Detailed cases versus conceptual cases

Introduction

When submitting a case, you have to make two decisions. If the case needs to run on a detailed or conceptual level what amount of credits to select? This article will go more in-depth on the first decision to make: when to submit using a detailed level and when to use a conceptual level.

Difference between detailed and conceptual level for simulation cases

	Conceptual	Detailed
Mesh refinement	Slightly less refined	High refinement
Computation time	Runs very quickly	Takes longer to complete

For a simulation case, the only difference between a detailed simulation and a conceptual simulation is the mesh refinement. The mesh of a detailed simulation is more refined compared to that of a conceptual one.
This means that the results of a detailed simulation are more accurate compared to the ones of a conceptual simulation. However, this comes at the cost of a longer computational time.

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Note

In short, it is advised to submit your simulation on a detailed level if you desire high-precision results. On the other hand, if you only want to have a quick first estimation of the performance of your design, a conceptual level is the one to use due to the shorter run time.

Difference between detailed and conceptual level for design cases

For a design case, the difference between the two refinement levels is much more pronounced compared to a simulation case. Next follows a table of the differences:

	Conceptual	Detailed
Manufacturability	Does not need to meet all manufacturing constraints	guarantees manufacturability
Mesh refinement	Slightly less refined	High refinement
Computation time	Runs very quickly	Takes longer to complete

Starting with the first point in the table above. Only a detailed design guarantees manufacturability. This means that if you want to design something for prototyping, you'll need to submit your case using a detailed refinement level.
However, because detailed designs have a significant computational time, it is strongly recommended to start with a conceptual design to make sure the results are as expected. A conceptual design will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from a detailed case.
A conceptual design is not fully manufacturable, but it runs faster compared to a detailed design case.

Let's make the above paragraph more concrete by using an example case. This example case was submitted with the following two objectives: a pressureLossMinimization and a temperatureMinimization. After ColdStream has finished the optimization run, you prefer a result with a lower pressure drop and don't mind a higher temperature distribution. For the next design run, you can increase the weighting factor for the pressureLossMinimization objective and/or decrease the one for the temperature objective before resubmitting it.
If the above example was submitted using a conceptual refinement, you'll know sooner if the design is as you desire. For a detailed design, you'll need to wait twice as long (as a rule of thumb).

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Note

A conceptual design finds its strength in fine-tuning a case setup. You could of course do this using a detailed refinement level, but you'll waste time doing so.
A detailed design guarantees manufacturability and should be used for prototyping purposes.

Below you'll find two pictures showing the difference between a conceptual and a detailed design.

Conceptual design using die-casting manufacturing settings

Detailed design using die-casting manufacturing designs