Question
How can a response surface be generated in Flownex when investigating the effect of two input variables on an output such as pressure drop? In a standard Sensitivity Analysis, one input parameter is varied while the other parameters remain fixed, making it difficult to generate a response surface that shows the combined effect of multiple input variables.
Answer
A recommended approach is to use a Parameter Table rather than a standard Sensitivity Analysis. The Parameter Table allows multiple input parameters to be varied simultaneously by defining combinations of input values for each run. For example, a user can specify different values for parameters such as pipe length and pipe diameter and then calculate the resulting pressure drop for each combination.
By evaluating multiple combinations of the input parameters, the resulting dataset can be used to create a response surface showing how the output variable changes as a function of the two inputs. This approach is better suited to multi-variable studies than a conventional Sensitivity Analysis, where only one parameter is varied at a time while the remaining parameters are held constant.