Tutorial 24.

Turbo Postprocessing
Introduction
This tutorial demonstrates the turbomachinery postprocessing capabilities of FLUENT.
In this example, you will read the case and data les (without doing the calculation) and
perform a number of turbomachinery-specic postprocessing operations.
This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following:
Dene the topology of a turbomachinery model.
Create surfaces for the display of 3D data.
Revolve 3D geometry to display a 360-degree image.
Report turbomachinery quantities.
Display averaged contours for turbomachinery.
Display 2D contours for turbomachinery.
Display averaged XY plots for turbomachinery.
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the menu structure in FLUENT and that
you have completed Tutorial 1. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not
be shown explicitly.
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Problem Description
The problem considered in this tutorial is a centrifugal compressor shown schematically in
Figure 24.1. The model comprises a single 3D sector of the compressor to take advantage
of the circumferential periodicity in the problem. The ow of air through the compressor
is simulated and the postprocessing capabilities of FLUENT are used to display realistic,
full 360-degree images of the solution obtained.
inlet
outlet
hub side
shroud side
Figure 24.1: Problem Schematic
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Setup and Solution
Preparation
1. Download turbo_postprocess.zip from the Fluent Inc. User Services Center or
copy it from the FLUENT documentation CD to your working folder (as described
in Tutorial 1).
2. Unzip turbo_postprocess.zip.
turbo.cas and turbo.dat can be found in the turbo postprocess folder created
after unzipping the le.
3. Start the 3D (3d) version of FLUENT.
Step 1: Reading the Case and Data Files
1. Read the case and data les (turbo.cas and turbo.dat).
File Read Case & Data...
When you select turbo.cas, turbo.dat will be read automatically.
Step 2: Grid Display
1. Display the grid (Figure 24.2).
Display Grid...
(a) Retain the default Edges option in the Options group box.
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(b) Select Outline in the Edge Type list.
(c) Deselect all the surfaces from the Surfaces selection list and click the Outline
button (below the Surface Types list).
(d) Click Display.
(e) Rotate the view using the left mouse button and zoom in using the middle
mouse button, to obtain an isometric display of the compressor duct.
Z
Y
X
Grid
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
Figure 24.2: Graphics Display of the Edges of the Compressor Mesh
(f) Close the Grid Display panel.
Extra: You can use the right mouse button to check which zone number corresponds
to each boundary. If you click the right mouse button on one of the boundaries
displayed in the graphics window, its zone number, name, and type will be printed
in the console. This feature is especially useful when you have several zones of the
same type and you want to distinguish between them quickly.
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Step 3: Dening the Turbomachinery Topology
You will dene the topology of the ow domain in order to establish a turbomachinery-
specic coordinate system. This coordinate system is used in subsequent postprocessing
functions. Specically, you will select the boundary zones that comprise the hub, shroud,
inlet, outlet, and periodics. The boundaries may consist of more than one zone.
The topology setup that you dene will be saved to the case le when you save the current
model. Thus, if you read the saved case back into FLUENT, you do not need to set up the
topology again.
See Section 28.9.1 of the Users Guide for more information on dening turbomachinery
topologies.
Dene Turbo Topology...
1. Specify the surfaces representing the hub.
(a) Retain the default selection of Hub in the Boundaries list.
(b) Select the surfaces that represent the hub (wall-diuser-hub, wall-hub, and
wall-inlet-hub) in the Surfaces selection list.
Hint: Scroll down the Surfaces list to locate the surfaces representing the hub.
2. Specify the surfaces representing the casing.
(a) Select Casing in the Boundaries list.
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(b) Select wall-diuser-shroud, wall-inlet-shroud, and wall-shroud in the Surfaces se-
lection list.
3. Specify the surfaces representing the periodic boundaries.
(a) Select Theta Periodic in the Boundaries list.
(b) Select periodic.33, periodic.34, and periodic.35 in the Surfaces selection list.
Note: While Theta Periodic represents periodic boundary zones on the circumfer-
ential boundaries of the ow passage, Theta Min and Theta Max are wall sur-
faces at the minimum and maximum position on a circumferential boundary.
There are no such wall surfaces in this problem.
4. Specify the surface representing the Inlet (inlet).
5. Specify the surface representing the Outlet (outlet).
6. Specify the surface representing the Blade (wall-blade).
7. Retain the default name of new-topology-1 for the Turbo Topology Name.
8. Click Dene to set all the turbomachinery boundaries.
9. Close the Turbo Topology panel.
FLUENT will inform you that the turbomachinery postprocessing functions have been en-
abled, and the Turbo menu will appear in FLUENT menu bar at the top of the console.
You can dene any number of turbo topologies in the Turbo Topology panel. This is
especially useful when you have a model comprising multiple blade rows and you need to
dene more than one blade row simultaneously. Each topology can be assigned a specic
name and accessed using the drop-down list in the Turbo Topology panel.
See Section 28.9.1 of the Users Guide for more information on dening turbomachinery
topologies.
Note: You can display the selected surfaces by clicking the Display button in the Turbo
Topology panel. This is useful as a graphical check to ensure that all relevant
surfaces have been selected.
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Step 4: Isosurface Creation
To display results in a 3D model, you will need surfaces on which the data can be dis-
played. FLUENT creates surfaces for all boundary zones automatically. In a general
application, you may want to dene additional surfaces for viewing results. FLUENTs
turbo postprocessing capabilities allow you to dene more complex surfaces, specic to the
application and the particular topology that you dened. In this step, you will create sur-
faces of iso-meridional (marching along the streamwise direction) and spanwise (distance
between the hub and the shroud) coordinates in the compressor.
1. Create surfaces of constant meridional coordinate.
Surface Iso-Surface...
(a) Select Grid... and Meridional Coordinate from the Surface of Constant drop-
down lists.
(b) Enter 0.2 in the Iso-Values text eld.
(c) Enter meridional-0.2 for New Surface Name.
(d) Click Create.
Note: The isovalues you enter for these turbo-specic surfaces are expressed
as a percentage of the entire domain (i.e., you just dened a surface of
meridional coordinate equal to 20% of the path along the duct).
(e) Similarly, dene surfaces of meridional coordinates equal to 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8.
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2. Create surfaces of constant spanwise coordinate.
(a) Select Grid... and Spanwise Coordinate from the Surface of Constant drop-down
lists.
(b) Enter 0.25 in the Iso-Values text eld.
(c) Enter spanwise-0.25 for New Surface Name.
(d) Click Create.
(e) Similarly, dene surfaces of spanwise coordinates equal to 0.5 and 0.75.
3. Close the Iso-Surface panel.
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Step 5: Contours
1. Display lled contours of pressure on the meridional isosurfaces (Figure 24.3).
Display Contours...
(a) Enable Filled in the Options group box.
(b) Select Pressure... and Static Pressure from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(c) Select inlet, meridional-0.2, meridional-0.4, meridional-0.6, meridional-0.8, and
outlet from the Surfaces selection list.
(d) Enable Draw Grid in the Options group box.
The Grid Display panel will open.
i. Retain the current settings and close the Grid Display panel.
(e) Click Display.
(f) Rotate and zoom the display using the left and middle mouse buttons, respec-
tively, to obtain the view shown in Figure 24.3.
In Figure 24.3, you can observe the buildup of static pressure along the duct.
2. Display lled contours of Mach number (Figure 24.4).
(a) Select Velocity... and Mach Number from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Click Display.
In Figure 24.4, you can observe locations at which the ow becomes slightly
supersonic, about halfway through the duct.
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Contours of Static Pressure (atm)
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
1.84e+00
1.78e+00
1.73e+00
1.67e+00
1.62e+00
1.56e+00
1.50e+00
1.45e+00
1.39e+00
1.34e+00
1.28e+00
1.22e+00
1.17e+00
1.11e+00
1.06e+00
1.00e+00
9.44e-01
8.88e-01
8.32e-01
7.76e-01
7.20e-01 Z
Y
X
Figure 24.3: Filled Contours of Pressure on the Meridional Isosurfaces
Contours of Mach Number
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
1.04e+00
9.85e-01
9.35e-01
8.85e-01
8.35e-01
7.84e-01
7.34e-01
6.84e-01
6.34e-01
5.83e-01
5.33e-01
4.83e-01
4.33e-01
3.82e-01
3.32e-01
2.82e-01
2.32e-01
1.81e-01
1.31e-01
8.07e-02
3.05e-02 Z
Y
X
Figure 24.4: Filled Contours of Mach Number on the Meridional Isosurfaces
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3. Display lled contours of Mach number on the spanwise isosurfaces (Figure 24.5).
(a) Deselect all surfaces in the Surfaces selection list.
(b) Select spanwise-0.25, spanwise-0.5, and spanwise-0.75 from the Surfaces selec-
tion list.
(c) Click Display.
Contours of Mach Number
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
1.04e+00
9.85e-01
9.35e-01
8.85e-01
8.35e-01
7.84e-01
7.34e-01
6.84e-01
6.34e-01
5.83e-01
5.33e-01
4.83e-01
4.33e-01
3.82e-01
3.32e-01
2.82e-01
2.32e-01
1.81e-01
1.31e-01
8.07e-02
3.05e-02 Z
Y
X
Figure 24.5: Filled Contours of Mach Number on the Spanwise Isosurfaces
The display in Figure 24.5 allows you to further study the variation of the
Mach number inside the duct. You may want to explore using dierent com-
binations of surfaces to display the same or additional variables.
4. Display a 360-degree image of the Mach number contours on the 0.5 spanwise
isosurface (Figure 24.6).
(a) Deselect spanwise-0.25 and spanwise-0.75 from the Surfaces selection list.
(b) Click Display.
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(c) Display the full 360-degree geometry.
Display Views...
i. Click the Dene... button to open the Graphics Periodicity panel.
A. Select uid in the Cell Zones list.
This will select all the surfaces in the Associated Surfaces list. The
default value for Number of Repeats is set to 20. The display is updated
to give a full, 360 degree view.
B. Click Set and close the Graphics Periodicity panel.
The display will be updated to show the entire geometry (see Fig-
ure 24.6.
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Contours of Mach Number
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
1.04e+00
9.85e-01
9.35e-01
8.85e-01
8.35e-01
7.84e-01
7.34e-01
6.84e-01
6.34e-01
5.83e-01
5.33e-01
4.83e-01
4.33e-01
3.82e-01
3.32e-01
2.82e-01
2.32e-01
1.81e-01
1.31e-01
8.07e-02
3.05e-02
Z
Y
X
Figure 24.6: Filled Contours of Mach Number on the 0.5 Spanwise Isosurface
ii. Close the Views panel.
5. Close the Contours panel.
Note: This step demonstrated a typical view-manipulation task. See Tutorial 23 for
further examples of postprocessing features.
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Step 6: Reporting Turbo Quantities
The turbomachinery report provides some tabulated information specic to the application
and the dened topology.
See Section 28.9.2 of the Users Guide for details.
Turbo Report...
1. Retain the default selection of Mass-Weighted in the Averages list.
2. Click Compute.
3. Close the Turbo Report panel.
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Step 7: Averaged Contours
Turbo averaged contours are generated as projections of the values of a variable averaged
in the circumferential direction and visualized on an r- z plane.
1. Disable the periodic repeats.
Display Views...
(a) Click the Dene... button to open the Graphics Periodicity panel.
i. Click Reset.
ii. Close the Graphics Periodicity panel.
(b) Close the Views panel.
2. Display lled contours of averaged static pressure (Figure 24.7).
Turbo Averaged Contours...
(a) Select Pressure... and Static Pressure from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Click Display.
(c) Close the Turbo Averaged Contours panel.
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Averaged Turbo Contour - pressure (atm) (atm)
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
1.80e+00
1.76e+00
1.72e+00
1.67e+00
1.63e+00
1.58e+00
1.54e+00
1.50e+00
1.45e+00
1.41e+00
1.36e+00
1.32e+00
1.28e+00
1.23e+00
1.19e+00
1.14e+00
1.10e+00
1.06e+00
1.01e+00
9.68e-01
9.24e-01
Z
Y
X
Figure 24.7: Filled Contours of Averaged Static Pressure
Step 8: 2D Contours
In postprocessing a turbomachinery solution, it is often preferable to display contours
on constant spanwise coordinates and then, project these contours onto a plane. This
permits easier evaluation of the contours, especially for surfaces that are highly three-
dimensional. FLUENT allows you to display contours in this manner using the Turbo 2D
Contours panel.
1. Display 2D contours of Mach number (Figure 24.8).
Turbo 2D Contours...
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(a) Select Velocity... and Mach Number from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Enter 0.5 for Normalised Spanwise Coordinates.
Note: For highly curved edges, if a surface is created very close to the curved
edge the resulting surface may have some void spaces in it.
(c) Click Display.
(d) Use the mouse to obtain the view shown in Figure 24.8.
2D Turbo Contour - mach-number
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
9.12e-01
8.69e-01
8.26e-01
7.83e-01
7.40e-01
6.96e-01
6.53e-01
6.10e-01
5.67e-01
5.24e-01
4.81e-01
4.37e-01
3.94e-01
3.51e-01
3.08e-01
2.65e-01
2.22e-01
1.79e-01
1.35e-01
9.22e-02
4.91e-02
Z
Y
X
Figure 24.8: 2D Contours of Mach Number on Surface of Spanwise Value 0.5
(e) Close the Turbo 2D Contours panel.
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Step 9: Averaged XY Plots
In addition to displaying data on dierent combinations of complex 3D and attened
surfaces, FLUENTs turbo postprocessing capabilities allow you to display XY plots of
averaged variables, relevant to the specic topology of a turbomachinery problem. In
particular, you will be able to plot circumferentially-averaged values of variables as a
function of either the spanwise coordinate or the meridional coordinate.
1. Plot temperature as a function of the meridional coordinate (Figure 24.9).
Turbo Averaged XY Plot...
(a) Select Temperature... and Static Temperature from the Y Axis Function drop-
down lists.
(b) Select Meridional Distance from the X Axis Function drop-down list.
(c) Enter 0.9 for the Fractional Distance.
(d) Click Plot.
(e) Close the Turbo Averaged XY Plot panel.
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Z
Y
X
Averaged XY - temperature
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, dbns imp, rke)
Meridional Distance
(k)
Temperature
Static
1.000 0.900 0.800 0.700 0.600 0.500 0.400 0.300 0.200 0.100 0.000
3.50e+02
3.40e+02
3.30e+02
3.20e+02
3.10e+02
3.00e+02
2.90e+02
2.80e+02
Figure 24.9: Averaged XY Plot of Static Temperature on Spanwise Surface of 0.9 Isovalue
Summary
This tutorial demonstrated the use of some of the turbomachinery-specic postprocessing
features of FLUENT. These features can be accessed once you dene the topology of the
problem. More extensive general-purpose postprocessing features are demonstrated in
Tutorial 23. Also, see Chapter 28 and Chapter 29 of the Users Guide for additional
information.
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