Numerical Simulation CFD

Jorge Izquierdo, PhD

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 Contents
1. Introduction
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Solver Settings
5. Turbulence
6. Heat Transfer
7. Moving Mesh

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 1. Introduction

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 Introduction
• Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of
fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and
analyse problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform
the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with
surfaces

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 What is CFD
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the science of predicting fluid flow, heat and
mass transfer, chemical reactions, and related phenomena.
• To predict these phenomena, CFD solves equations for conservation of mass,
momentum, energy etc..
• CFD can provide detailed information on the fluid flow behavior:
– Distribution of pressure, velocity, temperature, etc.
– Forces like Lift, Drag.. (external flows, Aero, Auto..)
– Distribution of multiple phases (gas-liquid, gas-solid..)
– Species composition (reactions, combustion, pollutants..)
– Much more...
• When can we used CFD?
– Conceptual studies of new designs
– Detailed product development
– Optimization
– Troubleshooting
– Redesign
CFD analysis complements testing and experimentation by reducing total effort and cost required for experimentation and
data acquisition

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5
 How does CFD Work
CFD solvers commonly are based on the finite volume method
– Domain is discretized into a finite set of control volumes
– General conservation (transport) equations for mass,
momentum, energy, species, etc. are solved on this set of
control volumes

– Partial differential equations are discretized into a system of

algebraic equations
– All algebraic equations are then solved numerically to render
the solution field

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 The Use of CFD

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 Define Your Modeling Goals
• What results are you looking for (i.e. pressure drop, mass flow rate), and how
will they be used?
• What are your modeling options?
– What simplifying assumptions can you make(i.e. symmetry, periodicity)?
– What simplifying assumptions do you have to make?
– What physical models will need to be included in your analysis
• What degree of accuracy is required?
• How quickly do you need the results?
• Is CFD an appropriate tool?

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 Identify Domain
• How will you isolate a piece of the complete
physical system?
• Where will the computational domain begin
and end?
– Do you have boundary condition information at
these boundaries?
– Can the boundary condition types accommodate
that information?
– Can you extend the domain to a point where
reasonable data exists?
• Can it be simplified or approximated as a 2D
or axi-symmetric problem?

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 Pre Processing (I)
Geometry
• How will we obtain a model of the fluid region?
– From existing CAD models?, Extract the fluid region from a solid part? Create from scratch?
• Is it possible to simplify the geometry?
– Remove fillets, bolts…?, symmetry or periodicity?
• Do you need to split the model so that boundary conditions or domains can be created?

Mesh
• What degree of mesh resolution is required in each region of the domain?
– High gradients predictions, Is It possible to resolve geometric features of interest and
capturegradients of concern, e.g. velocity, pressure, temperature gradients
– Will you use adaption to add resolution?
• What type of mesh is most appropriate?
– Geometry complexity, Type of elements? Are non-conformal interfaces needed?
• Do we have sufficient computer resources?
– How many cells/nodes are required?
– How many physical models will be used?

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 Pre Processing (II)
Set up
• Define material properties
– Fluid
– Solid
– Mixture
• Select appropriate physical models
– Turbulence, combustion, multiphase, etc.
• Prescribe operating conditions
• Prescribe boundary conditions at all boundary zones
• Provide initial values or a previous solution
• Set up solver controls
• Set up convergence monitors

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 Solve
The discretized conservation equations are solved
iteratively until convergence
• Convergence is reached when:
– Changes in solution variables from one iteration to the next
are negligible
• Residuals provide a mechanism to help monitor this
trend
– Overall property conservation is achieved
• Imbalances measure global conservation
– Quantities of interest (e.g. drag, pressure drop) have reached
steady values
• Monitor points track quantities of interest
• The accuracy of a converged solution is dependent
upon: A converged and mesh-
– Appropriateness and accuracy of physical models independent solution on a
– Assumptions made
well-posed problem will
– Mesh resolution and independence
provide useful engineering
– Numerical errors
results!

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 Post Processing (I)
Examine the results to review solution and
extract useful data
• Visualization Tools can be used to answer such
questions as:
– What is the overall flow pattern?
– Is there separation?
– Where do shocks, shear layers, etc. form?
– Are key flow features being resolved?
• Numerical Reporting Tools can be used to
calculate quantitative results:
• Forces and Moments
• Average heat transfer coefficients
• Surface and Volume integrated quantities
• Flux Balances Examine results to ensure correct physical
behavior and conservation of mass energy and
other conserved quantities. High residuals may
be caused by just a few poor quality cells.

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 Post Processing (II)
• Are the physical models appropriate?
– Is the flow turbulent?
– Is the flow unsteady?
– Are there compressibility effects?
– Are there 3D effects?
• Are the boundary conditions correct?
– Is the computational domain large enough?
– Are boundary conditions appropriate?
– Are boundary values reasonable?
• Is the mesh adequate?
– Does the solution change significantly with a refined mesh, or is the solution mesh
independent?
– Does the mesh resolution of the geometry need to be improved?
– Does the model contain poor quality cells?

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 2. Geometry

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 Geometry and Boundary Conditions

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 Enclosure
• Creates enclosure around the bodies
– Useful for external aerodynamic analysis
– Can be used for extracting internal flow domain
• Input
– All or selected bodies
– Shape of enclosure
– Extent of enclosure
• Output
– A frozen body around the selected parts with
specified extents
– Internal flow volume as a result of automatic
Boolean subtract
• Supports symmetry models
• Full or partial models can be included in
enclosure

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 Symmetry
Defines symmetry for the model
• Input
– All or selected bodies
– Up to three symmetry planes
• Operation
– Symmetry planes slice the model
• Output
– Sliced model (part lying on the positive side of the
axis is retained)

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 Repair/Clean Geometry
Why the need for Repair? How to Fix?
• Several translation methods • Geometry Cleanup
available to enable data exchange – Processes required to prepare
with CAD/CAE systems geometry for meshing
– Direct Integration/CAD Readers • Fix incomplete or corrupt geometry
– Import of generic CAD formats (IGES, and connect disconnected geometry
ACIS etc)
• Remove unnecessary details
• Translation can: (Defeaturing)
– Return incomplete, corrupt, or
disconnected geometry
• Decompose geometry into
meshable sections for hex/hybrid
• Requires repair
meshing
– Return geometry details unnecessary
for CAE analysis
• Requires defeaturing

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 Issues
• Many potential issues
– Missing faces
– Sliver faces
– Hard edges
– Small edges
– Sharp angles
– Others …

• These issues must be fixed to

– Create watertight fluid bodies
– Prevent meshing issues

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 Simplifications

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 3. Mesh

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 Mesh Strategy

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 Meshing Guidelines

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 Mesh detailed capture

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 Types of elements

• Hexa: Concentration in one direction

– Angles unchanged
• Tetra: Concentration in one direction
– Angles change
• Prism: Concentration in one direction
– Angles unchanged
• Solution for boundary layer resolution
– Hybrid prism/tetra meshes
– Prism in near-wall region, tetra in volume

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 Volume Mesh Generation Methods

Tet Hexcore Native Poly

Prisms Hexaedral CutCell

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 Hex Elements
• Advantages
– Good shear layer element
– Best element wrt. memory &
calculation time per element

• Disadvantages
– Degree of automation for grid
generation

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 Tet Elements
• Advantages:
– High degree of automation for grid
generation

• Disadvantages:
– Memory & calculation time per node
≈1.5 x hex
– Poor shear layer element
– No streamline orientation
– Quantity must (and can) make up for
quality

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 Prism Elements
• Advantages :
– Better shear layer resolution than tet
– High degree of automation
– Tet/prism combination

• Disadvantages :
– Less efficient than hex
– Topological difficulties (corners, …) poor grid
quality (angles, …)
– Manual repair

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 Piramids Elements

• Use in hybrid grids

• Transition element between hex and tet

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 Polihedral Elements
• Advantages :
– Improved mesh quality.
– Can reduce cell count significantly.
– User has control of the conversion process.
• Disadvantages:
– Cannot be adapted or converted again.
– Cannot use tools such as skewness-based
smoothing or extrude to modify the mesh.

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 Hex vsTetMesh : Accuracy Comparison
• Direction of the flow well known
• Quad/Hex aligned with the flow are more accurate than Tri with the same interval
size

• For complex flows without dominant flow direction, Quad and Hex meshes lose their
advantage

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 Boundary Layer Methods
• Total Thickness
– Maintains constant total height of inflation layer
throughout
• First Layer Thickness
– Maintains constant first cell height throughout
• Smooth Transition
– Maintains smooth volumetric growth between each
adjacent layer. Total thickness depends on the variation
of base surface mesh sizes (Default)
• First Aspect Ratio
– Controls the heights of the inflation layers by defining the
aspect ratio of the inflations that are extruded from the
inflation base
• Last Aspect Ratio
– Creates inflation layers using the values of the first layer
height, maximum layers, and aspect ratio controls

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 Layer Compression & Stair Stepping
• Layer Compression
– Compresses inflation layers in the proximity
regions
– Maintains the given number of layers in the
proximity regions

• Stair Stepping
– Inflation layers are stair stepped in the
proximity regions
– Removing layers locally in steps to avoid
collisions as well as bad quality at sharp
corners

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 Aspect Ratio
• 2-D:
– Length / height ratio: δx/δy

• 3-D
– Area ratio
– Radius ratio of circumscribed / inscribed circle

• Limitation for some iterative solvers

– A < 10 … 100
– (CFX: < 1000)

• Large aspect ratio are accepted where there is no strong transverse gradient
(boundary layer ...)

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 Orthogonal Quality (OQ)
For a cell it is the minimum of the following
expressions computed for each face I

Where Ai is the face normal vector and fi is a vector

from the centroid of the cell to the centroid of that
face, and ci is a vector from the centroid of the cell to
the centroid of the adjacent cell, where ei is the
vector from the centroid of the face to the centroid
of the edge

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 Skewness
• Equilateral Volume deviation is applied for triangles and
tetrahedrons

• Normalized Angle deviation is applied to all cell and

face shapes and used for hexa, prisms and pyramids.

Where is the equiangular face/cell (60 for tets and tri,

and 90 for quads and hexas)

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 Summary Quality
• Mesh quality recommendations
• Low Orthogonal Quality or high skewness values are not recommended
– Generally try to keep minimum orthogonal quality > 0.1, or maximum skewness < 0.95.
However these values may be different depending on the physics and the location of the cell
• Fluent reports negative cell volumes if the mesh contains degenerate cells
• Skewness mesh metrics spectrum

• Orthogonal Quality mesh metrics spectrum

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 Mesh Interfaces
• If the nodes match perfectly, this is a ‘Conformal’
mesh
• If the nodes do not match up, this is a ‘Non
Conformal’ mesh
• CFD can interpolate across the interface, but this must
be defined in the GUI, if not CFD could treat the
interface as a wall, and no fluid can flow through
Conformal

Non
Conformal
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 Summary

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5

Geometry Corruption Very High High Low Medium Medium
Geometry Complexity
> 1,000 100 to 1,000  100 > 100 parts < 1,000
(# parts or bodies)
Customer Needs • Advanced and • Automated • Automated • Automated • Mesh editing
automated CAD CAD cleanup and fast and fast capabilities
cleanup • Meshing solution solution • High-quality
• Rapid meshing automation • Tet/prism • hex-dominant hex mesh
of large meshes • Fast meshing meshes meshes
• Mesh editing • Unstructured
capabilities hybrid mesh

Fluent Meshing ICEM CFD

Workbench Meshing

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 4. Solver Settings

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 4.1 Boundary Conditions

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 Velocity Inlet
• Velocity Specification Method
– Magnitude, Normal to Boundary
– Components
– Magnitude and Direction
– Turbulence quantities (if applicable)
– Thermal conditions (if applicable)
– Applies a uniform velocity profile at the boundary unless UDF or profile is used
– Velocity Magnitude input can be negative, implying that you can prescribe the exit velocity
• Velocity inlets are intended for use in incompressible flows and are not
recommended

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 Pressure Inlet
• Required inputs
– Gauge TotalPressure
– Supersonic / Initial Gauge Pressure
– Inlet flow direction
– Turbulence quantities (if applicable)
– Total temperature (if heat transfer and/or compressible)

• Pressure inlet boundary is treated as a loss-free

transition from stagnation to inlet conditions
• CFD Programs calculate the static pressure and
velocity at the inlet and the mass flux through
the boundary varies depending on the interior
solution and specified flow direction
• Pressure inlets are suitable for both compressible
and incompressible flows

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 Mass Flow Inlet
Required Inputs
• Mass Flow Rate or Mass Flux
• Supersonic/Initial Gauge Pressure
– Static pressure where flow is locally supersonic; ignored if subsonic
– Will be used if flow field is initialized from this boundary
– TotalTemperature (on Thermal tab)
• Used as static temperature for incompressible flow
• Direction Specification Method
• Total pressure adjusts to accommodate mass flow inputs
• More difficult to converge than Pressure Inlet

• Mass flow inlets are intended for compressible flows; however, they can be
used for incompressible flows

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 Pressure Outlet
Required inputs
• Gauge Pressure (static) –static pressure of the environment into which the
flow exits. Referred to the operating condition
• Specified pressure is ignored if flow is locally supersonic at the outlet
• Backflow quantities –Used as inlet conditions if/when backflow occurs (outlet
acts like an inlet)
• Can be used as a “free” boundary in an external or unconfined flow
• Target Mass Flow Rate Option can be applied
• Not available for multiphase problems
• Suitable for compressible and incompressible flows
• Non-reflecting outlet boundary conditions (NRBC) are available for ideal gas
(compressible) flow

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 Outflow
No pressure or velocity information is required
• Data at exit plane is extrapolated from interior
• Mass balance correction is applied at boundary
• Flow exiting outflow boundary exhibits zero normal diffusive flux for all flow
variables
• Appropriate where the exit flow is fully developed
Limitations :
• Cannot be used with a pressure inlet boundary
– Must use velocity-inlet
– Combination does not uniquely set pressure gradient over whole domain
• Cannot be used for unsteady flows with variable density
The outflow boundary is intended for use with incompressible flows
Poor rate of convergence when backflow occurs during iterations
• Cannot be used if backflow is expected in the final solution

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 Other Boundary Conditions
Pressure Far Field
• Used to model free-stream compressible flow at infinity, with prescribed
static conditions and the free-stream Mach number
• Available only when density is calculated using the ideal gas law

Exhaust Fan / Outlet Vent

• Models an external exhaust fan or outlet vent with specified pressure
rise/loss coefficient and ambient discharge pressure and temperature

Inlet Vent / Intake Fan

• Models an inlet vent / external intake fan with specified loss coefficient /
pressure rise, flow direction and ambient inlet pressure and temperature

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 Wall and Axis Boundary Conditions
• In viscous flows, no-slip conditions are applied at walls
– Shear stress can be applied
– Wall roughness can be defined for turbulent flows
– Modification of the Logarithmic Standard Wall Function
• An axis boundary is used at the center line for 2d axi-symmetric problems
– Does not apply in 3d cases
• No user inputs required
• Some CFDs requires any axis boundary to be located at y=0
– Solution will diverge immediately if this condition is not satisfied
– If necessary, use Grid > Translate to reposition the mesh so the axis is at y=0

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 Porous Media
• A porous zone is a special type of fluid zone
– Enable Porous Zone option in the Fluid panel
– Pressure loss in flow determined via user inputs of resistance coefficients to lumped
parameter model
• Used to model flow through porous media and other uniformly distributed
flow resistances
– Packed beds
– Filter papers
– Perforated plates
– Flow distributors
– Tube banks
• Inputs are directional viscous and inertial resistance
coefficients

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 Porous Media
• Porous media can be used to model some flows
where the geometry is too complex, or has too
many scales, to resolve with a grid

• Instead of including the geometric details, their

effects are accounted for numerically through the
use of loss coefficients

• Fluid Porosity
– The local ratio of the volume of fluid to the total
physical volume

• Superficial Velocity
– By default some CFD programs calculate the
superficial velocity based on volumetric flow rate
– CFD programs allow the selection of the physical
velocity using the Porous Formulation

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 Porous Media Loss Coefficients

• Directional Losses
– Different losses can be defined for the streamwiseand transverse directions
– Honeycombs and Porous plates
– For an isotropic porous medium such as a packed bed, the same value can be applied in all
three directions
• Losses are applied using Darcy’s Law
– Permeability and Loss Coefficients

• Viscous Resistance input is (1/Kperm) in the equation

– The default value should generally not be used except for reservoir modeling applications
• Inertial Resistance input is Kloss in the equation

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 Buoyancy
Operating Density
• The Operating Density is used to avoid round-off errors by
solving at an offset level
• Similar to the use of the Operating Pressure to offset the
operating pressure of the domain, the Operating Densityis
used to offset the hydrostatic pressure in the domain
• The pressure solution is relative to ropg h, where his relative
to the Reference Location
• If rop = the fluid density (r), then the pressure field in the
solution is relative to the hydrostatic pressure, so when
visualizing Pressure you only see the pressure that is driving the
flow
• For a non-buoyant flow the numerical solution ignores the
hydrostatic pressure as it has no effect on fluid motion
• However, if necessary, hydrostatic pressure can be accounted
for in Fluent for gravity driven flow of a constant density fluid

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 4.2 Solver Settings

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 Solver Settings
• The sketch to the right shows the
basic workflow for any simulation
once the domain and physics have
been set up
• Most items in the chart will be
covered here
– Solution parameters
• Choosing the solver
• Solution methods
– Initialization
– Calculate the solution and monitor
convergence
• Monitoring convergence
• Stability
• Setting controls
• Accelerating convergence
– Accuracy

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 Solver types
• There are two kinds of solvers
available in Fluent
– Pressure based
– Density based

• Pressure-Based is the default and

should be used for most problems
• Handles the range of Mach numbers
from 0 to ~2-3
• Density-Based is normally only used
for higher Mach numbers, or for
specialized cases such as capturing
interacting shock waves
• Available methods and controls will
vary depending on solver type

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 Pressure Based Solver (PBS)
• Velocity field is obtained from the
momentum equation
• Mass conservation (continuity) is achieved
by solving a pressure correction equation
– Pressure-velocity coupling algorithms are derived
by reformatting the continuity equation
– The pressure equation is derived in such a way
that the velocity field, corrected by the pressure,
satisfies continuity
• Energy equation (where appropriate) is
solved sequentially
• Additional scalar equations are also solved
in a segregated (sequential) fashion

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 PBS -Interpolation Methods for Pressure
• Interpolation is required for calculating cell-face pressures in order to compute pressure
gradient (Gauss method):

• Standard –The default scheme; reduced accuracy for flows exhibiting large surface-normal
pressure gradients near boundaries (but should not be used when steep pressure changes
are present in the flow –PRESTO! scheme should be used instead)
• PRESTO! –Use for highly swirling flows, flows involving steep pressure gradients (porous
media, fan model, etc.), or in strongly curved domains
• Linear – Use when other options result in convergence difficulties or unphysical behavior
• Second-Order – Use for compressible flows; not to be used with porous media, jump, fans,
etc. or VOF/Mixture multiphase models
• Body Force Weighted –Use when body forces are large, e.g., high Ra natural convection or
highly swirling flows

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 Density Based Solver (PBS)
• The governing equations of continuity,
momentum, and (where appropriate)
energy and species transport are solved
simultaneously (i.e., coupled together)
• Additional scalar equations are solved in a
segregated fashion
• The density-based solver can be run
implicit or explicit

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 Density Based Solver
• The density-based solver is applicable when there is a strong coupling, or
interdependence, between density, energy, momentum, and/or species
• Density-based Coupled Implicit
– The implicit option is generally preferred over explicit since explicit has a very strict limit on
time scale size (CFL constraint) as implicit does not have
– Examples: High speed compressible flow with combustion, hypersonic flows, shock
interactions
• Density-based Coupled Explicit
– The explicit approach is used for cases where the characteristic time scale of the flow is on
the same order as the acoustic time scale
– Example: propagation of high-Mach shock waves, shock tube problem

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 Courant Number
• A pseudo-transient term is included in the density-based solver even for
steady state problems
– The Courant number (CFL) defines thetime scale size
– The pseudo-transient option is available for DBS as well as PBS.
• For density-based explicit solver:
– Stability constraints impose a maximum limit on the Courant number (<2)
• For density-based implicit solver:
– The Courant number is theoretically not limitedby stability constraints
• Default value is 5
– (can be reduced for start up to 0.1-2)
– Values of 100 –1000 are common in external aero
• Solution steering can be used to automatically adjust the Courant number
as the solution iterates such that it has an optimal value at all stages of
the calculation

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 Discretization(Interpolation Methods)
Field variables (stored at cell centers) must be interpolated to the faces of the control volumes

Interpolation schemes for the convection term:

• First-Order Upwind –Easiest to converge, only first-order accurate
• Power Law –More accurate than first-order for flows when Recell< 5 (typ. low Re flows)
• Second-Order Upwind –Uses larger stencils for 2nd order accuracy, essential with
tri/tetmesh or when flow is not aligned with grid; convergence may be slower
• Monotone Upstream - Centered Schemes for Conservation Laws (MUSCL)–Locally 3rd
order convection discretization scheme for unstructured meshes; more accurate in
predicting secondary flows, vortices, forces, etc.
• Quadratic Upwind Interpolation (QUICK) – Applies to quad/hex and hybrid meshes, useful
for rotating/swirling flows, 3rd-order accurate on uniform Quad mesh

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 Effects of discretization

• If b= 0 we get the 1st-Order-Upwindconvection

scheme, i.e. no correction
– This is robust but only first order accurate
– Sometimes useful for initial runs
• If b= 1 we get the 2nd-Order-Upwind Scheme
– Additional Limiters must be added to guarantee the
solution to be bounded (fC0<ff<fC1)
• The QUICK scheme “maximizes” b throughout the
flow domain while keeping the solution bounded

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 Interpolation Methods (Gradients)
• Gradients of solution variables are required in order to
evaluate diffusive fluxes, velocity derivatives, and for higher-
order discretization schemes.

• The gradients of solution variables at cell centers can be

determined using three approaches:
– Green-Gauss Cell-Based–Good, but solution may have false diffusion
(smearing of the solution fields)
– Green-Gauss Node-Based –More accurate; minimizes false diffusion;
(strongly recommended for tri/tetand hybrid meshes)
– Least-Squares Cell-Based –The default method. Less expensive to
compute than Node-Based gradients. Slightly more expensive than Cell-
Based gradients. However, exactly reconstruct linear field on highly
skewed or distorted meshes.

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 Initialization

• Fluent requires that all solution variables be initialized before starting iterations
– Basically this means that in every individual cell in the mesh a value must be assigned for every
solution variable to serve as an initial guess for the solution
– A realistic initial guess improves solution stability and accelerates convergence
– In some cases a poor initial guess may cause the solver to fail during the first few iterations
• 5 initialization methods are available **
– Hybrid initialization (default)
• Use this for most cases
– FMG initialization
• Provides a more realistic initial guess, but the initialization process takes much longer than
other methods
• Can be especially beneficial for compressible flows and rotating machinery
– Standard initialization
– Patch values
– Starting from a previous solution

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 Initialization
• Standard Initialization
– Generally the user selects an inlet boundary under “Compute from” to automatically fill
the initialization values with the values that are specified at the inlet boundary
• Patch values for individual variables in certain regions
– Free jet floaws (high velocity for jet)
– Combustion problems (high temperature region to initialize reaction)
– Multiphase flows (patch different phase volume fractions in one or more regions)
• Hybrid Initialization
– The default initialization method
– This provides a quick approximation of the flow field, by a collection of methods.
– It solves Laplace's equation to determine the velocity and pressure fields.
– All other variables, such as temperature, turbulence, species mass fractions, volume
fractions, etc., will be automatically patched based on domain averaged values or a
particular interpolation method.

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 Initialization
• Full Multigrid (FMG) Initialization
– Can be used to create a better initialization of the flow field
– FMG Initialization is useful for complex flow problems involving large pressure and velocity
gradients on large meshes
– FMG uses the Full Approximation Storage (FAS) Multigrid method to solve the flow problem on a
sequence of coarser meshes
– Euler equations are solved with first-order accuracy on the coarse-level meshes

• Starting from a previous solution

– A previously calculated solution can be used as an initial condition when changes are made to the
case setup
– Use solution interpolation to initialize a run (especially useful for starting fine-mesh cases when
coarse-mesh solutions are available)
– Once the solution is initialized, additional iterations
always use the current data set as the starting point
– Sometimes solving a simplified version of the problem
first will provide a good initial guess for the real
problem

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 Initialization

In general, the closer the initial guess is to the

final solution, the fewer iterations will be
needed to reach convergence.

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 Grid Adaption
Grid adaption adds more cells where needed to
resolve the flow field without the pre-processor
• Adaption proceeds in three steps:
– Mark cells satisfying the adaption criteria and store
them in a “register”
– Display and modify the register
– Click on Adapt to adapt the cells listed in the register
• Registers can be defined based on:
– Gradients or iso-values of all variables
– All cells on a boundary
– All cells in a region with a defined shape
– Cell volumes or volume changes
– y+ in cells adjacent to walls
• To assist adaption process, you can:
– Combine adaption registers
– Draw contours of adaption function
– Display cells marked for adaption
– Limit adaption based on cell size and number of cells

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 Convergence Difficulties
• Numerical instabilities can arise with an ill-posed
problem, poor-quality mesh and/or inappropriate
solver settings
– Exhibited as increasing (diverging) or “stuck” residuals
– Diverging residuals imply increasing imbalance in
conservation equations
– Unconvergedresults are very misleading!

• Troubleshooting
– Ensure that the problem is well-posed
– Compute an initial solution using a first-order
discretization scheme
– For the pressure-based solver, decrease underrelaxation
factors for equations having convergence problems
– For the density-based solver, reduce the Courant number
– Remesh or refine cells which have large aspect ratio or
large skewness.
– Remember that you cannot improve cell skewnessby using
mesh adaption!

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 Convergence initialization
Convergence can be accelerated by:
• Supplying better initial conditions
• Starting from a previous solution (using file/interpolation when necessary)
– Gradually increasing under-relaxation factors or Courant number
• Excessively high values can lead to solution instability and convergence
problems
• You should always save case and data files before continuing iterations
– Starting with a good quality mesh with appropriate mesh resolution
• The orthogonal quality reported in Mesh > Info > Quality should have a
minimum value of 0.1 and an average value that is much higher

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 Convergence
• The solver must perform enough iterations to
achieve a converged solution
• At convergence, the following should be satisfied:
– All discrete conservation equations (momentum, energy,
etc.) are obeyed in all cells to a specified tolerance
(Residual).
• The residual measures the imbalance of the current
numerical solution and is related to but NOT EQUAL
to the numerical error.
– Overall mass, momentum, energy, and scalar balances are
achieved
– Target quantities reach constant values
• Integral: e.g. Pressure drop
• Local: e.g. Velocity at specified position

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 Convergence vs Accuracy

A converged solution is not necessarily an accurate solution

• Accuracy depends on :
– Order of the discretizationschemes (2ndorder schemes are recommended)
– Mesh resolution
– Boundary Conditions
– Model limitations
– Geometry simplifications
– Precision of the solver (2d/3d or 2ddp/3ddp)
– …

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 4.3 Transient Analyses

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 Unsteady CFD Analysis
Simulate a transient flow field over a specified time period
• Solution may approach:
– Steady-state solution –Flow variables stop changing with time
– Time-periodic solution –Flow variables fluctuate with repeating pattern
• Your goal may also be simply to analyze the flow over a prescribed time interval
– Free surface flows,
– Moving shock waves,
– …

Extract quantities of interest

• Natural frequencies (e.g. StrouhalNumber)
• Time-averaged and/or RMS values
• Time-related parameters (e.g. time required to cool a hot solid, residence time
of a pollutant)
• Spectral data –Fourier Transform (FT)

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 Unsteady CFD Analysis
• Transient simulations are solved by computing a solution for many discrete
points in time
• At each time point we must iterate to the solution

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 Selecting the Transient Time Step Size
• The time step size is an important parameter in transient simulations
• It must be small enough to resolve time-dependent features …

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 Selecting the Transient Time Step Size
• The quantity of interest may be changing very slowly (e.g. temperature in a
solid), but you may not be able to use a large time step if other quantities
(e.g. velocity) have smaller timescales
• The Courant Number is often used to estimate a time step:

– This gives the number of mesh elements the fluid passes through in one time step
– Typical values are 1 –10, but in some cases higher values are acceptable

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 Selecting the Transient Time Step Size

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 Convergence Behavior
• Residual plots for transient
simulations are not always
indicative of a converged
solution
• You should select the time step
size such that the residuals
reduce by around three orders
of magnitude within one time
step
– This will ensure accurate
resolution of transient behavior
– For smaller time steps, residuals
may only drop by 1-2 orders of
magnitude -look for a monotonic
decrease throughout the time
step

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 5. Turbulence

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 Turbulence
Flows can be classified as either :

Laminar
(Low Reynolds Number)

Transitional
(Increasing Reynolds Number)

Turbulent
(Higher Reynolds Number)

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 Reynolds Number
• The Reynolds number is the criterion used to determine whether the flow is
laminar or turbulent

• The Reynolds number is based on the length scale of the flow:

L = x, d, dhyd, etc.

• Transition to turbulence varies depending on the type of flow:

• External flow
– along a surface: ReX> 500 000
– around on obstacle: ReL> 20 000
• Internal flow:
– ReD> 2 300

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 Overview of Computational Approaches
• Three basic approaches can be used to calculate a turbulent flow

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 Turbulence Models available in CFD

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 Models Description
Spalart– A single transport equation model solving directly for a modified turbulent viscosity. Designed specifically
for aerospace applications involving wall-bounded flows on a fine near-wall mesh. CFD implementation
Allmaras allows the use of coarser meshes. Option to include the strain rate in the production term improves
predictions of vortical flows

Standard k–ε The baseline two-transport-equation model solving for k and ε. This is the default k–εmodel. Coefficients
are empirically derived; valid for fully turbulent flows only. Options to account for viscous heating,
buoyancy, and compressibility are shared with other k–ε models.

RNG k–ε A variant of the standard k–ε model. Equations and coefficients are analytically derived. Significant changes
in the ε equation improves the ability to model highly strained flows. Additional options aid in predicting
swirling and low Reynolds number flows.

Realizable k–ε A variant of the standard k–εmodel. Its “realizability” stems from changes that allow certain mathematical
constraints to be obeyed which ultimately improves the performance of this model.

Standard k–ω A two-transport-equation model solving for k and ω, the specific dissipation rate (ε/ k) based on Wilcox
(1998). This is the default k–ω model. Demonstrates superior performance to k–εmodels for wall-bounded
and low Reynolds number flows. Options account for low Reynolds number effects, free shear, and
compressible flows.

SST k–ω A variant of the standard k–ω model. Combines the original Wilcox model for use near walls and the
standard k–ε model away from walls using a blending function. Also limits turbulent viscosity to guarantee
that τT~ k.

RSM Reynolds stresses are solved directly using transport equations, avoiding isotropic viscosity assumption of
other models. Use for highly swirling flows. Quadratic pressure-strain option improves performance for
many basic shear flows

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 Models Usage
Spalart– Economical for large meshes. Good for mildly complex (quasi-2D) external/internal flows and boundary
layer flows under pressure gradient (e.g. airfoils, wings, airplane fuselages, missiles, ship hulls). Performs
Allmaras poorly for 3D flows, free shear flows, flows with strong separation.

Standard k– Robust. Widely used despite the known limitations of the model. Performs poorly for complex flows
involving severe pressuregradient, separation, strong streamline curvature. Suitable for initial iterations,
ε initial screening of alternative designs, and parametric studies.

RNG k–ε Offers largely the same benefits and has similar applications as Realizable. Possibly harder to converge than
Realizable.

Realizable Suitable for complex shear flows involving rapid strain, moderate swirl, vortices, and locally transitional
flows (e.g. boundarylayer separation, massive separation, and vortex shedding behind bluff bodies, stall in
k–ε wide-angle diffusers, room ventilation).

Standard k– Superior performance for wall-bounded boundary layer, free shear, and low Reynolds number flows
compared to models from the k-efamily. Suitable for complex boundary layer flows under adverse pressure
ω gradient and separation (external aerodynamics and turbomachinery). Separation can be predicted to be
excessive and early.

SST k–ω Offers similar benefits as standard k–ω. Not overly sensitive to inlet boundary conditions like the standard
k–ω. Provides more accurate prediction of flow separation than other RANS models.

BSL k–ω Similar to SST k-w. Good for some complex flows if SST model is over predictingflow separation

RSM Physically the most sound RANS model. Avoids isotropic eddy viscosity assumption. More CPU time and
memory required. Tougher to converge due to close coupling of equations. Suitable for complex 3D flows
with strong streamline curvature, strong swirl/rotation (e.g. curved duct, rotating flow passages, swirl
combustors with very large inlet swirl, cyclones).

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 Shear Stress Transport (SST)Model
• The SST model is a hybrid two-equation model that combines the
advantages of both k-e and k-w models
• The k-w model performs much better than k-e models for boundary layer
flows
• Wilcox’ original k-w model is overly sensitive to the free stream value (BC) of
w, while the k-e model is not prone to such problems

• The k-e and k-w models are blended such that the SST model functions like
the k-w close to the wall and the k-e model in the freestream

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 Turbulent Boundary Layer Profiles
• Near to a wall, in the boundary layer, the velocity changes rapidly.

• If we plot the same graph again, where:

– Log scale axes are used
– The velocity is made dimensionless, from U/Ut where
– The wall distance is made dimensionless:

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 Dimensionless Boundary Layer Profiles
• By scaling the variables near the wall the velocity profile data takes on a
predictable form
• Using the non-dimensional velocity and non-dimensional distance from the
wall results in a predictable boundary layer profile for a wide range

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 Turbulent Boundary Layer Regions

• Looking more closely at the plot from the

previous slide, distinct regions can be
identified based on the form of the
dimensionless velocity profile (e.g. linear
or logarithmic)
• For CFD, the most important are the
viscous sublayer, immediately adjacent to
the wall and the log-layer, slightly further
away from the wall
• Different turbulence models require
different inputs depending on whether
the simulation needs to resolve the
viscous sublayer with the

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 Wall Modeling Strategies
In the near-wall region, the solution gradients are very high, but accurate
calculations in the near-wall region are paramount to the success of the
simulation. The choice is between:

A) Using Wall Functions

B) Resolving the Viscous Sublayer

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 Using Wall Functions
• Wall functions utilize the predictable dimensionless boundary layer profile
shown previously to determine conditions at the wall (e.g. shear stress) from
conditions (velocity, wall distance) at the centroid of the wall adjacent mesh
cell
– This means the cell should be located in the log-layer
– To locate the first cell in the log-layer, it should typically have a y+value such that 30 < y+<
300
– This is a very general guideline, not an absolute rule
• for very high Re, y+can be higher if still in log layer and for very low (but still turbulent)
Re, the log-layer may not extend far enough away from the wall for the use of wall
functions to be valid
• Wall functions should never be used if y+< 30
• Generally speaking, this is the approach if you are more interested in the
mixing in the middle of the domain, rather than the forces on the wall

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 Resolving the Viscous Sublayer

• First grid cell needs to be at about y+≈ 1 and a prism layer mesh with growth
rate no higher than ≈ 1.2 should be used
– These are not magic numbers –this guideline ensures the mesh will be able to adequately
resolve gradients in the sublayer
• This will add significantly to the mesh count (see next slide)
• Generally speaking, if the forces or heat transfer on the wall are key to your
simulation (aerodynamic drag, turbo machinery blade performance, heat
transfer) this is the approach you will take and the recommended turbulence
model for most cases is SST k-w

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 Mesh Resolution Near the Wall
• Fewer nodes are needed normal to the wall when logarithmic-based wall
functions are used (compared to resolving the viscous sublayer with the
mesh)

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 Example in Predicting Near-wall Cell Size
• During the pre-processing stage, you will need to know a suitable size for the
first layer of grid cells (inflation layer) so that Y+is in the desired range
• The actual flow-field will not be known until you have computed the solution
(and indeed it is sometimes unavoidable to have to go back and remesh your
model on account of the computed Y+values)
• To reduce the risk of needing to remesh, you may want to try and predict the
cell size by performing a hand calculation at the start, for example:

• For a flat plate, Reynolds number ( ) gives Rel= 1.4x106

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 Calculating Wall Distance for a Given y+

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 Enhanced Wall Treatment (EWT)
• Need for y+insensitive wall treatment
• EWT smoothly varies from low-Re to
wall function with mesh resolution
• EWT available for k-e and RSM models
• Similar approach implemented for k-w
equation based models, and for the
Spalart-Allmaras model

The term "y+ insensitive wall treatment" does not mean the results will
be identical no matter what the value of y+is at the wall-adjacent cell. It
means that as you refine the mesh, the solution will tend gradually
towards grid independence. This is in contrast to wall functions, where
the solution can be extremely sensitive to y+values and grid independent
solutions can be difficult to achieve.

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 Y+ for the SST and k-omega models
• The SST and k-w models were formulated to be near-wall resolving models
where the viscous sublayeris resolved by the mesh
– To take full advantage of this formulation, y+ should be ≈ 1
– This is necessary for accurate prediction of flow separation
• These models can still be used with a coarser near-wall mesh and produce
valid results, within the limitations of logarithmic wall functions
– The first grid point should still be in the logarithmic layer (y+< 300 for most flows)
– Many advantages of these models may be lost when a coarse near-wall mesh is used

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 Limitations of Wall Functions
• In some situations, such as boundary layer separation, logarithmic-based
wall functions do not correctly predict the boundary layer profile

• In these cases logarithmic-based wall functions should not be used

• Instead, directly resolving the viscous sublayer with the mesh can provide
accurate results

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 6. Heat Transfer

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 Heat Transfer
• All modes of heat transfer can be taken into account with CFD simulation :
– Conduction
– Convection (forced and natural)
– Radiation
• Numerous processes can be included as appropriate
– Interphase energy source (phase change)
– Fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer
– Viscous dissipation
– Species diffusion
• To model heat transfer, activate the energy equation

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 Energy Equation
• Energy transport equation:

• Energy E per unit mass is defined as:

• Pressure work and kinetic energy are always accounted for with compressible
flows or when using the density-based solvers. For the pressure-based solver,
they are omitted and can be added through a text command

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 Governing Equation : Viscous Dissipation

• Energy source due to viscous dissipation:

• Also called viscous heating
• Often negligible, especially in incompressible flow
• Important when viscous shear in fluid is large (e.g., lubrication) and/or in
high-velocity, compressible flows
• Important when Brinkman number approaches or exceeds unity:

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 Heat Transfer Coefficient
• Different ranges of values for the heat transfer
coefficient are observed for different convection
modes

– Natural Convection–Fluid moves due to buoyancy

– Forced Convection–Flow is induced external means

– Boiling Convection–Body is hot enough to cause fluid phase

change

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 Convection Heat Transfer
• As a fluid moves, it carries heat with it  this is called convection
– Thus, heat transfer is coupled to the fluid flow solution
– Energy + Fluid flow equations activated  means Convection is computed
• Conduction also solved in fluid when Energy activated
• Additionally:
– The rate of heat transfer depends strongly on the
fluid velocity
– Fluid properties may vary significantly with
temperature (e.g., air)
– At walls, the heat transfer coefficient is computed
by the turbulent thermal wall functions

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 Conduction Heat Transfer
• Conduction heat transfer is governed by Fourier’s Law
• Fluent computes conduction in all fluid and solid zones when the energy
equation is activated
• Fourier’s law states that the heat transfer rate is directly proportional to the
gradient of temperature
• Mathematically,

• The constant of proportionality is the thermal conductivity (k)

– k may be a function of temperature, space, etc.
– for isotropic materials, k is a constant value
– for anisotropic materials, k is a matrix

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 Thermal Wall Boundary Conditions
• Thermal conditions at Walls:
– Constant Heat Flux or Temperature
– Convection, Radiation, Mixed–Simulates an external environment that is not modeled
using user-prescribed heat transfer coefficient and/or external emissivity and radiation
temperature

– Via System Coupling –Can be used when Fluent is coupled with another system in
Workbench using System Couplings
– Via System Coupling –Used with certain kinds of non-conformal interfaces

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 Modeling Heat Transfer in Walls
It is often important to model the thermal effects of the wall bounding the fluid
but it may not be necessary to mesh it.

• Option 1:
– Mesh the wall in the pre-processor
– Assign it as a solid cell zone
– This is the most thorough approach
• Option 2:
– Just mesh the fluid region
– Specify a wall thickness
– Wall conduction will be accounted for
• Option 3:
– As option 2, but enable ‘Shell Conduction’
– 1 or more layers of ‘virtual cells’ will be created

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 Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT)
• At a wall between a fluid and a solid zone or a wall with fluid on both sides, a
wall / wall_shadow is created automatically by Fluent while reading the mesh
file
– By default, the Coupled boundary condition automatically balances energy on the two
sides of the walls
– Possible, but uncommon, to uncouple and to specify different thermal conditions on each
side

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 Natural Convection
• Natural convection occurs when fluid
density is temperature dependent and heat
is added to fluid
• Flow is induced by gravitational force acting
on density differences
• When gravity is activated in Fluent, the
pressure gradient and body force terms in
the momentum equation are rewritten as

• The transformation avoids round off error

when gravity is enabled
• Important for Fluent because p' is used for
boundary conditions and results

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 Natural Convection
• Natural convection has to be considered when :
– Richardson number : Ri= Natural convection / Forced convection

– Rayleigh number : Ra = Buoyancy force/ Losses due to viscosity and

thermal diffusion

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 User Inputs for Natural Convection
• Define Gravity in the Operating Conditions panel
• Choose a temperature dependent density model in the Materials panel
– Most common are Boussinesq(valid for small DT) and incompressible ideal gas (any DT)
– For liquids with large DT, use piecewise linear or polynomial
• If using Boussinesq, set the operating temperature
– Operating density is ignored
• If using any other density model, set the operating density
– Operating temperature is ignored
• Strongly recommended to explicitly specify the density at ambient
temperature

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 Natural Convection in an Open Domain

• Many heat transfer problems (especially for ventilation problems) include the effects
of natural convection
• As the fluid warms, some regions become warmer than others, and therefore rise
through the action of buoyancy
• The underlying term for the buoyant force in the momentum equations is (r -ro)g
where r is the local density and ro a reference density
• The reference density, ro is set on the ‘Operating Conditions’ panel.
• Strongly recommended: ro = Ambient density
• The pressure profile on boundaries is dependent on the value of ro, because the value
entered in the boundary conditions panel corresponds to the modified pressure, P’ (=
P –rog z)
• If the computational domain contains pressure inlets and outlets connected to the
same external environment, ro should be set equal to the ambient density and a
constant pressure of 0 Pa specified for inlets and outlets

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 Natural Convection in a Cavity
The choice of ro can be arbitrary in a cavity but has an impact
on convergence
• Well posed simulation
– ro set to a value in the middle of the cavity
– Near the hot wall, the buoyant force term will be upwards, whilst at
the cold wall this term will be downwards
– This will encourage the correct flow field from the start, and should
converge easily

• Badly posed simulation

– ro set too high (equivalent to a temperature colder than at the cold
wall)
– The source terms therefore produce:
• A very high upwards force at the hot wall
• A lesser, but still upwards, force at the cold wall
– When converged (if it ever does!) the flow field should be the same
as the top case, but convergence will be difficult

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 Natural Convection-Tips and Tricks
• Beware of the operating density:
– Average density for a cavity (To= median temperature for Boussinesq model)
– Ambient density for problems with pressure inlets and outlets (Tref= ambient temperature
for Boussinesq model)
• Use PRESTO and Body Force Weighted discretizationf or pressure
• Requirement: Y+=1 for turbulent natural convection boundary layer
• Use pressure based pseudo transient approach for High Rayleigh number
(turbulent flow)

• Use k-epsilon for buoyant stratified flows

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 Radiation
• Radiative heat transfer is a mode of energy transfer where the energy is
transported via electromagnetic waves

– Thermal radiation covers the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum from 0.1
to 100 mm
– For semi-transparent bodies (e.g., glass, combustion product gases), radiation is
a volumetric phenomenon since emissions can escape from within bodies
– For opaque bodies, radiation is essentially a surface phenomena since nearly all
internal emissions are absorbed within the body

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 When to Include Radiation?
• Radiation should be included in a simulation if

is of the same order or magnitude than the convective and conductive heat
transfer rates. This is usually true at high temperatures but can also be true at
lower temperatures, depending on the application
• Estimate the magnitude of conduction or convection heat transfer in the
system as

• Compare qrad with qconv

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 Optical Thickness and Radiation Modeling
The optical thickness should be determined before choosing a radiation model

– a: absorption coefficient (m-1) (Note: ≠Absorptivityof a Surface)

– L: mean beam length (m) (a typical distance between 2 opposing walls)
• Optically thin means that the fluid is transparent to the radiation at
wavelengths where the heat transfer occurs
– The radiation only interacts with the boundaries of the domain
• Optically thick/dense means that the fluid absorbs and re-emits the radiation

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 Choosing a Radiation Model
• The radiation model selected must be appropriate for the optical thickness of
the system being simulated

• In terms of accuracy, DO and DTRM are most accurate (S2S is accurate for
optical thickness = 0)

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 Which Model is Best for My Application?

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 Phase Change
• Heat released or absorbed when matter changes state
• There are many different forms of phase change
– Condensation
– Evaporation
– Boiling
– Melting/Solidification
• Multiphase models and/or UDFs are needed to properly model these
phenomena

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 7. Moving Mesh

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 Introduction
• Many flow problems involve domains
which exhibit forms of motion.
• Two types of motion are possible –
translational and rotational.
• There are two modeling approaches for
moving domains:
– Moving Reference Frames
• Frame of reference is attached to the
moving domain.
• Governing equations are modified to
account for moving frame.
– Moving / Deforming Domains
• Domain position and shape are tracked
with respect to a stationary reference
frame.
• Solutions are inherently transient.

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 Absolute and Relative Velocities – The Velocity Triangle
• Absolute Velocity – velocity measured w.r.t. the stationary frame
• Relative Velocity – velocity measured w.r.t. the moving frame.
• The relationship between the absolute and relative velocities is given bythe
Velocity Triangle rule:
V=W+U

• In turbomachinery, this relationship can be illustrated using the laws of

vector addition.

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 Single Reference Frame
• SRF attaches a reference frame to a single
moving domain.
– All fluid motion is defined with respect to the
moving frame.
– Rotating frames introduce additional
accelerations to the equations of fluid
mechanics, which are added by Fluent when you
activate a moving reference frame.
• Why use a moving reference frame?
– Flow field which is transient viewed in a
stationary frame can become steady when
viewed in a moving frame.
– Advantages
• Steady state solution*
• Simpler BCs
• Faster turn-around time
• Easier to post-process and analyze

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 Geometry Constraints for SRF
• Single Fluid Domain
• Walls and flow boundaries
– Walls and flow boundaries (inlets and
outlets) which move with the fluid domain
may assume any shape.
– Walls and flow boundaries which are
stationary (with respect to the fixed frame)
must be surfaces of revolution about the
rotational axis.
– You can also impose a tangential
component of velocity on a wall provided
the wall is a surface of revolution.
• You can employ rotationally-periodic
boundaries if geometry and flow
permit
– Advanced – reduced domain size

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 Interfaces
• Fluid zones in multiple zone models
communicate across interface boundaries.
• Conformal interfaces
– An interior mesh surface separates cells from
adjacent fluid zones.
– Face mesh must be identical on either side of
the interface.
• Non-conformal (NC) interfaces
– Cells zones are physically disconnected from
each other.
– Interface consists of two overlapping surfaces
(type = interface)
– Fluent NC interface algorithm passes fluxes
from on surface to the other in a conservative
fashion (i.e. mass, momentum, energy fluxes
are conserved).
– User creates interfaces using Define  Grid
Interfaces…
• Interfaces may be periodic
– Called periodic repeat interface.
– Require identical translational or rotational
offset.

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 Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) Modeling
• Many moving zone problems involve
stationary components which cannot be
described by surfaces of revolution (SRF
not valid)
• Systems like these can be solved
bydividing the domain into multiple fluid
zones – some zones will be rotating, others
stationary.
• The multiple zones communicate across
one or more interfaces (these may or may
not be non-conformal)
• The way in which the interface is treated
leads to one of following approaches for
multiple zone models:
– Multiple Reference Frame Model (MRF) Steady
– Mixing Plane Model (MPM) Steady
– Sliding mesh model (SMM) Transient

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 The MRF Model
• The computational domain is divided into stationary
and rotating fluid zones.
– Interfaces separate zones from each other.
– Interfaces can be Conformal or Non-Conformal.
• Flow equations are solved in each fluid zone.
– Flow is assumed to be steady in each zone (clearly an
approximation).
– SRF equations used in rotating zones.
– At the interfaces between the rotating and stationary zones,
appropriate transformations of the velocity vector and velocity
gradients are performed to compute fluxes of mass,
momentum, energy, and other scalars.
• MRF ignores the relative motions of the zones with
respect to each other.
– Does not account for fluid dynamic interaction between
stationary and rotating components.
– For this reason MRF is often referred to as the “frozen rotor”
approach.
• Ideally, the flow at the MRF interfaces should be
relatively uniform or “mixed out.”

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 Geometric Constraints for MRF
• Walls and flow boundaries which are contained within the rotating fluid zone
interfaces are assumed to be moving with the fluid zones and may assume
any shape.
– Stationary walls and flow boundaries are allowed if they are surfaces of revolution.
• The interface between two zones must be a surface of revolution with respect
to the axis of rotation of the rotating zone.
• Periodic repeat interfaces are permitted but the periodic angles (or offsets)
must be identical for all zones.

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 Equations of Fluid Dynamics for Moving Frames

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 MRF Set-Up
• Generate mesh with appropriate
stationary and rotating fluid zones
– Can choose conformal or nonconformal
interfaces between cell zones
• For each rotating fluid zone (Fluid BC),
select “Moving Reference Frame” as
the Motion Type and enter the
rotational axis and moving frame
speed.
– Identical to SRF except for multiple zones
– Stationary zones remain with “Stationary”
option enabled
• Set up for BCs and solver settings same
as SRF

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 The Mixing Plane Model (MPM)
• The MPM is a technique which permits
steady-state solutions for multistage
axial and centrifugal turbomachines.
• Domain is comprised of multiple zones
• Each zone is “self contained” with a
inlet, outlet, wall, periodic BCs
• Steady-state SRF solutions are
obtained in each domain, with the
domains linked by passing boundary
conditions.
• The BC “links” between the domains
are called mixing planes.
• BCs are passed as circumferentially ADVANTAGE of MPM: Requires only
averaged profiles of flow variables, a single blade passage per blade row
which are updated at each iteration. regardless of the number of blades.

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 MPM Set-up
• Assign motion types and speeds to fluid
zones and appropriate BCs for each zone
(like SRF).
• Select upstream and downstream zones
which will comprise mixing plane pair.
– Upstream will always be Pressure Outlet.
– Downstream can be any inlet BC type.
• Set the number of Interpolation Points for
profile resolution.
– Should be about the same axial/radial resolution
as the mesh.
• Mixing Plane Geometry determines
method of profile averaging.
• Mixing plane controls.
– Under-relaxation – Profile changes are under-
relaxed from one iteration to the next using
factor between 0 and 1.

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 The Sliding Mesh Model (SMM)
• Although MRF and MPM are good for
indicating the overall behaviour arising from
the motion, they will not capture the
transient detail as one object ( and its wake)
passes another.
• So, for example, the image shows where
there may be a transient issue with shock
interaction between rotor and stator.
• If transient interaction can not be
neglected, we can employ the Sliding Mesh
model (SMM) to account for the relative
motion between the stationary and rotating
components.
• Sliding Mesh cases are always run in a
transient manner, and one region of grid
cells rotated or translated) each time

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 SMM Set-up
• Enable transient solver.
• For moving zones, select Moving Mes as Motion Type in Fluid BC panel.
• Define sliding zones as non-conformal interfaces.
– Enable Periodic Repeat option if sliding/rotating motion is periodic.
• Other BCs and solver settings are same as the SRF, MRF models.
• Run calculation until solution becomes time-periodic

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 How the Sliding Mesh Model Works
• Like the MRF model, the domain is divided into moving and stationary zones,
separated by non-conformal interfaces.

• Governing equations have a new moving mesh form, and are solved in the
stationary reference frame for absolute quantities (see Appendix for more
details).
– Moving reference frame formulation is NOT used here (i.e. no additional accelerations
acting as sources terms in the momentum equations).
– Equations are a special case of the general moving/deforming mesh formulation.

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 The Dynamic Mesh (DMM) Model
• CFD can take mesh motion one step further, and modify the mesh in the
solver at every time step so as to resolve larger motions (that would be
impossible to account for with sliding meshes or MRF
• Examples:
– Automotive piston moving inside a cylinder
– Positive displacement pumps
– A flap moving on an airplane wing
– A valve opening and closing
– An artery expanding and contracting

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 Dynamic Mesh Setup
• Enable transient solver.
• Enable Dynamic Mesh model in
Define  Dynamic Mesh.
• Activate desired Mesh Methods and set
parameters as appropriate.
• Define boundary motion in the Dynamic
Mesh Zones GUI.
– UDF may be required (TBD in new releases)
• Other models, BCs, and solver settings
are same as SMM models.
• Mesh motion can be previewed using
Solve Mesh Motion utility

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 Dynamic Mesh (DM) Methods
• Internal node positions are automatically calculated based on user specified
boundary/object motion, cell type, and meshing schemes
• Basic Schemes
– Smoothing (Spring analogy)
– Local remeshing
– Layering
• Other Methods
– 2.5 D
– User defined mesh motion
– In-cylinder motion (RPM, stroke length, crank angle, …)
– Prescribed motion via profiles or UDF
– Coupled motion based on hydrodynamic forces from the flow solution, via FLUENT’s six-
degree-of-freedom 6DOF) solver

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 Dynamic Mesh Methods

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 Summary
• Five different approaches may be used to model flows over moving parts.
– Single (Rotating) Reference Frame Model
– Multiple Reference Frame Model
– Mixing Plane Model
– Sliding Mesh Model
– Dynamic Mesh Model
• First three methods are primarily steady-state approaches while sliding mesh
and dynamic mesh are inherently transient.
• Enabling these models, involves in part, changing the stationary fluid zones to
either Moving Reference Frame or Moving Mesh.
• Most physical models are compatible with moving reference frames or
moving meshes (e g multiphase combustion heat transfer, etc…)

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 Bibliography

The material used in this presentation has been taken from

ANSYS training courses presentation

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