You can use monitor planes to calculate integrated quantities, such as mass flow or total pressure, at cross sections of the domain. These can be particularly useful for internal flows. You can also define simulation stopping conditions based on these quantities.
Constrained Planes
A monitor plane can be infinite, meaning it creates a planar slice of the simulation domain and computes the integral quantities through that entire slice, or constrained.
You can constrain monitor planes in two ways:
The Box Clip option defines exactly where the plane will intersect the domain, bounded by a box.
The Volume option allows you to constrain monitor planes by volume.
Create a Monitor Plane
To create a new monitor plane:
Click the + icon in the Geometry panel.
In the dropdown menu, select Monitor Plane. This will create a new monitor plane entity within the Surfaces subsection, add a visual aid showing the location of the plane within the 3D Viewer, and open the monitor plane settings in the properties panel.
Define the location and orientation of the plane by setting Point (a point it intersects with) and Normal (a vector perpendicular to the plane).
(Optional) Click the pencil icon next to Constraints if you'd like to constrain the plane to a box clip or a volume. Use the toggle switches to choose.