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Tutorial 10. Using The Mixing Plane Model
Tutorial 10. Using The Mixing Plane Model
Introduction
This tutorial considers the flow in an axial fan with a rotor in front and stators (vanes)
in the rear. This configuration is typical of a single-stage axial flow turbomachine. By
considering the rotor and stator together in a single calculation, you can determine the
interaction between these components.
This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following:
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the menu structure in FLUENT and that
you have completed Tutorial 1. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not
be shown explicitly.
Problem Description
The problem to be considered is shown schematically in Figure 10.1. The rotor and stator
consist of 9 and 12 blades, respectively. A steady-state solution for this configuration
using only one rotor blade and one stator blade is desired. Since the periodic angles for
the rotor and stator are different, a mixing plane must be used at the interface.
The mixing plane is defined at the rotor outlet/stator inlet. The grid is set up with
periodic boundaries on either side of the rotor and stator blades. A pressure inlet is used
at the upstream boundary and a pressure outlet at the downstream boundary. Ambient
air is drawn into the fan (at 0 Pa gauge total pressure) and is exhausted back out to the
ambient environment (0 Pa static pressure). The hub and blade of the rotor are assumed
to be rotating at 1800 rpm.
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2. Unzip mixing_plane.zip.
fanstage.msh can be found in the mixing plane folder created after unzipping the
file.
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Step 1: Grid
1. Read the mesh file fanstage.msh.
File −→ Read −→Case...
As FLUENT reads the mesh file, it will report its progress in the console.
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Z X
Grid
FLUENT 6.3 (3d, pbns, lam)
Extra: You can use the right mouse button to check which zone number corresponds to
each boundary. If you click the right mouse button on one of the boundaries in the
graphics window, its zone number, name, and type will be printed in the FLUENT
console. This feature is especially useful when you have several zones of the same
type and you want to distinguish between them quickly.
Step 2: Units
1. Define new units for angular velocity.
The angular velocity for this problem is known in rpm, which is not the default unit
for angular velocity. You will need to redefine the angular velocity units as rpm.
Define −→Units...
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(a) Select angular-velocity from the Quantities list and rpm from the Units list.
(b) Close the Set Units panel.
Step 3: Models
1. Retain the default solver settings.
Define −→ Models −→Solver...
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2. Enable the standard k- turbulence model with standard wall functions.
Define −→ Models −→Viscous...
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You can view the profiles computed at the rotor exit and stator inlet in the Boundary
Profiles panel.
Define −→Profiles...
You will also see that these profiles appear in the boundary conditions panels for
the rotor exit and stator inlet.
See Section 10.3.2 of the User’s Guide for more information on mixing planes.
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Step 5: Materials
1. Retain the default properties for air.
Define −→Materials...
For the present analysis, you will model air as an incompressible fluid with a density
of 1.225 kg/m3 and a dynamic viscosity of 1.7894× 10−5 kg/m-s. Since these are
the default values, no change is required in the materials panel.
(a) Close the Materials panel.
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(a) Enter (0, 0, -1) for (X, Y, Z) in the Rotation-Axis Direction group box.
According to the right-hand rule (see Figure 10.1), the axis of rotation is the
−Z axis.
(b) Select Moving Reference Frame from the Motion Type drop-down list.
(c) Enter 1800 rpm for Speed in the Rotational Velocity group box.
Hint: Scroll down to locate the Speed text-entry box.
(d) Click OK to close the Fluid panel.
(a) Enter (0, 0, -1) for (X, Y, Z) in the Rotation-Axis Direction group box to close
the Fluid panel.
(b) Click OK.
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3. Specify rotational periodicity for the periodic boundary of the rotor (periodic-11).
4. Specify rotational periodicity for the periodic boundary of the stator (periodic-22).
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5. Set the conditions for the pressure inlet of the rotor (pressure-inlet-rotor).
(a) Select Direction Vector from the Direction Specification Method drop-down list.
(b) Enter 0 for the X-Component of Flow Direction.
(c) Enter -1 for the Z-Component of Flow Direction.
(d) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specification Method drop-
down list.
(e) Enter 1% for the Turbulence Intensity.
(f) Enter 0.074 m for the Hydraulic Diameter.
(g) Click OK to close the Pressure Inlet panel.
You will use P0 = 0 gauge to model ambient conditions. The turbulence level is
assumed to be low (1% ) and the hydraulic diameter is used as the length scale.
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6. Retain the default settings for the pressure inlet of the stator (pressure-inlet-stator).
The profiles computed at the rotor outlet are used to update the boundary conditions
at the stator inlet. These profiles were set for you automatically when the mixing
plane was created. Therefore, you do not need to set any parameters in this panel.
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7. Retain the default settings for the pressure outlet of the rotor (pressure-outlet-rotor).
The Backflow Direction Specification Method was set to Direction Vector when you
created the mixing plane, and the Coordinate System to Cylindrical (like for the stator
inlet ). The values for the direction cosines are taken from the profiles at the stator.
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8. Set the conditions for the pressure outlet of the stator (pressure-outlet-stator).
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9. Set the conditions for the inlet hub of the rotor (rotor-inlet-hub).
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10. Set the conditions for the shroud of the rotor inlet (rotor-inlet-shroud).
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(a) Click OK to accept the default settings and close the Wall panel.
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Step 7: Solution
1. Set the solution parameters.
Solve −→ Controls −→Solution...
(a) Enter 0.2 and 0.5 for Pressure and Momentum in the Under-Relaxation Factors
group box.
(b) Enter 0.5 for Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Turbulent Dissipation Rate.
Hint: Scroll down in the Under-Relaxation Factors group box to locate Turbu-
lent Kinetic Energy and Turbulent Dissipation Rate.
(c) Select Second Order Upwind from the Momentum drop-down list in the Dis-
cretization group box.
(d) Select Power Law from the Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Turbulent Dissipation
Rate drop-down lists.
(e) Click OK to close the Solution Controls panel.
Note: For this problem, it was found that these under-relaxation factors worked
well.
See Section 25.9.2 of the User’s Guide for tips on how to adjust the under-
relaxation parameters for different situations.
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i. Select Mass Flow Rate from the Report Type drop-down list.
ii. Select pressure-outlet-stator from the Surfaces list.
iii. Click OK to define the monitor and close the Define Surface Monitor panel.
(d) Click OK to enable the monitor and close the Surface Monitors panel.
4. Initialize the flow field.
Solve −→ Initialize −→Initialize...
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Calculating until the mass flow rate converges will require some CPU time
! due to the number of iterations required. Instead of calculating the so-
lution, you can read the data file (fanstage.dat) with the pre-calculated
solution, and proceed to the postprocessing section of the tutorial (Step 8).
This data file can be found in the mixing plane folder that was created
after you unzipped the original file.
The solution will converge after approximately 640 iterations. However, the residual
history plot is only one indication of solution convergence. Note that the mass flow
rate has not yet reached a constant value. To remedy this, you will reduce the
convergence criterion for the continuity equation and iterate until the mass flow
rate reaches a constant value.
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10. Save the case and data file (fanstage1.cas and fanstage1.dat).
File −→ Write −→Case & Data...
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Although the mass flow rate history indicates that the solution is con-
! verged, you should also check the mass fluxes through the domain to ensure
that mass is being conserved.
Report −→Fluxes...
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The net mass imbalance should be a small fraction (say, 0.5%) of the total
!
flux through the system. If a significant imbalance occurs, you should
decrease your residual tolerances by at least an order of magnitude and
continue iterating.
Note: The fluxes for the portions of the rotor and stator that have been modeled are
different. However, the flux for the whole rotor and the whole stator are very
nearly equal: approximately 0.23274 kg/s (0.02586 × 9 rotor blades), versus
approximately 0.23328 kg/s (0.01944 × 12 stator blades).
Step 8: Postprocessing
1. Create an isosurface at y = 0.12 m.
The surface y = 0.12 m is a midspan slice through the grid. This view is good for
looking at the blade-to-blade flow field.
Surface −→Iso-Surface...
(a) Select Grid... and Y-Coordinate from the Surface of Constant lists.
(b) Click Compute to update the minimum and maximum values.
(c) Enter 0.12 in the Iso-Values field.
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Plotting the velocity field in this manner gives a good indication of the midspan
flow over the stator. For the rotor, it is instructive to similarly plot the relative
velocity field.
(g) Close the Vectors panel.
> plot
/plot> circum-avg-radial
averages of> total-pressure
on surface [] 17
number of bands [5] 15
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Note: Surface 17 is the surface z = −0.1 you created earlier. For increased
resolution, 15 bands are used instead of the default 5.
(b) Enter the name of the output file as circum-plot.xy when prompted.
i. Click Add... and select the file circum-plot.xy in the Select File dialog
box.
ii. Click Plot and close the File XY Plot panel.
The radial variation in the total pressure can be seen to be very non-uniform
in this plot (Figure 10.5). This implies that losses are largest near the hub.
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Figure 10.5: Plot of Circumferential Average of the Total Pressure on the Plane z = −0.1.
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Figure 10.6: Contours of Total Pressure for the Rotor Blade and Hub
Summary
This tutorial has demonstrated the use of the mixing plane model for a typical axial flow
turbomachine configuration. The mixing plane model is useful for predicting steady-
state flow in a turbomachine stage, where local interaction effects (such as wake and
shock wave interaction) are secondary. If local effects are important, then an unsteady,
sliding mesh calculation is required.
Further Improvements
This tutorial guides you through the steps to reach an initial solution. You may be able
to obtain a more accurate solution by using an appropriate higher-order discretization
scheme and adapting the grid. Adapting the grid can also ensure that your solution is
independent of the grid. These steps are demonstrated in Tutorial 1.
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