ANSYS ICEM CFD and ANSYS CFX Introductory Training Course

Course notes prepared by David Ryan, Chemical Engineering

Acknowledgements to Julia Hofinger, Andrea Gabriele, Dr Hassan Hemida.

Monday 7th February to Tuesday 8th February, 2011

CFD Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Workshop 01 - Basic viewing controls in ANSYS ICEM CFD 12.0 ............................................................ 1 Workshop 02 - Drawing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM CFD................................................................................ 3 Workshop 03 - Tetra-Meshing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM ............................................................................. 6 Workshop 04 - Setting up a CFD Simulation in ANSYS CFX-Pre .............................................................. 8 Workshop 05 - Running a simulation in ANSYS CFX-Solver .................................................................... 9 Workshop 06 - Examining the results in ANSYS CFD-Post .................................................................... 11 Workshop 07 - Hexa-Meshing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM ........................................................................... 12 Workshop 08 - Simulation of turbulent flow of water ......................................................................... 14 Workshop 09 - Non-Newtonian flow with heat transfer ...................................................................... 15 Workshop 10 - Transient simulation of a Rushton turbine (sliding mesh) ........................................... 16 Workshop 11 - Multiphase flow with a free surface ............................................................................ 17 General notes about using ICEM and CFX............................................................................................. 19 Stages of a simulation ....................................................................................................................... 19 Help, tutorials, workshops available: ................................................................................................ 19 Software required (ANSYS) and files created ................................................................................... 20 BlueBEAR cluster computer at University of Birmingham software used to access ..................... 20

CFD Summary
Real world problem -> 3D geometry -> Mesh which splits geometry into cells -> Simulation physics setup -> Running simulation (number crunching) -> Post processing -> Analysis and results write-up. In the following 11 workshops we will be looking at stages from 3D geometry creation to postprocessing.

Workshop 01 - Basic viewing controls in ANSYS ICEM CFD 12.0

Introduction: The program ANSYS ICEM CFD allows you to view and edit geometry, blocking and mesh files. The mesh file is the output which will be used in later CFD simulations. Task: to open a file in ICEM and be able to use the 3D controls available. 1) Load ICEM: a) Start (Windows logo), Programs, ITS Applications, ANSYS 12.0, ICEM CFD . 2) Wait for the software to load. a) May take 30-60 seconds, its a big program. 3) Navigate to right folder: Press the folder icon , Desktop (on left). You should be able to see folder CFX Training Files. 4) Make a copy of the CFX Training Files folder (right click, Copy, Paste into same folder). a) This is so the original files are preserved for reference. b) Only work in the copy folder CFX Training Files - Copy. 5) Double click CFX Training Files - Copy, double click Sono_Part.

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6) Open project file Sono_Part.

7) On the left is a hierarchy of the model, including geometry, mesh and parts. a) Use the + and - boxes to expand and contract this b) Use the tick boxes to show and hide various aspects of the project i) Note on files bigger than this, dont tick the Volumes on takes too long to display c) Try viewing only geometry, and only mesh. What difference does it make? d) What difference does switching on and off various parts make? What is in each part? 8) Use the buttons on the toolbar to select different geometry and mesh views. a) Also try the drop down options from the small arrows. 9) Try 3D rotation controls a) Left click and drag to do 3D rotation (around axes in screen) b) Right click and: i) vertical drag for easy zoom ii) horizontal drag for 3D rotation (around axis perpendicular to screen) c) Middle click (scroll wheel hold down) and drag for translation d) Note: in ICEM all 3D rotation options are easily available from the mouse. CFX-Pre and CFDPost will have different mouse controls! 10) Use the buttons to view the whole geometry/mesh, zoom in, measure distances. 11) Save a new version of the project by: a) File (menu at top), Save Project As, type in Sono_Part copy, Save 12) View project files by: a) Bring up Windows Explorer (keyboard shortcut Windows-E). b) Navigate to folder: Desktop, Copy of Training Files, Sono_Part 13) File Types: Important types of file are as follows (turn File Extensions on in Windows Explorer options): a) .prj used by ICEM to link all other files together in one project. b) .tin geometry file vertices, edges, surfaces, bodies., volume (cube/hexa, tetra, prism) elements. c) .uns (unstructured) mesh file mesh elements of type line, triangle, square, cube/hexa, tetra, prism, pyramid which cover the geometry and make it possible to run fluid simulations on it. d) .blk blocking file - used for hexa meshing later on to define a regular grid.

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e) Other file types are less important: .atr, .par, .fbc, backup .bak files. f) Will be creating a mesh file .msh as the output of ICEM for simulations in CFX. 14) Extension task: Back to ICEM: the buttons open, save and close the geometry, mesh and blocking files independently. For example, try using the first one (with brown cube) to close the geometry, and leave just the mesh open. 15) Extension task: insert a cut plane: a) Right click Mesh in the tree structure on left, Cut Plane, Show Cut Plane. b) In the tree structure, tick Mesh lines and shells on, and tick Geometry off. c) Manage Cut Plane options panel in lower left: select from Method drop-down list the Middle X Plane method. An outline of only part of the surface mesh should appear. d) Now try ticking the Volumes on. You can see a cross-section of the mesh. e) Make sure the solid view is on, not the wireframe ( f) Try rotating this cross-section in 3D. g) Try zooming in on an area of interest. 16) Close the project file: File, Close Project. ).

Workshop 02 - Drawing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM CFD

Task: to create a cylindrical pipe ready to be meshed with ANSYS ICEM CFD v12.0. 1) Close any previous files, have blank screen in ICEM. 2) Create new project file for the pipe in ICEM: a) File, New Project. b) Select folders in turn: Desktop, CFX Training Files Copy, Pipe. c) Save project with name Pipe in folder Pipe. 3) We are going to create some points now: a) Select Geometry tab at top of screen. Select Create Point option . In the bottom left are various options for creating the point. Select the second XYZ option. Input the numbers X=0, Y=0, Z=0. Press Apply to create a point on screen Note - If the point does not appear, then check that points are displayed in the tree, and use the Fit Window option in the top left to zoom the screen correctly. 4) Select the third option Base Point and Delta a) First, enter the relative displacement (delta) for the new point: i) DX = 0, DY = 25, DZ = 0. (The option is now set up to create a point 25 away in the ydirection from another point.) b) Second, select the base point: i) Click the arrow icon once ii) Left click the blue point created in previous step. (It is highlighted in yellow). iii) Middle click anywhere on screen to create 1 new point. iv) Right click to get rid of red option at bottom. This prevents creation of more points. v) If necessary, fit window to display both old and newly created points (blue). Can also use right-click zoom to zoom out. Note: in ICEM view mode, you get the normal 3D rotation options from the mouse, and in ICEM edit mode: left click selects things, middle click does things, and right click cancels things or backs up. It is different to normal Windows practise. Its awkward to get used to, but once you are used to it, it works very well. b) c) d) e) f)

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5) Display co-ordinates of both points on screen using , the third option under the arrow on . 6) Do another Base Point and Delta to create a point at (0,0,25) away from original (0,0,0) point. a) Change the DX, DY, DZ input fields appropriately. b) Make sure to select the right base point (0,0,0). c) There should now be exactly 3 points created at (0,0,0), (0,25,0), (0,0,25). 7) We are going to make a circle of radius 25 using these three points, as follows: a) Under Geometry tab, select Create and modify curve. b) Under Create and modify curve option panel on bottom left, select 3rd option Circle or Arc. c) Red text Select 3 locations... will appear at the bottom. d) (Left)-Click these three points in order: i) (0,0,0) (centre) ii) (0,25,0) iii) (0,0,25) e) Right click to de-select red text and de-activate circle creation mode. f) A circle will be created. (If it doesnt appear, check Curves are ticked on in the Geometry tree view.) 8) Create a new point at (800,0,0) using explicit coordinates method as in stage 3, and fit window. a) Note that under 3D rotation this new point is a lot further away! 9) Create a line down the pipe axis: a) Geometry, Create/Modify Curve, From Points (first option). b) Left click first point at (0,0,0) at centre of circle c) Left click second point at (800,0,0). Line appears on screen d) Middle click to finish line creation. (More left clicks would create a curve or spline.) e) Right click to de-select line creation mode. Create a circular surface around the circle: a) Geometry, Create/Modify Surface at top. b) Simple Surface (first option at bottom left). c) Method: From Curves. d) Left-click icon to right of Curves. e) Left-click circle on screen. f) Middle click anywhere to create the circular surface. g) Right click to de-select surface creation mode. Create a cylindrical surface using a driven curve method: a) Curve Driven (second option) b) Left-click long line, this is the driving curve. c) Left-click the circular boundary, this is the driven curve. d) Middle click to accept the driven curve(s). e) Surface is created. f) Right-click to de-select the driven curve creation method. Left click and drag to view the whole 3D geometry so far from different angles. Try displaying with wireframe. Note the missing circle at the far end, we will create this shortly. View only points, only curves, only surfaces using the ticks on the Geometry tree on left. Familiarise yourself with what has been created so far, and where it has been created. Create the final circular surface at the far end of the pipe, using an appropriate surface method. Note: the bounding circle has already been created by the driven curve method. Give names to the INLET, OUTLET and WALL surfaces: a) Under Geometry tree, highlight only Surfaces. b) Right click Parts, Create Part. c) Part = INLET. d) Entities: click arrow icon, left click surface (near surface, around origin) to highlight it, middle click to save selection, right click to de-select mode.

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e) Note that the INLET part has been created, and can be turned on and off independently using the tree view. f) Part = OUTLET, repeat step to identify an outlet at the far end. g) Part = WALL, repeat step to identify the wall. Create a BODY part for the volume mesh elements (created later) to belong to: a) Turn on points and lines, turn off surfaces b) Geometry, Create Body c) Part = BODY d) Material Point, Location = Centroid of 2 points e) 2 screen locations: use arrow icon, select both points at end of long line using left click, middle click to create body point, right click to cancel mode. Turn on Surfaces again. Right click Parts in tree diagram, select Good Colors. This shows each part in separate colours. Delete the long line down the middle using Geometry, Delete Curve. Remember to right click to come out of this selection mode. Save the project using File, Save Project. Alternatively, use the Save icon. a) This is the file we will use to create a mesh in the next workshop. Extension task: try deleting the cylindrical surface using Geometry, Delete Surface method. Extension task: try recreating the cylindrical surface using Geometry, Create/Modify Surface at top, then Simple Surface on left, then Method 2-4 curves. Select the two separate circles to create the cylinder between them. Need this method rather than the other, since the curves are not connected. Extension task: try transforming the circle around (0,0,0) to be double its size: a) Geometry tab, Transform Geometry. b) Scale Geometry (4th graphical icon in bottom left). c) Use icon to right of Select to select just the circle. (Left-click to select it, middle click to save selection. May want to turn surfaces off to select the circle only, and not any surface.) d) Change x, y and z factors to 2. This will double the size. e) Change the centre point to Centroid. This will perform the change around the circle centre, not the origin. In general, these are different locations. f) Tick Copy on, to create a copy of the circle, rather than move the circle. g) Press Apply to create a scaled copy of the original curve. Extension task: create a conic surface between the big circle at the near end and the small circle at the far end, using 2-4 curves method. Extension task: create a diagnostic topology. Very useful for viewing surface connectivity and cleaning up dirty geometry imported from other programs: a) Geometry, Repair Geometry b) Build Diagnostic Topology c) Tolerance 0.1, Feature Angle 30, dont filter curves or points, de-select any ticks lower down d) Apply, view wireframe e) Notice that all curves are colour coded. i) Green is disconnected curves. Can normally delete them. ii) Yellow is singly-connected curves. Normally want to close these holes. iii) Red means 2 connections. This is normal for a fluid domain. iv) Blue means 3 or more connections. This is found at intersections between fluid domain boundaries. f) Note there are tools here (Close holes, Remove holes, Stitch/Match edges) to automate clean-up of dirty imported geometry. Extension task: Delete and create both surfaces and lines so that fluid region is closed. A new Diagnostic Topology with only red curves proves this is the case. Close the current file, discarding any changes in the extension tasks.

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Workshop 03 - Tetra-Meshing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM

Introduction: There are two main types of mesh available: tetrahedral and cubic/hexahedral. These are abbreviated to tetra and hexa. In general, hexa provides better simulations for the same amount of computational resources, however tetra is a lot easier to produce for complex geometry. It is useful to be able to create both, and ICEM can create either. Task: Create a tetrahedral mesh on a cylindrical pipe with ANSYS ICEM. 1) Open the Pipe example from previous workshop. a) The completed version is available in a separate project file if necessary. 2) Save the project with a different name: Pipe_tetra. We will now work on this. 3) Mesh tab, Global Mesh Setup (1st icon at top). 4) Global Mesh Size (1st icon at bottom left): a) Scale factor = 1. (This factor allows the whole mesh to be scaled to higher or lower resolutions from a single number. Use 1 as default scaling.) b) Max element = 4. (This is the maximum size of any side of a triangle or tetrahedron you will create, across the whole mesh.) c) Deselect all tick boxes. d) Apply 5) Shell Meshing Parameters: a) Mesh Type: All Tri (only triangles, no squares). b) Mesh Method: Patch Independent (use help system later on to understand the other methods available). c) Apply 6) Volume Meshing Parameters: a) Mesh Type: Tetra/Mixed (we will create Tetra mesh). b) Mesh Method: Quick (Delaunay) (Delaunay creates a smoother volume mesh than Octree. Use Help system to understand these different methods as you try them later on.) c) Leave other options, Apply 7) Prism Meshing Parameters: a) Look at them only. Leave changing these for extension work. Important ones are: Height ratio, Number of Layers, Prism Height Limit Factor. 8) Part Mesh Setup (at top) brings up dialog box. a) On row Wall only, tick prism. We will only create a prism layer on the wall. b) Set num layers to 1 on wall only. c) Apply, Dismiss. 9) Compute Mesh icon (at top). a) Surface Mesh Only. b) Compute (and wait for triangular surface mesh to be generated). c) Mesh appears at tree in top left, with points, lines and shells which can all be viewed separately. i) Try deselecting the Geometry items which are overlaid in the view, and viewing the different aspects of the surface mesh using solid (not wireframe) 3D graphics. 10) Edit Mesh, Smooth Mesh Globally (at top): a) Up to value: 0.8. b) Criterion: Quality. (Histogram shows how good each triangle is. This is related to how well CFD will run on the mesh.) c) Apply. May re-run if not all above 0.5 on first run. d) Note that some triangles will have moved slightly. On complicated geometry it is extremely valuable to smooth the surface mesh before generating the volume mesh.

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11) Mesh, Compute Mesh (at top), Compute Volume Mesh (blue icon at side): a) Check correct Mesh Type and Method. b) Make sure Load Mesh upon Completion is selected. c) Compute. d) Wait for Delaunay mesh to be computed. It is inside the surface mesh, so need a cut-plane to view the volume elements (which are contained in the part BODY). e) Right click Mesh in the tree, Cut Plane, Show Cut Plane i) Method: Middle Z Plane (lengthways). ii) De-select all geometry, only have mesh selected. iii) Select volume elements too iv) View the internal structure of the mesh from different angles v) Right-click Mesh, Cut Plane, Show Cut Plane (second time to de-select it). Volume elements hidden automatically. 12) Smooth the volume mesh using same method. May want to smooth to quality 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 in sequence. Normally want quality above 0.35-0.4. 13) Save the Pipe_tetra project. 14) Save a mesh file for use in CFX-Pre: a) Output tab, Select solver (at top) i) Output Solver: Fluent V6 ii) Apply b) Write Input (at top) i) Save project (not important since just done), select Yes. ii) Pipe_tetra.uns selected, select Open. iii) Rename Output File to ./Pipe_tetra iv) Done c) Pipe_tetra.msh mesh file is created in same directory. 15) Extension: Generate a prism mesh around the tetrahedral mesh for much improved wall treatment in your CFD simulations: a) Mesh, Part Mesh Setup (at top) brings up dialog box. i) Tick prism on GEOM. (This will prism mesh round the whole surface. Later try splitting the surface geometry into INLET, WALL and OUTLET parts. Then, want prism only on WALL, to get correct prism mesh.) ii) num layers = 1 on GEOM. iii) Apply, Dismiss b) Mesh, Compute Mesh (at top) i) Prism Mesh (at lower left side) ii) Compute c) View a cut plane to see the change in internal detail of volume elements d) Can split the prisms into say 5 layers: i) Edit Mesh, Split Mesh ii) Prism Ratio = 1.4, Number of Layers = 5 iii) Apply 16) Extension: Try reopening the previous mesh without the prisms, using Open Mesh, tri2tet_mesh.uns which is temporary copy of previous mesh, Replace. 17) Extension: Try closing the mesh. 18) Extension: Try computing a volume mesh in one go using Octree method. Produce a cut plane and note the difference with the Delaunay mesh. 19) Extension: Try inserting a mesh density around a small region of max element size 2. What happens when you Delaunay or Octree mesh the whole fluid domain? 20) Extension: change the Max Element to 6 and re-compute the surface mesh to see what changes. New surface mesh replaces all of old mesh. 21) Close the project without saving changes made during extension tasks. Exit ICEM.

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Workshop 04 - Setting up a CFD Simulation in ANSYS CFX-Pre

Intro: Up to now we have concentrated on creating a geometry and a mesh. Now we will use the mesh to define a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. CFX-Pre is the tool used to do this. It involves importing a mesh, setting up simulation physics, and exporting a run definition file to be used in CFX-Solver. Task: to create a definition file for a CFD simulation of laminar flow of glucose, a viscous liquid. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Start, Programs, ITS Applications, ANSYS 12.0, Fluid Dynamics, CFX. This opens the CFX Launcher. Change the working directory to the Pipe directory. (Go in via trusernn directory.) From the Launcher, open CFX-Pre 12.0. (Unblock any applications). File, New Case, General, OK. File, Import, Mesh. a) Files of Type: FLUENT. b) Navigate to correct folder. c) Mesh units: [mm] (may want to change this for different simulations). d) Select Pipe_tetra.msh file. e) Open 6) Practise 3D rotation tools which are different to ICEM: a) Left-click on a place centre the view there b) Left-click drag 3D rotation c) Right-click rectangle drag zoom in Icon to view whole mesh again SHIFT-Middle-click drag zoom in and out using mouse CTRL-Middle-click drag translation Note the author apologises on behalf of ANSYS for including two completely separate mouse interfaces in ICEM and CFX! h) You will need these 3D rotation mouse tips again, when post-processing in ANSYS CFD-Post. 7) File, Save Case As, Laminar_Glucose_tetra. This creates a .cfx file in the working directory for the CFX-Pre case. 8) From the toolbar, click Create a Material, and name it Glucose. a) Check Thermodynamic State and make sure the state value is Liquid. b) In the Material Properties tab, set the density at 1000 [kg m^-3]. c) Under Specific Heat Capacity set 1 [cal g^-1 K^-1]. d) Expand the Transport Properties section. e) Check the Dynamic Viscosity box, enter the value 0.06 Pa.s f) OK to save the material. g) Note if you expand the Materials list, Glucose is now listed. 9) In the Outline workspace, double-click Default Domain. a) Fluid & Particle Definitions, Add New Item, type Glucose and OK b) Delete the Fluid1 from the list. c) Material, select Glucose from the drop-down list. d) From the Fluid Models tab: i) Choose None for Heat Transfer model ii) Choose None (Laminar) for Turbulence model. e) From the Initialisation tab: i) Check the Domain Initialisation box. ii) Note initial conditions. f) OK to accept Domain settings. d) e) f) g)

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10) From the Insert menu: a) Choose Boundary b) Enter the name Inlet. c) For Location, choose INLET. d) From the Boundary Details tab, Mass and Momentum section: i) Choose the Option Mass Flow Rate ii) Enter the value 0.2 [kg s^-1] for the Mass Flow Rate e) OK 11) Create a new boundary condition and name it Outlet. a) For Location, choose OUTLET. b) From the Boundary Details tab, Mass and Momentum section: i) Choose the Option Average Static Pressure ii) Enter a Relative Pressure of 0 [Pa]. c) Press OK to accept the boundary 12) Double click Default Domain Default. Note that it is the WALL area of the mesh, set up to be a non-slip wall. Return to the Outline, and rename it to Wall from the right-click menu. 13) In the Outline workspace, double-click Solver Control. a) Change to a physical timescale of 1 *s+: Timescale control = Physical Timescale, Physical Timescale = 1 *s+. b) In the Convergence Criteria section: i) Change the Residual Target to 0.00001 (which is 10E-05), OK 14) Insert a Monitor Point: a) Output Control, Monitor tab, check box Monitor Options. b) Add New Itemnext to white input area c) Name it Velocity at Inlet. d) Option: Expression e) Expression Value: areaAve(Velocity)@Inlet f) Add a new monitor point Velocity at Outlet with expression value areaAve(Velocity)@Outlet. g) OK to save monitor points. 15) Save the case (File, Save Case). 16) From the toolbar: a) Click Write Solver Input File which is the last icon at the top b) Navigate to working directory c) Name the file Laminar_Glucose_tetra.def, Save. (A .def file is a CFX-Solver input file) 17) Extension: right-click on an item in the Outline tree, and select Edit in Command Editor. Note that many items can be quickly set here, with knowledge of the correct programming format. 18) Extension: in Solver Control, try changing the number of iterations, or adding in a conservation target for the equations of say 0.001 (0.1%). Read the help documentation to find out more about this.

Workshop 05 - Running a simulation in ANSYS CFX-Solver

Intro: CFX-Solver is the penultimate stage in obtaining fluid dynamics results. Its job is to takethe simulation setup from Pre, and produce the answer to the simulation, to be displayed graphically in Post. This is the most computationally intensive stage of the process. The solution is obtained iteratively, by converging on the correct result. Often we will accept less than fully converged results when conducting preliminary investigations such as this, to move the process along a bit faster. Task: to run a CFD simulation of laminar flow of glucose, a viscous liquid.

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1) From the CFX launcher, select CFX-Solver Manager 12.0 2) File, Define Run. a) Solver Input File, select Laminar_Glucose_tetra.def. b) No initial values specification c) Not double precision (leave unchecked). d) Run mode: Serial e) Press Start Run to start the simulation. 3) The screen is split in two. a) On the right is text describing the progress of the run. b) On the left, a graphical representation of convergence. 4) The run will finish and look like this:

5) Select OK. (Dont check the box to post-process yet.) a) The .res file with flow fields has been created automatically b) So has the .out file, which gives the verbose output printed on the right hand side of the screen. 6) Look at the Momentum and Mass graph. This shows the residuals (expressions of error remaining in the solutions) as a logarithmic plot, which is decreasing until full 10-5 convergence results. 7) Look at the User Points graph, to view the progress of the monitor points. This shows values for average velocity at the inlet and the outlet. (Both are 25 metres in radius, hence the small velocity figures.) Notice how they should converge to the same number. a) When you have a very large (slow) simulation, the monitor points graph is invaluable for two reasons: i) Judging when the simulation has converged adequately. Monitor points should then only oscillate between small error bars, and when zoomed out, look completely flat. ii) Doing elementary post-processing (reading out flow statistics) without having to go through the extra stage of graphical post-processing in CFD-Post. b) You can click on the lines on any graph to get an exact reading printed on the screen. c) You can change the vertical or horizontal axes of each graph, e.g. to zoom in on a monitor point to judge convergence. 8) The icons allow you control on creating and opening runs. The third one is very useful for opening a completed run. 9) Extension: on the run definition try: a) Using Initial Values Specification and the results of a previous similar simulation, and observe how the results converge quicker.

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b) Using Double Precision. For some CFD simulations it is necessary to use this, but it doubles the computational resources required. c) Run Mode: HP MPI Local Parallel. This will parallel process the simulation on the local computer, running on 2 cores in most cases (2011 Intel chip). 10) Extension: go back to CFX-Pre and change the amount of convergence required. Then re-run the simulation in Solver, using the results of the existing run, and obtain better agreement between the velocity values. 11) File, Close Workspace. Since the run has completed, dont worry about the message which pops up, select OK. 12) Close CFX-Solver. No saving of files is necessary.

Workshop 06 - Examining the results in ANSYS CFD-Post

Intro: This is the final stage: viewing the flow field results in graphical format. This workshop will introduce you to various plots available in CFD-Post for analysing the results files obtained from the solver. Task: To be able to create graphical representations of flow field results. 1) From the CFX launcher, select CFD-Post 12.0 2) File, Load Results, Laminar_Glucose_tetra_001.res a) The Solver will create 002, 003, 004 etc run files if you re-run the simulation. 3) From the toolbar, click Location and choose Plane. Leave name as Plane 1. a) In the Details of Plane 1, choose the Method ZX Plane, leave Y value as 0. b) Apply to view this plane (grey only) c) Colour tab, Mode = Variable d) Variable = Velocity e) Apply to view the plane coloured by velocity. f) Note that the artefacts are due to the low resolution of the tetrahedral mesh used. Also note that a prism mesh would resolve the wall boundary layer better. g) Try viewing Pressure on the same plane. h) Try viewing Velocity on a YZ plane, with colour range = local. What do you notice about the velocity profile in cross-section? i) Try moving the co-ordinate of Plane 1, and seeing the flow velocity in different places. 4) From the toolbar, click Vector. Leave name as Vector 1 a) Location = Plane 1 b) Hide Plane 1 in the tree view to just see the vectors based at that location. c) Double click Plane 1 and move it. Notice how the vectors move too. d) Can change size of vectors on Symbol tab if necessary. 5) Create a second plane in a perpendicular plane. Turn the vector plot off, and both planes on, and display velocity in both planes. 6) From the toolbar, click Contour. Leave name as Contour 1. a) Locations Plane 1. b) Variable Pressure c) Apply see the bands of pressure in the 11 contours created. d) Hide both Plane 1 and Plane 2 to see the contour plot clearly. 7) From the toolbar, click Streamline icon. a) Start from: Inlet b) Number of points: 25 c) Apply

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8)

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11) 12) 13) 14)

d) Notice how 3D structure of flow is visualised. In more complex flows this Streamline function is extremely valuable to view directly the 3D flow structure. Location, Isosurface a) Variable: Velocity b) Value: 1e-07 c) Apply. (All points with this value of velocity are joined up in a 2D surface within 3D space.) d) Also try colouring by variable, Pressure. From the 5 tabs in the top left, select Calculator, then Function Calculator. a) Choose the Function areaAve, the Location Plane 1, and the Variable Velocity b) Clear check box Clear previous results on calculate c) Select check box Show equivalent expression d) Click Calculate. (Correct value ~ 1.334e-7 m/s when Plane 1 is ZX plane down middle). e) Change the Variable to Pressure gradient, and click Calculate. (Correct value ~ 7.49e-11 Pa/m). f) Change the Function to massFlow and the Location to Outlet. Click Calculate (what is missing from 0.2 is the residual p-mass. It may show up as negative). Extension: create new Chart from top toolbar. a) New Data Series, location Streamline 1 b) X axis: variable X c) Y axis: variable Velocity d) Note how different streamlines have different experiences of velocity as they travel down the pipe. Extension: try using the Session menu to record a series of commands, save them as a .cse file, and play them back to automate post-processing. Extension: click the Table Viewer tab in bottom right. Try inserting some expressions into a table. See how they calculate. Extension: click the Report Viewer tab in bottom right. See how your basic flow information, charts and tables are all brought together in a printable format. Save the results file Laminar_Glucose_tetra.cst, which is a state file for CFD-Post, and exit the program.

Workshop 07 - Hexa-Meshing a Pipe in ANSYS ICEM

Intro: So far we have been through the complete cycle of geometry creation, meshing, simulation setup, solving, and post-processing. Now we go back to meshing to find a different method which is superior in some circumstances, but harder to use with complicated geometry. This method is called cubic meshing, which means the same as hexahedral meshing. Task: Mesh a cylindrical pipe with ANSYS ICEM using Blocking and O-grid Function. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Open ICEM. Open the Pipe project (geometry only). File, Save Project As, Pipe_hexa. Blocking menu (at top), Create Block (first option). Check in Geometry tree all curves and surfaces are visible (ticked). Create a new block: a) Create Block Initialise Blocks (1st icon from 5 in bottom right). b) Entities, click icon to right, red message appears, select all geometry on screen using marquee select (left-click drag from top left to bottom right of all geometry), middle click to save selection, right click to de-select mode. c) A block is created around all the geometry.

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7) Blocking, Pre-Mesh Parameters a) Edge Params i) Select long edge ii) Nodes = 40 iii) Scroll down to Copy Parameters (tick it), Method: To All Parallel Edges. All four long edges should highlight. iv) Apply to save the selection b) Click Edge Params again i) Select one short edge of square ii) Nodes = 9 iii) Apply c) Repeat for a perpendicular short edge of square. 8) Expand Blocking in the tree a) Tick Pre-Mesh b) To the message: Re-mesh out of date parts c) You can now see the structured mesh created via the blocking for the pipe. There are however 2 problems at this stage: i) Wrong shape at the inlet and outlet ii) No O-grid so there are degenerate cubes on the surface. 9) To get the outlet and inlet the right shape, we need to associate the appropriate blocking edges with the corresponding edges in the geometry. a) Dismiss Pre-Mesh Params b) Hide Pre-Mesh c) Show Edges (Blocking) and Curves (Geometry) d) Blocking, Associate i) Associate Edge to Curve ii) Left click all four blocking edges at the inlet, middle click to save selection iii) Select the 1 circle at the inlet, middle click to save selection iv) Associated edges turn green. e) Repeat the same association, but with the right edges and curves at the outlet. f) Turn Pre-Mesh on again, recompute. Notice how the pre-mesh now follows the curves of the geometry g) Note with hexa meshing, if your pre-mesh does not follow your geometry successfully, it is because some aspect of association has not been completed carefully. 10) O-grid is now necessary, since it is now possible to see directly the skew cells at the inlet and outlet. a) Blocking, Split Block (at top) b) O-grid (on bottom left) c) Select Block (+), left click (the only) block, middle click to select d) Select Face (+), left click only the faces at inlet or outlet, middle click to select. This allows Ogrid to penetrate those faces, but to create in effect a boundary layer over every other face. i) ICEM O-gridding is extremely versatile, and can produce complex boundary layers, as long as the geometry can be created from a block with some parts removed. e) Offset = 1. (This creates the O-grid within the block about way through. Extension: redo blocking with values of 0.2, 1.8 here.) f) Apply. O-grid appears g) Turn on Pre-Mesh to view the result. 11) A problem is now found in the boundary layer. We need more layers: a) Blocking, Pre-Mesh params (at top) b) Edge Params (at left) c) Select any diagonal edge. All parallel edges should be selected too, automatically. d) Nodes = 15

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12)

13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18)

19)

e) Mesh law = Exponential 1 f) Spacing 1 = 0.1 g) Apply h) Turn Pre-Mesh off, then on again, to view the result Blocking is now complete. Convert structured grid from blocking into an unstructured mesh in same format as tet-mesh: a) On tree view: Right-click Pre-Mesh, Convert to Unstructured Mesh b) Hide all geometry and blocking, show Mesh c) Edit Mesh, Display Mesh Quality (at top) d) Apply (at bottom). Histogram appears. Mesh quality is very good, since this is a hexa mesh with O-grid. e) Edit Mesh, Smooth Hexahedral Mesh orthogonal (at top) f) Apply (at bottom) g) Notice how the inlet surface mesh has smoothed out. h) Redo the quality statistics. Notice how they have reduced. i) Hide the mesh, select the lower bars in the histogram. The bad quality mesh areas appear. j) Press Display Mesh Quality (at top) again, and unhide Mesh elements to return to previous view. Save project Output, Solver Setup, Output Solver = Fluent V6, OK Output, Write Input (no to message), Open (Pipe_hexa), Output File ./Pipe_hexa Extension: Try closing the mesh file, changing the pre-mesh parameters, re-pre-meshing, and regenerating the mesh. Extension: see if you can use Pre-Mesh parameters to give exponential ratio of cell heights in the boundary layer. Extension: re-run previous laminar flow (CFX-Pre, CFX-Solver, CFD-Post) using this new mesh, and observe velocity profile down the whole pipe. In particular, initialise using the previous results, and keep the history. See how the monitor points jump between meshes. This indicates that the mesh (the tetrahedral mesh) is not of high enough resolution. Introducing a prism layer at the wall can help this. Close ICEM

Workshop 08 - Simulation of turbulent flow of water

Intro: Turbulence models are introduced, which widen possible range of flows which can be simulated to include many of real world relevance. A tetrahedral laminar case file will be changed to become a hexahedral turbulent case file. Task: to create a CFD simulation of turbulent flow of water. 1) Open CFX Launcher. Check the directory. Open CFX-Pre. 2) Open the CFX-Pre file Laminar_Glucose_tetra.cfx 3) From the File menu, choose Save Case As and save the simulation as Turbulent_Water_hexa. 4) Right click Pipe_tetra.msh, Delete 5) Right click Mesh, Import Mesh, FLUENT a) Select Pipe_Hexa, units [mm], OK 6) In the Outline workspace, double-click Default Domain. a) Insert a Fluid, Water b) Delete Glucose c) For Water: Material = Water

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7) 8) 9)

10) 11) 12)

13) 14)

d) From the Fluid Models tab, change the Turbulence model option to Shear Stress Transport i) Alternative turbulence models could include k-epsilon or k-omega ii) OK Double click error message a) OK to clear message. This initialises a turbulence input at the Inlet. In the Outline workspace, double-click the boundary Default Domain Default, then click OK. This is a wall. Double-click the Inlet boundary condition. a) From the Boundary Details tab, and in the Mass and Momentum section, choose the Option Mass Flow Rate and enter the value 0.04 for the Mass Flow Rate. b) In the Turbulence section choose Low (intensity = 1%). Finally click OK. Save the case file, which should automatically be called Turbulent_Water_hexa.cfx. From the toolbar, click Write Solver File. Name the file Turbulent_Water_hexa.def and click Save. Open CFX-Solver, set up a new run using this definition file. Start Run. Look at monitor points and turbulence stats. Wait for it to converge, or STOP it early if it takes too long. a) Note error messages at start which talk about recirculation at the Outlet. Can get rid of these by selecting either Entrainment or Opening as the boundary condition at the Outlet. The Help Files have details of these. Open CFD-Post, and examine the results. a) Can open results first, then open the previous state file on the results to save time Extension: carry out a Case Comparison in CFD-Post between this results file and the previous one.

Workshop 09 - Non-Newtonian flow with heat transfer

Task: to simulate the laminar flow of a non-Newtonian fluid with heat transfer. 1) Open the CFX-Pre file Laminar_Glucose_hexa a) If you have not created this yet, open Laminar_Glucose_tetra, replace the mesh with the hexa mesh, and create Laminar_Glucose_hexa first. Remember to use units of *mm+. 2) From the File menu, choose Save Simulation As and save the simulation as Laminar_Glucose_hexa_NNT. 3) Double click Expressions a) Right click Expressions, Insert, Expression b) Name: Visc i) Type Kindex * sstrnr^ (FB -1) in the white area, hit Apply, expand Expressions to see this expression listed above. (1) where Kindex is the consistency index of the fluid, (2) FB is the flow behaviour index (3) sstrnr is the shear strain rate (variable). c) Insert another expression: Kindex which is 0.1 [Pa s^0.6] (type exactly as shown) d) Insert a third expression: FB which is 0.6 e) The three expressions should be listed. Return to the Outline view. 4) Right click on Expressions and select Edit in Command Editor. Note that expressions can be copied and pasted in here, in bulk, when the correct programming syntax is known. Refer to CFX help system on CEL or Common Expression Language for this. a) Exit the dialog without changing anything. 5) From the toolbar, click Create a Material, and name it Power Law. a) Check Thermodynamic State and make sure the state value is Liquid. b) In the Material Properties tab, set the density at 1000 kg m^-3.

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6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12)

c) Check the Specific Heat Capacity box, set value to 4000 [J kg^-1 K^-1] d) Expand the Transport Properties menu, check the Dynamic Viscosity box, press the Expression Symbol, and enter the value as Visc. e) Check the Thermal Conductivity box and enter the value 0.6. f) Click OK. Double click Default Domain a) Change Material to Power Law from the drop-down list. From the Fluid Models tab, choose Thermal Energy for Heat Transfer and None for Turbulence. For the inlet boundary condition, use Mass Flow Rate and set the value at 0.05 kg s-1, and for Heat Transfer, set the Static Temperature at 330 K. For the outlet boundary condition, use Average Static Pressure, and set it at 0 Pa. At the wall (rename Default Domain Default to this if necessary), under the Boundary Details tab, choose Temperature for the Heat Transfer option, and use a Fixed Temperature of 450 K. In the Solver section, double-click Solver Control. Ensure that the Advection Scheme is set to High Resolution. Save case. Save definition file. Run Solver on definition to produce results. Examine results file in CFD-Post. View the temperature in a plane through the middle of the pipe.

Workshop 10 - Transient simulation of a Rushton turbine (sliding mesh)

Task: To simulate the time dependent laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid in a stirred tank. 1) In the ANSYS launcher, change the directory to be Rushton. 2) Create a new CFX-Pre General simulation, and save it as Rushton_Transient.cfx. 3) Import mesh created with ICEM-CFD. Mesh is called Rushton.cfx5. Make sure units of *mm+ are selected. 4) Double Click on Analysis Type. Under Analysis Type input select Transient. For the Total Time of the simulation select 12s with Time Steps of 6s and 0s of Initial Time. 5) We need two domains to set up a sliding mesh. From the tool bar click Create Domain and name it Impeller. 6) Select the entire surfaces of the turbine domain grouped under SURF_TURBINE and from the fluid list choose Water. Set the domain motion to 1 rev/min ( Re=26.6) and the y-axis as centre of rotation. 7) If the interfaces have been correctly defined in Icem-CFD, they should be correctly recognized by Cfx-Pre and Default Fluid-Fluid interface should appear. 8) For the Impeller domain, go to Initialization tab, tick Domain Initialization, and set (u,v,w) components to (0,0,0) and relative pressure to 0. 9) Right click on Default Domain and rename as Vessel. Double click on Vessel and make sure that the domain is stationary and located in Surf_Vessel. a) Go to Initialization tab, again tick Domain Initialization, and set (u,v,w) components to (0,0,0) and relative pressure to 0. 10) Double click on the Default Fluid-Fluid interface a) Interface Model general connection b) Frame Change / Mixing model Transient Rotor-Stator c) Pitch change set to none. 11) Double click on Output Control and in the Trn Results create a new file called Rushton Transient Time step with an Output frequency of Every Time step 12) Save as .cfx file using from the file menu Save simulation as 13) Write the solver definition file.

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14) Close Pre, open Solver Manager, set up a new run using initial conditions Rushton_SteadyState.res. This will overwrite the zero initialization entered earlier, but which was needed to get the solver to run (maybe a CFX v12.0 error). 15) Start Run, wait for it to complete. 16) Post process in CFD-Post. a) In particular, note that there are two timesteps, which can be switched between using the Clock icon, and animated between using the Filmstrip icon. b) Also, in the impeller domain different results are obtained depending on whether the variable selected is obtained using rotating coordinates or stationary coordinates. When plotting velocity on a plane through the middle of the whole geometry, the correct one to use is the one which does not leave a visible outline on the impeller domain boundary.

Workshop 11 - Multiphase flow with a free surface

By Dr Hassan Hemida, University of Birmingham Task: To be able to run a simulation with two fluids with an interface between them.

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

In the CFX launcher, choose directory BigWave. Open CFX-Pre Choose new simulation, general Right click on Mesh, import a FLUENT mesh. Choose file type Fluent (*cas,*msh) and load the mesh file bigWave.msh with units *m+ Double click Analysis Type a) Basic settings, Analysis type, option, transient b) Time Duration, Options, total time c) Total time, 8 s d) Time steps, Timesteps, 0.1 s e) OK 7) Double click on the default Domain and apply the following: a) Location, SOLID b) Domain type, Fluid Domain c) Basic Setting, delete Fluid 1 d) Basic Settings, create new fluid, Air i) Air, Material Air at 25 C

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8)

9)

10)

11) 12) 13) 14)

Air, Option, Continuous Fluid Domain Models, Option, Buoyant Gravitational acceleration, (0,0,-9.81) Buoyancy Ref. Temperature: 25C. (If Buoyancy ref. density is needed, select 1.185 [kg m^-3]). e) Create new fluid i) Name it Water, with material Water, set the ref. density for this fluid: 997 [kg m^-3] f) Fluid Models, Multiphase, homogeneous Model, selected g) Fluid Models, Free Surface Model, Options, standard h) Heat Transfer: None. (Can tick homogeneous, but this is now irrelevant.) i) Turbulence, None (Laminar) Create boundary conditions a) Insert, boundary conditions, Inlet i) Choose location, INLETWATER ii) Boundary type, inlet iii) Boundary Details: Normal speed 20 m/s iv) Fluid Values, Air, Volume Fraction, 0 v) Fluid Values, water, Volume Fraction, 1 b) Insert, boundary conditions, Building i) Choose location, BUILDING1 ii) Boundary type, wall c) Insert, boundary conditions, Sides i) Choose location, SIDES ii) Boundary type, wall d) Insert, boundary conditions, Ground i) Boundary type, wall ii) Location GROUND e) Insert, boundary conditions, Openings i) Boundary type, Opening ii) Location, INLETAIR, OUTLET, ROOF iii) Boundary Details, Rel. Pressure, 0 iv) FLUID VALUES, Air at 25 C, volume fraction 1 v) FLUID VALUES, Water, volume fraction 0 Global initialization a) Double click Default Domain b) Initialization, Check Initial condition, velocity type Cartesian, (0,0,0) c) Initialization, Relative Pressure, 0 Pa d) Initialization, Air at 25 C, volume fraction 1 e) Initialization, Water volume fraction 0 Solver setting a) Output control, Trn Results, new, Transient Results 1, Standard, output frequency, option, Time Interval, 0.5 s b) Solver control, basic settings, Max. Coeff. Loop, 4 Save the case as FreeSurf.cfx Write the solver definition file FreeSurf.def. Start solver (single processor) Visualize the results in CFX-post a) Load the result file b) Insert, location, isosurface i) Geometry, Variable, Air.Volume Fraction ii) Value, 0.5

ii) iii) iv) v)

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iii) Colour, Variable, Water Velocity (on this isosurface either standard variable or superficial velocity will make no difference). c) Animate the isosurface using the .trndata files from different timesteps stored in the transient file store directory.

General notes about using ICEM and CFX

Stages of a simulation Create 3D geometry Tetra: create a mesh: surface, volume and prism Hexa: create a blocking, then a mesh Create a low resolution mesh, run steady state laminar on this mesh. Repeat with one of the following upgrades, using the previous output as initial conditions for next stage: o Change laminar to turbulent Choice of turbulence model o Increase resolution of mesh Global increase, or local increase where previous results show high velocities o Change steady state to transient o Decrease time step (increase frequency resolution) o Change boundary conditions from steady to unsteady o Change single phase to multiphase with moving boundary o Change a constant viscosity liquid to a variable viscosity liquid o Add a chemical reaction o Add heat transfer and boundary conditions o Other simulation physics add-ins. Run on BlueBEAR cluster instead of on workstation for speed-up on convergence time o BlueBEAR can be run independently, has up to 8GB/16GB RAM per node. o Some peoples PhDs hang off the results of a single simulation run over the last 6 months of their course! o Requesting more nodes, memory, hard drive or access time reduces priority in BlueBEAR scheduling. o For different problems there are different optimal numbers of nodes. (8-16 for my own project.) This is due to cross-talk reducing efficiency of simulation. May expect, for example, a speed up factor of 6 by going from 1 node to 8. Help, tutorials, workshops available: For any feature of ICEM or CFX that you do not understand, use the ICEM or CFX help system as first line support. You can normally find out about the option you want to use by doing a keyword search. ICEM and CFX-Pre tutorial files available on local machine, e.g. at: o C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v121\CFX\examples o C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v121\icemcfd\Samples Extra tutorials online: http://www.ansys.com/tutorials/. o Need to be registered with ANSYS Customer Portal for this. Once you have the software, ask the person in department who deals with your ANSYS licence. CFX (Pre) tutorial notes are found in the Help system. They accompany the tutorial files found on the local machine. Very helpful. ICEM tutorial notes in the Help system redirects you to the ANSYS Customer Portal, so less helpful if you do not have registration. CFD website at University of Birmingham: http://www.cfd.bham.ac.uk

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Books CFD section in library simulation physics specific to your CFD application. Need understanding of your problem, and how to model it.

Software required (ANSYS) and files created ICEM-CFD creating 3D geometry of fluid dynamical system, meshing a 3D geometry using either tetrahedra/prisms or cubes (hexa). Output: FLUENT v6 mesh files (*.msh), need to choose a file type, e.g. FLUENT-V6. The programs native format is project files (*.prj) which summarise many other file types, e.g. geometry (.tin), blocking (.blk), ICEM mesh (.uns). o Can import geometry from other programs, e.g. AutoCAD, Solidworks CFX-Pre creating CFD simulation of system. Takes as input a meshed 3D system (*.msh). Adds physics: fluid models, initial and boundary conditions. Output a CFD simulation (*.cfx), and a solver input file (*.def). CFX-Solver running a simulation. Input: a definitions file (*.def). Steady state: resolve until error is small. Transient: each timestep needs to be resolved, i.e. iterated until relative error has become very small (e.g. 10-5) so this can take a very long time, e.g. 100 timesteps with 80 iterations on average needed for each. Output a results (*.res) file. CFD-Post viewing results from simulation. Can plot scalar quantities on planes. Can overlay vector quantities (i.e. velocity) as arrows. Isosurfaces. Streamlines. Graphs, Tables, Reports. State files (static) are (.cst) format. Session files (dynamic, like a macro) are (.cse) format. BlueBEAR cluster computer at University of Birmingham software used to access See http://www.bear.bham.ac.uk/bluebear/ Need to have a project code o Supervisor needs to apply for this. Need to be registered on BlueBEAR o Done via BIIS website WinSCP can be used to transfer files to and from the cluster o Connection to bluebear.bham.ac.uk requires all three logon nodes to be available o Connection to bluebearx.bham.ac.uk (x=1, 2 or 3) if the above doesnt work o Free of cost PuTTY used for text window access to BlueBEAR o Secure shell client provides text based access to the system. o Access logon node o Submit a batch process using a script and files all uploaded using WinSCP o Request an interactive node (see Exceed) o Free Disk space to store working data o 50GB of backed up disk space available o 70GB of non backed up disk space available Probable software applications include: o Ansys Workbench (only v11 though) o Ansys CFX v12 (Feb 2011: may now be v13) o Ansys ICEM-CFD v12 Need Exceed to run any of the above since they are graphical programs Number of licences for the above is restricted. It may not be possible to use the program immediately upon obtaining a node. Exceed is alternative system for transferring files to and from the cluster o It provides graphical support for interactive nodes o It costs 50

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