STAR-CCM+ User Guide Natural Convection: Concentric Cylinders 3980

Natural Convection: Concentric Cylinders

This tutorial demonstrates how to solve a natural convection problem in
STAR-CCM+. An infinitely long cylinder of radius 1.78 cm, heated at a
constant temperature of 306.3 K, is placed inside another larger cylinder of
radius 4.628 cm at a lower fixed temperature of 293.7 K. These temperatures
are chosen to give an even temperature distribution about a bulk
temperature ( T b ) of 300 K in the annulus. As the flow is expected to be
symmetrical about the center-line, it is only necessary to work with half the
geometry, as shown below.

The model will be set up for an ideal gas with the following material
properties, evaluated at bulk temperature of 300 K and pressure 100,000 Pa.

Density (kg/m^2) 1.1614

Dynamic viscosity (Pa-s) 1.846E-5
Kinematic viscosity (m^2/s) 1.589E-5
Specific Heat (J/kg-K) 1007.0
Thermal Coefficient of Vol- 1/ T b (Ideal Gas) =
umetric Expansion (1/K) 0.00333

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Thermal Conductivity 0.0263

(W/m-K)
Thermal Diffusivity 2.249E-5
(m^2/s)

This case repeats the experiments of Kuehn and Goldstein [1]. The physics
4
will be set up to correspond to a Rayleigh number of 2.66 10 . The Rayleigh
number ( Ra ) is a dimensionless number defined as
gTL 3
Ra = -------------------- (1)


where g is the gravity constant  m  s 2  ,  is the thermal coefficient of

volumetric expansion of an ideal gas  1  K  , T is the change in temperature
 K  , L is the length of the convection ( R o – R i )  m  ,  is the kinematic
viscosity  m 2  s  and  is the thermal diffusivity  m 2  s  .

Importing the Mesh and Naming the Simulation

Start up STAR-CCM+ in a manner that is appropriate to your working
environment and select the New Simulation option from the menu bar.
• Select File > Import > Import Volume Mesh... from the menu bar.
• In the Open dialog, navigate to
doc/tutorials/heatTransfer/concylMesh.ccm.
• Click Open to start the import.
• Save the simulation under the name conCyl.sim.

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A geometry scene will be displayed in the Graphics window. To view the

internal mesh that has been imported, create a mesh scene.

Setting up the Physics Models

We will next set up the physics for our model. As this problem deals with
natural convection, we will be using an implicit coupled flow solver due to
its increased robustness over the segregated solver. Further discussion on
things to consider when deciding on an appropriate solver can be found in
the section: How Do I Choose Between Coupled and Segregated?

A physics continuum, called Physics 1, is automatically created when the

mesh is imported. By default, the continuum will include a Two Dimensional
space model to account for the two dimensions of the imported mesh.
• Right-click on the Physics 1 node in the STAR-CCM+ tree and click on
Select models...
• Select the following additional physics models:
• Steady in the Time group box.

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• Gas in the Material group box.

• Coupled Flow in the Flow group box.
• Ideal Gas in the Equation of State group box.
• Laminar in the Viscous Regime group box.
• Gravity in the Optional Models group box.
• Close the dialog.

The complete list of selected models under the Models node of Physics 1 is
shown below.

(2)
• Right-click on the Continua > Physics 1 > Models > Gas node and select
Edit..

The Edit dialog will appear.

• Navigate to Gas > Air > Material Properties.
• Expand the Dynamic Viscosity, Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity
Constant nodes.
• Set Dynamic Viscosity to 1.846E-5 Pa-s.
• Set Specific Heat to 1007.0 J/kg-K.
• Set Thermal Conductivity to 0.0263 W/m-K.

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The completed dialog is shown below.

• Close the dialog.

• Navigate to the Continua > Physics 1 > Reference Values > Reference
Density node.

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• In the Properties window, set the Value to 1.1614 kg/m^3.

• Navigate to the Continua > Physics 1 > Reference Values > Reference
Pressure node.
• In the Properties window, set the Value to 100000.0 Pa.

Note that the initial static temperature is by default 300 K, which is the
average of the fixed inner and outer wall temperatures. The initial static
temperature is located under Continua > Physics 1 > Initial Conditions > Static
Temperature. The material properties were evaluated at this bulk
temperature.

Setting Boundary Physics Conditions

A fixed temperature difference across the annulus is achieved by setting the
static temperatures of the inner and outer cylinder walls.
• Select the Regions > ConvectionCylinders > Inner Wall > Physics
Conditions > Thermal Specification node.

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• In the Properties window, select Temperature for the Method property.

• Select the Regions > ConvectionCylinders > Inner Wall > Physics
Values > Static Temperature > Constant node.
• In the Properties window, set the Value to 306.3 K.

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• Repeat the process to set a static temperature for the Outer Wall node. Its
value should be set to 293.7 K.

Setting Solver Criteria

We will increase the default value of the Courant number of the coupled
implicit solver to achieve faster convergence. We generally want a Courant
number that balances the total number of iterations against the time per
iteration. The section on the coupled implicit solver provides further
guidelines for setting an appropriate Courant number.
• Select the Solvers > Coupled Implicit node.
• In the Properties window, set the Courant Number to 100.0.

Because we are using a relatively large Courant number on a simple

convection problem, we can expect fast convergence. We can therefore
decrease the number of iterations for which to run the solver.

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• Set the number of maximum steps to 300.

Preparing Scalar and Vector Scenes

A scalar and a vector scene will be created to display the temperature and
velocity vectors in the region bounded by the concentric cylinders during
the simulation.
• Create a new Scalar Scene.
• Click on the scene/plot button.
• Navigate to Scalar Scene 1 > Displayers > Scalar 1 > Scalar Field.
• Select the Temperature scalar field function in the Scalar Field - Properties

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window.

• Create a new Vector Scene. Note that by default, the vector field is set to
the Velocity function.

Preparing Report to Monitor Convergence

To judge convergence for this natural convection problem, we will monitor
the heat balance in our model, which should sum to zero for a converged
case.
• Right-click on the Reports node and select New Report > Heat Transfer.
• Rename the Heat Transfer 1 node to Heat Transfer Inner.
• In the Properties window of the Reports > Heat Transfer Inner node, set the

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Parts to Regions > ConvectionCylinders > Inner Wall.

• Repeat the above procedure to create another report, called Heat

Transfer Outer, for the heat transfer on the Outer Wall region.

We will next create an expression report that will calculate the heat balance
using the results of the newly created reports. A corresponding Field
Function is generated for each report, allowing us to use them in an
expression.
• Right-click on the Reports node and select New Report > Expression.
• Rename the Expression 1 node to Heat Balance.
• In the Properties window of the Reports > Heat Balance node, set the
Definition to $HeatTransferOuterReport +

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$HeatTransferInnerReport.

• Click OK to close the dialog.

• Right-click on the Reports > Heat Balance node and select Create Monitor
and Plot from Report.
• Right-click on the Plots > Heat Balance Monitor Plot node and select Open
to view the plot in the Graphics window.

Running the Simulation

We are now ready to run the simulation. Click the Run button in the
toolbar.

The Residuals display will be created automatically and will show the
solver’s progress.

Save the simulation after the solver has finished.

Visualizing the Results

The scalar and vector scenes are shown below. As expected, the
temperature decreases between the wall of the inner cylinder and that of the
outer cylinder. This corresponds to the difference in the fixed wall
temperatures of the two cylinders. The warmer air rises as it moves from the
wall of the inner cylinder towards the outer cylinder, and sinks to the
bottom of the annulus as it cools. The air recirculates within the annulus due

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to natural convection, with the largest velocities seen near the walls of the
cylinders, towards the top.

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The heat balance quickly drops to about zero, showing that the problem
converged correctly.

Comparing Results to Experimental Data

Kuehn and Goldstein reported their experimental and numerical results in
the form of an equivalent conductivity. This equivalent conductivity is
defined as the ratio of the actual heat transfer measured (or predicted)
across the annulus to the heat transfer that would be obtained by pure
conduction alone. That is,
q act
k eq = ------------- (3)
q cond

For concentric cylinders, q cond is defined as

2kT
q cond = -------------------------- (4)
ln  R o  R i 

For the case being considered in this tutorial, Kuehn and Goldstein obtained
an equivalent conductivity of 2.58 .

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To evaluate conductivity, we first calculate the conductive heat transfer

based on Eqn. (4) using values provided earlier in our setup. This comes out
to q cond = 2.177 W  m . The value of q act for one half of the cylinders can be
retrieved by double clicking on the Reports > Heat Transfer Inner or Heat
Transfer Outer node. The heat transfer will be displayed in the Output
window.

The total q act for the complete annulus is therefore 5.56 W . When inserting
into Eqn. (3) above, we calculate an equivalent conductivity of
5.56
k eq = ------------- = 2.55 (5)
2.177

There is only about a 1% difference between this result and the value given
by Kuehn and Goldstein, showing that the numerical model has predicted
the heat transfer consistent to what has been reported by others. Note that
because we are working with a 2D representation of the cylinders, our
prediction of heat transfer is per meter length, that is, W  m .

Summary
This tutorial demonstrated how to solve a natural convection problem in
two concentric cylinders. The steps covered were:
• Importing a volume mesh.
• Defining physics models for laminar flow with natural convection.
• Defining the material properties for the selected models.
• Defining fixed physics conditions at the regions level.
• Setting a convergence condition for the coupled implicit solver.
• Preparing scalar and vector scenes.
• Preparing a heat balance report.
• Running the simulation.
• Examining the temperature, velocity field and heat balance solutions.

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• Comparing solution to experimental results.

References
[1] Kuehn, T. H. and Goldstein, R. J. An experimental study of natural
convection heat transfer in concentric and eccentric horizontal cylindrical
annuli. J. Heat Trans. (100) pp. 635-640, 1978.

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