Lube oil flow through piping

#1

Hi,

I work for an Oil&Gas company (not in the 3D field :slight_smile: ) and I did this simple model of a lube oil filtering package used on gas turbines.
As you can see below 2 filters connected with a 3 way valve in the middle that allows to divert the flow through one of the filters,the other one being in stand-by.

My idea is to play on filters material transparency,and simulate the oil flowing through while swapping from filter A to B.
I’m using 3ds Max 2010,I’m ok with animation but not with fluids,so I would like to know which approach do you think would be the best to illustrate and animate the diverted flow?
(Inside Max only,I can’t afford a plug-in like RealFlow)

Thanks in advance for the help

#2

If you are doing an infography (as in, “you don’t care about the image being pretty, but instead you are focused on the visual explanation of complex or potentially confusing information”), I would suggest you to animate and UVW map gizmo.

You can animate a cutout map that way, so you would need solid geometry inside the tubes, and make it appear and disappear.

#3

Thanks for the tip,though I’m not against something “pretty”. :smiley:

#4

You could try blender fluid simulations, you just need to export your geometry.

#5

Is it better than 3ds Max when it comes to fluids?

#6

Not “better” just different. It is easier to pull out a basic fluid simulation tho.

#7

you can use 3D Max particles & blobmesh to simulate a fluid passing through translucent pipes.

#8

mmmhh…the blobmesh idea sounds interesting,I think it can reproduce oil flow nicely in this case.Thanks!

#9

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