Tutorial: 2D Adiabatic Compression (Remeshing and Spring Smoothing)

Introduction
This tutorial illustrates the setup and solution of a basic deforming mesh in FLUENT 6.2 using the remeshing and spring-based smoothing approaches. In this tutorial you will learn how to: Set up a problem for a dynamic mesh Specify dynamic mesh modeling parameters Specify the motion of dynamic zones Preview the dynamic mesh before starting the calculation Perform basic dynamic mesh calculations with residual plotting Examine the temperature and density elds using graphics The dynamic mesh model in FLUENT can be used to model ows where the shape of the domain changes with time due to motion on the domain boundaries. The motion can be either a prescribed motion (e.g., you can specify the linear and angular velocities about the center of gravity of a solid body with time), or an unprescribed motion where the subsequent motion is determined by a user-dened function (UDF). The update of the volume mesh is handled automatically by FLUENT at each time step based on the new positions of the boundaries. To use the dynamic mesh model, you need to provide a starting volume mesh and the description of the motion of any moving zone in the model. In this tutorial, you will use the spring-based smoothing and remeshing mesh motion methods to update the volume mesh in the deforming region. For zones with a triangular or tetrahedral mesh, spring-based smoothing can be used to adjust the interior node locations based on known displacements at the boundary nodes. The spring-based smoothing method updates the volume mesh without changing the mesh connectivity. When the boundary displacement is large compared to the local cell sizes, the cell quality may deteriorate or the cells may become degenerate. This leads to convergence problems when the solution is updated to the next time step. To circumvent this problem, FLUENT agglomerates poor-quality cells (cells that are too large, too small, or are excessively stretched) and locally remeshes the agglomeration.

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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
The problem to be considered is shown schematically in Figure 1. A simplied 2D geometry consisting of a box is used. The bottom wall of the box represents the piston which moves upward from the bottom dead center position (BDC), slowly compressing the uid adiabatically. After reaching the top dead center (TDC), the piston moves back downward to the initial position, to complete a cycle.

Figure 1: Schematic of the Problem

Preparation
1. Copy the le, box2d remesh.msh to your working directory. 2. Start the 2D version of FLUENT.

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Setup and Solution

Step 1: Grid 1. Read the mesh le (box2d remesh.msh.gz). File Read Case... As the mesh le is read in, messages appear in the console window reporting the progress of the reading. 2. Check the grid. Grid Check FLUENT performs various checks on the mesh and reports the progress in the console window. Pay attention to the reported minimum volume and make sure this is a positive number. 3. Display the grid (Figure 2). Display Grid...

(a) Under Surfaces, select all the surface zones. (b) Click Display and close the panel. Extra: Use the right mouse button to check the zone number corresponding to each boundary. When you click the right mouse button on one of the boundaries in the graphics window, its zone number, name, and type are printed in the FLUENT console window. 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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Grid

FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 2: Grid Display

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Step 2: Models 1. Enable a time-dependent calculation. Dene Models Solver...

(a) Under Time, select Unsteady. (b) Retain the default Unsteady Formulation of 1st-Order Implicit. Dynamic mesh simulations currently work only with rst-order time advancement.

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Step 3: Materials The only material property you need to modify is density. The default values for all other properties are acceptable. 1. Specify that the ow is compressible. Dene Materials...

(a) Select ideal-gas in the drop-down list for Density. (b) Click Change/Create and close the panel. FLUENT automatically enables the energy equation when the ideal-gas law is selected, so you need not visit the Energy panel. Step 4: Boundary Conditions In this tutorial, you need not visit the Boundary Conditions panel to set any conditions. You will use the default adiabatic thermal conditions for all walls. No inlets or outlets are present. Dynamic mesh motion and other related parameters are specied using the items in the Dene/Dynamic Mesh submenu, not through the Boundary Conditions panel. You will set these conditions in the next step.

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Step 5: Mesh Motion Setup 1. Enable dynamic mesh motion and specify the associated parameters. Dene Dynamic Mesh Parameters... (a) Under Models, enable Dynamic Mesh. The panel expands to show additional inputs.

(b) Under Models, enable In-Cylinder. Enabling the In-Cylinder option allows input for IC-specic needs, including valve and piston motion. (c) Under Mesh Methods, enable Smoothing and Remeshing. Make sure the Layering option is disabled. (d) Retain the default settings for the smoothing parameters. (e) Click the Remeshing tab. The Remeshing parameters are displayed.

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i. Under Options, retain the default settings for Size Function and Must Improve Skewness. By default, the Size Function option is disabled and the Must Improve Skewness option is enabled. ii. Specify the Minimum Length Scale and the Maximum Length Scale. If a cell exceeds these limits, the cell is marked for remeshing. Hence, you need to specify problem-specic values for these remeshing parameters. A. Click Mesh Scale Info.... The Mesh Scale Info panel opens. The values displayed for minimum and maximum length scale, and maximum cell skewness are obtained from the initial mesh. B. Specify the values for Minimum Length Scale and Maximum Length Scale as obtained from the Mesh Scale Info panel. For a uniform mesh as in this problem, the values obtained from the Mesh Scale Info panel are sucient. For a non-uniform mesh, you can use these values as an initial approximation and later modify the values to improve the mesh quality. iii. Set the Maximum Cell Skewness to 0.5. A value of 0.6 to 0.7 is recommended for Maximum Cell Skewness for 2D problems. Smaller values of maximum skew result in improved grid quality at increased computational cost.

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(f) Set the In-Cylinder parameters. i. Click the In-Cylinder tab. The In-Cylinder parameters are displayed.

ii. Set the Crank Shaft Speed to 10 rpm. This simulation is run at low speed to approximate the ideal process. iii. Set the Starting Crank Angle to 180 degrees. The piston is currently at the bottom dead center (BDC) position. The BDC position is dened as 180 degrees crank angle, while the top dead center (TDC) position is dened as 0 degrees crank angle. iv. Retain the default Crank Period of 720 degrees. A value of 720 degrees is used for four-stroke engines, while a value of 360 degrees is used for two-stroke engines. This governs the periodicity associated with valve events and valve lift proles. v. Set the Crank Angle Step Size to 0.5 degrees. This value is used along with the crankshaft speed to determine the timestep. vi. Set the Piston Stroke to 8 m. vii. Set the Connecting Rod Length to 14 m. viii. Set both the Piston Stroke Cuto and Minimum Valve Lift to 0 m. These two parameters are not utilized in the current simulation. ix. Click OK.

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(g) Plot the piston motion prole using the text command interface as shown. You may need to press the <Enter> key to get the > prompt.
> define/models/dynamic-mesh-controls /define/models/dynamic-mesh-controls> icp /define/models/dynamic-mesh-controls/in-cylinder-parameter> ppl #f Lift Profile:(1) [()] **piston-full** Lift Profile:(2) [()] <Enter> Start: [180] 0 End: [720] <Enter> Increment: [10] 5 Plot lift? [yes] <Enter> /define/models/dynamic-mesh-controls/in-cylinder-parameter>

The **piston-full** prole (Figure 3) describes piston motion in terms of the Piston Stroke and Connecting Rod Length parameters dened previously.

8.00e+00 7.00e+00 6.00e+00 5.00e+00 4.00e+00 3.00e+00 2.00e+00 1.00e+00 0.00e+00 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Crank Angle (deg)

Valve Lifts (Time=0.0000e+00)

FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 3: The **piston-full** Prole

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2. Specify the motion of the piston and the deforming wall. Dene Dynamic Mesh Zones... (a) Specify the motion of the piston.

i. In the Zone Names drop-down list, select moving wall. ii. Under Type, retain the default selection of Rigid Body. iii. Under the Motion Attributes tab, set the following: A. In the Motion UDF/Prole drop-down list, select **piston-full**. B. Set the Valve/Piston Axis to (0, 1). iv. Click the Meshing Options tab and set the following: A. Set the Cell Height to 1.0 m. B. Click Create.

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(b) Specify the motion of the deforming wall (side walls). The declaration of the deforming boundary zones is necessary only for boundary zones adjacent to the cell zones that are remeshed. i. In the Zone Names drop-down list, select side walls.

ii. Under Type, select Deforming. iii. Click the Geometry Denition tab and set the following: A. Select cylinder in the Denition drop-down list. B. Enter a Cylinder Radius of 4 m. C. Set the Cylinder Origin to (4, 0). D. Set the Cylinder Axis to (0, 1).

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iv. Click the Meshing Options tab and set the following:

To determine the Minimum Length Scale and the Maximum Length Scale, you need to know the approximate average length scale. The average length scale can be calculated using the length scale values in the Zone Scale Info panel. Click Zone Scale Info... to open the Zone Scale Info panel. For this case, the average length scale is 0.65. A. Specify the Minimum Length Scale as 0.26. The Minimum Length Scale is recommended to be (0.4 0.65) where 0.65 is the average length scale. B. Specify the Maximum Length Scale as 0.91. The Maximum Length Scale is recommended to be (1.4 0.65) where 0.65 is the average length scale. C. Click Create. v. Close the Dynamic Mesh Zones panel.

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3. Preview the zone motion. The zone motion preview utility is useful for quickly checking the rigid body motion settings. The mesh coordinates are not actually modied during this procedure. Instead, dynamic zones with rigid body motion settings are simply translated in the display window to emulate the actual grid motion. User errors such as an improperly scaled mesh or valve lift prole, incorrect valve/piston axis denition, etc., can be quickly identied using this procedure. Only the motion of zones with rigid body motion is represented, remeshing on deforming zones is not depicted. (a) Display the grid outline. Display Grid... i. Deselect all surfaces. ii. Click the Outline button to select the outline surfaces. iii. Click Display to display the grid outline. iv. Close the Grid Display panel. (b) Initiate the zone motion. Display Zone Motion...

i. Retain the settings for Motion History Integration and click Integrate. This allows FLUENT to create a table of surface positions in time.

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The Preview Controls are highlighted. ii. Retain the default settings for Preview Controls and click Preview. If the case is set up properly, you should see the piston move through two complete cycles. iii. Close the Zone Motion panel. Step 6: Solution Setup 1. Enable the plotting of volume-averaged temperature in the domain during the calculation by dening a volume monitor. Solve Monitors Volume... The Volume Monitors panel is displayed. (a) Increase the number of Volume Monitors to 1. (b) Enable Plot, Print, and Write for the rst monitor (vol-mon-1). When the Write option is enabled, the volume-averaged temperature history is written to a le. If you do not select the Write option, the history information will be lost when you exit FLUENT. (c) In the Every drop-down list, select Time Step for the monitor frequency. (d) Click Dene... to dene the monitor. The Dene Volume Monitor panel opens automatically.

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i. Select Volume-Average in the Report Type drop-down list. ii. Select Flow Time in the X Axis drop-down list. iii. Select Temperature... and Static Temperature in the Field Variable drop-down lists. iv. Under Cell Zones, select uid. v. In the File Name eld, enter vol-monitor-1.out. vi. Click OK in the Dene Volume Monitor panel, and then in the Volume Monitors panel.

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2. Enable the plotting of residuals during the calculation. Solve Monitors Residual...

(a) Under Options, enable Plot. (b) Under Plotting, set Iterations to 100. To avoid a cluttered residual plot in transient simulations, it is useful to display only the most recent iterations. (c) Click OK to close the Residual Monitors panel.

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3. Initialize the solution. Solve Initialize Initialize...

The solution is initialized at this point in the problem setup so that the contours for setting up the view for the animation can be displayed. (a) Retain the default values for all variables, including an initial Temperature value of 300 K. (b) Click Apply. The Apply button does not initialize the ow eld data. It only allows you to save the initialization parameters for later use. You need to use the Init button to initialize the solution. (c) Click Init to initialize the solution. (d) Click Close.

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4. Set up an animation for temperature. (a) Display lled contours of temperature (Figure 4). Display Contours ...

i. Select Temperature... and Static Temperature in the Contours of drop-down lists. ii. Under Options, select only Filled and Node Values. iii. Enter 300 for Min and 500 for Max. iv. Click Display. v. Close the Contours panel.

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5.00e+02 4.90e+02 4.80e+02 4.70e+02 4.60e+02 4.50e+02 4.40e+02 4.30e+02 4.20e+02 4.10e+02 4.00e+02 3.90e+02 3.80e+02 3.70e+02 3.60e+02 3.50e+02 3.40e+02 3.30e+02 3.20e+02 3.10e+02 3.00e+02

Contours of Static Temperature (k) (Time=0.0000e+00) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 4: Contours of Static Temperature (b) Save the current view. Display Views...

i. Click Save to save the current view as view-0. ii. Close the Views panel.

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(c) Specify the commands for animation. Solve Execute Commands...

i. Set Dened Commands to 1. ii. Select the On checkbox for command-1. iii. Under Every, specify 10. iv. Select Time Step in the When drop-down list. v. Under Command, enter the following commands sequentially (in a single line): /di/sw 2 /di/view/restore-view view-0 /di/cont temp 300 570 /di/hc temperature%t.tiff It is possible to specify multiple text commands in a single entry. Be sure to maintain at least a single space between commands. The above command will rst activate window 2, restore the saved view view-0, display contours of static temperature and then make a hardcopy of the resulting image. The %t appended to the le name instructs FLUENT to append the timestep index to the lename. vi. Click OK.

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(d) Set hardcopy settings. File Hardcopy... The Graphics Hardcopy panel is displayed. i. Under Format, select TIFF. ii. Under Coloring, select Color. iii. Click Apply and close the panel. 5. Request saving of case and data les every 90 time steps. File Write Autosave...

(a) Set the Autosave Case File Frequency and Autosave Data File Frequency to 90. Since the mesh changes during the simulation, you must save both the case and data les. (b) In the Filename eld, enter box2d remesh and click OK. When FLUENT saves a le, it appends the time step value to the le name prex (box2d remesh). The standard extensions (.cas and .dat) are also appended.

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6. Set the solution parameters. Solve Controls Solution...

(a) Set the Under-Relaxation Factors for Pressure and Momentum to 0.6 and 0.9 respectively. (b) Under Discretization, select PRESTO! for Pressure. (c) Under Pressure-Velocity Coupling, select PISO. i. Set the Skewness Correction to 0. ii. Retain the default settings for the other parameters. (d) Click OK.

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Step 7: Mesh Preview 1. Save the case le. Since the mesh changes during the preview, ensure that you save the case before mesh preview. 2. Display the grid. Display Grid... (a) Select all the surfaces. (b) Click Display. (c) Close the Grid Display panel. 3. Set up the mesh preview. Solve Mesh Motion...

The Time Step Size displayed in the read-only text eld (0.008333333) corresponds to 1 2 degree crank angle and is based on the crankshaft speed and crank angle increment parameters dened earlier. (a) Specify the Number of Time Steps as 720. This corresponds to one full revolution of the crankshaft. (b) Click Preview to preview the mesh motion. As the mesh is updated by FLUENT, messages appear in the console window reporting the progress of the update.

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Step 8: Solution 1. Read the case le back into FLUENT. File Read Case... 2. Initialize the solution. Solve Initialize Initialize... (a) Click Init. (b) Close the Solution Initialization panel. 3. Start the calculation. Solve Iterate...

(a) Set the Number of Time Steps to 720. (b) Set the Max Iterations per Time Step to 10. (c) Click Iterate. The plot for volume-averaged temperature is shown in Figure 5. The values may be dierent for dierent computers. Hence, the plot that appears on your screen may not be exactly the same as the one shown here.

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Monitors vol-mon-1
600.0000

550.0000

500.0000

450.0000

Volume Weighted Average (k)

400.0000

350.0000

300.0000

250.0000 0.0000 1.0000 2.0000 3.0000 4.0000 5.0000 6.0000

Flow Time

Convergence history of Static Temperature on fluid (Time=6.0000e+00) Crank Angle=540.00(deg) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 5: Convergence History of Static Temperature

Step 9: Postprocessing 1. Inspect the solution at the bottom dead center (nal time step). (a) Display lled contours of static temperature (Figure 6). Display Contours... i. Select Temperature... and Static Temperature in the Contours of drop-down lists. ii. Under Options, select only Filled and Node Values. iii. Enter 300 for Min and 500 for Max. iv. Click Display. (b) Display lled contours of density (Figure 7). i. Select Density... and Density in the Contours of drop-down lists, ii. Under Options, select only Filled and Node Values. iii. Enter 1.18 for Min and 5.88 for Max. iv. Click Display. The temperature and density at the end of one full cycle closely replicate those at the beginning of the simulation.

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5.00e+02 4.90e+02 4.80e+02 4.70e+02 4.60e+02 4.50e+02 4.40e+02 4.30e+02 4.20e+02 4.10e+02 4.00e+02 3.90e+02 3.80e+02 3.70e+02 3.60e+02 3.50e+02 3.40e+02 3.30e+02 3.20e+02 3.10e+02 3.00e+02

Contours of Static Temperature (k) (Time=6.0000e+00) Crank Angle=540.00(deg) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 6: Contours of Static Temperature at Bottom Dead Center (nal time step)

5.88e+00 5.64e+00 5.41e+00 5.18e+00 4.94e+00 4.70e+00 4.47e+00 4.24e+00 4.00e+00 3.77e+00 3.53e+00 3.30e+00 3.06e+00 2.83e+00 2.59e+00 2.36e+00 2.12e+00 1.88e+00 1.65e+00 1.41e+00 1.18e+00

Contours of Density (kg/m3) (Time=6.0000e+00) Crank Angle=540.00(deg) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 7: Contours of Density at Bottom Dead Center (nal time step)

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2. Inspect the solution at the top dead center. (a) Read in the case and data les corresponding to the TDC position (box2d remesh0360.cas and box2d remesh0360.dat). File Read Case & Data... (b) Display lled contours of static temperature (Figure 8). i. Under Options, select only Filled and Node Values. ii. Enter 300 for Min and 500 for Max. iii. Click Display.

5.88e+00 5.64e+00 5.41e+00 5.18e+00 4.94e+00 4.70e+00 4.47e+00 4.24e+00 4.00e+00 3.77e+00 3.53e+00 3.30e+00 3.06e+00 2.83e+00 2.59e+00 2.36e+00 2.12e+00 1.88e+00 1.65e+00 1.41e+00 1.18e+00

Contours of Density (kg/m3) (Time=3.0000e+00) Crank Angle=360.00(deg) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 8: Contours of Static Temperature at Top Dead Center The temperature very closely obeys the analytical result for a reversible, adiabatic compression: T2 = T1 2 1
1

For = 1.4 and a compression ratio of 5:1, the theoretical temperature at the top dead center is 571 K.

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(c) Display lled contours of density (Figure 9). i. Under Options, select only Filled and Node Values. ii. Enter 1.18 for Min and 5.88 for Max. iii. Click Display.

5.00e+02 4.90e+02 4.80e+02 4.70e+02 4.60e+02 4.50e+02 4.40e+02 4.30e+02 4.20e+02 4.10e+02 4.00e+02 3.90e+02 3.80e+02 3.70e+02 3.60e+02 3.50e+02 3.40e+02 3.30e+02 3.20e+02 3.10e+02 3.00e+02

Contours of Static Temperature (k) (Time=3.0000e+00) Crank Angle=360.00(deg) FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, dynamesh, lam, unsteady)

Figure 9: Contours of Density at Top Dead Center

Summary
In this tutorial, you learned how to use the dynamic mesh feature in FLUENT. If you have to set up and solve real-life simulations that involve valve movement as well as piston movement, you will need to perform some additional steps that could not be illustrated with the geometry in this problem.

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