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CFX Tutorial Ductflow Laminar
CFX Tutorial Ductflow Laminar
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Introduction
This tutorial has been adapted from a tutorial created by Jeff Berg (M.Sc. student) in 2004. That tutorial was based
on running the CFX-TASCflow (V2.11) rct.lam tutorial in CFX-5 (v5.7).
Geometry Nomenclature
The duct has a length Lx , a height L y , and a depth
Lz .The duct length is aligned with the x axis, the depth with
the y axis, and the height with the z axis. The flow is assumed to be symmetric about an x-z plane that bisects the
duct in the y direction and therefore only half the duct is modelled. One corner of the duct is assumed to lie at the
origin. Figure 1 below shows the duct geometry. When the geometry was defined in the creation of the
computational mesh, all faces of the domain were assigned names. The names of the inlet and outlet planes (at
x 0 and x L x ) are RCT_W and RCT_E, respectively. The names of the planes at y 0 and y L y are RCT_S
and RCT_N, respectively. The names of the planes at z 0 and z Lz are RCT_B and RCT_T, respectively.
Problem Definition
The problem is a laminar, incompressible, constant property flow of water in a rectangular duct. The code will be
run with the heat transfer model turned off (even though an alternative approach would be to run the code with the
heat transfer model as isothermal and specify the desired temperature for an isothermal flow). The flow is
modelled with a rectilinear uniform grid for half the domain using symmetry in the y direction.
The problem parameters are:
Mass flow = 3.962 x 10-2 [kg / s] for the full duct. The mass flow rate at the inlet of the half duct is therefore
1.981 x 10-2 [kg / s].
Density = 997.0 [kg / m3].
Viscosity = 8.899 x 10-4 [kg / m s].
Duct length = 2.00 m ( Lx ).
Duct height = 0.40 m ( Ly ). The actual grid height is 0.20 m due to symmetry.
Duct depth = 0.30 m ( L z ).
Hydraulic diameter of the duct, Dh , is 0.34286 m.
Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter is 127.2.
Features
This tutorial demonstrates how to:
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Manitoba
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Setup
First, create a new directory called cfx-tutorial. Make sure that the path to this directory does not contain
any space characters. Spaces in a directory name or path will cause an error message in CFX (in addition, a
hyphen cannot be used in the simulation name). Make this new directory your current directory (i.e., cd to that
directory).
The grid for this tutorial has been pre-generated. It was created in software called ICEM CFD. For the purposes of
this tutorial, the completed grid will be imported into CFX. The completed grid is in a file called duct.cfx5
that can be copied to your current directory using:
cp -p ~engsjo/pub/mech-4822/cfx-tutorial/duct.cfx5 ./
or it can be downloaded (it is inside a zip file called cfxtutorial_duct_cfx5.zip) from a link in the
following web page:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~engsjo/teaching/Tutorials/index.htm#cfxtutorial
You can also use the grid that you created if you did the ICEM CFD tutorial: Simple Duct Grid.
This grid has uniform mesh spacing and 41, 11, and 16 nodes in each of the x, y, and z directions, respectively.
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3. Domain Specification
Select Insert > Domain
Name: enter duct
Click OK
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Under the Domain: duct tab in the Basic Settings tab, click on
that appears, click on DUCT and then Click OK
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Click Apply
Under the Fluid Models tab:
Heat Transfer:
Option: select None
Turbulence Model: Option: select None (Laminar)
Combustion:
Option: this should be None
Thermal Radiation:
Option: this should be None
Do not click Electromagnetic Model.
Click Apply
Under the Initialization tab:
Click Domain Initialization box
Click Initial Conditions box
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Manitoba
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Now, Click OK
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Note that there is no duct domain default in the list. This means that all surfaces have been assigned a
boundary condition.
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on the
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This solver run created the textual record of the run: rct_lam_001.out and the results file that can be postprocessed: rct_lam_001.res.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Manitoba
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(Aside: In the future, we will use Line Type Sample and specify a number of points to sample.)
A yellow line will appear at the end of the duct image in the 3D viewer.
After zooming, it should appear like:
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In order to zoom in, you can use some of the icons at the top of the 3D viewer window:
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Variable: select Z
Click on the circle for Hybrid
Leave the box checked for Determine ranges automatically
Y Axis tab:
Variable: select Velocity u
Click on the circle for Hybrid
Leave the box checked for Determine ranges automatically
Click on Apply
You should see the chart shown below in the right window (Chart Viewer).
The data used in this chart can also be exported to a spreadsheet program by using the export feature.
To do this:
Click Export
File name: enter u_exit_profile.csv
File Type: Comma Separated Values (*.csv)
Click on Save
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The file created, when loaded into Excel (and formatted with more decimals for column A and
scientific notation for column B), looks like:
These data can also be exported in a text file format for plotting with gnuplot or other plotting software.
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Geometry tab:
Domains: All Domains
Definition:
Locations: select symmetry
Sampling: Vertex
Reduction: Reduction Factor
Factor: select 1.0
Variable: Velocity
Boundary Data: Click on the circle for Hybrid
Projection: None
Click on Apply
The vector plot below should appear in the 3D Viewer window. The domain was zoomed in for the
image.
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The state file that was saved (rct_lam.cst) has saved the new objects created in the previous CFD-Post
session. When examining the same results file another time in Post, those setting can be re-loaded using File >
Load State. Another powerful feature is that the same state file can be loaded when viewing a different set of
results on the same geometry and all plots (charts, vectors, etc.) are re-computed automatically for the new results.
Further Exploration
In order to get more experience using ANSYS CFX, you can try the following additional tasks.
1. Restart the flow calculation and converge to a tighter tolerance.
a) Re-start CFX-Pre and re-load rct_lam.cfx.
b) Go to the solution controls and change:
Maximum iterations to 500
Residual type to maxium
Residual target to 0.000001 (1.E-6)
c) Save the case file
d) Write a new rct_lam.def file.
e) Start the Solver and define a new run
Select the rct_lam.def file just created
Click on the box for Initial Values Specification
For Initial Values 1: for File Name, browse for rct_lam_001.res
Set up a Platform MPI Local Parallel run again with 4 partitions
Start the run and then close the solver after it is finished.
f) Start CFD-Post and load the new results file.
g) Load the rct_lam.cst file and examine the results.
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