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Farnetti Cristofer Lab1 Graded Nocomment
Farnetti Cristofer Lab1 Graded Nocomment
Farnetti Cristofer Lab1 Graded Nocomment
Date: 03/08/2016
I.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has the ability to model very complex systems and
in order to get some experience with CFD, Ansys Fluent and Workbench 16.2 will be used to
find a number of flow characteristics for a given system, such as velocity profiles, vector plots,
and pressure gradients. To estimate numerical errors in the solution that are associated with grid
spacing, grid triplet studies will be performed on the solution for friction factors in the system.
The system thats modeled is laminar pipe flow through a 7.62 [m] long pipe that is
0.02619 [m] in radius. Five mesh sizes will be used to assess the numerical errors, and provide
verification for the system. With the pipe radius in mind, in order to maintain laminar flow a
Reynolds number of 655 is chosen which means the average velocity will be set to 0.2 [m/s].
The pipe flow is axisymmetric, and has boundary conditions at the wall, the inlet, the outlet, and
also the axis of symmetry. For ease, the outlet initial condition will be set to zero gauge pressure,
and no slip conditions will be applied at the wall.
II.
CFD Process
The CFD process for this study was not overly complicated; however, it is important to
note the process path in a systematic way along with some helpful description. To start out, the
pipe geometry must be created so that a two dimensional analysis can be performed. The
geometry that is created in the sketching tab is a planar rectangle with a length of 7.62 [m] and a
width of 0.02619 [m]. From here the mesh can be imposed on the surface of the sketch.
It is more conservative to list out characteristics of the CFD process, so we will start with
the mesh. Throughout the lab, five different face meshes will be created on the sketch of the
pipe. Table 1 on the next page gives information on the characteristics of the CFD setup in Ansys
along with the different meshes that are to be used and the different convergence criteria for the
solver that will be used in convergence studies on the solution for the friction factor calculations.
Each of the CFD process characteristics listed in Table 1 are an option in Ansys.
3.) Setup/Physics
a. Open Ansys Fluent by selecting the setup editor in Workbench 16.2
i. Before Fluent opens define double precision, axisymmetric, and Parallel
processing
ii. In the General tab
1. Ensure Viscous-Laminar flow is on
2. BCs: Wall, Inlet, Outlet, Axis
3. Fluid: Air
4. Define density (1.17 kg/m^3) and dynamic viscosity (1.8724E-5)
5. Set velocity at the inlet= 0.2 m/s
iii. Set the reference values and have the solver compute from inlet
4.) Solution
a. Method: 2nd Order Upwind Model
b. Initialization: Standard
c. Residuals Monitoring, set all equal convergence criteria
d. Calculation by iteration, 5000
5.) Results
a. CFD solution for friction factor
b. Plots
i. Centerline velocity profile
ii. Centerline pressure distribution
iii. Residuals
iv. Velocity vectors
v. Radial velocity contours
vi. Velocity profiles for CFD inlet and outlet, AFD for fully developed ,
CFD for developing
vii. Skin friction coeff.
A.
113 11
160 16
226 23
320 32
451 45
Error
FactorCFD FactorAFD
100%
FactorAFD
Mesh
Number
Grid Points
(Axial
Radial)
Friction Factor
(Convergence
tolerance 10-5)
Relative Error
(Convergence
tolerance 10-5)
5
1
113 11
451 45
0.09701
0.10200
0.757%
4.348%
Friction
Factor
(Convergence
tolerance 10-6)
0.09698
0.09818
Relative Error
(Convergence
tolerance 10-6)
0.788%
0.440%
Developing length for mesh 1 and convergence tolerance 10-6 2.8 (m)
Figure 1. Residuals
B. Solution verification study for friction factor in developed region using the
factor of safety method (8 points)
Mesh Number
1,2,3
2,3,4
3,4,5
C.
R
5.85714
3
0.23333
3
0.71428
6
UG (%S1)
-2.5502
N/A
2.0995
0.426
0.4854
3
1.556
developed region?
Answer:
The radial velocity in the developing region starts negative and gradually increases
throughout the developing region (-1.13E-2 to -1.13E-3), while the radial velocity in the
developed region is constant and unchanging (5.45E-8 [m/s]).
(3) What are the main differences for pressure distribution and axial velocity profile in
the developing and developed regions?
Answer:
In the developing region, the pressure distribution is rather linear regardless of whether it
is in the developing or the developed region, whereas the velocity profile in the developing
region shows a relatively lower velocity at the centerline than that of the fully developed profile.
Essentially, there is a shift in velocity that occurs between the developing and developed regions,
when in the pressure distribution there is no such shift or disturbance.
(4) For meshes 1 and 5, which one is more sensitive to the convergence tolerance
(exercise A)? Why? For a finer grid, should a bigger or smaller convergence tolerance
be used?
Answer:
The results from exercise A show that a finer grid is more sensitive to convergence
tolerance than the course grid. A finer grid is going to be more sensitive because it has more grid
points that can essentially detect the smaller changes that a larger grid would overlook because
of the fewer number of grid points. A smaller convergence tolerance should be used with a finer
grid because of the relative error that occurs between orders of magnitude. For example, in
exercise A the convergence tolerance of 10^-5 on the fine grid produced a relative error of about
4.3%, and that relative error decreases when a convergence tolerance of 10^-6 is used to give a
relative error of about 0.4%.
(5) Did you achieve monotonic convergence for the three grid-triplets in exercise B?
Which grid-triplet has a lower grid uncertainty? Why? Do the solutions approach the
asymptotic range when the grids are refined?
Answer:
Exercise B showed that for the first grid triplet study (1,2,3), it could only achieve
monotonic divergence since R > 1; however, in grid triplet study (2,3,4) and (3,4,5) the R values
are between 0 and 1 which means that they will monotonically converge. Only two of the three
grid triplet studies achieved monotonic convergence. The (2,3,4) grid triplet study had a lower
grid uncertainty because the range of the solutions from 2 to 4 was about 3.7E-4, whereas for
(1,2,3) the range grew to 4.8E-4 and for (3,4,5) the range grew to 7.2E-4. The larger differences
in solutions for the triplet studies produces a larger grid uncertainty in this case.
To determine whether the solutions approach the asymptotic range (AR) it is easy to use the
metric P to determine magnitude away P_re is from P_th. AR is achieved when P_re = P_th, so
as the mesh is refined from (3,4,5) to (2,3,4), P actually increases which indicates that the
solution is closer to the AR range in the coarse mesh than in the finer mesh.
A.
Since I am a beginner at using CFD and Ansys it is hard to say where the tutorial
could improve, because I followed it step-by-step and came to reasonable solutions.
Really the next best way that you could possibly add to the tutorial would be a video
of how to conduct the simulation where the user could just watch once, and then start
and stop the video as they go through the video. I think that having a video might
have the potential to hinder the learning experience though because trouble-shooting
where you might have messed up is part of the process, and a video might kill the
opportunity for students to mess up.