Fluid Dynamics Software Lab

Second Summer School on Embodied Intelligence

Simulation and Modelling within Embodied Intelligence
27 June - 1 July 2011, Z urich, Switzerland
Flow past a circular cylinder
Dr Asimina Kazakidi
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Heraklion 70013, Crete, Greece
Email: kazakidi@ics.forth.gr
URL: www.ics.forth.gr/cvrl/
June 2011
Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
Abstract
This Software Lab aims to introduce computational uid dynamic
techniques, through a demonstration of the high-accuracy mesh gener-
ation software ANSA (www.beta-cae.gr/), and the hands-on use of the
open-source numerical code OpenFOAM (www.openfoam.com), the open-
source visualization software ParaView (www.paraview.org), and the data
plotting software Gnuplot (www.gnuplot.info). For this purpose, the ow
past a circular cylinder is considered, as a classical study of the vortex
shedding process (terminology explained in the document). An analysis
of the force coecients will give an appreciation for the generation of the
K arman vortex street.
1 Introduction
The ow past a circular cylinder is a classical problem in uid mechanics.
The geometry suggests a steady and symmetric ow pattern. For lower val-
ues of Reynolds number, the ow is steady and symmetric. At higher Reynolds
numbers, ow begins to separate behind the cylinder causing vortex shedding
Karman vortex street.
1.1 Problem description
Consider uid owing past a circular cylinder of diameter D=1 m (Fig.1). The
stream velocity, U, is 1 m/sec and the kinematic viscosity, , is 0.01 m
2
/sec.
What is the Reynolds number?
Demonstrate mesh generation with ANSA
Discuss mesh requirements for adequate vortex capturing
Set up case and export mesh
Discuss structure in OpenFOAM case folders
Visualize case with ParaView
Examine the force coecients
What is the Reynolds number?
What is the Strouhal frequency and Strouhal number for this Re??
D/2
U
Figure 1: Flow past a circular cylinder
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Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
1.2 Terminology
Reynolds number (Re): a measure of the ratio of inertial forces (U
2
) to
viscous forces (U/D); non-dimensional number. At high Reynolds numbers,
inertial forces are dominant, whereas viscous forces become signicant only at
low Reynolds values.
Re
D
=
UD

(1)
where U is the stream velocity of the uid, is the uid density, is the
dynamic viscosity and D is the characteristic length (here, D is the diameter of
the circular cylinder). The kinematic viscosity is dened as:
=

(2)
Strouhal number (St): a measure of the frequency of the vortex shedding
(non- dimensional number).
St =
fD
U
(3)
where f is the frequency of the vortex shedding.
Karman vortex street: a wake of alternating vortices in a regular fashion
behind a body.
Courant Number, or Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition (CFL), Co:
a necessary condition for numerical convergence to, usually hyperbolic, PDEs.
Co =
t u
x
(4)
where t is the time step, u is the magnitude of the velocity through that cell
and x is the cell size in the direction of the velocity.
Vorticity (): a vector quantity, representing the local rotation of a uid
element
= u. (5)
Figure 2: von Karman vortex street at Re=105. Streaklines visualized by elec-
trolytic precipitation in water (Van Dyke 1988, An album of uid motion, The
parabolic press, CA)
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Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
1.3 Fluid forces acting on the cylinder
Drag: in the direction of the stream velocity.
Lift: perpendicular to the direction of the stream velocity.
2 Pre-processing
2.1 Mesh generation with ANSA
A demonstration of the high-accuracy mesh generation software ANSA (www.beta-
cae.gr/) will be given. The mesh for this problem will be generated step-by-step
which will then be used for processing in OpenFOAM.
2.2 Inspect mesh with ParaView
- Open a Terminal window
- Change to the cylinder case directory
cd Desktop/CFDLab/cylinder/
ls
It is always a good practice to view the mesh before running the case for any
errors. The mesh can be viewed in ParaView, the post-processing tool supplied
with OpenFOAM. It is started by typing from within the case directory, in the
terminal, the command:
paraFoam
ParaView has opened the cylinder.OpenFOAM.
- Select the Patch Names and all the Mesh Parts in the bottom left side of the
GUI windown
- Click the Apply button to load the geometry into ParaView
- At the top of the GUI window, press on the arrow adjacent to Outline and
choose Surface With Edges
- Zoom, Pan, and Rotate the geometry to see the cylinder and the boundaries
(check default or change mouse functions from Edit > Settings > Render View
> Camera; you can also change the Background Color to white from Edit >
Settings > Colors)
What type of mesh is used for this geometry?
What is the size and shape of the computational domain?
What type of boundaries are used and how are they labeled?
- Close ParaView
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Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
3 Processing
3.1 Run the case
- Run the case with the OpenFOAM solver icoFoam
icoFoam
This will take a while.. (or maybe not?)
Error message: what went wrong?
Notice the mean value of the Courant Number (Co). Co must be less than 1 to
achieve temporal accuracy and numerical stability.
3.2 Re-run the case
- Open the controlDict le of the system/ folder (use any text editor you prefer,
emacs, gedit, vi etc)
emacs system/controlDict &
- Change the value of t to 0.01
- Save and close le
- Run the solver again
icoFoam
Does the Courant Number remain below 1?
3.3 Check solution
- Open Gnuplot
gnuplot
- Plot the lift force coecient
plot ./forces/0/forceCoes.dat u 1:3 w l
Is the solution converged?
It is crucial to ensure convergence of the numerical solution to the exact so-
lution. The time evolution of the drag, lift, and moment coecients can give
such information. Initially, the values of the force coecients will uctuate,
as a result of the uctuation of the numerical solution. It is safe to say the
solution has converged when the force coecients have also converged and show
a sustained behavior, e.g. reach a constant value, be periodic etc.
- Exit gnuplot
exit
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Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
4 Post-processing
4.1 Calculate the vorticity
- First compile the post-processing utilities in OpenFOAM
/opt/openfoam200/applications/Allwmake
- Calculate the vorticity
vorticity
4.2 Visualize results
- Open paraFoam and load the case by selecting all the Mesh Parts and Volume
Fields
- Select Surface instead of Outline at the top of the GUI window
- Pan and zoom on the cylinder and from the top-right of the GUI deselect Show
Center
- At the left side of the GUI, press Refresh Times
- From top-left of the GUI, press the arrow adjacent to Solid Color and select
vorticity
- From the top-far-left, turn the Color Legend visible
- Press the adjacent button to edit the Color Map. Press Choose Preset and
select HSV from Blue to Red. Press OK.
- Within the Color Scale Editor, deselect the Automatically Rescale to Fit Data
Range option. This will make the Rescale Range option active. Press it and Set
Range from 0 (minimum) to 4 (maximum). Close.
- From the top-center of the GUI, press Play.
Can you see the Karman vortex street?
- Activate the Stream Tracer icon (eight button from the left, at the fourth row
of options, or else from Filters > Alphabetical > Stream Tracer)
- Slide the bar down in the Object Inspector eld and under at the Seed Type
replace Point Source with Line Source
- Choose the following
Point1 1.5 1.5 0
Point2 1.5 -1.5 0
Resolution 31
- Press Apply
What is the streamline pattern around the cylinder?
What is the pressure in the vortex cores?
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Fluid Dynamics Software Lab Flow past a circular cylinder
4.3 Find the Strouhal frequency & verify the results
- Close ParaView
- Open gnuplot and plot the force coecient le from the forceCoes.dat le
within the forces/0/ directory. Find the frequency of the oscillation.
gnuplot
plot ./forces/0/forceCoes.dat u 1:3 w l
max y = GPVAL DATA Y MAX
min y = GPVAL DATA Y MIN
print max y
print min y
exit
grep 0.0168 forces/0/forceCoes.dat
- Open gnuplot
print 1/(119-113.02)
What is the Strouhal frequency?
What is the Strouhal number?
Is your result veried with the theoretical value for this Re?
The theoretical value of St for Re=100 is 0.165 (Williamson & Brown, J. Fluid
Struct., 12, 1998).
5 Conclusions
In this Software Lab, the ow past a circular cylinder was considered to demon-
strate a complete process for computational uid dynamics, from pre-processing
to post-processing. There was a demonstration of the ANSA mesh generation
software (www.beta-cae.gr/). The generated mesh was imported in OpenFOAM
to compute the numerical solution, which was visualized with ParaView. Gnu-
plot was used for further data analysis. Numerical issues and verication of the
results were discussed.
Further reading
G.K. Batchelor, An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics, Cambridge University
Press; 2000.
D.J. Tritton, Physical Fluid Dynamics, Oxford University Press; 1988.
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