Alya Penta Agharid

安佩妮
4B016024
Computer-Aided Fluid Analysis Final Term
Project name: Optimization of Aluminum Airfoil Impeller through CFD
Simulation
1. Experiment setup of an impeller with different configurations.
Number of Blade Blade
Model
Blades Angle Width
1 8 25 100
2 8 30 150
3 8 35 200
4 9 25 150
5 9 30 200
6 9 35 100
7 10 25 200
8 10 30 100
9 10 35 150

Blade Width Blade Angle Blades

(100, 150, 200 mm) (25°, 30°, 35°) (8,9,10)
2. Geometry model were created in SolidWorks 2018. And then, save the
geometry model as X_T File (.x_t)
 3. Geometry model (.x_t) was imported to the ANSYS.
a. Open ANSYS Workbench 2020. Fluid Flow (Fluent) was chosen in
Analysis System Toolbox.

b. Import the geometry model that was created in Solidworks.

4. Rotating Zone and Stationary Zone were created in Design Modeler.

a. Geometry model was opened in Design Modeler to create the Stationary Fluid
Zone for the impeller rig test.
b. Generate the geometry model in Design Modeler.

c. After generating, the geometry will appear as a figure below.

d. The unit was changed to millimeters (mm).

e. Rotating Zone was created by the Enclosure Tool. Shape: Cylinder, alignment: Z-
axis, cushion radius: 1 mm ±ive direction 5 mm. Then, Generate.

f. The rotating zone will appear as a figure below.

g. Stationary Zone was created by the Enclosure Tool. Shape: Cylinder, alignment:
Z-axis, cushion radius: 100 mm ±ive direction 2000 mm. Then, Generate.
h. The stationary zone will appear as a figure below.

i. Rename solid as a blade, rotor-fluid, and stationary-fluid.

j. Suppress the unnecessary entities.

k. ANSYS Boolean operation, to eliminate the cladding fluid space (interfered
space).

l. Boolean 1: operation (subtract), target bodies (rotor fluid), tool bodies (blade)
preserve tool bodies (yes)
Boolean 2: operation (subtract), target bodies (stationary fluid), tool bodies (rotor
fluid), preserve tool bodies (no)

m. After creating booleans, the rotor fluid part will be eliminated.

 5. Mesh was set by dividing face and body.
a. Edit the mesh.

b. Insert face sizing mesh and body sizing mesh.

c. Face Sizing: Geometry (Select blade’s face), Element size (10.0 mm).

d. Body Sizing: Geometry (Select stationary fluid’s body), Element size (40.0 mm).

e. Generate mesh.
f. View mesh quality conditions.

g. Name selection. Face: inlet, outlet, blade-wall. Body: stationary-fluid, rotor-fluid.

inlet
 outlet

stationary-fluid

blade-wall

rotor-fluid
h. Update mesh. View mesh quality conditions.

6. Setup ANSYS Fluent.

a. Enable Double Precision. Enable Display Mesh After Reading. Parallel.
b. Make polyhedra mesh.

c. Change Units. Angular-velocity (rpm), mass-flow (cfm, factor: 0.0005781349)

d. Solver type (Pressure-Based), Velocity formulation (Absolute), Time (Steady).

e. Model. Viscous (k-epsilon, standard, enhanced wall treatment)

f. Cell zone Conditions. rotor-fluid (frame motion, z-axis rotation, speed: 1800 rpm),
stationary-fluid (z-axis rotation)

g. Boundary Conditions
 7. Solution ANSYS Fluent.
a Solution methods, controls.
.

b Mass Flow Rate reports.

.
c Residual Monitors.
.
d Initialization.
.

f. Run calculation.

g Residuals.
.
 h Mass Flow Rate.
.

i. Run the same step for all models (Model 1 to Model 9)

8. Result Analysis. Use Streamline, and contour at plane x-axis (0).

Model 1
Model 2

Model 3
Model 4

Model 5
Model 6

Model 7
Model 8

Model 9
 Taguchi Methods to find the best quality of the simulated design.
Outlet
Num Blade Blade Mass
Model of P T Power Eff CFM Pa Nm Sum
Angle Width Flow Rank
s Blade (Pa) (Nm) (Watt) % Rank Rank Rank Rank
s (°) (mm) Rate
(CFM)
1 8 25 100 606 144 0.107 20 2.0 6 9 9 4 22
2 8 30 150 808 185 0.214 40 1.8 8 3 7 8 18
3 8 35 200 824 196 0.109 21 3.7 4 2 4 5 11
4 9 25 150 801 179 0.069 13 5.2 3 4 8 3 15
5 9 30 200 851 199 0.284 54 1.5 9 1 3 9 13
6 9 35 100 654 190 0.028 5 11.1 2 7 5 2 14
7 10 25 200 762 211 0.021 4 19.2 1 6 1 1 8
8 10 30 100 631 189 0.152 29 2.0 7 8 6 6 20
9 10 35 150 780 209 0.194 37 2.1 5 5 2 7 14

9. Conclusions
a. Blade Width
Three different configurations of blade width were investigated
numerically; including 200 mm, 150 mm, and 100 mm. The blade width
of 200 mm presents a good performance with a high mass flow rate. The
top 3 rankings include model 3, model 5, and model 7 with a blade width
of 200 mm.
b. Blade Angle
Other than blade width, blade angle also could affect the blade
performance. In this case, the blade angle of 35° with the same blade
width at 200 mm could perform a higher mass flow rate than the other
blade angle configurations at 30° and 25°.
c. Number of Blades
The results revealed that the increasing number of blades did not present
a good performance. In this study, the 8 blades present a higher mass
flow rate than the 9 blades and 10 blades.