Then density gradient and Mach contours of the simulation results are

qualitatively compared to schlieren visualizations of Pophali Finally, PIP (“Peak

Impact Pressure”) distributions of the following flow scenarios are examined.
Vikil D. Malwe, Major components of power plants are subjected to high
temperature heat transfer, Economizer is one of the important efficiency
improvement component for boiler, and Thermal analysis is performed to
identify possible failures in case of water tube boilers.

H. E. Emara-Shabaik, M.A.Habib, Al-Zharana, Computed riser tube heat

transfer coefficient, the parameters are analysed for different loads. The
prediction of generation of boiler and economizer tube temperature is analysed
to improve performance and safety. Methodology is useful to avoid the tube
failures as well as the overheating of the riser tubes which will be very helpful
for operation engineers.

To enhance the bed coil tube is analyzed and experimental results are compared
with the ANSYS CFX analysis results to optimize the design specification and
parameter. Therefore this paper concentrates on the review of modeled and
analyzed Erosion and Corrosion of bed coil tube component. Some research
papers are here:

S. Bahadur b , A number of parameters for characterizing the angularity of

particles had been proposed in the literature. These parameters serve as good
indicators of irregularity as opposed to roundness, but fail to provide a good
measure of angularity. The relevant parameter in erosion was angularity and not
irregularity. In that work, a new parameter for characterizing the angularity of
particles was proposed. It took into account the sharpness of particle comets and
the probability of these comers contacting the target surface. The particles of
SiO2, garnet, Al2O3 and SIC are characterized for angularity in terms of this
parameter and compared with other measures, P2/A and W/L, where P, A, W
and L denote the perimeter, area, width and length of the particle, respectively.
It was found that the new parameter provides the characterization for even
where the other measures fail. In addition to the above, the effect of particle
angularity and size on the erosion of 1020 HR steel in a fluidized bed
atmosphere at 500oC and 5 m/s impingement velocity was studied. It was found
that the erosion rate increases with increases in both particle angularity and size.

John Stringer Heat-exchanger tubes in fluidized bed combustors (FBCs) often

suffer material loss due to combined corrosion and erosion. Most severe damage
is believed to be caused by the impact of dense packets of bed material on the
lower parts of the tubes. In order to understand this phenomenon, a unique
laboratory test rig at Berkeley was designed to simulate the particle hammering
interactions between in-bed particles and tubes in bubbling fluidized bed
combustors. This paper described the characteristics of this test rig, reviews
results at elevated temperatures and compares them to field experience. At
higher temperatures, deposits of the bed material on tube surfaces could act as a
protective layer. The deposition depended strongly on the type of bed material,
the degree of tube surface oxidation and the tube and bed temperatures. With
HCl present in the bed, wastage was increased due to enhanced oxidation and
reduced oxide scale adherence.

Xuan Shia, Yaowu Shi Tube coils made of 25Cr-20Ni austenitic stainless steel
were horizontally installed in the fluidized bed of an actifier column of a
catalytic cracker installation in an oil refinery unit. Catalyst particles and flue
gases were moved in the fluidized bed. When the catalyst lost activity, carbon in
the catalyst was burned out in the fluidized bed to recover the activity of the
catalyst. Meanwhile, a steam–water mixture was formed with a pressure of 4
MPa and saturation temperature of 2500C in the tube coils by the heating of the
flue gases. Thus, the heat in the fluidized bed was utilized to generate steam.
However, after the installation had been in service for about 40 days, leakage
occurred in the tube coils. In general the positions of leaks were in the upper
part of the tubes within about 6 m of the inlet. Microscopic analyses indicated
that cracks initiated at local corrosion pits where chloride ions present in the
feed water enriched and accumulated. The crack propagated in an inter granular
or trans granular manner. Obvious striations were found on the crack surfaces at
some positions. Based on the failure analysis and heat transfer calculation,
failure of the tube coils was mainly caused by the effects of corrosion fatigue.
The lifetime of the tube coils could be prolonged by changing the steam–water
flow conditions.

William Yang A CFD model of a 375 MW tangentially fired furnace located

in Australia’s Latrobe Valley has been developed. Coal feed rates, air flow
rates, coal particle size distribution and coal properties, obtained from plant
data, are taken as input conditions in the CFD simulation. A level of confidence
in the current CFD model has been established by carrying out a mesh
independence test and comparing simulated results against power plant
measurements. Performance of two turbulence models, standard k-ε model and
SST model, are compared. The effect of particle dispersion on predicted results
is found to be insignificant. The validated CFD model is then used to simulate
several brown coal combustion cases at full load with different out of- service
firing groups.

Finnie proposed the first analytical erosion-model. This model included a

variety of parameters that influence the amount of material eroded from a target
surface and the mechanism of erosion. It was observed that the wear of a surface
due to solid particle erosion depends on the motion of the particles in the fluid,
as well as the behavior of the surface when struck by the particles. These two
parts of the problem are related in that a surface, roughened by erosion, may
increase the fluid turbulence, and hence, accelerate the rate of material removal.
Foley and Levy investigated the erosion of heat-treated steels. The testing was
conducted at room temperature using aluminium oxide particles with an average
size of 140 lm in an air stream. An attempt was made to characterize the erosion
behavior as it relates to the mechanical properties obtainable in these alloys by
conventional heat treatments. It was found that the ductility of the steels had a
significant effect on their erosion resistance which increased with increasing
ductility, and that hardness, strength, fracture toughness and impact strength had
little effect on erosion behavior.

Xie and Walsh measured the erosion of carbon steel by fly-ash and unburned
char particles in the convection section of an industrial boiler firing micronized
coal. Ash and char particles suspended in the flue gas entrained by the jet were
accelerated towards the surface of the specimen under varying temperatures
(450–6500C). Changes in the surface

In water tube boilers, water is converted into steam inside the tubes, while hot
gases pass over and around the outside of the tubes. Water tube boilers can
operate at higher pressures than fire tube boilers. The flow of steam and water
within a water tube boiler is called circulation. This circulation is critical in
preventing tubes from overheating. When tubes are overheated, metal softens,
weakens and may eventually rupture. In a simple water tube circuit, bubbles of
steam form in the heated tubes or "risers". The resulting steam and water
mixture is lighter than cooler water on the unheated side of the boiler, and rises
to a steam drum at the top of the boiler. Here the bubbles rise to the surface and
steam is released. The water then flows from the drum down through the cooler
rubes, or "downcomers", completing and repeating the cycle.

The Metallurgy Department of the Riley Stoker Corp. that has many
experiences for the 25-years period ending in 1980 gives the list of the
breakdown between mechanical and corrosion failure and further classify the
various kinds of failures, locations, and materials. 81% of the boiler tube failure
is due to mechanical, consist of high temperature failure (short time) 65.8%,
creep (high temperature/long time) 8.6%, and others 6.6%, while boiler failures
caused by corrosion is 19%. Analysis of the North American Electric Reliability
Council (NERC data) indicates that the coal fired boilers are among the highest
economic risk components in any power plant. By far, the greatest number of
forced outages in all types of boiler is caused by failures. Elimination of boiler
tube failure could save the electric power industry about $5 billion a year.
Metallurgists from David N. French, Inc. published data of the top 10 causes of
failures where creep (long-term overheating) is 23.4%, followed by fatigue
(13.9%) (thermal 8.6%, corrosion 5.3%), ash corrosion (12.0%), hydrogen
damage (10.6%), weld failures (9.0%), high temperature (short-term
overheating) (8.8%), erosion (6.5%), oxygen pitting (5.6%), caustic attack
(3.5%) and stress corrosion cracking (2.6%). In general, 30% of all tube failures
in boilers and reformers are caused by creep.
4.MATERIAL SELECTION

COPPER

Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic
number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and
electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a reddish-
orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building
material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver
used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and
constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature
measurement.

Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable
metallic form (native metals) as opposed to needing extraction from an ore. This
led to very early human use, from c. 8000 BC. It was the first metal to be
smelted from its ore, c. 5000 BC, the first metal to be cast into a shape in a
mold, c. 4000 BC and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another
metal, tin, to create bronze, c. 3500 BC.

In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, the origin of
the name of the metal, from aes сyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to
сuprum, from which the words copper (English), cuivre (French), cobre
(Spanish), Koper (Dutch) and Kupfer (German) are all derived. The commonly
encountered compounds are copper (II) salts, which often impart blue or green
colors to such minerals as azurite, malachite, and turquoise, and have been used
widely and historically as pigments. Copper used in buildings, usually for
roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris (or patina). Copper is sometimes
used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as
pigments. Copper compounds are used as bacteriostatic agents, fungicides, and
wood preservatives.
 Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral
because it is a key constituent of the respiratory enzyme complex cytochrome c
oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood
pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the iron-complexed hemoglobin in fish and
other vertebrates. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, and
bone. The adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram
of body weight.

Fig 4.1 copper tube

4.1.1 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Copper, silver, and gold are in group 11 of the periodic table; these three
metals have one s-orbital electron on top of a filled d-electron shell and are
characterized by high ductility, and electrical and thermal conductivity. The
filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to inter atomic interactions,
which are dominated by the s-electrons through metallic bonds. Unlike metals
with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent
character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness
and high ductility of single crystals of copper. At the macroscopic scale,
introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries,
hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its
hardness. For this reason, copper is usually supplied in a fine-grained
polycrystalline form, which has greater strength than mono crystalline forms.

The softness of copper partly explains its high electrical conductivity

(59.6×106 S/m) and high thermal conductivity, second highest (second only to
silver) among pure metals at room temperature. This is because the resistivity to
electron transport in metals at room temperature originates primarily from
scattering of electrons on thermal vibrations of the lattice, which are relatively
weak in a soft metal. The maximum permissible current density of copper in
open air is approximately 3.1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, above which it
begins to heat excessively.Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a
natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a
reddish tarnish when exposed to air.

The characteristic color of copper results from the electronic transitions

between the filled 3d and half-empty 4s atomic shells – the energy difference
between these shells corresponds to orange light.

As with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal,

galvanic corrosion will occur.

4.2 CARBON STEEL

Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content up to 2.1% by weight. The

definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI)
states:

Steel is considered to be carbon steel when:

 No minimum content is specified or required

for chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, niobium, titanium, tungsten,
 vanadium or zirconium, or any other element to be added to obtain a
desired alloying effect;

 The specified minimum for copper does not exceed 0.40 percent;

• Or the maximum content specified for any of the following elements does
not exceed the percentages noted: manganese 1.65, silicon 0.60, copper 0.60.
The term "carbon steel" may also be used in reference to steel which is
not stainless steel; in this use carbon steel may include alloy steels.
As the carbon percentage content rises, steel has the ability to
become harder and stronger through heat treating; however, it becomes
less ductile. Regardless of the heat treatment, a higher carbon content
reduces weld ability. In carbon steels, the higher carbon content lowers the
melting point.

Mild steel (iron containing a small percentage of carbon, strong and tough
but not readily tempered), also known as plain-carbon steel and low-carbon
steel, is now the most common form of steel because its price is relatively low
while it provides material properties that are acceptable for many applications.
Mild steel contains approximately 0.05–0.25% carbon making it malleable and
ductile. Mild steel has a relatively low tensile strength, but it is cheap and easy
to form; surface hardness can be increased through carburizing.

In applications where large cross-sections are used to minimize

deflection, failure by yield is not a risk so low-carbon steels are the best choice,
for example as structural steel. The density of mild steel is approximately
7.85 g/cm3 (7850 kg/m3 or 0.284 lb/in3)[4] and the Young's modulus is 200 GPa
(29,000 ksi).
 4.2 CARBON STEEL TUBE

Low-carbon steels suffer from yield-point runout where the material has
two yield points. The first yield point (or upper yield point) is higher than the
second and the yield drops dramatically after the upper yield point. If a low-
carbon steel is only stressed to some point between the upper and lower yield
point then the surface develops Lüder bands.[6] Low-carbon steels contain less
carbon than other steels and are easier to cold-form, making them easier to
handle.

The purpose of heat treating carbon steel is to change the mechanical

properties of steel, usually ductility, hardness, yield strength, or impact
resistance. Note that the electrical and thermal conductivity are only slightly
altered. As with most strengthening techniques for steel, Young's
modulus (elasticity) is unaffected. All treatments of steel trade ductility for
increased strength and vice versa. Iron has a higher solubility for carbon in
the austenite phase; therefore all heat treatments, except spheroidizing and
process annealing, start by heating the steel to a temperature at which the
austenitic phase can exist. The steel is then quenched (heat drawn out) at a
moderate to low rate allowing carbon to diffuse out of the austenite forming
iron-carbide (cementite) to precipitate leaving ferrite, or at a high rate, trapping
the carbon within the iron thus forming martensite.

4.3 HEAT TREATMENT

The rate at which the steel is cooled through the eutectoid temperature
(about 727°C) affects the rate at which carbon diffuses out of austenite and
forms cementite. Generally speaking, cooling swiftly will leave iron carbide
finely dispersed and produce a fine grained pearlite and cooling slowly will give
a coarser pearlite. Cooling a hypoeutectoid steel (less than 0.77 wt% C) results
in a lamellar-pearlitic structure of iron carbide layers with α-ferrite (nearly pure
iron) between. If it is hypereutectoid steel (more than 0.77 wt% C) then the
structure is full pearlite with small grains (larger than the pearlite lamella)
of cementite formed on the grain boundaries. A eutectoid steel (0.77% carbon)
will have a pearlite structure throughout the grains with no cementite at the
boundaries. The relative amounts of constituents are found using the lever rule.
 CHAPTER 5

MODELLING

5.1 INTRODUCTION TO CAD/CAM

CAD/CAM is a term which means computer-aided design and computer-

aided manufacturing. It is the technology concerned with the use of digital
computers to perform certain functions in design and production. This
technology is moving in the direction of greater integration of design and
manufacturing, two activities which have traditionally been treated as district
and separate functions in a production firm. Ultimately, CAD/CAM will
provide the technology base for the computer-integrated factory of the future.

Computer – aided design (CAD) can be defined as the use of computer

systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a
design. The computer systems consist of the hardware and software to perform
the specialized design functions required by the user firm. The CAD hardware
typically includes the computer, one or more graphics display terminals,
keyboards, and other peripheral equipment. The CAD software consists of the
computer programs to implement computer graphics on the system plus
application programs to facilitate the engineering functions of the user
company. Examples of these application programs include stress-strain analysis
of components, dynamic response of mechanisms, heat-transfer calculations,
and numerical control part programming. Computer-aided manufacturing
(CAM) can be defined as the use of computer systems to plan, manage, and
control the operations of manufacturing plant through either direct or indirect
computer interface with the plant’s production resources.

5.2 THE DESIGN PROCESS:

The process of designing is characterized by six identifiable steps or

phase

1. Recognition of need

2. Definition of problem

3. Analysis and optimization

4. Evaluation

5. Presentation

6. Synthesis

5.3 APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS FOR DESIGN:

The various design-related tasks which are performed by a modern

computer-aided design system can be grouped into four functional areas:

1. Geometric modeling

2. Engineering analysis

3. Design review and evaluation

4. Automated drafting

5.3.1 GEOMETRIC MODELING

In computer-aided design, geometric modeling is concerned with the

computer- compatible mathematical description of the geometry of an object.

The mathematical description allows the image of the object to be

displayed and manipulated on a graphics terminal through signals from the CPU
of the CAD system. The software that provides geometric modeling capabilities
must be designed for efficient use both by the computer and the human
designer.

There are several different methods of representing the object in

geometric modeling. The basic form uses wire frames to represent the object.
Wire frame geometric modeling is classified into three types, depending on the
capabilities of the interactive computer graphics system.

5.3.2 ENGINEERING ANALYSIS

CAD/CAM systems often include or can be interfaced to engineering

analysis software which can be called to operate on the current design model.
Examples of this type are

1. Analysis of mass properties

2. Finite element analysis

The analysis may involve stress –strain calculations, heat-transfer computations,

or the use of differential equations to describe the dynamic behavior of the
system being designed.
5.4 INTRODUCTION OF SOLIDWORKS

Solid works is a powerful application. It is ideal for capturing the design

intent of your models because at its foundation is a practical philosophy.
Founder of this Solid works is Dassault System Corporation. After this version,
they are released Solid works2010, Solid works 2012, and Solid works 2015.
 FIG 5.1 SOLID WORKS WORK BENCH

5.4.1 SPECIAL FEATURES OF SOLIDWORKS

A. SOLID MODELER

Solid works is a solid modeler-it develops models as solids, allowing us

to work in a three-dimensional environment. In Solid works,

o The solid models have volumes and surface areas.

o As a solid modeling tool, Solid works is feature-based, associative

and parametric.

B. FEATURE BASED

Solid works is feature based. Geometry is composed of a series of easy to

understand features. A feature is the smallest building block in a part model.
5.5 IGES

The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) (pronounced eye-

jess) is a vendor-neutral file format that allows the digital exchange of
information among computer-aided design (CAD) systems.

The official title of IGES is Digital Representation for Communication of

Product Definition Data, first published in January, 1980 by the U.S. National
Bureau of Standards as NBSIR 80-1978. Many documents referred to it as
ASME Y14.26M, the designation of the ANSI committee that approved IGES
Version 1.0.

Using IGES, a CAD user can exchange product data models in the form
of circuit diagrams, wireframe, and freeform surface or solid modeling
representations. Applications supported by IGES include traditional engineering
drawings, models for analysis, and other manufacturing functions

An IGES file is composed of 80-character ASCII records, a record length

derived from the punched card era. Text strings are represented in "Hollerith"
format, the number of characters in the string, followed by the letter "H",
followed by the text string, e.g., "4HSLOT" (this is the text string format used
in early versions of the FORTRAN language). Early IGES translators had
problems with IBM mainframe computers because the mainframes
used EBCDIC encoding for text, and some EBCDIC-ASCII translators would
either substitute the wrong character, or improperly set the parity bit, causing a
misread.

Here is a very small IGES file from 1987, containing only two POINTS
(Type 116), two CIRCULAR ARC (Type 100), and two LINE (Type 110)
entities. It represents a slot, with the points at the centers of the two half-circles
that form the ends of the slot, and the two lines that form the sides.
 CHAPTER 6

ANALYSIS

6.1 INTRODUCTION TO FEM

In mathematics, the finite element method (FEM) is a numerical

technique for finding approximate solutions to boundary value problems for
partial differential equations. It uses variation methods (the calculus of
variations) to minimize an error function and produce a stable solution.
Analogous to the idea that connecting many tiny straight lines can approximate
a larger circle, FEM encompasses all the methods for connecting many simple
element equations over many small sub domains, named finite elements, to
approximate a more complex equation over a larger domain.

The subdivision of a whole domain into simpler parts has several advantages:

 Accurate representation of complex geometry

 Inclusion of dissimilar material properties
 Easy representation of the total solution
 Capture of local effects.

FEM is best understood from its practical application, known as finite

element analysis (FEA). FEA as applied in engineering is a computational tool
for performing engineering analysis. It includes the use of mesh generation
techniques for dividing a complex problem into small elements, as well as the
use of software program coded with FEM algorithm.

In applying FEA, the complex problem is usually a physical system with

the underlying physics such as the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation, the heat
equation, or the Navier-Stokes equations expressed in either PDE or integral
equations, while the divided small elements of the complex problem represent
different areas in the physical system.

FEA is a good choice for analyzing problems over complicated domains

(like cars and oil pipelines), when the domain changes (as during a solid state
reaction with a moving boundary), when the desired precision varies over the
entire domain, or when the solution lacks smoothness. For instance, in a frontal
crash simulation it is possible to increase prediction accuracy in "important"
areas like the front of the car and reduce it in its rear (thus reducing cost of the
simulation).

Another example would be in numerical weather prediction, where it is more

important to have accurate predictions over developing highly nonlinear
phenomena (such as tropical cyclones in the atmosphere, or eddies in the ocean)
rather than relatively calm areas.

Fig 6.1 Meshing

FEM mesh created by an analyst prior to finding a solution to a magnetic
problem using FEM software. Colours indicate that the analyst has set material
properties for each zone, in this case a conducting wire coil in orange; a
ferromagnetic component (perhaps iron) in light blue; and air in grey. Although
the geometry may seem simple, it would be very challenging to calculate the
magnetic field for this setup without FEM software, using equations alone.

FEM solution to the problem at left, involving a cylindrically shaped

magnetic shield. The ferromagnetic cylindrical part is shielding the area inside
the cylinder by diverting the magnetic field created by the coil (rectangular area
on the right). The colour represents the amplitude of the magnetic flux density,
as indicated by the scale in the inset legend, red being high amplitude. The area
inside the cylinder is low amplitude (dark blue, with widely spaced lines of
magnetic flux), which suggests that the shield is performing as it was designed
to.

6.1.1 HOW FEA WORKS

Fig 6.1.1 How FEA works

6.1.2 APPLICATION

Fig 6.1.2 Impact test using FEA

A variety of specializations under the umbrella of the mechanical

engineering discipline (such as aeronautical, biomechanical, and automotive
industries) commonly use integrated FEM in design and development of their
products. Several modern FEM packages include specific components such as
thermal, electromagnetic, fluid, and structural working environments. In a
structural simulation, FEM helps tremendously in producing stiffness and
strength visualizations and also in minimizing weight, materials, and costs.

FEM allows detailed visualization of where structures bend or twist, and

indicates the distribution of stresses and displacements. FEM software provides
a wide range of simulation options for controlling the complexity of both
modeling and analysis of a system.

Similarly, the desired level of accuracy required and associated

computational time requirements can be managed simultaneously to address
most engineering applications. FEM allows entire designs to be constructed,
refined, and optimized before the design is manufactured.

This powerful design tool has significantly improved both the standard of
engineering designs and the methodology of the design process in many
industrial applications. The introduction of FEM has substantially decreased the
time to take products from concept to the production line. It is primarily through
improved initial prototype designs using FEM that testing and development
have been accelerated. In summary, benefits of FEM include increased
accuracy, enhanced design and better insight into critical design parameters,
virtual prototyping, fewer hardware prototypes, a faster and less expensive
design cycle, increased productivity, and increased revenue.

FEA has also been proposed to use in stochastic modelling for

numerically solving probability models.

6.1.3 ANSYS

This is a quick-and-dirty introduction to the basic concepts underlying

CFD. The concepts are illustrated by applying them to simple 1D model
problems. We’ll invoke these concepts while performing “case studies” in
FLUENT. Happily for us, these model-problem Concepts extend to the more
general situations in the case studies in most instances. Since we’ll keep
returning to these concepts while performing the FLUENT case studies, it’s
worth your time to understand and digest these concepts. We discuss the
following topics briefly. These topics are the minimum necessary to Perform
and validate the FLUENT calculations .

1. The Need for CFD

2. Applications of CFD
3. The Strategy of CFD

4. Discretization Using the Finite-Difference Method

5. Discretization Using the Finite-Volume Method

6. Assembly of Discrete System and Application of Boundary Conditions

7. Solution of Discrete System

8. Grid Convergence

9. Dealing with Nonlinearity

10. Direct and Iterative Solvers

11. Iterative Convergence

12. Numerical Stability

13. Turbulence modeling

(A) THE NEED FOR CFD

Applying the fundamental laws of mechanics to a fluid gives the

governing equations for a fluid. The conservation of mass equation is @½ @t +
r · (½~V ) = 0 and the conservation of momentum equation is ½ @~V @t +
½(~V · r)~V = −rp + ½~g + r · ¿ij These equations along with the conservation
of energy equation form a set of coupled, nonlinear partial differential
equations. It is not possible to solve these equations analytically for most
engineering problems. However, it is possible to obtain approximate computer-
based solutions to the governing equations for a variety of engineering
problems. This is the subject matter of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
(B) APPLICATIONS OF CFD

CFD is useful in a wide variety of applications and here we note a few to

give you an idea of its use in industry. The simulations shown below have been
performed using the FLUENT software. CFD can be used to simulate the flow
over a vehicle. For instance, it can be used to study the interaction of propellers
or rotors with the aircraft fuselage the following figure shows the prediction of
the pressure field induced by the interaction of the rotor with a helicopter
fuselage in forward flight. Rotors and propellers can be represented with models
of varying complexity.

Fig 6.1.3(a) Application used CFD

The temperature distribution obtained from a CFD analysis of a mixing

manifold is shown below. This mixing manifold is part of the passenger cabin
ventilation system on the Boeing 767. The CFD analysis showed the
effectiveness of a simpler manifold design without the need for field testing.
 Fig 6.1.3 (b) Application for CFD
Bio-medical engineering is a rapidly growing field and uses CFD to study the
circulatory and respiratory systems. The following figure shows pressure
contours and a cutaway view that reveals velocity vectors in a blood pump that
assumes the role of heart in open-heart surgery.

Fig 6.1.3 (c) Application for CFD

CFD is attractive to industry since it is more cost-effective than physical testing.
However, one must note that complex flow simulations are challenging and
error-prone and it takes a lot of engineering expertise to obtain validated
solutions.
(C) THE STRATEGY OF CFD
Broadly, the strategy of CFD is to replace the continuous problem domain
with a discrete domain using a grid. In the continuous domain, each flow
variable is defined at every point in the domain. For instance, the pressure p in
the continuous 1D domain shown in the figure below would be given as p =
p(x), 0 < x < 1 In the discrete domain, each flow variable is defined only at the
grid points. So, in the discrete domain shown below, the pressure would be
defined only at the N grid points. pi = p(xi), i = 1, 2, . . . ,N Continuous Domain
Discrete Domain x=0 x=1 x1 xi xN 0 £ x £ 1 x = x1, x2, …,xN Grid point
Coupled PDEs + boundary conditions in continuous variables Coupled
algebraic eqs. In discrete variables In a CFD solution, one would directly solve
for the relevant flow variables only at the grid points.
This idea can be extended to any general problem domain. The following
figure shows the grid used for solving the flow over an airfoil. We’ll take a
closer look at this airfoil grid soon while discussing the finite-volume method.
 Fig 6.1.3 (d) Strategy of CFD

(D) DISCRETIZATION USING THE FINITE-VOLUME METHOD

If you look closely at the airfoil grid shown earlier, you’ll see that it
consists of quadrilaterals. In the finite-volume method, such a quadrilateral is
commonly referred to as a “cell” and a grid point as a “node”. In 2D, one could
also have triangular cells. In 3D, cells are usually hexahedral, tetrahedral, or
prisms. In the finite-volume approach, the integral form of the conservation
equations are applied to the control volume defined by a cell to get the discrete
equations for the cell. The integral form of the continuity equation for steady,
incompressible flow is ZS ~V ˆn dS = 0 (5)
The integration is over the surface S of the control volume and ˆn is the
outward normal at the surface. Physically, this equation means that the net
volume flow into the control volume is zero.
This is the discrete form of the continuity equation for the cell. It is
equivalent to summing up the net mass flow into the control volume and setting
it to zero. So it ensures that the net mass flow into the cell is zero i.e. that mass
is conserved for the cell. Usually, though not always, the values at the cell
centers are solved for directly by inverting the discrete system. The face values
u1, v2, etc. are obtained by suitably interpolating the cell-center values at
adjacent cells. Similarly, one can obtain discrete equations for the conservation
of momentum and energy for the cell. One can readily extend these ideas to any
general cell shape in 2D or 3D and any conservation equation. Take a few
minutes to contrast the discretization in the finite-volume approach to that in the
finite-difference method discussed earlier. Look back at the airfoil grid. When
you are using FLUENT, it’s useful to remind yourself that the code is finding a
solution such that mass, momentum, energy and other relevant quantities are
being conserved for each cell. Also, the code directly solves for values of the
flow variables at the cell centers; values at other locations are obtained by
suitable interpolation.
(E) TURBULENCE MODELING
There are two radically different states of flows that are easily identified
and distinguished: laminar flow and turbulent flow. Laminar flows are
characterized by smoothly varying velocity fields in space and time in which
individual “laminae” (sheets) move past one another without generating cross
currents. These flows arise when the fluid viscosity is sufficiently large to damp
out any perturbations to the flow that may occur due to boundary imperfections
or other irregularities. These flows occur at low-to-moderate values of the
Reynolds number.
In contrast, turbulent flows are characterized by large, nearly random
fluctuations in velocity and pressure in both space and time. These fluctuations
arise from instabilities that grow until nonlinear interactions cause them to
break down into finer and finer whirls that eventually are dissipated (into heat)
by the action of viscosity. Turbulent flows occur in the opposite limit of high
Reynolds numbers. A typical time history of the flow variable u at a fixed point.
The dashed line through the curve indicates the “average” velocity. We can
define three types of averages:
1. Time average
2. Volume average
3. Ensemble average
The equations governing a turbulent flow are precisely the same as for a
laminar flow; however, the solution is clearly much more complicated in this
regime. The approaches to solving the flow equations for a turbulent flow field
can be roughly divided into two classes. Direct numerical simulations (DNS)
use the speed of modern computers to numerically integrate the Navier Stokes
equations, resolving all of the spatial and temporal fluctuations, without
resorting to modeling. In essence, the solution procedure is the same as for
laminar flow, except the numeric must contend with resolving all of the
fluctuations in the velocity and pressure. DNS remains limited to very simple
geometries (e.g., channel flows, jets and boundary layers) and is extremely
expensive to run.2 The alternative to DNS found in most CFD packages
(including FLUENT) is to solve the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS)
equations. RANS equations govern the mean velocity and pressure. Because
these quantities vary smoothly in space and time, they are much easier to solve;
however, as will be shown below, they require modeling to “close” the
equations and these models introduce significant error into the calculation.
6.2 ANALYSIS USING ANSYS SOFTWARE:

Fig 6.2 ANSYS of work bench