Tutorial 1b Computational Fluid Dynamics or Engineers 2016

Tutorial 1b - Convective cooling of a processor unit 1 (47)
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers
Tutorial 1b
Convective cooling of a processor unit
Gas flow
Axial fan
Gas flow between fins colored
by gas temperature
Aluminium heat sink Contact with CPU
Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Download more tutorials at: www.cambridge.org/9781107018952
2 (47) Tutorial 1b - Convective cooling of a processor unit
______________________________________________________________________________________
This tutorial can be printed and distributed freely in its original and complete form conditioned that it is
used as supplementary training material to the book Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers,
Andersson B., Andersson R., Hkansson L., Mortensen M., Sudiyo R., van Wachem B., ISBN 978-1-107-
01895-2, published 2011 by Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK.
Additional resources such as tutorials, project and lecture notes are available from the authors and at
www.cambridge.org/9781107018952
Cambridge University Press and the Authors have no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
and do not guarantee that any content is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
______________________________________________________________________________________

1. Tutorial introduction and objectives
The structure of these instructions is as follows.
In Section 1 the problem description is given along with information regarding geometry and boundary
conditions. Hence, all information required to solve the problem is found here.
In Section 2 the questions related to the problem, model accuracy and limitations are found, along with
instructions on how to prepare a short report.
Section 3-5, contains instructions specific to the Ansys software; how to generate the CAD model, create
the computational mesh, run the simulations and how to do the post-processing and evaluate the results.
All instructions are written for Ansys Workbench 15 and the software used are: Design Modeler, Meshing
Platform, Fluent respectively.
In this tutorial the cooling of a central processor unit (CPU) is studied. The purpose of this tutorial is to
simulate how the heat is dissipated and determine the maximum temperature inside the CPU. Conjugate
heat transfer involves the combination of heat transfer in solids and heat transfer in fluids. As such it
includes both conduction inside the semi conducting material and through the heat sink by air that is forced
to flow through the fins by a fan. The purpose is that you, in accordance with best practice guideline,
Chapter 7, learn how to:
Generate : 3D CAD model and mesh files for the system.

Analyze: Mesh quality.
Define: Laminar flow and heat transfer, heat source inside CPU, solid and fluid properties.
Calculate: Flow field, temperature distribution in the CPU, fins and the fluid.
Judge: Convergence based on analysis of residuals and heat flux at boundaries.
Evaluate: Numerical schemes. Mesh independence.
Analyze: Heat fluxes, CPU temperature at different fan speeds.
Discuss: Validity of simulation results with respect to assumptions made in the problem
formulation, limitation with the model, possible refinements.
1.1 Tutorial problem description
The central processor unit is located on the motherboard inside computers. Due to the power consumption
the CPU continuously needs to dissipate heat in order not to be overheated. If the heat is not successfully
dissipated the temperature inside the CPU will increase. If the temperature reaches a certain threshold
value the power supply is automatically shut down, which causes an abrupt shutdown of the entire
computer.

Due to the fact that heat transfer in gases is low, fins are often placed on top of the CPU to allow a more
efficient heat removal. The heat source will be modelled as a volumetric heat source term. Furthermore,
negligible heat dissipation through the motherboard will be assumed. The convective flow of gas from the
fan will be studied at different fan speeds. The system considered in this tutorial is schematically shown in
Figure 1.
Flow of gas
Aluminum fins
Aluminum base plate
Processor unit
Figure 1. Schematic of the system.
The fins are made of aluminum since it can be extrude and also provides a high thermal conductivity. The
properties of the semiconducting material inside the CPU, aluminum and gas are given in Table1. Assume
that a thermal paste (substance used to promote better heat conduction between two surfaces) is applied
between the CPU and the heatsink. Therefore the heat transfer resistance can be neglected between
these parts.
Table 1. Material data.
Thermal Heat capacity

Density
conductivity [J/kg/K]
[kg/m3]
[W/m/K]
Gas State law (ideal) 0.024 1006
Aluminum 2700 200 890
Semiconducting material 2330 20 750

The CPU is 70x70mm and its thickness is 5mm. On top of the CPU is an aluminum heat sink which base plate
is 2mm and the fins are 30mm. The fins are 0.7mm tick and the gap in which gas is forced to flow is 1.3mm,
as shown in Figure 2a. We also allow the computational domain to extend 1mm above the top part of the
fins, to allow the gas to flow smoothly around and down between the fins.
Symmetry allows half the fin and half the void to be modelled, which allows significant reduction in
simulation time. Hence the fin width used in the model is 0.35mm and the gas cavity is 0.65mm as shown
in Figure 2b.
NOTE: The CFD model should only consist of the smallest symmetry unit shown in Figure 2b. The front cover
is mirrored, and consists of 6 symmetry units just for sake of illustration. All dimensions are in millimeter.
Figure 2. a.) Drawing of the 3D model, b.)Front view of the smallest symmetry unit.
Create your model according to the drawing in Figure 2b, used the material data specified in Table 1, and
use the boundary conditions specified on the next page.

Boundary conditions
The fan provides a volumetric flow of air at 0.6 liter/sec, i.e. a mass flow approximately 1*10-5 kg/s for each
symmetry unit. The gas has room temperature, i.e. 20C ( 293K).
Transition to turbulence occurs at approximately Re= 1000 for flow between parallel plates. Confirm that
you are far from transition to turbulent flow conditions, by calculating the Reynolds number.
Heat is dissipated evenly throughout the processor, i.e. a constant volumetric heat source can be used when
specifying the conditions for the semiconducting material in the CFD model. Its value depends on the actual
power consumption. In this tutorial we assume 1.5 MW/m3. Confirm that this is reasonable number
assuming 50W thermal energy dissipates evenly inside the CPU.

1.2 Tutorial prerequisites
It is recommended that you have read Chapters 1-3 in the book Computational Fluid Dynamics for
Engineers. Regardless of what CFD software you use, you will find all required data in Section 1.
The questions and tasks related to this tutorial are found in Section 2.
If you use Ansys Workbench you should read Sections 3-5 in this manual to get detailed instructions on how
to setup the model and how to do the simulations.
If you use any other CFD software you should use the data given in Section 1 to run the simulations and
answer the questions in Section 2. Although the interface varies between different CFD software, it is the
same input that is needed, and the workflow is very similar and consists of five steps: 1. Geometry, 2. Mesh,
3. Defining models, 4. Running simulation, 5. Post-processing and analysis.

2. Tasks and report instructions

Turn in a short report that addresses the tasks in simulation loop nr 1-4 and answers the following
questions:
Is the flow far from transition to turbulent flow conditions, what is the Re number?
Analyze the grid quality e.g. aspect ratio and skewness. Is the mesh quality good? (HINT: Use
recommendations for mesh quality in 'Best-practice guidelines' Chapter 7 in the textbook to do
this assessment.)
How does first and second order upwind schemes affect the simulation results ? (HINT Chapter
3.8.3)
Explain what is under relaxation (Hint Chapter 3.9.1). Did you need to change the under
relaxation parameters or did you obtain convergence anyway?
Do you manage to find a grid independent solution, in that case what was required?
Where is the largest heat transfer resistance located?
Note: All hints refer to the location in the textbook where you will find an answer.
Simulation loop nr 1
Simulate the system at the nominal conditions specified in Section 1. For Ansys Fluent users detailed
instructions for simulation loop nr 1 is given in Sections 3-5.
Make contour plots of temperature and vector plots of the flow field.
What is the average temperature inside the processor unit? In Fluent use Reports Volume integral
/Volume average to calculate the average temperature inside the processor.
How well does the simulated outlet gas temperature agree with hand calculation using a system
enthalpy balance?
You can estimate the increase in temperature by

QV 1.5e6 1 5 70e 9
= = = 52
mdot cp 1e 5 1006
Tips: When there are variations in both flow and temperature across the outlet boundary you can
determine a flow average temperature (mixed cup average).
Change the numerical schemes from first order upwind to second order and compare the results.
Determine if and how the temperature inside the CPU change.

Evaluate the gas temperature in the outlet.
Evaluate the average CPU temperature.

Find a grid independent solution by also using grid adaption in regions with large gradients.
Determine the average CPU temperature.

Determine the outlet gas temperature.
Rerun simulations with fins having lower thermal conductivity. Decrease it a factor 10, to the same value
as the semiconducting material i.e. decrease the thermal conductivity from 200 to 20.
How has the heat transfer resistance changed?

Evaluate the gas temperature in the outlet, does it change?
Evaluate how much the CPU temperature increase.
Rerun simulations with increased fan speed, e.g. twice as large cooling gas flow rate.
Evaluate the gas temperature in the outlet.

Evaluate the average CPU temperature.

3. Instructions for generating the geometry (Ansys 15)
License Manager
When you start, it is important that you ensure that you use a teaching license not a research license.
You do this the first time you use Ansys. Next time you log on to the computer the settings are stored and
loaded. But if you change computer or login with a friends account you need to repeat the license setting
steps outlined below.
1. ) Start\All Programs\Ansys 15.0\Ansys Cliente Licensing\Client ANSLIC_ADMIN_Utility15.0

2.) Set the License Preferences for User (your account name)
3.) Select version 15 (if you use this version)
4.) Mark the ANSYS Academic Teaching Introductory
5.) Move the ANSYS Academic Teaching Introductory to the top by clicking on the Move Up button.
6.) After launching a Ansys Workbench or Fluent session you can check that you use the right license
version by simply using View Status\Display the license server in the Client_ANSLIC_ADMIN_Utility. Note
the license usage is listed three times, since a 3-server (redundant triad) is used. The teaching
introductory license is listed as aa_t_i, whereas the research license is listed as aa_r.
ANSYS Academic Teaching Introductory

Customization of Workbench
As a next step you should start Ansys Workbench, the software from which you can control and launch
the CAD and meshing software and also Fluent for CFD simulations.
Start Workbench (double-click the Workbench icon on the computer desktop) or select it from the start
menu Start\All Programs\Ansys 15.0\Workbench15.0
File: New
Customize the workbench in View
Mark Toolbox, Project Schematic and Messages
View-Toolbox Customization and select the system you want to use. This allows detailed customizations
but at least Fluid Flow (Fluent) must be selected. This customization enough for this course.

Start Workbench
You should now start a new CFD project
Drag: Fluid Flow (FLUENT) into project schematic
Double click on Geometry (or right click and select New Geometry) to start the CAD software. The name
of this CAD software is Design Modeler.

Design Modeler
In the Figure below you can see the Design Modeler workspace. If you use another version than Ansys 15
it might look slightly different but the same functions can be found. In the menu bar you find:
File, Create, Concept, Tools, Units, View, Help.
The most useful icons/tools are highlighted (in red) for your convenience.
After starting DesignModeler select to work with millimeter. From the menu bar select
Units: Millimeter
New Sketch Rotate Pan Zoom Zoom to Fit
Generate
Select mode: Single or box

Select filter: Points, Edges,
Faces or Volumes
Details view
There are two basic modes in this program: sketching and modeling. We start with sketching to generate
the sketches and put constraints and dimensions to the drawing. We should make the sketches in the XY-
plane, which means we should look into the z-axis. To modify the view to look into the z-axis: Select the
view angle by clicking on 'z' on the coordinate-system-icon in the lower right corner (or right click the
mouse within the drawing screen and View-e.g. Front View).

Under the Units tab (found in the main menu on the top) select to work with millimeter.
We should generate three sketches each representing the different domains i.e. gas, aluminum heat sink
and processor respectively. While being in the Modeling mode (encircled in green in the figure below),
allocate the first sketch in the XY-plane by clicking first on the XYPlane and then click on the icon for New
sketches (encircled in red).
Ensure that Sketch1 has appeared in the menu in the XY-plan (encircled in orange).
Mark Sketch1 (it turns blue to show that it is the active sketch).
New sketch
Switch to Sketching mode by selecting the Sketching tab instead of the Modeling tab. You can simplify the
sketching by the following settings under the Sketching /Settings tab (as shown in the figure below)
Grid: Mark Show in 2D, Mark Snap
Major Grid spacing: 1mm
Minor Steps per Major: 2

In the first sketch we draw the processor unit. According to Figure 2b the width should be 1mm and the
height 5mm. Make a rectangle having these dimensions, by selecting Rectangle in the Sketching menu
tree
Select: Sketching-Draw-Rectangle (it is preferable to obtain the exact dimension of the rectangle is but
not necessary, you can specify its exact shape later if you need)
Note that the location of your mouse probe is continuously updated in the lower right corner which helps
you draw the right dimensions. Start from origo (0,0) continue to (1,5).
Sometimes it is convenient to show C and P indicators, which indicate if the cursor is at a line (C) or at a
position where lines are met (P). You may activate the P and C indicators by going to Constraints -> Auto
Constraints and check Global & Cursor.
Your sketch (rectangle) should look like the figure below.
You can anytime undo the last step in your drawing by clicking undo ( Ctrl+Z also works).

In the Sketching mode, you find several tabs: Draw, Modify, Dimensions, Constraints, Settings. If you
have experience working with CAD software you understand the purpose with these tabs and the
workflow you need to follow, e.g. first you make the rough 2D sketch, you modify it, put constrains and
dimensions to make the drawing exact before switching to modeling mode and generate the 3D model.
You can anytime undo the last step in your drawing by clicking undo.
In oder to specifiy the exact dimension:

Select: Dimension
Click on the line and drag it to the side. (Do not drag too far or the dimension lines will be far from the
body). Set the dimensions: Width 1 mm and Height 5 mm. As shown in the figure below.

To do this the box in the details view has to be unmarked. If you mark the box in details view, you have
the opportunity to name the parameters and later change the dimensions by altering the parameters.
(We will not use that in this tutorial, but you may use it in the project late on in the course).
Press Generate when you are satisfied. You can zoom the windows to fit.
At this stage you are ready with the 2D drawing of the processor. You must draw the heat sink fin and the
air cavity in the same plane (XY) but in different (new) sketches. Therefore you should now go back to the
Modeling mode and activate a second sketch in which you should draw the aluminum baseplate and its
fins.
For this purpose go back to Modeling mode by selecting the modeling tab as shown in the Figure below.
Ensure you are located on the XYplane (same as before) and press the icon New Sketch. Sketch2 should
now appear in the menu under XYPlane.
Select Sketch2 by marking it in the tree, it should get highlighted as in the figure below.
Now return to the Sketching mode by pressing the Sketching tab.

The aluminum base plate and fins does not look like a rectangle instead it is L-shape due to the
symmetry planes we use (see Figure 2b). Use Poly-line to draw the sketch (instead of using rectangle)
Select: Sketching-Draw-Polyline
After drawing sketch 2 with Polyline right-click the mouse and select closed-end to ensure the last line
form a closed surface.

As a next step use Dimensions (as you did before on the rectangle) to ensure all the dimensions of the L-
shaped aluminum fins gets right.
If you zoomed out while drawing the fins you might have got the correct height otherwise specify the
height of the baseplate and fin by using Dimensions. Since you have used snap the lines are perfectly
vertical: However you have made a fin that is 0.5mm but it should be 0.35mm. Use Dimensions to correct
this. Press Generate when you are satisfied.
At this stage you are ready with the 2D drawing of the aluminum base plate and fins, and you should now
go back to the Modeling mode and activate a third sketch in which you should draw the domain of the
cooling air.
For this purpose go back to Modeling mode by selecting the modeling tab. Ensure you are located on the
XYplane (same as before) when you press the icon New Sketch. Sketch3 should now be visible in the
tree.
Select Sketch3 by selecting it in the tree, it should get highlighted. Now return to the Sketching mode by
pressing the Sketching tab. The sketch in Sketch 3 represents the air , which according to Figure2b, can
be drawn as a polyline and by specifying the dimensions. It can also be drawn by two rectangle if you
remove one of the the line that interfaces the two rectangles. You can use either way, if you want to train
can try using the Modify/Trim for removing the interface.
Since the grid snap is on 0.5mm you probably have a gap between the fin and the air. Use
Constraints/Coincident in the Sketching mode to force an alignment between the vertical line of the air
sketch and the vertical line of the aluminum fin sketch. By using constraints (coincident and parallel) the
surfaces will allign close by each other, without any gap or overlap between the surfaces. This is
important so that heat transfer can occur from solid material to gas phase as intended.
Press Generate when you are satisfied.
Return to the Modeling mode and the 2D CAD model should look like this. It should contain 3 sketches.

The next step in preparing your model is to generate a 3D model out of your 2D model, by means of
extruding the three sketches you have prepared. The depth of the extrusion should be 70mm as shown in
Figure2a.
In order to extrude Sketch1:

Select Sketch1 and push the Extrude button located on the right hand side of the Generate button.
Make the following changes:
Operation: Add Frozen (change the default Add Material otherwise the different extrusions will merge)
Depth: 70mm (the depth of the, processor and fins)
Press Generate button to generate the first extrusion (based on the drawing in Sketch1, which is part of
the processor).
Repeat these steps with Sketch 2 (aluminum base plate and fins) and Sketch 3 (air cavity) to complete the
3D model.
The figure below is rotated to clarify that the sketches have been extruded 70mm normal to the XYplane.
It also confirms there are still 3 parts, which have not been merged together although all parts are
effectively connected.

You now have a 3D model (consisting of the smallest possible symmetry unit) that contains 3 parts and 3
bodies.
You can now rename your bodies (e.g. processor, fin, fluid) by right- clicking on the names in the
expanded list and assign them appropriate names.
In order to Mesh the bodies together they must form one multibody part. Therefore expand and mark the
three bodies in the list and right click and select Form New Part. (You can also name this new part)
Generate
You now have 1 part, 3 bodies

Save Project.
Back in the Workbench it should look like this (the green check mark indicating the Geometry is OK)

4. Instructions for generating the computational mesh (Ansys 15)
In Workbench - Right click Mesh and Edit (or double click). This will start the meshing program. The most
useful tools are highlighted in the Figure below for your convenience.
Select tools Volume selection

View tools
Face selection
Details
view
In order to generate your first mesh you first select Mesh in the project outline tree.
Mesh control -retain the default setting (defaults settings for CFD is enable since you initially activated a
fluid flow analysis).
Select Mesh and under Defaults change Relevance to 100
Select Mesh and under Sizing change Relevance Center to Fine
Set Max Face Size to 1.5e-4 m (i.e. 0.15 mm: This is a first guess, it needs to be confirmed or falsified in a
grid indepence test when you do the CFD simulations)
Set Max Size to 5e-3 m (this allows large mesh in the sweep direction, where the gradients are very low)
Click on the Face Selection icon in the menu bar. Select the three faces in the XYplane (press Ctrl while
selecting multiple faces). Right click and select Insert Method: Mapped Face Meshing
Click on the Volume Selection icon in the menu bar. Select the three volumes (use Ctrl when selecting
multiple volumes). Right click and select Insert: Method. In the details view specify the Method to be
Sweep method. Change the Scr/Trg Method to Manual Source. Click on the Face Selection icon in the
menu bar and then select the three faces in the XY plane to specify the source surfaces for the Sweep
method. Change the Type to Element Size and specify the element size to 1e-3m (1mm). This will provide
a coarse mesh in the z-direction but since the thermal gradients are expected to be low in this direction it
can provide good enough resolution, at least for the first simulations. In contrast the 1.5e-4m resolution
of the thermal boundary layer specified before might not be enough since there will be large gradient in
the XY plane.

Click on Generate Mesh. You should now have a structured mesh similar to the one shown in the figure
below. The upper part of the mesh is shown in the cropped image on the right hand side.
Before you send your first computational mesh to the CFD program, you need to attach names to surfaces
and volumes so you can specify appropriate boundary conditions and material properties in the CFD
program. You can also evaluate the number of nodes it contains and the review the Statistics to check the
quality of the mesh.

The next step is to assign names to cell zones where you later on need to specify material properties.
Starting with the volumes:
Volumes
Click on the Volume Selection icon in the menu bar. Select the processor volume by left-clicking and then
right click on the selected volume and select Create Named Selection. You can give it the name:
solid_cpu.
Select the aluminum base plat and fins by left-clicking and then right click on the selected volume and
Create Named Selection (solid_fin)
Select the air cavity volume by left-clicking and then right click on the selected volume and Create Named
Selection (fluid).
The next step is to assign names to the face zones where you later on need to apply boundary conditions.
Continue with the faces:
Faces
Click on the Face Selection icon in the menu bar. In order to specify the different face names you need to
rotate and zoom when necessary. You can also temporarily hide a volume to more easily select a surface
(that might be located behind another volume), in this case you use Volume Select and right-click and
select Hide Body.

If you want to show the hidden volume later, you just right-click anywhere and select Show All Bodies.
Similarly you can hide selected faces and to make other more east to access.
NOTE: When selecting the faces there might be multiple faces to which you want to apply a certain
boundary condition, e.g. the symmetry planes, you have two of them and each contains 3 faces. The table
below summarizes the selections and settings you should apply and also in what planes the faces are
located. Note that sometimes certain entities are located in two planes (e.g. walls of the CPU).
Specify the following names by using Create Named Selection
Name Plane Number of Faces
inlet XZ 1
outlet XY 2
wall_fin_sides XY 2
wall_cpu_sides XY,XZ 3
symmetry_1 YZ 3
symmetry_2 YZ 3
wall_fin_inside YZ,XZ 3
When you have made the selections it should look like the figure below. Ensure you have in 3 named
selections related to volumes, and 7 named selections related to faces.
HINT. When you mark any of the selections you have specified, it gets highlighted in the graphical display
window, the number of zones that it contains is also written in the bottom line of the display window,
which allows you to double check that you made the correct setting.
NOTE Since you choose to use the names symmetry, inlet, outlet, wall, Fluent will recognize them as
symmetry plane, inlet velocity, pressure outlet and solid wall boundaries automatically. You will later
specify boundary conditions for these in Fluent.
Select Mesh again and Update.
Save.

Go back to Workbench. The Mesh is now updated, the green check mark indicates that the mesh is OK. If
you have any other mark you have to go back to the Meshing program and correct your mesh. If you do
not get OK you probably forgot to press update in the Meshing program, in which case, you can update
the mesh already in Workbench by right-clicking the mesh and selecting Update.
Save the project.
Preferably you also make a copy of the project after meshing is completed. Save as (new name).
This allows a quick recovery of the model in the case the computer crashes, or if you make a sever
mistake in setting up the model that cant be undone.

5. Instructions for running the simulations (Ansys 15 Fluent)

In Workbench - Right click Setup and select Edit to start Fluent. Start Fluent in double precision. If you
have a multi-core processor you choose parallel and the number of cores you want to use. Running other
applications (e.g. text editors, web-browsers etc) at the same time can be slow, unless you save one core
for this purpose.
The most useful tools are highlighted in the figure below for your convenience.
Hardcopy View tools
Setup
Solution controls
Text user interface (TUI)
In Fluent the work flow is displayed on the left hand size and also in menu bar in the top. You start from the
top left: Solution Setup, (where you specify models, boundary conditions, material properties etc.) then
you apply Solution (where you control discretization schemes and other important numerical properties)
and run calculations. You have access to various analysis tools under Results that help to interpret and
analyze the results e.g. calculate surface and volume integrals, fluxes etc. There is also a large selection of
visualization tools, you can easily make contour and vector plots for example.
Solution Setup - General

You can make a quick assessment of the mesh quality inside Fluent if you have not done that in the meshing
program.
Report Quality Check Mesh-Info-Quality.
Note that the results are printed in the text user interface (lower right corner/promt). These numbers can
be compared to the recommended limits given in Chapter 7 Best Practice Guidelines, in the text book.
You have prepared a mesh with high quality (if everything was done correctly) which should be confirmed
by the numbers printed in the TUI.

Models
Under model you select Energy on since you will calculate heat transfer.
The flow is Laminar (Viscous - Laminar) retain the default setting.
Materials
For this tutorial we need to specify properties of: air, aluminum and semiconducting material.
Air and aluminum is by default loaded by Fluent. You need to add new materials properties for the
semiconducting material.
Material-Create/Edit FLUENT DATABASE Select Solid and mark aluminum then push Create/Edit. Specify
the following: Name: Semicond; Chemical Formula: Si.
Change the heat capacity to 750 and the thermal conductivity to 20. Then press Change/Create button,
when asked if you want to overwrite select No. You should now have two materials available under solids
and the GUI should look like this.
Next you should specify the material in each zone, and define a heat source inside the CPU to account for
the heat dissipation that occurs.
Select Cell Zone Conditions fluid - Edit ensure the material name is air
Select Cell Zone Conditions solid_fin - Edit ensure the material name is aluminum
Select Cell Zone Conditions solid_cpu - Edit change the material to semicond, also mark the source term
box and open the source term tab, define a constant energy source term.

Press OK to confirm the changes.
Specify the boundary condition for the gas inlet, under the Momentum tab, set the mass flow rate to 1e-5
kg/s, normal to the face boundary.

When solving heat transfer problem you need to specify the appropriate thermal boundary conditions for
all face boundaries. These can for example be a specified heat flux, a fixed temperature, a convective heat
transfer, radiation heat transfer, or combination of these.
The thermal condition for the gas inlet boundary is the gas inlet temperature. Since the fan draws air from
the room in which the computer is located we assume it is room temperature at 20C.
Under the Thermal tab set the inlet gas temperature to 293 K (equal to 20C).
The exterior wall of the fins i.e. the named selection wall_fin_sides boundary is very small compared to
area between the fins and air (interior) i.e. the named selection wall_fin_inside. Therefore it is assumed the
heat transfer is negligible.
Open up the wall_fin_sides (the exterior walls to the domain through which heat transfer is negligible) and
set the thermal boundary condition: heat flux equals zero
Boundary conditions/Edit/Thermal Tab

Remember you specified the three faces for wall_cpu_sides, two side faces and the face downwards
towards the motherboard. Since there is no strong convective flow of air along the sides of the cpu and low
or negligible conduction via the motherboard on which the processor is located we will set the heat flux to
zero. Therefore, repeat this step for wall_cpu_sides (which is the exterior walls to the domain through
which heat transfer is also negligible).
Open up the wall_cpu and confirm the thermal boundary condition: heat flux equals zero
Contrary the wall_fin_inside is an interior face that connects the fin and the air cavity through which the
largest part of the heat transfer occurs. Hence this face has a fluid and solid domain on each side. When
you read the mesh into Fluent a shadow' zone was automatically created so that each side of the face is a
distinct wall zone. You want to couple these two walls, so that the CFD program will calculate heat transfer
directly from the solution in the adjacent cells.
This is done by specifying the thermal condition: coupled
Check that the thermal boundary condition is coupled.

Since you have two solid zones with different materials in contact, and because we did not assign these
wall names, you need to slit the interior zone between the two solid zones to create a coupled wall
interface.
You will now learn how to use the TUI to do this. Do the modification via the TUI by writing
/mesh/modify-zones/slit-interior-between-diff-solids
Double check in Boundary conditions that you now have

1. interior-solid_cpu-solid_fin
2. interior-solid_cpu-solid_fin-shadow (this one just appeared due to this TUI operation)
3. both has changed to wall and that the thermal boundary condition is set to: coupled
Now you have formulated the problem but the numerical methods and methods we use to analyze how we
approach solutions needs to be specified (e.g. discretization schemes, under relaxation, surface or volume
monitors etc.)

Solution
In the solution methods panel we can change to first order discretization schemes to start with. We will
later evaluate the effect of having higher order schemes. The First Order Upwind schemes are very robust
and are recommended for the initial iterations. However, these methods may introduce large numerical
diffusion and you should always change to a higher order method at the end of the iterations and compare
the solutions. You should have learnt about these schemes by reading Chapter 3 in the textbook.
In Solution Methods you can changes to these settings.
Under Solution Controls you can specify under-relaxation factors. This is considered to be a very simple
CFD problem, and you have a very good mesh quality. For these reasons retain the default values for the
moment.
Under Solution Controls you also have the opportunity to specify what equations that should be solved.
We should keep all equations at the moment but if we have convergence problems it may be a good practice
to solve one equation at the time to start with before invoking all of them particularly if you have a large
set of transport equations.
Solution limits can also be modified. You can select limits that are clearly outside your expected range. If
Fluent during the iterations reaches extreme values, it can be easier for the program to find its way back.
But in this case you dont need to modify the default values.

In Monitors you select how to follow the iterations to convergence. Select Print to Console and Plot. You
ensure the Convergence limits for the energy equation is 110-6. If the outlet temperature has not
reached a steady value the convergence limits can be decreased further.
It can sometimes be difficult to estimate when convergence is reached from the residuals. A useful method
to follow the iterations towards convergence is to monitor certain variables. In this case we will monitor
the average gas temperature in the outflow.
Select Create in Surface Monitors. You should also specify in what window you want the plot to appear.

Change Display Window
Here we have used to report the mass-weighted average temperature which is a mixed cup value, i.e. it
accounts for the variation in flow rate across the outlet boundary. Therefor it better reflects the real
average gas temperature at the outlet. It is calculated by dividing the summation of the product of the
selected field variable and the absolute value of the dot product of the facet area and momentum vectors
by the summation of the absolute value of the dot product of the facet area and momentum vectors,
You should also split the display widow so you can follow both the residual and the average gas
temperature at the same time (use the icon "arrange the graphics window layout"), see the figure above.
You also need to specify a volume-monitor for the processor temperature so that you can judge
convergence also from this value. Since it is a solid domain we dont need to bother about any flow
distribution, simply just calculate a standard volume average value of the temperature inside the CPU.
The settings for the Volume Monitor are shown in the figure below. You should also specify in what
window you want the plot to appear.

You must specify initial conditions before starting the iterations. The better you can specify the initial
conditions the easier to find the solution. Select Standard Initialization. In this case we initialize by
Compute from select the inlet conditions. Press Initialize.
As you can see the y-velocity component is negative indicating the flow is downward, the value is
determined from the inlet mass flow boundary conditions you specified earlier. If you used 1x10-5kg/s,
density 1.225kg/m3, and the cross-sectional area of the inlet is 7x10-5m2, the y-velocity components should
equal - 1x10-5/1.225/7x10-5 = - 0.117 m/s.

In Calculation Activities you can select Autosave this is often very important, but not in this tutorial since
the calculations are very fast and we dont risk to loose hours or days of simulation time.
Save Project (you can also save it under a new name as a backup)
To run the calculation, specify 1000 iterations under Run Calculation and press Calculate.
After a few iteration, approximately 20 iterations, the solution has converged. During the iterations you can
see information about residuals and the two monitors you specified that shows how temperature change,
shown in the figure below.

When you have obtained a solution go to graphics and animations Contours-Setup to study the solution.
Here you can make contour plots of the temperature and also make vector plots of the flow field.
You can also display the pathlines of the gas and color it with the temperature.

Save picture
Save pictures of the temperature distribution vectors plots of the flow field, by clicking the camera (icon)
in the toolbar; shown in the figure above.
Since you have a 3D model you need to cut through the domain to look inside, in order to and see how the
temperature is distributed in the gas phase and inside the fin and processor. For this purpose make a cut
through the model, at the middle of the extrusion, i.e. 70mm/2=35mm.
From the top menu select Surface, then Iso-surface from the drop menu. Enter the setting shown in the
figure below to generate a surface that you can use to visualize solution values.

Make a plot of the temperature at z=35mm. In this figure we have zoomed into the top part of the fins and
also unmarked node values to show the temperature values in the finite cells calculated by the CFD
program. The number of levels has also been increase from the default 20 to 100. If you want you can
unmark the Auto Range and enter your specified temperature limits. You can also zoom around in the
domain to see how the temperature is distributed.
Before evaluating and improving the solution we just stress that the solution can be affected by having a
coarse mesh and low order discretization schemes by overlaying a plot of the mesh that is used with the
plot of the temperature distribution. In the figure below you clearly see that the mesh is very coarse in the
regions where we have large temperature and velocity gradients.

There are a few more convenient postprocessing tools available under Results Report, e.g. tools to calculate
heat and mass fluxes, calculate surface and volume integrals of various solution variables, as shown below.
Optional training:
It is also possible to define a mixed cup average directly from the solution variables, by defining a custom-
field function. This might be useful later in the course and we recommend you try to define your own
custom field function. You do this by using Define Custom Field Function and define v*T that can be
integrated across the outlet using a surface integration .
Note! Here absolute values need to be used since you have outflow from the fins in two opposite
directions.
Alternatively, since the outflow is symmetrical in the z-direction, you can define a new surface that
contains only positive velocity components by creating a new iso-surface close to part of the outlet
corresponding to positive z-value (i.e. at z=0.07), Surface - Iso-Surface .

Improving you simulation results and confirming mesh independence

(continue to read here after you have answered Simulation loop nr 1, on page 8)
The instructions below are written to help you with simulations loop nr2-5.
Discretization schemes
Change the numerical schemes to higher order in order to decrease numerical diffusion.
In Solution Methods select a higher order discretization scheme (second order).
Rerun the simulation without initialization. Instead use the first order solution as starting point.
Compare simulation results e.g. average processor and gas temperatures.
Refining the Mesh

You dont want to increase the entire mesh since making the mesh twice as dense gives you a factor 8 times
large mesh (23=8).
Instead you should locally refine the mesh were large gradients exists. In these regions the heat flux will be
most affected by improving the mesh. Therefore you can use the solution you have obtained and locally
adapt the mesh where most changes occur, i.e. regions with large gradients.
You should save and make a back-up of the project at this time, before you start to alter the mesh. You
might need to re-load the files as they were before you started making grid adaptions. We also recommend
that you write out the Fluent case&data files from File -> Write -> Case and Data.
If your by some reason dont run Fluent via Workbench (it can also be run standalone), the menu looks
different and you find this option to write files under File -> Export -> Case and Data.
Adapt-Gradient is available from the top menu as shown in the figure below.
Select Gradient and scale, and temperature. Compute to obtain an estimation of existing gradients and
define a threshold, Refine Threshold, select a suitable number (lower than the maximum), as shown in the
Figure below. In this simulation you should specify the Refine Threshold so the number of cells in the mesh
do not increase to more than 500000 cells (this is the limit of the teaching license you use).

Click Mark to see how many cells that will be added (given the specified threshold value, if needed adjust
it). Finally click Adapt to make the change(NOTE: only press Adapt once).
Rerun the simulation without initialization. Instead you use the existing solution (from the coarse mesh) as
starting point for the refined mesh.
Solve and compare the results with the previous results. Have you obtained a grid independent solution?
To view the new Mesh Display Mesh. As you see the mesh has been refined in regions
You can now repeat the mesh refinement unless you have exceeded the limit of 500000 cells.

FAQ
How to generate an arbitrary plane/surface for post processing purposes?
You can define new plane for post processing by defining a new surface based on a iso-value of a mesh
coordinate e.g. x, y, or z-coordinates: Surface\Iso-surface\Mesh\.... (see figure below)
Common Errors
Errors in Drawing
1. The different parts are not joined by Form New Parts
a. This error can be detected by studying connections in the Meshing program
Errors in Meshing
1. Too dense mesh
a. Ensure that the number of cells (elements) far below 500000. It should not be more than
half this value so you later on can afford to do grid adaption in the regions with large
thermal gradients.
2. Check the statistics of the mesh to ensure you obtained high quality mesh
a. With this simple geometry the Orthogonal Quality should be above 0.95
3. Not all surfaces or volumes are named, or might be selected twice for different entities.
a. Make sure that the names are correct. If a name does not appear in Fluent then it is not
set, not allowed or two different names are given to the same entity. The three bodies
should be given different names in Named Selection.
b. Check that the Named Selections contains: solid_cpu (1 body), solid_fin (1 body), fluid (1
body), inlet(1 face), outlet (2 faces), wall_fins_sides (2 faces), wall_fins_sides (3 faces),
wall_cpu_sides (3 faces), symmetry_1 (3 faces), symmetry_2 (3 faces)

Errors in Fluent
1. Energy source term is not correctly set in the solid CPU
If everything fails you may:

1. Right click on Setup in the Workbench and select Reset. This will clear all your settings in Fluent
and you can start Fluent with a fresh mesh file.
You can save all your settings onto a file (Report-Input Summary) and review your settings. You also can
use compare files in Word to compare your settings with the other students or with your supervisors
settings.


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Tutorial 1b - Convective cooling of a processor unit 1 (47)

Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers, Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers

Convective cooling of a processor unit

Aluminium heat sink Contact with CPU

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

1. Tutorial introduction and objectives

The structure of these instructions is as follows.

Generate : 3D CAD model and mesh files for the system.

1.1 Tutorial problem description

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Figure 1. Schematic of the system.

Table 1. Material data.

Thermal Heat capacity

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

2. Tasks and report instructions

You can estimate the increase in temperature by

Determine if and how the temperature inside the CPU change.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Determine the average CPU temperature.

How has the heat transfer resistance changed?

Evaluate the gas temperature in the outlet.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

3. Instructions for generating the geometry (Ansys 15)

1. ) Start\All Programs\Ansys 15.0\Ansys Cliente Licensing\Client ANSLIC_ADMIN_Utility15.0

ANSYS Academic Teaching Introductory

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Mark Toolbox, Project Schematic and Messages

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

New Sketch Rotate Pan Zoom Zoom to Fit

Select mode: Single or box

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Your sketch (rectangle) should look like the figure below.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

In oder to specifiy the exact dimension:

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

In order to extrude Sketch1:

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

You now have 1 part, 3 bodies

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

4. Instructions for generating the computational mesh (Ansys 15)

Select tools Volume selection

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Specify the following names by using Create Named Selection

Name Plane Number of Faces

Select Mesh again and Update.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

Save the project.

Copyright 2016, Assoc. Prof. Ronnie Andersson, Prof. Bengt Andersson.

5. Instructions for running the simulations (Ansys 15 Fluent)

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