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02 Airfoil A PDF
02 Airfoil A PDF
A Airfoil
Introduction
Transitional boundary layer flows are important in many CFD applications of engineering
interest such as airfoils, wind turbines, ship hulls and turbomachinery blade rows. An ANSYS
proprietary empirical correlation (Langtry and Menter) has been developed to predict standard
bypass transition as well as flows in low free-stream turbulence environments. The transition
model is based on the coupling of the SST k-ω model transport equations with two other
transport equations, one for the intermittency and one for the transition onset criteria, in terms of
momentum-thickness Reynolds number.
This tutorial will teach you the basic setup and solution procedures for transitional flow over
the Aerospatiale-A airfoil. The objective of this tutorial is to perform a validation study that
examines the accuracy of ANSYS FLUENT 13 for computation of two-dimensional transitional
flows
In this tutorial you will learn how to:
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the FLUENT interface and that you have
a good understanding of the basic setup and solution procedures. This is an advanced
tutorial and should only be attempted after you have mastered the introductory tutorials.
Problem Description
The problem considers flow around the Aerospatiale-A airfoil at 13.1º and 13.3º
angles of attack with free stream Reynolds numbers of 2.07 x 106 and 2.10 x 106,
respectively. The chord length is 1 m. The geometry of the airfoil is shown in
Figure 1
Figure 1: Problem Description
A 2D domain is created for the problem. The leading edge of the airfoil is located at the origin of
the global coordinate system. The computational domain extends from -18 m to 25 m in the x-
direction and from -18 m to 21.56m in the y-direction. A quadrilateral mesh is created, with very
fine mesh spacing close to the airfoil surface. The total mesh count is 65,536 quadrilateral cells.
Mesh Requirements
The recommended mesh guidelines for predicting boundary layer transitional flow are a
maximum y+ value of 1 in the wall adjacent cell, an expansion ratio no greater than 1.1 for the
wall normal mesh spacing and sufficient grid points in the streamwise direction. These
requirements are needed to ensure proper resolution of the flow in the viscous sublayer and
proper resolution of streamwise changes in geometry, for instance where there is high surface
curvature, or flow, for instance near separation or reattachment points.
Setup
Start the 2D, double precision version of FLUENT
Step 1: Mesh
Select the file a_airfoil.msh.gz by clicking on it under Files and then clicking on OK
Mesh -->Check
Fluent will perform various checks on the mesh and will report the progress in the console. A
message will appear warning of potential problems that might result from high aspect ratio
cells near the surface of the airfoil. In this case, the warnings can be ignored as the wall
distance calculation is unaffected by the high aspect ratio cells but in general it is
recommended to confirm the wall distance is correct by displaying contours of “Cell Wall
Distance” as suggested by the warning message.
1.3 Display the mesh (Figure 2)
You can use the middle mouse button to zoom into the area around the airfoil and view the mesh
around the pressure and suction sides more closely.
Step 2: Materials
Define -->Materials
In Properties, select Ideal-Gas for Density, specify the other material properties as shown in
Figure 3 and click on Change/Create and Close the panel. The selection of the ideal gas model
will automatically enable the energy equation.
Step 3: Models
3.2 Specify the turbulence model. This tutorial will be solved using the Transition SST
turbulence model
Select Transition SST (4 eqn) under Model and Viscous Heating under Options as shown in
Figure 5.
The inputs in Table 1 will be specified at the inlet boundary for the simulation
It has been observed that the turbulence intensity specified at an inlet can decay quite rapidly
depending on the inlet turbulent viscosity ratio. As a result, the local turbulence intensity
downstream of the inlet can be much smaller than the inlet value. Typically, larger values of inlet
turbulent viscosity ratio result in a smaller turbulent decay rate. However, if the specified
turbulent viscosity ratio is too large (i.e. greater than 100), the skin friction on the airfoil surface
can deviate significantly from the laminar value. For this reason, it is desirable to have a
relatively low (i.e. 1 -10) inlet turbulent viscosity ratio and set the turbulence intensity value at
the inlet such that it decays to reach the actual experimental value at the leading edge of the
airfoil.
Select inlet under Zone, select pressure-far-field under Type and click on Edit. Specify the
inputs as shown in Figure 6 below. In the Thermal tab, specify a temperature of 273 K. If the
inlet temperature is not specified correctly, the results will not match the data.
Figure 6. Inlet boundary condition settings
5.2 Set the Boundary Condition for outlet by selecting it in Zone, select pressure-outlet as the
Type and click on Edit. Enter values in the panel as shown in Figure 7 below. In the Thermal
tab, specify a value of 273 K for Backflow Total Temperature.
Set up the parameters as shown in Figure 8 below. Select Coupled under Scheme, Least Squares
Cell Based under Gradient, Second Order under Pressure, and Second Order Upwind for all
other equations.
Enter the values shown in Figure 9. For the equations that do not appear in the figure, use values
of 0.8 for Momentum Thickness Re, and 1.0 for both Turbulent Viscosity and Energy.
Figure 9. Solution Controls settings
Enable Plot under Options. Change Convergence Criterion from absolute to none.
We will monitor the drag coefficient on the bottom-airfoil and top-airfoil wall zones.
Select both walls under Wall Zones. Turn on Print to Console and Plot under Options. Select
2 under Window. Under Force Vector enter x=0.97318 and y=0.23005.
Use the inlet boundary conditions to initialize the flow. Select inlet under Compute From and
then click on Initialize
Figure 12. Solution Initialization panel. Values will be automatically populated after selecting
inlet under Compute From.
/solve/initialize/fmg-initialization yes
Note: The Full Multigrid (FMG) initialization can provide a better initial solution for complex
problems at a minimal cost compared to the overall computational expense. The use of FMG
initialization will accelerate the convergence of the problem.
8.3 Set the reference values used to compute the coefficients of drag, pressure and skin friction
In the Compute From drop-down list, select inlet. FLUENT will update the Reference Values
based on the inlet boundary conditions.
Figure 13. Reference Values panel.
Note: The default value of 1 m2 is kept for Area. In reality, one should calculate the appropriate
area (typically the projected area) for accurate computation of the drag coefficient, Cd. In this
tutorial, Cd is used only to monitor the convergence.
Monitor the scaled residuals (Figure 15) and the drag convergence history (Figure 16). The drag
is converged within one drag count (1e-4).
11.3 Display contours of Mach Number, Static Pressure, Static Temperature and Intermittency
Select Filled under Options and Velocity…/Mach Number under Contours of. It will be
necessary to zoom to a smaller region close to the airfoil.
Figure 17: Contours of Mach Number
Figure 18: Contours of Static Pressure
Observation: Transition on the suction surface is triggered by a laminar separation bubble which
results in a turbulent boundary layer downstream. If difficulties are experienced locating the
separation bubble shown in the figure, open the Camera panel ( Display --> Views --> Camera)
and enter the values (0.113,0.086,0.445) for Position, (0.113,0.086,0) for Target, (0,1,0) for Up
Vector, (0.005,0.005) for Field and increase the value of Scale in the Vectors panel from 1 to 10.
11.4 Experimental F2 wind tunnel data is available for the skin friction coefficient on the top-
airfoil surface
Figure 22: Comparison of Skin Friction Coefficient with F2 Wind Tunnel Data
11.5 The pressure coefficient from the experimental F2 wind tunnel data is available
Click on Free Data to unload the skin friction coefficient data file, then click Load File… and
load the experimental data file Exp-F2-Cp.xy.
Click on Plot to plot both the simulation results and the experimental data
Figure 23: Comparison of Pressure Coefficient with F2 Wind Tunnel Data
A comparison has been made between CFD results obtained using the Transition SST turbulence
model and the experimental F2 wind tunnel data. Next we will make the following additional
comparisons
12.1 Comparison of results from the SST k-omega model with the Transition SST model results
and the F2 wind tunnel data.
12.2 Comparison of results from the Transition SST and SST k-omega models with experimental
F1 wind tunnel test data
Select k-omega under Model, SST under k-omega Model and Viscous Heating under Options.
12.1.2 Repeat the operations described in Steps 8-10 of this tutorial, then save the case and data
files as a_airfoil_f2_sst_2000.cas.gz.
Figure 26: Pressure coefficient predictions with SST k-omega and Transition SST models
compared with experimental F2 wind tunnel data
12.2 Comparison of results from the SST k-omega model with the Transition SST model results
and the F1 wind tunnel data.
After changing the inlet boundary conditions, repeat Steps 8 – 10 and save the case and data files
as a_airfoil_f1_transition_2000.cas.gz.
Change the turbulence model to SST k-omega, repeat Step 12.1.2, and save the case and data files
as a_airfoil_f1_sst_2000.cas.gz.
Figure 27: Comparison of Transition SST and SST k-omega model skin friction coefficient
predictions with experimental F1 wind tunnel data
Figure 28: Comparison of Transition SST and SST k-omega model pressure coefficient
predictions
References:
Chaput, E., “Chapter 3: Application-Oriented Synthesis of Work Presented in Chapter II”, Notes
on Numerical Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 58, Vieweg Braunschweig, Wiesbaden, 1997, pp. 327-346
Langtry, R.B. and Menter, F.R., “Transition Modeling for General CFD Applications in
Aeronautics”, AIAA 2005-522.