FLUENT TUTORIAL

Airfoil Flow
Processing &
Post-processing

Engr. Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin

Assistant Professor,
Mechanical Engineering Department,
NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi.
Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 1
 1. INTRODUCTION
This tutorial will guide you through the processing and post-processing of the flow in NACA 2412 Airfoil
geometry in Fluent. The NACA 2412 profile is used on many wings of general aviation aircraft (Cessna152/210
etc.). It offers good-natured flight characteristics and large installation space with moderate performance. The
2D geometry of the Airfoil will be used in this case for studying the lift and drag generated at different angle of
attack . Six grids of different sizes will be used to carry out the grid dependency study of the RANS results.

The boundary conditions are:

Free stream conditions:
Fluid properties: air, ideal gas, Sutherland viscosity
Turbulence model: SST k-omega

The files given in this tutorial are:

Grid Grid Size Wall yPlus File name
Grid-1 8778 100 naca2412_10k_yp100.msh
Grid-2 20079 100 naca2412_20k_yp100.msh
Grid-3 20079 1 naca2412_20k_yp1.msh
Grid-4 46991 1 naca2412_50k_yp1.msh
Grid-5 106560 1 naca2412_100k_yp1.msh
Grid-6 239169 1 naca2412_240k_yp1.msh

Data for Validation:

Experimental Data [1] XFoil [2]

-5° -0.30 0.0070 -0.044 -0.30 0.0080 -0.0565

0° 0.24 0.0065 -0.042 0.24 0.0057 -0.0525
5° 0.76 0.0075 -0.038 0.81 0.0080 -0.0531
10° 1.26 0.0120 -0.035 1.27 0.0160 -0.0378
15° 1.65 0.0190 -0.025 1.56 0.0310 -0.0101
[1] Abbott U. V. Doenhoff, “Theory of wing sections”, 1959.
[2] http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil/

2. GEOMETRY NOMENCLATURE
The following image shows the basic geometry of the NACA 2412 Airfoil geometry:

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 2

 3. OVERVIEW
The following are the tasks of the tutorial:
i. Load the naca2412_20k_yp1.msh mesh file, examine mesh quality, size and topology
ii. Perform the steady simulation with the SIMPLE-coupled equation solver and upwind discretization of
the second order. Use the SST k-omega turbulence model.
iii. Determine the values of lift, drag and pitching moment at the angle of attack (α = -5 °, 0 °, 5 °, 10 °, 15°)
iv. At what angle is flow separation recognizable, is this plausible?
v. Compare the results of different grids, from which resolution is the solution grid-independent?

4. SET UP & GENERAL GUIDLINES

i. It is highly recommended that you create a new directory to work in. Several files will be created and it
is much easier to find them later if they are all in a new directory.
ii. Note that the ANSYS set of programs (including CFX, Fluent and ICEM) are unable to read directory
names with space characters in them. This means that the name of the new directory and the path
leading to the new directory must not have any spaces.

5. STARTING THE PROGRAM

All Programs → ANSYS 16.0 → Fluid Dynamics → Fluent 16.0

Or

Search in the run tab with keyword “Fluent” and open it. Firstly Fluent launcher will be opened, select
following functions and click Ok.

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 3

Some general names for different parts of the Fluent window will be used to help identify where certain
commands are found. These are all labeled in the following image:

6. MESH IMPORT AND EXAMINATION

File → Read → Mesh → naca2412_20k_yp1.msh

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 4

General → Mesh → Display → Mesh Display

General → Mesh → check

Check geometry dimensions, smallest area and volume. The volume must be positive; any negative volume in
the grid will give error at this point.

General → Mesh → Report Quality

Check mesh Orthogonal Quality, Max. Ortho Skew and Max. Aspect Ratio.

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 5

General → Solver
Select Pressure Based Solver and Steady for time scheme.

7. MODELS SELECTION
Models → Energy → Edit → Energy Equation √

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 6

Models → Viscous → Edit → SST k-omega

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 7

 8. MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Materials→ Fluid → air → Create/edit →

Density → ideal gas

Viscosity → Sutherland → Three Coefficient Method → OK

→ Create/edit → close

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 8

 9. CELL ZONE CONDITIONS
Cell Zone Conditions→ Zone → fluid → Type: Fluid → OK
Cell Zone Conditions→ Operating Conditions → give pressure 46563 Pa→ OK

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 9

 10. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
i. Boundary Conditions → ff→ Type: Pressure Far Field

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 10

 ii. Boundary Conditions → airfoil→ Type: wall
Stationary, no-slip, adiabatic wall

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 11

 11. REFERENCE VALUES

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 12

 12. SOLUTION METHOD & DESCRETIZATION SCHEMES
Pressure-Velocity Coupling: SIMPLE
Spatial Discretization: Second Order Upwind
NOTE: If solution diverges then it is advised to run initially with first order schemes which are more stable
than the high order schemes. Later, the solution can be switched to high order schemes.

13. SOLUTION CONTROLS

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 13

 14. SOLUTION MONITORS
Residuals Convergence criterion: continuity → 1e-04, momentum → 1e-05, energy → 1e-06,
turbulence → 1e-05

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 14

Monitors → Create → Lift

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 15

Monitors → Create → Drag

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 16

Monitors → Create → Moment

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 17

 15. SOLUTION INITIALIZATION
Domain initialization method: Standard from ff

16. SOLUTION AUTOSAVE

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 18

 17. SOLUTION

NOTE: Run the solution until solution is converged or important parameters in the domain stop changing.

18. POST PROCESSING IN FLUENT

i. Wall yPlus plot:

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 19

 ii. X Velocity contours:

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 20

 iii. X Velocity pathlines:

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 21

 iv. Lift, Drag and moment coefficients:

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 22

Compile the results in following table:

Current CFD Results

Grid
Grid-3 (coarse)
15° Grid-5 (medium)
Grid-6 (fine)
Experimental [1] 1.65 0.0190 -0.025

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 23

 19. SAVE CASE & DATA FILES
File → Write → Case & Data (give this name: naca2412_20k_yp1_15_degree)

20. WRITE THE SOURCE FILE FOR THE MEDIUM GRID

Now following all the above steps, results will be calculated with naca2412_100k_yp1.msh grid. The
computational time can be significantly reduced by interpolating the results obtained with coarse grid to the
medium grid.

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 24

 21. READ THE SOURCE FILE AND INTERPOLATE THE RESULTS TO MEDIUM GRID
File → Read → Mesh → naca2412_50k_yp1.msh

File → Interpolate → read and interpolate → give the source file i.e. naca2412_20k_yp1_15_degree_source

Prepared by: Dr.-Ing. Usman Allauddin Page 25