal simulation display settings

Description of the various views

Wire-frame view
Wireframe Simulation view
The wire-frame view mode can be useful in various situations, especially when editing the geometry. In this view mode only the contour (or outlines) of each object will be shown. The filling of the polygon which usually covers all object below will be invisible. This way you will be able to view objects or part of objects that are covered by overlaying objects. In HTflux the objects placed on top of object hierarchy will always cover all objects further down in the list. This feature allows you to draw or edit complex geometries more easily. (e.g. you don’t have to align an arc shaped seal with the neighboring objects. Just make sure that the seal object lies on top and that the neighboring objects reaches under the seal-object – you will not have to precisely align the boundaries of each object).

 

Materials view

materials view
For most drawing or editing functions the materials view mode will be a good choice. It will certainly be the best choice for assigning materials to the objects, as the objects will always be displayed with the specific material or boundary colors. Elements that have not been assigned a material will be displayed in dark grey. White areas will show you regions that will be simulated as adiabatic areas.

Objects view

Objects view

 

In general the object view is not used a lot. However it can be very useful for some tasks, as you are able to freely choose a certain “object-color” for each object. To do this select one or more objects and open the “object properties” dialog, using right-click either in the geometric view or in the project manager. Here you could maybe highlight only relevant objects (independent of the actual material assignment) and then turn on the vector– or isoline-overlay to demonstrate a specific mechanism.

Temperature view

Temperature View Simulation
The temperature view mode allows you to display the temperature distribution using a certain color-palette corresponding to an adjustable temperature range. It is useful to also turn on the isotherms to visually perceive the temperatures even more precise. Using the display settings panel you will be able to customize the temperature view in many way. You can change the display or density of the isotherms, select a different color palette, adjust the scaling of the temperatures and many other parameters. As in all view modes you can turn on or off the isolines, vectors or measurement tags at any time. (see above)

Heat-flux view

Heat-flux simulation view
In the heat flux view the color palette is used to display the local heat flux density. Apart from the coloring vectors can be displayed to also display the direction of the heat-flux.  This view is very helpful if you want to locate thermal bridging effects or if you are optimizing a detail in terms of heat transmittance. Again there are many settings available that allow you to customize the display according to your needs. (scaling, color-palette, vector type)

Humidity view

Humidity simulation view

After processing a Glaser-2d simulation this view will be the most important one. Here the coloring and isolines are shown based on the relative (air) humidity. Hatched areas are used to display condensation spots. Using the default palette all regions having 50% RH or lower will be displayed in white. Green regions have RH >80% and blue regions >95%.  However, once again, you are able to customize the coloring and all other display parameters according your needs.

Vapor-flux view

Vapor-flux Simulation view

Just like the heat-flux view the vapor-flux view can display the strength (color) and the direction (vector) of the water vapor diffusion at the same time. This allows you to perceive the origin, strength or direction of vapor diffusion streams visually and will help you to find optimizations which will either prevent or control the vapor diffusion.

Partial pressure view

Partial-pressure view water vapor

Instead of showing the relative humidity the partial pressure view illustrates the total water vapor partial pressure. This view can also be useful to find constructional design faults, allowing the high interior water vapor pressure to diffuse into the building envelope.