Uppsala University

Information Technology
Scientific Computing

February 23, 2007

Applied Scientific Computing
Bernhard M
uller
Sven-Erik Ekstr
om

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics

Objective
The objective of the assignment is to train two essential aspects in the application of computational fluid dynamics using a powerful software package: flow
simulation and postprocessing. Another essential part of CFD is provided to
you: grid generation.

Introduction to Fluent
In this assignment you will solve a 3D turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer
problem, using Fluent. The problem is to predict the flow and temperature
fields in a mixing elbow. This is a common pipe structure in process plants
and process industries, where fluids (water in this case) of different temperatures
and velocities are mixed.
Fluent is a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software produced by
Fluent Inc. (http://www.fluent.com). Fluent is popular in the industry and
there is a good chance that you will encounter and use it. Fluents numerical
solver is based on the finite volume method (FVM) and handles structured and
unstructured grids, different numerical fluxes, grid adaptation, parallel execution, and several turbulence models. Fluent Inc. also sells other CFD products,
e.g. GAMBIT for modeling geometries and grid generation.
This assignment, which consists of a tutorial from Fluent Inc. with some
supplementary questions, touches on many aspects of how to use Fluent. Some
of these are
Define material properties and boundary conditions.
Solve the problem with different numerical methods.
Use grid adaptation.
Study the solution using different post processing techniques.

Practical information
Fluent is installed on the Windows system in G:\Program\Fluent. It is
not installed on the SUN system. Only ten concurrent users can run the
application, so work in groups of two.
All information that is needed to carry out the assignment (this instruction, the tutorial, and the grid) can be downloaded at
http://user.it.uu.se/sverek/introduction.zip
The Fluent user guide (24 MB) can be downloaded at
http://user.it.uu.se/sverek/flug.pdf
To save figures in Fluent use File Hardcopy. . .

 The report should include figures and answers to the questions below.
The report should be handed in at the seminar, March 2, 2007. If there
are any questions, dont hesitate to contact Sven-Erik Ekstrom; svenerik.ekstrom@it.uu.se, room 2448.
If you want to try other aspects of Fluent, additional tutorials can be
provided.

Problem description
Through the main inlet, the lower left corner of Figure 1.1 in the tutorial, water
at 20 C is flowing with the speed 0.4 m/s. Through the second inlet, on the
lower right corner, water at 40 C flows with the speed 1.2 m/s and mixes with
the colder water of the main pipe. The objective is to compute the temperature
profile at the outflow part of the upper right corner. Further description of the
problem can be found in the tutorial.

Questions
Except for saving your own version of the Figures 1.6, 1.13, and 1.20 in the
tutorial, you should also answer the following questions.
Write down the equations, which Fluent is solving for the mixing elbow
problem. Which boundary and initial conditions are used?
Why do we need a turbulence model in our example? Show how you
calculate the Reynolds number.
How many degrees of freedom are there in the original computational grid?
Is this a large number for a computation like this?
Outline the numerical method employed by Fluent to solve the mixing
elbow problem.
What will be the mass flow at the outlet, i.e.
Z
u n dA,
O

where O is the outlet boundary and n the outward normal unit vector?
Present a figure with the outlet temperature profiles for all the methods
below.

First order method (First order upwind) on the original grid.

Second order method (Second order upwind) on the original grid.
Third order method (MUSCL) on the original grid.
First order method on the adapted grid.

Discuss the results, compare also with Figure 1.23 in the tutorial. What
is best for this kind of problem, a higher order method or an adaptation
of the grid? There are no limiters implemented in the MUSCL scheme in
Fluent; why is it not a problem in this case? For which kind of problem
would a limiter be necessary when using the MUSCL scheme?