COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS

ASSIGNMENT NO 2

Submitted by

Muhammad Ahmed Hassan

180101001

AERO-17A

Submitted to

Sir Asim Shahzad

29/05/21

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Perform a One way Fluid Structure Interface (FSI) analysis on a cylindrical pipe.

GEOMETRY
The geometry used in this FSI is a cylindrical pipe (highlighted yellow) with a rectangular fluid
domain (transparent) around it as shown below.

Figure 1: Isometric view of geometry

MATERIAL
The following materials are used in the analysis:

Fluid: Glycerin

Solid: Aluminum Alloy 7075 Annealed

 FLUENT ANALYSIS
MATERIAL
Fluid: Glycerin

Property Value

Density (kg/m3) 1259.9

Viscosity (kg/m.s) 0.799

MESH
The mesh used for the fluent analysis is a patch conforming tetrahedron type mesh with a default
element size of 2000mm and refined face sizing of 100mm at the cylinder wall face. The element
quality chart for the meshing is displayed below. Most of the element have a quality above 0.6
indicating a good quality mesh.

Figure 2: Element quality for fluent analysis

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
The inlets and outlets of the fluid domain are shown below. The blue surfaces indicate the Inlets
and the red surfaces indicate the outlets. The fluid enters the domain with a velocity of 200 m/s at
an angle of 30 degrees with respect to the horizontal.
 Figure 3: Inlet and outlet locations
MODELS
The viscous Spalart-Allmaras model is used to solve the problem. The pressure velocity coupling
scheme used is the Coupled Scheme. The choice for viscous model is because the Reynolds no is
calculated to be above 5 × 105 indicating turbulent flow.

ρVd 1259.9 × 50 × 2
Rⅇ = = = 630738.42 > 5 × 105
μ 0.799

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following plots are obtained as the calculation is run. The iterations are set to 400. The
following plots are obtained.

Figure 4: Residual plot

The residuals plot shows htat the solution has converged and the residual values do not change
significantly after about 300 iterations.

Figure 5: Lift coefficient plot

The lift coefficient plot converges at approximately zero which is indicative that our solution is
correct as a non rotating cylinder placed in a fluid flow does not produce any lift.

Figure 6: Drag coefficient plot

Although a non rotating cylinder placed in a fluid flow does not produce any lift, it does however
produce drag because the flow is viscous. This plot indicates a drag coefficient of about 5.5.

POST PROCESSING RESULTS

The following plots show the results obtained through post processing.

Figure 7: Pressure contour plot

The above plot is a pressure contour plot indicating the pressures on the surface of the cylinder.The
maximum pressure that occurs on the cylinder surface is at the location where the flow strikes the
cylinder. The maximum pressure is 2.57 × 107 Pascal (Pa). The pressure on the upper and lower
portions of the cylinder perpendicular to the flow is the same indicating zero net pressure
difference i.e. no lift is produced. However, in the direction of flow the pressure in front of the
cylinder is much greater than that behind the cylinder. This pressure difference results in the
production of drag on the cylinder.
 Figure 8: Streamlines across the cylinder

This plot shows the streamlines of the fluid flow as it flows over the cylinder. The color is coded
according to the velocity of the fluid. It can be seen that the velocity of the fluid as seen by the
yellow coloration is the same above and below the cylinder and hence no pressure difference and
no lift.

Figure 9: Velocity vector plot

This plot is a vector plot of the flow field surrounding the cylinder. The pressure at various points
is used to color the vectors. The vector plot is symmetric with respect to the flow axis indicating
that no pressure difference exists between the upper and lower surfaces which is again indicative
of the fact that no lift is produced.
 STATIC STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
MATERIAL
Solid: Aluminum Alloy 7075 Annealed

Property Value

Density (kg/m3) 2823.35

Young’s Modulus (GPa) 72
Poisson Ration 0.33
Yield Strength (MPa) 103

MESH
The mesh used for the static structural analysis is a patch conforming tetrahedron type mesh with
a default element size of 100mm.The element quality chart for the meshing is displayed below.
The quality of the mesh is low because the thickness of the wall is very small. The thickness of the
wall is 10mm and the smallest element size is 100mm due to computational limitations

Figure 10: Element quality for static structural analysis

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
The two ends of the cylindrical pipe are attached to fixed supports so their movement is fully
restricted as shown below.
 Figure 11: Frictionless support location

The pressure force on the cylinders external wall is due to the flow of fluid. The pressure force on
the external cylinder wall is imported from the fluent analysis and is shown below. It can be seen
that this pressure distribution is exactly the one obtained in our fluent analysis

Figure 12: Pressure load imported from fluent

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results obtained from the static structural analysis are displayed below:

Total Deformation

The total deformation is shown below. The structure has deformed a lot and has become flat at the
mid span section. This large scale deformation is due to the fast velocity and high density of the
fluid which creates a substantial pressure force on the cylinder. The cylinder is also not able to
resist this pressure force because of its very small thickness (0.01m).

Figure 13: Total deformation

Equivalent Stress

The equivalent stress on the structure is shown below. It can be seen that the maximum stress on
the structure is about 463450 MPa. This stress is much greater than the yield strength of the
material hence the material is expected to fail under given circumstances.

Figure 14: Equivalent stress

Equivalent Elastic Strain

The equivalent elastic strain diagram shows that the maximum strain subjected to the structure is
approximately three times its original form. This finding clearly indicates that the material is not
suitable for this type of flow.

Figure 15: Equivalent elastic strain

CONCLUSION

One way FSI analysis has been done on a cylindrical pipe made out of aluminum 7075. The fluid
used is glycerin. The analysis shows that the aluminum cylinder is not able to withstand the
pressure exerted on it due to the flow of high density glycerin. The structure is found to fail under
thee assumed flow conditions. Moreover the analysis has also helped us reinstate the fact that no
lift is produced when a fluid flows over a non-rotating cylinder. However, the flow being viscous
does produce a considerable amount of drag as seen in the above analysis.