GRID INDEPENDENCE STUDY IN CFD

SAMPLE PROBLEM

Geometry

Mesh
 Here no: of divisions is set as input parameter whereas the no of nodes
and no of elements are set as output parameters.

Fluent set up

 The outlet velocity, outlet_ pressure, max_ velocity are all set as output
parameters.
Output parameters set up in fluent
A standard initialisation was done (inlet_ velocity= 0.001m/s) and
calculation was converged at 65th iteration when set as 100 iterations.

Parametric set up

The calculation was done at no of divisions as 30, the rest design points up
to 100 were calculated as parametric study.
The completed was then exported as CSV format to excel.
 Scatter plots of different parameters

no: of nodes vs outlet_pressure

0.001
outlet_pressure
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
no: of nodes

no: of nodes vs max velocity

0.00199
0.00198
max velocity

0.00197
0.00196
0.00195
0.00194
0.00193
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
no: of nodes

no: of nodes vs outlet_ velocity

0.0014
0.0012
outlet_ velocity

0.001
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000
no: of nodes

 The max velocity is the parameter which is affected most when no of nodes
changed.
 The critical no: of nodes is approximately 12669, so creating a mesh with
this much number is optimum.
 Calculation of GIC

𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒆 − 𝑺𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆
𝑮𝑰𝑪 =
𝑺𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆

=modulus ((0.00194 - 0.001984)/0.001984)

= 0.022
The above GIC is calculated for max_velocity, as it is the critical parameter.

 GIC, or Grid Independence Coefficient, is similar to the Index of Grid

Independence (IGI) and the Index of Grid Convergence (IGC) in that it is
a measure of how sensitive the solution of a simulation is to the size and
resolution of the grid. It is used to evaluate the quality of a grid and to
determine the optimal grid size for a simulation. The GIC can be calculated
by using the following formula:

 GIC = (S(coarse) - S(fine)) / S(fine)

 Where S(coarse) and S(fine) are the solution of the simulation obtained on
different grid sizes, the coarse grid size and the fine grid size respectively.

 The closer the GIC is to zero, the better the grid is considered to be.

 It's important to note that, for some specific simulations, other methods
may be used to calculate the GIC, and the specific method used will depend
on the type of simulation, the physics of the problem, and the specific
criteria that are used to evaluate the grid.

 Also, ANSYS provides some functionalities to calculate the GIC

automatically like "Grid independence study" and "Adaptive mesh
refinement" which will help you to determine the optimal grid size for your
simulation.