Chapter 1.

Getting Started

This chapter provides an introduction to FLUENT, an explanation of

its capabilities, and instructions for starting the solver and choosing the
solver formulation. In addition, a sample session is presented. The
sample session assumes that the grid file has already been generated.
The grid file is included on the documentation CD.
Section 1.1: Introduction
Section 1.2: Program Structure
Section 1.3: Program Capabilities
Section 1.4: Overview of Using FLUENT
Section 1.5: Starting FLUENT
Section 1.6: Choosing the Solver Formulation
Section 1.7: Accessing the FLUENT Manuals
Section 1.8: Sample Session

1.1

Introduction
FLUENT is a state-of-the-art computer program for modeling fluid flow
and heat transfer in complex geometries. FLUENT provides complete
mesh flexibility, solving your flow problems with unstructured meshes
that can be generated about complex geometries with relative ease.
Supported mesh types include 2D triangular/quadrilateral, 3D tetrahedral/hexahedral/pyramid/wedge, and mixed (hybrid) meshes. FLUENT
also allows you to refine or coarsen your grid based on the flow solution.
This solution-adaptive grid capability is particularly useful for accurately
predicting flow fields in regions with large gradients, such as free shear

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layers and boundary layers. In comparison to solutions on structured or

block structured grids, this feature significantly reduces the time required
to generate a good grid. Solution-adaptive refinement makes it easier
to perform grid refinement studies and reduces the computational effort
required to achieve a desired level of accuracy, since mesh refinement is
limited to those regions where greater mesh resolution is needed.
FLUENT is written in the C computer language and makes full use of
the flexibility and power offered by the language. Consequently, true
dynamic memory allocation, efficient data structures, and flexible solver
control are all made possible. In addition, FLUENT uses a client/server
architecture, which allows it to run as separate simultaneous processes
on client desktop workstations and powerful compute servers, for efficient execution, interactive control, and complete flexibility of machine
or operating system type.
All functions required to compute a solution and display the results are
accessible in FLUENT through an interactive, menu-driven interface. The
user interface is written in a language called Scheme, a dialect of LISP.
The advanced user can customize and enhance the interface by writing
menu macros and functions. Contact your support engineer for details.

1.2

Program Structure
Your FLUENT package includes the following products:
FLUENT, the solver.
prePDF, the preprocessor for modeling non-premixed combustion
in FLUENT.
GAMBIT, the preprocessor for geometry modeling and mesh generation.
TGrid, an additional preprocessor that can generate volume meshes
from existing boundary meshes.
filters (translators) for import of surface and volume meshes from
CAD/CAE packages such as ANSYS, I-DEAS, NASTRAN, PATRAN,
and others.

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Figure 1.2.1 shows the organizational structure of these components.

! Note that a grid is the same thing as a mesh; the two words are
used interchangeably here and throughout this manual.

GAMBIT
geometry setup

Geometry
or Mesh

Packages

2D/3D mesh generation

2D/3D Mesh

Other CAD/CAE

Boundary
Mesh

Boundary and/or
Volume Mesh

prePDF
calculation of PDF
look-up tables

PDF files

FLUENT
mesh import and
adaption
physical models
boundary conditions
material properties
calculation
postprocessing

TGrid
Mesh

2D triangular mesh
3D tetrahedral mesh
2D or 3D hybrid mesh

Mesh

Figure 1.2.1: Basic Program Structure

You can create your geometry and grid using GAMBIT. See the GAMBIT
documentation for details. You can also use TGrid to generate a triangular, tetrahedral, or hybrid volume mesh from an existing boundary
mesh (created by GAMBIT or a third-party CAD/CAE package). See the
TGrid Users Guide for details. It is also possible to create grids for FLUENT using ANSYS (Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc.) or I-DEAS (SDRC);
or MSC/ARIES, MSC/PATRAN, or MSC/NASTRAN (all from MacNealSchwendler Corporation). Interfaces to other CAD/CAE packages may
be made available in the future, based on customer requirements, but
most CAD/CAE packages can export grids in one of the above formats.

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Once a grid has been read into FLUENT, all remaining operations are
performed within the solver. These include setting boundary conditions,
defining fluid properties, executing the solution, refining the grid, and
viewing and postprocessing the results.
Note that preBFC and GeoMesh are the names of Fluent preprocessors
that were used before the introduction of GAMBIT. You may see some
references to preBFC and GeoMesh in this manual, for those users who
are still using grids created by these programs.

1.3

Program Capabilities
The FLUENT solver has the following modeling capabilities:
flows in 2D or 3D geometries using unstructured solution-adaptive
triangular/tetrahedral, quadrilateral/hexahedral, or mixed (hybrid)
grids that include prisms (wedges) or pyramids. (Both conformal
and hanging-node meshes are acceptable.)
incompressible or compressible flows
steady-state or transient analysis
inviscid, laminar, and turbulent flows
Newtonian or non-Newtonian flow
convective heat transfer, including natural or forced convection
coupled conduction/convective heat transfer
radiation heat transfer
inertial (stationary) or non-inertial (rotating) reference frame models
multiple moving reference frames, including sliding mesh interfaces
and mixing planes for rotor/stator interaction modeling
chemical species mixing and reaction, including combustion submodels and surface deposition reaction models

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arbitrary volumetric sources of heat, mass, momentum, turbulence,

and chemical species
Lagrangian trajectory calculations for a dispersed phase of particles/droplets/bubbles, including coupling with the continuous phase
phase-change models
flow through porous media
lumped-parameter models for fans, pumps, radiators, and heat exchangers
multiphase flows, including cavitation
free-surface flows with complex surface shapes
These capabilities allow FLUENT to be used for a wide variety of applications, including the following:
Process and process equipment applications
Power generation and oil/gas and environmental applications
Aerospace and turbomachinery applications
Automobile applications
Heat exchanger applications
Electronics/HVAC/appliances
Materials processing applications
Architectural design and fire research
In summary, FLUENT is ideally suited for incompressible and compressible fluid flow simulations in complex geometries. Fluent Inc. also offers
other solvers that address different flow regimes and incorporate alternative physical models. Additional CFD programs from Fluent Inc. include
Airpak, FIDAP, Icepak, MixSim, and POLYFLOW.

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Getting Started

Overview of Using FLUENT

1.4

FLUENT uses unstructured meshes in order to reduce the amount of time

you spend generating meshes, simplify the geometry modeling and mesh
generation process, model more-complex geometries than you can handle
with conventional, multi-block structured meshes, and let you adapt the
mesh to resolve the flow-field features. FLUENT can also use body-fitted,
block-structured meshes (e.g., those used by FLUENT 4 and many other
CFD solvers). FLUENT is capable of handling triangular and quadrilateral elements (or a combination of the two) in 2D, and tetrahedral,
hexahedral, pyramid, and wedge elements (or a combination of these)
in 3D. This flexibility allows you to pick mesh topologies that are best
suited for your particular application, as described in Section 5.1.2.
You can adapt all types of meshes in FLUENT in order to resolve large
gradients in the flow field, but you must always generate the initial mesh
(whatever the element types used) outside of the solver, using GAMBIT,
TGrid, or one of the CAD systems for which mesh import filters exist.
1.4.1

Planning Your CFD Analysis

When you are planning to solve a problem using FLUENT, you should
first give consideration to the following issues:
Definition of the Modeling Goals: What specific results are
required from the CFD model and how will they be used? What
degree of accuracy is required from the model?
Choice of the Computational Model: How will you isolate
a piece of the complete physical system to be modeled? Where
will the computational domain begin and end? What boundary
conditions will be used at the boundaries of the model? Can the
problem be modeled in two dimensions or is a three-dimensional
model required? What type of grid topology is best suited for this
problem?
Choice of Physical Models: Is the flow inviscid, laminar, or
turbulent? Is the flow unsteady or steady? Is heat transfer impor-

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tant? Will you treat the fluid as incompressible or compressible?

Are there other physical models that should be applied?
Determination of the Solution Procedure: Can the problem
be solved simply, using the default solver formulation and solution
parameters? Can convergence be accelerated with a more judicious solution procedure? Will the problem fit within the memory
constraints of your computer, including the use of multigrid? How
long will the problem take to converge on your computer?
Careful consideration of these issues before beginning your CFD analysis
will contribute significantly to the success of your modeling effort. When
you are planning a CFD project, take advantage of the customer support
provided to all FLUENT users.
1.4.2

Problem Solving Steps

Once you have determined the important features of the problem you
want to solve, you will follow the basic procedural steps shown below.
1. Create the model geometry and grid.
2. Start the appropriate solver for 2D or 3D modeling.
3. Import the grid.
4. Check the grid.
5. Select the solver formulation.
6. Choose the basic equations to be solved: laminar or turbulent (or
inviscid), chemical species or reaction, heat transfer models, etc.
Identify additional models needed: fans, heat exchangers, porous
media, etc.
7. Specify material properties.
8. Specify the boundary conditions.
9. Adjust the solution control parameters.

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Getting Started

10. Initialize the flow field.

11. Calculate a solution.
12. Examine the results.
13. Save the results.
14. If necessary, refine the grid or consider revisions to the numerical
or physical model.
Step 1 of the solution process requires a geometry modeler and grid
generator. You can use GAMBIT or a separate CAD system for geometry
modeling and grid generation. You can also use TGrid to generate volume
grids from surface grids imported from GAMBIT or a CAD package.
Alternatively, you can use supported CAD packages to generate volume
grids for import into TGrid or into FLUENT (see Section 5.3). For more
information on creating geometry and generating grids using each of
these programs, please refer to their respective manuals.
In Step 2, you will start the 2D or 3D solver as described in Section 1.5.
The details of steps 314 are covered in later sections of this guide. (See
Section 1.6 for details about step 5.) The menu you need to use for each
solution step is shown in Table 1.4.1.

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Table 1.4.1: Overview of the FLUENT Menus

Solution Step
3. Import the grid.
4. Check the grid.
5. Select the solver formulation.
6. Choose basic equations.
7. Material properties.
8. Boundary conditions.
9. Adjust solution controls.
10. Initialize the flow field.
11. Calculate a solution.
12. Examine the results.

13. Save the results.

14. Adapt the grid.

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Menu
File menu
Grid menu
Define menu
Define menu
Define menu
Define menu
Solve menu
Solve menu
Solve menu
Display menu
Plot menu
Report menu
File menu
Adapt menu

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Getting Started

Starting FLUENT

1.5

The way you start FLUENT will be different for UNIX and Windows
systems, as described below in Sections 1.5.2 and 1.5.3. The installation
process (described in the separate installation instructions for your computer type) is designed to ensure that the FLUENT program is launched
when you follow the appropriate instructions. If it is not, consult your
computer systems manager or your Fluent support engineer.
1.5.1

Single-Precision and Double-Precision Solvers

Both single-precision and double-precision versions of FLUENT are available on all computer platforms. For most cases, the single-precision
solver will be sufficiently accurate, but certain types of problems may
benefit from the use of a double-precision version. Several examples are
listed below:
If your geometry has features of very disparate length scales (e.g.,
a very long, thin pipe), single-precision calculations may not be
adequate to represent the node coordinates.
If your geometry involves multiple enclosures connected via smalldiameter pipes (e.g., automotive manifolds), mean pressure levels
in all but one of the zones can be quite large (since you can set only
one global reference pressure location). Double-precision calculations may therefore be necessary to resolve the pressure differences
that drive the flow, since these will typically be much smaller than
the pressure levels.
For conjugate problems involving high thermal-conductivity ratios
and/or high-aspect-ratio grids, convergence and/or accuracy may
be impaired with the single-precision solver, due to inefficient transfer of boundary information.

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1.5.2

Starting FLUENT on a UNIX System

There are several ways to start FLUENT on a UNIX system:

Start the appropriate version from the command line.
Start the solver from the command line without specifying a version, and then use the Select Solver panel to choose the appropriate
version.
Start the solver from the command line without specifying a version, and then read in a case file (or a case file and data file) to
start the appropriate version.
Specifying the Solver Version from the Command Line
When you start FLUENT from the command line, you can specify the
dimensionality of the problem (2D or 3D), as well as whether you want
a single- or double-precision calculation:
fluent 2d
runs the two-dimensional, single-precision solver,
fluent 3d
runs the three-dimensional, single-precision solver,
fluent 2ddp
runs the two-dimensional, double-precision solver, and
fluent 3ddp
runs the three-dimensional, double-precision solver.
See Section 28.2 for information about starting the parallel solvers.
Specifying the Solver Version in the Select Solver Panel
If you type fluent on the command line with no arguments, the startup
console window (the text window and the main menu bar) will appear
as shown in Figure 1.5.1.

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Figure 1.5.1: Console Window at Startup

You can start a single-precision version of FLUENT by typing 2d or 3d

at the version> prompt. For a double-precision version, type 2ddp or
3ddp.
If you would rather use the GUI to start the correct version, select the
Run... menu item in the File menu.
File Run...
The Select Solver panel will appear as shown in Figure 1.5.2, and you can
pick the appropriate version. (You can also start FLUENT on a remote
machine or start the parallel version from this panel, as described in
Sections 2.4 and 28.2.)
You will normally follow the steps below to start a solver from the panel:
1. Specify a 2D or 3D solver by turning the 3D option on or off under
Versions.

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Figure 1.5.2: The FLUENT version can be selected from the Select Solver
panel

2. Specify the precision by turning the Double Precision option on or

off under Versions.
3. Click on the Run button.
If the program executable is not in your search path, you can specify
a complete pathname to the executable in the Program text entry box
before clicking on Run.
Specifying the Solver Version by Reading a Case File
As discussed above, if you type fluent on the command line without specifying a version argument, the console window will appear as
shown in Figure 1.5.1. You can then automatically execute the appropriate solver by selecting a case file or case and data files using the

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File/Read/Case... or File/Read/Case & Data... menu item (see Section 3.3) or using the read-case or read-case-data command in the
version text menu.
File Read Case...
File/Read/Case... or read-case starts the solver that is appropriate for
the specified case file and then reads in the file.
File Read Case & Data...
File/Read/Case & Data... or read-case-data starts the solver that is
appropriate for the specified case file and then reads in the specified case
and data files (where the case and data files have the same name with
.cas and .dat extensions, respectively).
1.5.3

Starting FLUENT on a Windows System

There are two ways to start FLUENT on a Windows system:

Click on the Start button, select the Programs menu, select the
Fluent.Inc menu, and then select the FLUENT 6 program item.
(Note that if the default Fluent.Inc program group name was
changed when FLUENT was installed, you will find the FLUENT 6
menu item in the program group with the new name that was
assigned, rather than in the Fluent.Inc program group.)
Start from an MS-DOS Command Prompt window by typing fluent
2d (for the 2D single-precision solver), fluent 3d (for the 3D
single-precision solver), fluent 2ddp (for the 2D double-precision
solver), or fluent 3ddp (for the 3D double-precision solver) at the
prompt. Before doing so, however, you must first modify your
user environment so that the MS-DOS Command utility will find
fluent. You can do this by selecting the program item Set Environment, which is also found in the Fluent.Inc program group.
This program will add the Fluent.Inc directory to your command
search path.
From the MS-DOS Command Prompt window, you can also start
the parallel version of FLUENT. To start the parallel version on

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x processors, type fluent version -tx at the prompt, replacing

version with the desired solver version (2d, 3d, 2ddp, or 3ddp)
and x with the number of processors (e.g., fluent 3d -t3 to run
the 3D version on 3 processors). For information about the parallel
version of FLUENT, see Chapter 28.
1.5.4

Startup Options

To obtain information about available versions, releases, etc. before starting up the solver, you can type fluent -help. Available options are as
shown below:
Usage: fluent [version] [-help] [options]
options:
-cl
following argument passed to fluent,
-cxarg following argument passed to cortex,
-cx host:p1:p2 connect to the specified cortex process,
-driver [ gl | opengl | null | pex | sbx | x11 | xgl ],
sets the graphics driver (available drivers vary
by platform),
-env
show environment variables,
-g
run without gui or graphics,
-gu
run without gui,
-gr
run without graphics,
-help
this listing,
-i journal
read the specified journal file,
-nocheck
disable checks for valid license file
and server,
-post
run a post-processing-only executable,
-project x
write project x start and end times to
license log,
-r
list all releases,
-rx
specify release x,
-v
list all versions,
-vx
specify version x,
-n
no execute,
-hcl
following argument passed to fluent host,
-loadx start compute nodes from host x,
-manspa manually spawn compute nodes,
-ncl
following argument passed to fluent compute

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Getting Started

-px
-pathx
-tx

node,
specify parallel communicator x,
specify root path x to Fluent.Inc,
specify number of processors x,

! On Windows systems, only -cx, -driver, -env, -gu (with restrictions),

-help, -i journal, -r, -rx, -v, -vx, and -tx are available.
The first three options are for specifying arguments for FLUENT and
Cortex. Cortex is a process that provides the user interface and graphics
for FLUENT. The option -cx host:p1:p2 is used only when you are
starting the solver manually (see Section 1.5.2).
If you type fluent -driver, you can specify the graphics driver to be
used in the solver session (e.g., fluent -driver xgl). Typing fluent
-env will list all environment variables before running FLUENT.
fluent -g will run Cortex without graphics and without the graphical
user interface. This option is useful if you are not on an X Window
display or if you want to submit a batch job. fluent -gu will run
Cortex without the graphical user interface and fluent -gr will run
Cortex without graphics. (On Windows systems, fluent -gu will run
FLUENT keeping it in its iconified form; if you un-iconify it, the GUI
will be available. This option can be used in conjunction with the -i
journal option to run a job in background mode.)
To start the solver and immediately read a journal file, type fluent -i
journal, replacing journal with the name of the journal file you want to
read. The -nocheck option speeds up the solver startup by not checking
to see if the license server is running. This is useful if you know that the
license daemon is running or you would rather not try to start it if it is
not running (e.g., if you do not have privileges to do so). fluent -post
will run a version of the solver that allows you to set up a problem or
perform postprocessing, but will not allow you to perform calculations.
The -project x option allows you to record CPU time for individual
projects separately. If a job is started by typing fluent -project x
(where x is replaced by the name of the project), extra information related to CPU time will be written to the license manager log file (usually
license.log in the license subdirectory of your FLUENT installation
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directory). To determine the CPU time for the project, add the USER
CPU and SYSTEM CPU values that appear in license.log. See the installation notes for more information about the license manager.
Typing fluent version -r, replacing version with the desired version,
will list all releases of the specified version. fluent -rx will run release
x of FLUENT. You may specify a version as well, or you can wait and
specify the version when prompted by the solver. fluent -v will list
the available versions. fluent -vx will run version x of FLUENT. You
can type fluent -n or use the -n option in conjunction with any of the
others to see where the (specified) executable is without actually running
it.
The remaining options are used in association with the parallel solver.
-hcl is used to pass an argument to the FLUENT host process and -ncl
is used to pass an argument to the FLUENT compute node process(es).
-loadx is used to start the parallel compute node processes on a dedicated parallel machine from its remote front-end machine (x). -manspa
is used to disable the default automatic spawning of compute node processes. -px specifies the use of parallel communicator x, where x can be
any of the communicators listed in Section 28.2.1. -pathx specifies the
root path (path) to the Fluent.Inc installation directory. -tx specifies
that x processors are to be used. For more information about starting
the parallel version of FLUENT, see Section 28.2.

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1.6

Choosing the Solver Formulation

FLUENT provides three different solver formulations:
segregated
coupled implicit
coupled explicit
All three solver formulations will provide accurate results for a broad
range of flows, but in some cases one formulation may perform better
(i.e., yield a solution more quickly) than the others. The segregated
and coupled approaches differ in the way that the continuity, momentum, and (where appropriate) energy and species equations are solved:
the segregated solver solves these equations sequentially (i.e., segregated
from one another), while the coupled solver solves them simultaneously
(i.e., coupled together). Both formulations solve the equations for additional scalars (e.g., turbulence or radiation quantities) sequentially. The
implicit and explicit coupled solvers differ in the way that they linearize
the coupled equations. See Section 22.1 for more details about the three
solver formulations.
Note that the segregated solver is the formulation previously used by
FLUENT 4 and FLUENT/UNS, and the coupled explicit solver is the
formulation previously used by RAMPANT.
The segregated solver traditionally has been used for incompressible and
mildly compressible flows. The coupled approach, on the other hand, was
originally designed for high-speed compressible flows. Both approaches
are now applicable to a broad range of flows (from incompressible to
highly compressible), but the origins of the coupled formulation may
give it a performance advantage over the segregated solver for high-speed
compressible flows.
By default, FLUENT uses the segregated solver, but for high-speed compressible flows (as discussed above), highly coupled flows with strong
body forces (e.g., buoyancy or rotational forces), or flows being solved
on very fine meshes, you may want to consider the coupled implicit solver

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instead. This solver couples the flow and energy equations, which often
results in faster solution convergence. A tradeoff involved in the use of
the coupled implicit solver is that it requires more memory (1.5 to 2
times) than the segregated solver.
For cases where the use of the coupled implicit solver is desirable, but
your machine does not have sufficient memory, you can use the segregated
solver or the coupled explicit solver instead. The coupled explicit solver
also couples the flow and energy equations, but it requires less memory
than the coupled implicit solver. It will, however, usually take longer to
reach a converged solution with the coupled explicit solver than with the
coupled implicit solver.

! Note that the segregated solver provides several physical models that are
not available with the coupled solvers:
Volume-of-fluid (VOF) model
Multiphase mixture model
Eulerian multiphase model
Non-premixed combustion model
Premixed combustion model
Partially premixed combustion model
Soot and NOx models
Rosseland radiation model
Melting/solidification model
Specified mass flow rate for streamwise periodic flow
Shell conduction model
Floating operating pressure
The following features are available with the coupled solvers, but not
with the segregated solver:

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Real gas model

Non-reflecting boundary conditions (available only for the coupled
explicit solver)
Stiff chemistry solver option for laminar flames
User Inputs for Solver Selection
To choose one of the three solver formulations, you will use the Solver
panel (Figure 1.6.1).
Define Models Solver...
To use the segregated solver, retain the default selection of Segregated
under Solver.
To use the coupled implicit solver, select Coupled under Solver and Implicit (the default) under Formulation.
To use the coupled explicit solver, select Coupled under Solver and Explicit
under Formulation.

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Figure 1.6.1: The Solver Panel

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Getting Started

Accessing the FLUENT Manuals

1.7

As described in Section 2.3, FLUENTs on-line help gives you access to

the FLUENT documentation through HTML files, which can be viewed
with your standard web browser (e.g., Netscape Communicator). For
printing, PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF versions of the manuals
are also provided. This section describes how to access the FLUENT
manuals outside of FLUENT (i.e., not through the FLUENT on-line help
utility). See Section 2.3.1 for information about accessing the manuals
through the on-line help.
You can access the manuals directly from the CD or, if the files have
been installed in your Fluent Inc. installation area, you can also access
them there. See the separate installation instructions for your platform
type for information about installing the files from the documentation
CD.

! The comments in this chapter about accessing files in the installation

area assume that all files on the documentation CD have been installed.
If the files you are looking for are not in the installation area, you will
need to install them or access them directly from the CD.
The following sections provide information about accessing the manuals:
Section 1.7.1: Viewing the Manuals
Section 1.7.2: Printing the Manuals
1.7.1

Viewing the Manuals

To view the manuals, you will generally make use of the HTML files,
either in the installation area or on the documentation CD. You will also
need a web browser. If you do not have one, contact your Fluent support
engineer and ask for the Netscape Communicator CD-ROM.
How to Access the HTML Files in the Installation Area
If the files on the documentation CD have been installed, you can view
the HTML versions of the manuals by pointing your browser to

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path/Fluent.Inc/fluent6.0/help/index.htm
where Fluent.Inc is the directory in which FLUENT has been installed,
and you must replace path by the path to the directory where Fluent.Inc
is located.
If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your browser,
select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the Choose File... button
to browse through your directories to find the file.
This will bring up the FLUENT documentation home page (Figure 1.7.1),
from which you can select the HTML version of the particular FLUENT
manual you want to view.
How to Access the HTML Files on the CD
The procedure for viewing the manuals directly on the CD differs slightly
for UNIX and Windows systems:
For UNIX systems, you can view the manuals by inserting the
CD into your CD-ROM drive and pointing your browser to the
following file:
/cdrom/fluent6.0/help/index.htm
where cdrom must be replaced by the name of your CD-ROM drive.
If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your
browser, select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the
Choose File... button to browse through your directories to find
the file.
For Windows systems, you can view the manuals by inserting the
CD into your CD-ROM drive and pointing your browser to the
following file:
cdrom:\fluent6.0\help\Index.htm

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Getting Started

Figure 1.7.1: The FLUENT Documentation Home Page

where cdrom must be replaced by the name of your CD-ROM drive

(e.g., E).
If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your
browser, select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the
Choose File... button to select the CD-ROM drive (which will be
named Fluent inc, followed by the letter for the CD-ROM drive)
and choose the appropriate file.

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This will bring up the FLUENT documentation home page (Figure 1.7.1),
from which you can select the HTML version of the particular FLUENT
manual you want to view.
Navigating the Manuals
When you are viewing a manual in your browser, a set of navigation
buttons will appear at the upper right and lower right corners of the
HTML page, as shown in Figure 1.7.2.

Figure 1.7.2: Navigation Buttons

The navigation buttons are as follows:

Next will take you to the next page in the manual. Note that this is not
the same function as the Forward button of your browser.
Up will take you to the first page of the current manual division (chapter
or section).
Previous will take you to the page just before the current one in the
manual. Note that this is not the same function as the Back
button of your browser.
Index will take you to the index for the manual.
Contents will take you to the table of contents for the manual.
Return to Home will take you to the FLUENT documentation home page
(Figure 1.7.1).

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Note that these buttons will not necessarily appear on all pages, and in
some cases, they will appear, but be inactive; in such cases, they will be
grayed out, as the Previous and Up buttons are in Figure 1.7.2.
Finding Information in the Manuals
Three tools are available to help you find the information you are looking
for in a manual.
Index
The index gives an alphabetical list of keywords, each linked to relevant
sections of the manual. You can access the index by clicking the Index
button that appears at the top and bottom of the page. Note that the
Index button will not appear if the manual does not have an index.
In a larger manual, the index will be split into a number of pages, each
containing keywords starting with a particular letter; in this case, the
Index button will take you to the A index page.
Table of Contents
The table of contents gives a list of the titles of the chapters, sections,
and subsections of the manual in the order in which they appear. Each
title is linked to the corresponding chapter or section. You can access
the table of contents by clicking the Contents button that appears at
the top and bottom of the page. Note that the Contents button will not
appear if the manual does not have a table of contents.
Browser Search
You can use the search capability provided by your browser to find words
or expressions on a single page. For example, you can use the Edit/Find
in Page... menu item in Netscape Communicator to search for the word
turbulence on a page of the manual.

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Typographical Conventions
Throughout the manuals, mini flow charts are used to indicate the menu
selections that lead you to a specific command or panel. Words in green
invoke menus (or submenus) and are connected by arrows that point
from a specific menu toward the item you should select from that menu.

! An exclamation point (!) at the beginning of a line marks an important

note or warning.
Printing Portions of a Manual
Although you can print pages of a manual from your browser, a much
higher-quality printout can be obtained by using the PostScript or PDF
files provided on your documentation CD. See Section 1.7.2 for details.
Modifying the Appearance of the Manuals
There are a few things that you might want to change about the way
your browser displays the manuals in order to increase their usefulness.
Font Size
The absolute size of the text that you will see when viewing your FLUENT
documentation is dependent on a number of factors, including the resolution of your monitor screen. You can adjust the text size by changing the
default font size in the preferences menu of your browser. In Netscape
Communicator, for example, select the Edit/Preferences... menu item
and then choose the Appearance category, where you will find the Fonts
controls. Try several sizes to see the effect on the appearance of the
manuals, and choose the one that is best for you.
Page Width
While reading a manual, you may find a figure that is wider than your
browsers window. As a result, some of the figure will be hidden from
view. To see all of the figure, you can use the horizontal scroll bar at
the bottom of your browsers window, or increase your browsers window
size.

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You might also want to adjust the window size to increase or decrease
the page width to a comfortable reading width.
Tool Tips
When viewing the manuals with certain browsers, information about a
figure will be displayed if you put your cursor over it. However, this
information is not meaningful for most users, and you might find it
somewhat distracting. On some browsers, you can disable the display of
Tool Tips in the preferences menu.
1.7.2

Printing the Manuals

PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF files are provided for printing all or
part of the manuals. You can also print individual HTML pages from
your browser, but it is recommended that you use the PostScript or
PDF files instead if you are printing a long section, in order to obtain a
higher-quality printout.
About the PostScript Files
PostScript files can be printed with a PostScript-compatible printer, and
are distinguished by a .ps suffix in their file names. They can also be
viewed with a PostScript viewing program (such as Ghostview). If you
are unable to print PostScript files, you should use the PDF files instead.

! The PostScript files are formatted for US letter-sized paper. If you are
printing to a different paper size, you may want to use the PDF files for
better page layout.
About the PDF Files
The PDF files are appropriate for viewing and printing with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available for most UNIX and Windows systems.
These files are distinguished by a .pdf suffix in their file names.
Note that you can select the paper size to which you are printing in
Adobe Acrobat Reader by selecting the File/Print Setup... menu item
and choosing the desired Paper size. If the page is too large to fit on

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your paper size, you can reduce it by selecting the File/Print... menu
item and enabling the Shrink to Fit option.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it (at no
cost) from www.adobe.com. If you are not able to download files from the
Internet, contact your Fluent support engineer and ask for the Adobe
Acrobat Reader CD-ROM.
How to Access the PostScript and PDF Files in the Installation
Area
If the PostScript and/or PDF files on the documentation CD have been
installed, you can access them by pointing your browser to
path/Fluent.Inc/fluent6.0/help/index.htm
where Fluent.Inc is the directory in which FLUENT has been installed,
and you must replace path by the path to the directory where Fluent.Inc
is located.
If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your browser,
select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the Choose File... button
to browse through your directories to find the file.
This will bring up the FLUENT documentation home page (Figure 1.7.1),
from which you can select the PostScript or PDF file(s) for the particular FLUENT manual you want. For large manuals, PostScript and PDF
files are provided for the individual chapters, rather than for the entire
manual.
How to Access the PostScript and PDF Files on the CD
The procedure for accessing the PostScript and PDF files directly on the
CD differs slightly for UNIX and Windows systems:
For UNIX systems, you can access the files by inserting the CD into
your CD-ROM drive and pointing your browser to the following file:
/cdrom/fluent6.0/help/index.htm

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Getting Started

where cdrom must be replaced by the name of your CD-ROM drive.

If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your
browser, select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the
Choose File... button to browse through your directories to find
the file.
For Windows systems, you can access the files by inserting the
CD into your CD-ROM drive and pointing your browser to the
following file:
cdrom:\fluent6.0\help\Index.htm
where cdrom must be replaced by the name of your CD-ROM drive
(e.g., E).
If, for example, you are using Netscape Communicator as your
browser, select the File/Open Page... menu item and click the
Choose File... button to select the CD-ROM drive (which will be
named Fluent inc, followed by the letter for the CD-ROM drive)
and choose the appropriate file.
This will bring up the FLUENT documentation home page (Figure 1.7.1),
from which you can select the PostScript or PDF file(s) for the particular FLUENT manual you want. For large manuals, PostScript and PDF
files are provided for the individual chapters, rather than for the entire
manual.

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1.8

Sample Session
To demonstrate the use of the problem-solving and postprocessing capabilities of FLUENT, you can make use of a grid file provided on the
documentation CD to solve a very simple problem. The grid file was
created to solve the problem illustrated in Figure 1.8.1. In this problem,
a cavity in the shape of a 60 rhombus, 0.1 m on a side, contains air at
constant density and is driven by the top wall which moves to the right
with a speed of 0.1 m/s. With a Reynolds number of about 500, the flow
is laminar.
uwall = 0.1 m/s
60

= 60o

= 1.0 kg/m3
D

= 2.0 E-05 kg/m-s

D = 0.1 m
Re

uwall D
500

Figure 1.8.1: Fluid Flow in a Driven Cavity

1.8.1

Outline of Procedure

The driven cavity flow shown in Figure 1.8.1 is a simple 2D problem

in which the flow is laminar, there is no heat transfer, and there are
no special physical models to consider. In addition, the overall problem
geometry, grid, and boundary locations and types have already been
defined in the grid generator. You can simply read the grid file, with all
this information, into FLUENT.

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The modeling steps you will follow in this sample FLUENT session are
reduced to the following:
Read the grid file and check it.
Select the default segregated solver.
Define the physical models.
Specify the fluid properties.
Specify the boundary conditions.
Save the problem setup.
Initialize the solution.
Calculate the solution.
Save the results.
Examine the results.
Before beginning, you should copy the grid file from the documentation
CD to your working directory (i.e., the directory in which you are going
to start the solver). The grid file for this tutorial is (for UNIX systems)
/cdrom/fluent6.0/help/tutfiles/sample/cavity.msh
or (for Windows systems)
cdrom:\fluent6.0\help\tutfiles\sample\cavity.msh
where cdrom must be replaced by the name of your CD-ROM drive.

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1.8.2

Reading and Checking the Grid

Start the 2D version of FLUENT (see Section 1.5).

Reading the Grid
To read in the quadrilateral grid file, select the File/Read/Case... menu
item.
File Read Case...
The Select File dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure 1.8.2. A
case file, in general, contains the grid, boundary conditions, and solution
control parameters. The grid file is a subset of this, and the grid in this
example has been saved in FLUENT format, so you can read it in the
same manner as a full case file. (To read a grid file that was saved in
another format, you would use the appropriate item in the File/Import
submenu.)
If the file containing the grid you want to use is shown in Files, you can
double-click the left mouse button on its name to begin reading it. If
it is not shown, you can modify the path shown in Filter to include the
file you are searching for, or you can type the complete name of the file
in the box labeled Case File, and then click OK. In this example the file
cavity.msh is selected.
FLUENT will report its progress in the console window as it reads the
grid.
Checking the Grid
After you read in the grid, you should check its validity by selecting the
Grid/Check menu item.
Grid Check
You should see the domain extents, volume statistics, and connectivity
information in the console window, as shown below:

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Figure 1.8.2: Reading the Grid

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Grid Check
Domain Extents:
x-coordinate: min (m) = 0.000000e+00, max (m) = 1.500000e-01
y-coordinate: min (m) = 0.000000e+00, max (m) = 8.660000e-02
Volume statistics:
minimum volume (m3): 7.156040e-05
maximum volume (m3): 7.157349e-05
total volume (m3): 8.660000e-03
Face area statistics:
minimum face area (m2): 9.089851e-03
maximum face area (m2): 9.091221e-03
Checking number of nodes per cell.
Checking number of faces per cell.
Checking thread pointers.
Checking number of cells per face.
Checking face cells.
Checking bridge faces.
Checking right-handed cells.
Checking face handedness.
Checking element type consistency.
Checking boundary types:
Checking face pairs.
Checking periodic boundaries.
Checking node count.
Checking nosolve cell count.
Checking nosolve face count.
Checking face children.
Checking cell children.
Checking storage.
Done.

The most common error identified by the grid check is negative volumes
in the grid. If the minimum volume is negative, you will need to repair
the grid to remove this nonphysical discretization of the solution domain.
You may be able to use the Iso-Value... marking ability in the Adapt pulldown menu to locate the problem by marking and displaying cells with
volumes less than zero (see Section 23.5). For additional information on
checking the grid, see Section 5.5.

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Displaying the Grid

To display the grid, select the Display/Grid... menu item.
Display Grid...
In the resulting Grid Display panel (Figure 1.8.3), click on the Display
push button. This will open a graphics display window and draw the
grid. You should see a picture like the one in Figure 1.8.4. Close the
Grid Display panel by clicking on the Close push button.

Figure 1.8.3: The Grid Display Panel

You can zoom in to enlarge the view using the mouse. Move the cursor
to a point on the screen that is slightly above and to the left of the
cavity. Then, while holding down the middle mouse button, move the
cursor down and to the right to a point that is slightly below and to
the right of the cavity. When you release the middle mouse button, the
portion of the display within the zoom box will be expanded to fill the

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1.8 Sample Session

Grid

Nov 09, 2001

FLUENT 6.0 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 1.8.4: Grid Display with Default View

entire window.
1.8.3

Selecting the Solver Formulation

For this example, the velocities involved are low enough that you can
model the problem assuming incompressible flow. For such problems,
the segregated solver is appropriate. Since the segregated solver is the
default in FLUENT, no change is needed. If you wanted to select one of
the coupled solvers, you would visit the Solver panel in the Define/Models
submenu.
1.8.4

Defining Physical Models

In FLUENT, the default physical model setup is for laminar flow. Since
the flow modeled in this example is laminar, you will not need to make
any changes to the model settings. If you did need to modify the physical
models, you would do so using the Viscous Model panel and other panels
in the Define/Models submenu.

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1.8.5

Specifying Fluid Properties

To set the fluid properties for your problem, select the Define/Materials...
menu item. This will open the Materials panel (Figure 1.8.5).
Define Materials...

Figure 1.8.5: The Materials Panel

If you wanted to use a material other than air you could select it from
the materials database (as described in Section 7.1.2), or create your own
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1.8 Sample Session

material (as described in Section 7.1.2). For this problem, you will just
make some modifications to the properties for air, the default material.
Change the density to 1.0 kg/m3 and the viscosity to 2 105 kg/m-s.
Click on Change/Create to save the new values, and then close the panel.
1.8.6

Specifying Boundary Conditions

You can set values for boundary conditions and change boundary types
using the Boundary Conditions panel shown in Figure 1.8.6. To open this
panel, select the Define/Boundary Conditions... menu item.
Define Boundary Conditions...

Figure 1.8.6: The Boundary Conditions Panel

To set the boundary conditions for a particular zone, select the desired
boundary in the Zone list. You can change the boundary type by selecting from the Type list. After you select the correct zone type, you can set
the actual boundary condition values by clicking on the Set... button.

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Getting Started

(If you prefer, you can double-click on the boundary zone name in the
Zone list instead of clicking on the Set... button.)
For this example, you need to change the conditions for the moving (top)
wall by setting the x velocity to 0.1 m/s to model the moving cavity
lid. If you are not sure which of the two wall boundaries represents the
moving (top) wall, you can click your right mouse button on the top wall
boundary in the graphics window (which is still showing the grid display
of Figure 1.8.4). The zone information will be printed in the FLUENT
console window, and wall-2 will be selected automatically in the Zone list
in the Boundary Conditions panel. Now click on the Set... button to open
the Wall panel shown in Figure 1.8.7.

Figure 1.8.7: The Wall Panel

To set the wall velocity, you will need to turn on the Moving Wall option.
When you do so, the Wall panel will expand to show the wall motion

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1.8 Sample Session

information (see Figure 1.8.8). By default, Translational motion is selected and the velocity Direction is set to X, so you can simply set the
Speed to 0.1. (Note that since the adjacent fluid zone is not movingas
it would be if you were modeling a rotating reference frameyou need
not worry about the specification of relative or absolute motion; they are
equivalent.)

Figure 1.8.8: The Wall Panel for a Moving Wall

After you have entered this value, click on OK to save your settings and
close the panel.

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Getting Started

The only other boundary in this problem is the wall boundary on the
remaining three sides of the cavity (wall-5). For this example, the default
wall boundary conditions (no motion) will be used, so no further action
is needed. Click on the Close button in the Boundary Conditions panel to
close it.
1.8.7

Adjusting Solution Controls

You can change the default settings for the under-relaxation factors,
multigrid parameters, and other flow solver parameters in the panels
that are opened from the Solve/Controls submenu. These settings are
described in Chapter 22. Normally, you will not need to change these
parameters.
For this problem, the default settings are adequate.
Enabling Residual Plotting
The problem setup is almost complete. You will now turn on the graphical residual monitoring so that you can easily watch the progress of the
solution. To do this, select the Solve/Monitors/Residual... menu item to
open the Residual Monitors panel shown in Figure 1.8.9.
Solve Monitors Residual...
Under Options, turn on the Plot option to activate the graphical display
of residuals during the calculation, and then click OK.
1.8.8

Saving the Case File

Your inputs that define the problem are stored in the case file. You
must save this file in order to continue your analysis in a future FLUENT
session. (The results that you compute will be stored in a separate file,
the data file.)
To save the case file, select the File/Write/Case... menu item. The Select
File dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure 1.8.10.
File Write Case...

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Figure 1.8.9: The Residual Monitors Panel

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Getting Started

Figure 1.8.10: Saving a Case File

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Keep the default name (cavity.cas) in the Case File text entry box.
Click OK to save the file cavity.cas.
1.8.9

Solving the Problem

Initializing the Flow

Before iterating, you must initialize the flow field to provide a starting
point for the solution. You have a choice of computing the initial solution
from the settings of one (or all) of the boundary conditions or entering
flow-field values individually. Select the Solve/Initialize/Initialize... menu
item to open the Solution Initialization panel shown in Figure 1.8.11.
Solve Initialize Initialize...
Since a strongly recirculating flow is expected to develop, initialization
of all values to 0 is acceptable. Thus you can retain the default values
in the panel and initialize the flow by clicking on the Init button. Then
close the panel.
Calculating
Now you are ready to begin iterating. Select the Solve/Iterate... menu
item. This will open the Iterate panel shown in Figure 1.8.12.
Solve Iterate...
Enter 10 for the Number of Iterations and click on the Iterate button
to perform the 10 iterations. When the iterations start, you should
see the residual plot in the graphics window. After the 10 iterations are
complete, your graphics window should look something like Figure 1.8.13.
The residuals are headed downward, which is a good sign. (Note that the
actual values of the residuals may differ slightly on different machines,
so your plot may not look exactly the same as Figure 1.8.13.)

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Getting Started

Figure 1.8.11: The Solution Initialization Panel

Figure 1.8.12: The Iterate Panel

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Residuals
continuity
x-velocity
y-velocity

1e+01

1e+00

1e-01

1e-02

1e-03
1

10

Iterations

Scaled Residuals

Nov 09, 2001

FLUENT 6.0 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 1.8.13: Residual Plot After 10 Iterations

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Getting Started

You will also want to check the flow field to see how it is developing.
To view the velocity vectors in the flow field, select the Vectors... menu
item in the Display menu. This will open the Vectors panel shown in
Figure 1.8.14.
Display Vectors...

Figure 1.8.14: The Vectors Panel

The default settings on this panel produce a vector plot colored by velocity magnitude, which is what you want to see. Click on the Display
button, and you should see a plot similar to Figure 1.8.15.

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4.50e-02
4.05e-02
3.60e-02
3.15e-02
2.70e-02
2.25e-02
1.80e-02
1.35e-02
9.03e-03
4.54e-03
3.76e-05

Velocity Vectors Colored By Velocity Magnitude (m/s)

Nov 09, 2001

FLUENT 6.0 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 1.8.15: Velocity Vectors After 10 Iterations

Even after only 10 iterations, the clockwise recirculation pattern in the

cavity is clearly visible. It looks like the solution is proceeding in an
acceptable manner, so you can just ask for more iterations to complete
the solution. Enter 90 for the Number of Iterations in the Iterate panel,
and click on Iterate. The solution is converged to the default tolerances
after a total of about 50 iterations. At this point, your residual plot
will look something like Figure 1.8.16. (Note that the exact number of
iterations required for the solution to converge may vary on different
computers.)

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Residuals
continuity
x-velocity
y-velocity

1e+00

1e-01

1e-02

1e-03

1e-04

1e-05
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Iterations

Scaled Residuals

Nov 09, 2001

FLUENT 6.0 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 1.8.16: Residuals After Convergence

You are now ready to save the data and look at the converged results.
1.8.10

Saving the Results

As discussed earlier, when the case file was saved, inputs that define the
problem and the results computed by FLUENT are stored in two separate
files: the case file and the data file. You must save both files in order to
resume your analysis in a future FLUENT session. Note that FLUENT
does not automatically save these files for you. Although you already
saved the case file before you began the calculation, it is a good idea to
save it again, along with the data file.
To save the case and data files, select the File/Write/Case & Data... menu
item. The Select File dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure 1.8.17.
File Write Case & Data...
Enter the name you would like for the case and data files in the Case/Data
File field. If you keep the default name, FLUENT will save a case file
called cavity.cas and a data file called cavity.dat. Click on the OK

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Figure 1.8.17: Saving Case and Data Files

button after entering the filename to save the files.

Since the case file cavity.cas already exists, FLUENT will ask you if it
is OK to overwrite it. You can click on OK in the Warning dialog box
(Figure 1.8.18) and FLUENT will write both files.
Note that after terminating this session, you could start a new FLUENT
session, read the case file and data file, and resume your analysis or
modify the sample problem.

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Figure 1.8.18: Confirming the Overwrite

1.8.11

Examining the Results

Plotting Contours
You have already seen how to make a velocity vector plot. Now select the
Contours... menu item in the Display menu. This will open the Contours
panel shown in Figure 1.8.19.
Display Contours...
In the upper drop-down list under Contours Of, select Velocity..., and then
select Stream Function in the lower list. Decrease the number of contour
Levels to 10 and click on the Display button. The resulting display should
appear as shown in Figure 1.8.20. Close the panel when you are finished
displaying contours.

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Figure 1.8.19: The Contours Panel

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Getting Started

5.07e-04

4.06e-04

3.04e-04

2.03e-04

1.01e-04

0.00e+00

Contours of Stream Function (kg/s)

Nov 09, 2001

FLUENT 6.0 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 1.8.20: Contours of Stream Function

1.8.12

Exiting from FLUENT

When you are finished examining the results, and you have saved your
case and data files, you can end the FLUENT session by selecting the
File/Exit menu item.
File Exit
1.8.13

Summary

This example has been designed to show you how to use FLUENT to solve
a very simple problem. Example problems of increasing difficulty are
solved in the FLUENT Tutorial Guide where the different physical models
and solution parameters that are available in FLUENT are illustrated in
greater detail.

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