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2. Student Usage.

2.1 Working with Singularities.

Adding.

Singularities are added by selecting the type of singularity by depressing the appropriate button on the main display the left clicking at the position you want the singularity. If you are not certain what the button means, hold the mouse pointer steady over the button, and popup a hint will appear. You may add the following singularities:

Changing the singularity characteristics.

Each time a singularity is added, its characteristics appear in the PFlow Singularities window. This window looks like a spreadsheet and can be edited much like typical spreadsheets. To change the characteristics of a singularity simply edit the appropriate values in the spreadsheet. PFlow will automatically calculate the effects of the changes.

Of course, the only difference between Sources and Sinks, and Left and Right Vortices is the sign of the magnitude. So, if you add a source, and later want to change it to a sink, simply enter a negative value for its strength, you will see its symbol change to a sink both on the table, and in the fluid view, vortices behave in a similar fashion. Dipoles can only have their position, strength, and direction changed, and may not be changed into another type of singularity.

Deleting.

For now, singularities can be deleted only by clearing all of them using the button with the lined out right vortex.

2.2 Working with Streamlines.

Selecting the button with the light blue line tells PFlow you want to add streamlines. Use the left mouse button to tell PFlow where to start the streamline. Adding more singularities, or editing the characteristics of the singularities will cause the streamlines to be automatically recalculated.

For now, you cannot delete individual streamlines and must clear them all using the button with the lined out streamline.

2.3 Working with Data Points.

Datapoints are points of interest in the flow. You add datapoints and the fluid flow characteristics are summarized in the Data Points table.

Graphing Data Points

Selecting Options->Display Datapoint Graph opens a view graphing the parameters of the datapoints. The x-axs represents which datapoint is being graphed, the vertical axes are the parameters. The Options menu in the graph view allows you to show or hide the vaious parameters.

Using the Datapoint Data.

On the bottom of the Data Point windows is a button labeled "Dump To File". This feature allows you to save the datapoint data to a text file for further analysis, for exmplate, this can be imported into any good spreadsheet program.

2.4 Finding Pressures and Velocities.

Finding pressure and velocity at arbitrary points .

Click the right mouse button anywhere in the fluid display. The velocity and pressure at that point will be displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the fluid view.

2.5 Controlling the Display.

Selecting the ``Options'' menu in the PFlow control window shows the options available for controlling the display.

Displaying Gridlines.

This option determines whether or not gridlines will be displayed in the fluid window. It does not affect calculations.

Displaying Singularities and Streamlines

These options determine whether singularities or streamlines will be displayed in the fluid window

Snap to grid.

Enabling this option forces all singularities, streamlines and data points onto grid intersections (even if the grid is not displayed). This makes it simpler to accurately place items.

2.6 Printing.

Including PFlow output in a paper.

Use the print to file capability to generat a Postscript file than can be included in documents.

2.7 Working with Files.

The menu entries for file open and save work the same as normal programs.


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