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Tutorial: Missile Silo Launch: Section 10.6: Dynamic Meshes FLUENT 6.2 User's Guide
Tutorial: Missile Silo Launch: Section 10.6: Dynamic Meshes FLUENT 6.2 User's Guide
Introduction
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide guidelines to set up and run a dynamic mesh
(DM) case using the layering scheme. The tutorial models a missile being launched from a
silo. The motion of the missile is predicted using the six degree of freedom (6DOF) solver
in FLUENT.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
Read a mesh file and perform a dynamic mesh calculation.
Enable and configure the 6DOF solver.
Compile a UDF that governs the missile motion.
Set up moving zones.
Set up a dynamic mesh event to control the mesh motion.
Define custom commands to be executed at regular intervals during the simulation.
Run an unsteady calculation for the problem.
Write image files that can be played as an animation.
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the FLUENT interface, and that you have
a good understanding of the basic setup and solution procedures. In this tutorial, you will
use the dynamic mesh model. If you have not used this model before, refer to Section 10.6:
Dynamic Meshes in the FLUENT 6.2 Users Guide.
Problem Description
Consider the launch of a missile from its silo (Figure 1). The 6DOF solver is used to predict
the motion of the missile. The UDF (silo.c) is used to specify the properties of the missile
(mass and moments of inertia) as well as any body forces that are present. The 6DOF
solver applies Newtons law to determine the acceleration of the missile.
Thrust, gravity, and pressure forces are considered in the calculation, whereas the drag on
the missile is neglected. The missile engine starts to fire at t = 0 seconds but the missile is
held fixed in the silo and is not allowed to move until t = 0.1 seconds. The flow is assumed
to be inviscid and the domain is axisymmetric.
Preparation
1. Copy the files, silo.msh.gz and silo.c to the working directory.
2. Start the 2D, double-precision (2DDP) version of FLUENT.
Grid
5. Set the view so that the missile points upward (Figure 3).
Display Views...
(a) Click Camera....
Grid
Grid
Step 4: Materials
1. Create a new fluid material named exhaust to represent the exhaust gases of the
missile.
Define Materials...
Value
4000 j/kg-k
50 kg/kgmol
i. Add exhaust and air (in the same order) to the Selected Species list.
ii. Remove h2o, o2, and n2 from the Selected Species list and click OK.
(d) Select ideal-gas for Density.
(e) Click Change/Create and close the Materials panel.
Step 5: Operating Conditions
Define Operating Conditions...
(a) Set the Minimum Absolute Pressure to 10000 Pa and Maximum Absolute Pressure
to 2500000 Pa.
(b) Set the Minimum Static Temperature to 50 K and the Maximum Static Temperature
to 2800 K.
(c) Set the Maximum Turb. Viscosity Ratio to 1e06.
(d) Click OK.
Step 6: Boundary Conditions
Define Boundary Conditions...
1. Set the boundary conditions for the nozzle-exit zone.
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(a) Set the Mass Flow-Rate to 50 kg/s and Total Temperature to 2700 k.
(b) Set the Supersonic/Initial Gauge Pressure to 101325 Pa.
(c) Set Direction Specification Method to Normal to Boundary.
(d) Set the Turbulence Specification Method to Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter.
(e) Set Turbulence Intensity 10 % and Hydraulic Diameter to 8.4 in.
(f) Set Species Mass Fractions for exhaust to 1.
(g) Click OK.
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(a) Under Grid Interface, enter the name of the interface as sliding-interface.
(b) Select interface-in under Interface Zone 1 and interface-out-1 under Interface Zone 2.
(c) Retain the default values for the other parameters and click Create.
(d) Close the panel.
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5. Define a dynamic mesh event that will hold the missile in place until liftoff at t =
0.1 seconds.
Define Dynamic Mesh Events...
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(a) Set the discretization scheme for Flow to First Order upwind.
(b) Set the Courant Number to 0.5.
(c) Click OK.
2. Set the residual monitor parameters.
Solve Monitors Residual...
(a) Enable the plotting of residuals by selecting Plot under Options.
(b) Disable the Check Convergence option for all the residuals.
You need to scroll down the list of residuals to view exhaust.
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(b) In the Display Options panel, set Active Window to 1 and click Set.
Graphics window 1 opens. It is the current active window.
(c) In the Contour Plot panel, select Velocity and Mach Number from the Contours of
drop-down list, enable Filled under Options, and click Display.
The contour plot of Mach number appears in graphics window 1.
(d) Restore the saved view, view-0 in graphics window 1.
Display Views...
i. Under Views, select view-0 and click Restore.
(e) Set Active Window to 2 in the Display Options panel and click Set.
Graphics window 2 opens. It is the current active window.
(f) In the Contour Plot panel, select Species and Mass Fraction of exhaust from the
Contours of drop-down list, enable Filled under Options, and click Display.
(g) Restore the saved view, view-0 in graphics window 2.
Display Views...
(h) Close the Display Options, Contours, and Views panels.
5. Save the case and data files, silo-setup.gz.
Step 10: Calculate the Initial Solution
For this high-speed compressible flow case, you will perform iterations in two stages. First,
you will calculate several iterations at a low Courant number in order to stabilize the solution. Then you will increase the Courant number and calculate the remainder of the solution
to convergence. Performing calculations in this way ensures that the solution is stable and
has an acceptable convergence rate.
Solve Iterate...
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1. Set the Time Step Size to 0.0005, Number of Time Steps to 0, and Max Iterations per
Time Step to 300.
2. Click Iterate.
FLUENT may give an error message on some systems when you iterate with Number
of Time Steps set to 0. In that case, set Number of Time Steps to 1.
3. Set the Courant number to 1.5.
Solve Controls Solution...
4. Set Max Iterations per Time Step to 1000 and click Iterate to continue the solution.
The initial solution is completely converged at the end of 1300 iterations.
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Residuals
continuity
x-velocity
y-velocity
energy
nut
exhaust
1e+02
1e+00
1e-02
1e-04
1e-06
1e-08
1e-10
1e-12
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Iterations
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2.94e+00
2.79e+00
2.65e+00
2.50e+00
2.35e+00
2.21e+00
2.06e+00
1.91e+00
1.77e+00
1.62e+00
1.47e+00
1.32e+00
1.18e+00
1.03e+00
8.84e-01
7.37e-01
5.90e-01
4.43e-01
2.96e-01
1.49e-01
1.80e-03
1.00e+00
9.50e-01
9.00e-01
8.50e-01
8.00e-01
7.50e-01
7.00e-01
6.50e-01
6.00e-01
5.50e-01
5.00e-01
4.50e-01
4.00e-01
3.50e-01
3.00e-01
2.50e-01
2.00e-01
1.50e-01
1.00e-01
5.00e-02
0.00e+00
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2.98e+00
2.83e+00
2.68e+00
2.53e+00
2.38e+00
2.23e+00
2.08e+00
1.94e+00
1.79e+00
1.64e+00
1.49e+00
1.34e+00
1.19e+00
1.04e+00
8.95e-01
7.46e-01
5.98e-01
4.49e-01
3.00e-01
1.52e-01
2.97e-03
1.00e+00
9.50e-01
9.00e-01
8.50e-01
8.00e-01
7.50e-01
7.00e-01
6.50e-01
6.00e-01
5.50e-01
5.00e-01
4.50e-01
4.00e-01
3.50e-01
3.00e-01
2.50e-01
2.00e-01
1.50e-01
1.00e-01
5.00e-02
0.00e+00
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3. Link the image sequences created during the simulation into an animation of the
unsteady flow and rocket motion.
Note: This step requires installation of third-party software.
Animations of the rocket motion are provided along with the tutorial files. These
animations can be played in any media player that supports the audio/video interleave
(AVI) file format.
Summary
In this tutorial, you used FLUENT to solve an unsteady problem using the six degree of
freedom solver along with the layering algorithm. While the six degree of freedom solver is
applicable to a three-dimensional flow domain, this tutorial illustrates that it can also be
used to predict pure linear motion.
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