Introductio:
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ers Turbulence Modeling He
at Transfer Modeling Advanced Topics
Convergence, Mesh Independence Study and Validation
https://www.computationalfluiddynamics.com.au/convergence-and-mesh-independent-study/
It is important to remember that your solution is the numerical solution to the problem that you posed by
defining your mesh and boundary conditions. The more accurate your mesh and boundary conditions,
the moré accurate your "converged" solution will be.
(1) CONVERGENCE
Convergence is something that all CFD Engineers talk about, but we must remember that the way we
generally define convergence (by looking at Residual values) is only a small part of ensuring that we
have a valid solution. For a Steady State simulation, we need to ensure that the solution satisfies the
following three conditions:
1. Residual RMS Error values have reduced to an acceptable value (typically 10 or 10°)
2. Monitor points for our values of interest have reached a steady solution
3. The domain has imbalances of less than 1%.
On top of that, the flow field should exhibit some expected pattern or phenomenon such as separation
bubble, vortex shedding, etc.
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Example of Monitoring the
residuals
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Example of Monitoring a Value
of Interest
Imbalances in the Domain
Our values of interest are essentially the main outputs from our simulation, so pressure drop, forces, mass
flow etc, We need to make sure that these have converged to a steady value otherwise if we let the
simulation run for an additional 50 iterations then you would have a different result. Ensuring that these
values have reached a steady solution means that you are basing your decisions on a single repeatable
value.
As a tule, we must ensure that prior to starting a simulation we clearly define what our values of interest
are, and we make sure that we monitor these to ensure that they reach a steady state. As previously
highlighted, we also need to make sure that the Residual RMS Error values are to at least 10. Finally,
we need to ensure that the overall imbalance in the domain is less than 1% for all variables.
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(2) MESH INDEPENDENCE STUDY
The approach outlined above results in a single solution for the given mesh that we have used. Although
we are happy that this has "converged" based on RMS Error values, monitor points and imbalances, we
need to make sure that the solution is also independent of the mesh resolution. Not checking this is a
common cause of erroneous results in CFD, and this process should at least be carried out once for
each type of problem that you deal with so that the next time a similar problem arises, you can apply the
same mesh sizing, In this way you will have more confidence in your results.
The way we carry out a mesh independence study is fairly straight forward.
- Step 1
Run the initial simulation on your initial mesh and ensure convergence of residual error to 10-*, monitor
points are steady, and imbalances below 1%. If not refine the mesh and repeat.
- Step 2
Once you have met the convergence criteria above for your first simulation, refine the mesh globally so
that you have finer cells throughout the domain. Generally we would aim for around 1.5 times the
initial mesh size.
Run the simulation and ensure that the residual error drops below 10%, that the monitor points are
steady, and that the imbalances are below 1%.
At this point you need to compare the monitor point values from Step 2 against the values from Step 1. If
they are the same (within your own allowable tolerance, say 5%), then the mesh at Step 1 was accurate
enough to capture the result,
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