Lecture 8

6-DOF Rigid Body Solver in CFX

14. 5 Release

Solving FSI Applications Using

ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS CFX
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 Rigid Body FSI

CFX includes a 6-DOF rigid body solver

Fluid forces/torques on a body auto-calculated
Body response included in flow solution
Either via mesh motion or via immersed solid

Simplified FSI case where body does not change shape

under fluid load
Can make assumptions about its behaviour
Does not need the expense of a full structural simulation
If stresses are of interest then 6DOF is not suitable; perform a 2-
way FSI instead

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 Rigid Body Dynamics

Forces and torques acting on a rigid body can be summed and

assumed to act on/about the centre of mass

Chasles Theorem: The general displacement of a rigid body is a

linear motion of a origin point plus a rotation around the origin
point
Can separate translation and rotation

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 Rigid Translation

Translational equation of motion, applied to Centre of Mass

P mx = Linear Momentum
dP
mxG F xG = Acceleration about centre of mass
dt
F FAero mg [kSpring ( x xso )] FExt

Discretized using implicit Newmark integration scheme

Default integration parameters give 2nd order accuracy
Advantage over previous explicit CEL implementation

Can add influence of external spring or external force to F

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 Rigid Rotation
Rotational equation of motion about Centre of Mass

d d ( I B ) = Angular Momentum
M I = Moment of Inertia tensor
dt dt
d ( I B )
B I B I B B I 1 ( M B B I B )
dt

M B M Aero [kSpring ( so )] M Ext

Two methods of discretization available
Simo-Wong [1] (Default. Second order, iteratively conservative)
First Order Backward Euler
Can add influence of external torsion spring or external
torque to MExt
[1] Simo, J.C., Wong, K.K., Unconditionally Stable Algorithms for Rigid Body Dynamics that exactly Preserves
Energy and Momentum, Int. J. Num. Methods in Eng., vol. 31, 19-52 (1991)
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 Creating a Rigid Body in CFX-Pre

Insert a Rigid Body into the Flow Analysis

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 Rigid Body Basic Settings
Mass
Rigid body mass
Location
The 2D boundary region of the rigid body
Coord Frame
Must create a Coord Frame at the centre of
mass (based on the initial rigid body position)
and select here
Cannot constrain a body to rotate about an
arbitrary point, unless translations of turned off

Mass Moment of Inertia

Enter components for the Mass Moment of
Inertia tensor see next slides
As calculated with respect to the rigid body
coordinate frame

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 Mass Moment of Inertia Tensor

This tensor describes an objects resistance I xx I xy I xz

to changes in its rotation rate
I I yx I yy I yz
I zx I zy I zz

Its a symmetric tensor, so Ixy = Iyx
Hence only 6 components are entered on the Basic Settings panel

Ixx describes the moment of inertia around the x-axis when

the objects are rotated around the x-axis
Non-zero when you have rotation about the x-axis

Ixy describes the moment of inertia around the y-axis when

the objects are rotated around the x-axis, etc
Non-zero when you have rotation about the x and y axis

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 Mass Moment of Inertia Tensor

0 0 0
For rotation about only the
y-axis, the tensor simplifies to: I 0 I yy 0
0 0 0

I xx I xy 0
For rotation about the x and y
axes we have: I I yx I yy 0
0 0 0

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_of_inertia for

detailed background on mass moment of inertia

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 Rigid Body Dynamics
External Forces / Torques
Use Spring or Value option
- Spring: Set Origin coords and Spring Constant
- Value: Enter Cartesian components (can use
CEL expressions)
Degrees of Freedom
Select Translational / Rotational DOF
Default is None need to set at least one
Enter Gravity Vector
Acts at the centre of mass as set by Coord
Frame
Should be consistent with Domain gravity
(if specified in the Domain)

Everything specified in Rigid Body

Coord Frame
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 Rigid Body Initialization

All state variables defining rigid

body can be initialized in terms of
the rigid body coordinate frame

Default behavior is to use

Automatic
Assumes quiescent conditions unless a
previous solution is provided to restart
from

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion

After creating the rigid body, set mesh

motion parameters on boundaries,
subdomains and/or interfaces

Option = Rigid Body Solution

Rigid Body = <Location>
Motion Constraints
Can ignore Translations or Rotations
The boundary that corresponds to the rigid body should clearly move with
the rigid body, without ignoring any motion

To maintain mesh quality, you may want other boundaries/interfaces to

move using only the translations/rotations from the RB solution
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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example

Ship hull example

2-DOF
Rotation about y-axis
Translation along the z-axis

A subdomain moves with the

rigid body so that near-wall
mesh quality can be maintained

See EX1 in the examples folder

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example
Hull wall boundary mesh motion defined by the Rigid Body Solution

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example
Subdomain mesh motion also defined by the Rigid Body
Solution
Hull and subdomain rotate and translate together as a rigid body

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example
A Domain Interface is used between the subdomain and
the rest of the domain
The subdomain side of the interface uses the same mesh
motion setting as the subdomain and hull

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example
The other side of the interface uses the Rigid Body Solution to set
the mesh motion, but Ignore Rotations is selected

The mesh slides at the domain interface so rotational motion is not

transmitted to the outer domain
Translational motion is passed and absorbed by the outer domain

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 Rigid Body Mesh Motion Example

This example demonstrates

the preferred topology when
rotation about a single axis is
included

For rotation about multiple

axes surround the rigid body
with a sphere when significant
rotation occurs

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 CEL Access of Rigid Body Variables
Use the rbstate() CEL function to access rigid body variables
E.g. rbstate(Linear Velocity X)@RigidBodyObject
The returned values are with respect to the Global Coord Frame
Variables that can be accessed are:
Position X/Y/Z, Linear Velocity X/Y/Z, Linear Acceleration X/Y/Z, Euler
Angle X/Y/Z, Angular Velocity X/Y/Z,
Angular Acceleration X/Y/Z
If a component (X/Y/Z) is not provided the magnitude is returned, except
for Euler Angle which requires a component

A beta feature allows values to be returned in the rigid body

coordinate frame
E.g. rbstate(linacc x_Coord Name)@RigidBodyObject
where linacc x is the short form variable name. See the VARIABLES file in
.../ANSYS Inc/v130/CFX/etc to find the short form names
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 Rigid Body Solver Control

Solver Control > Rigid Body Control

Update Frequency
Every Time Step
Explicit coupling between the rigid body
solution and the flow field. Lowest
computational cost, but weakest coupling.
Suitable for loosely coupled cases; will be
unstable for more tightly coupled cases

Every Coefficient Loop / Iteration

Tighter coupling that is iteratively-implicit. Higher computational cost, but more
stable for large timestep use and cases with high virtual-mass (body-mass ratio).
May still fail the forces from the flow field dont get a chance to stabilize after
receiving the new rigid body position. Can use under-relaxation (see later).

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 Rigid Body Solver Control
Update Frequency (cont.)
General Coupling Control
The most robust approach; same approach
as stagger/coupling iterations in 2-way FSI.
Set the number of Rigid Body updates to
perform per timestep. After each RB update
within a timestep, the flow solver will
perform the number of coefficient loops set
under Basic Settings.

Under Internal Coupling Data

Transfer Control can set Under
Relaxation Factors and Convergence
Control
Available for Update Frequency other
than Every Timestep

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 Rigid Body Solver Control
Can adjust under relaxation for forces &
torques sent to the RB solver and for
mesh motion received from the RB
solver
External Force set via a Linear Spring is not
under-relaxed
Under relaxation is usually the first
choice to improve robustness and is easy
to use
Default under relaxation is 0.75

The default Simo Wong Integration

Method for Angular Momentum is
recommended

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 Rigid Body Monitor Plots
Default monitor plots are created
Rigid Body Convergence, Euler Angles
& Position
Select under Monitors > Rigid
Body
Motion convergence is based on the
distance moved compared to the last
time the RB solver was called
Force/Torque convergence is based on
the change in force/torque divided by
the force/torque magnitude
See CFX-Pre Solver Control doc for
further details

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 Rigid Body Monitor Plots
Can also access additional plots;
create a new monitor or right-click to
access Monitor Properties
Angular/Linear Acceleration and
Angular/Linear Velocity are available in
addition to the default Position, Euler
Angle and Force/Motion Convergence
plots

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 Rigid Body Solution

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 Limitations
Cant be combined with MFX 2-way FSI
No contact/collision modelling with walls or other rigid bodies
Practically, this only matters for the Immersed Solid approach since the
mesh would fold prior to a collision
An immersed solid driven by 6-DOF has no problems moving through a
wall and outside the flow domain

Cant be used in rotating domains

General constraints cant be applied
Cant make a translatable rigid body rotate about a point, other than its
center of mass

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