Exercise Solutions

Chapter 1 & 2

Model 01
Model 02
Model 03
Suggested Exercise (1)

Calculate the order of convergence, relative error, relative extrapolated error and grid
convergence index for the following mesh sensitivity study. The mesh is 3D and uses uniform
cube shaped elements.

Start by calculating the representative cell length for each mesh. As the cells are uniform cubes:

The refinement ratios and the difference in the solution variables are:

Both differences have the same sign. Therefore the convergence is monotonic. Now calculate s:

Solve the non-linear equation to determine the order of convergence:

The thrust coefficient on an infinitely fine mesh:

Now the relative error, extrapolated relative error and GCI can be calculated:
Suggested Exercise (2)

Consider wind flow approaching a tall building with a square cross-section. The wind flow takes
a sheared velocity profile. You are going to use CFD to calculate the drag force on the
building. However, before you do this you would like to do a validation exercise to estimate
the error in the drag and determine an appropriate level of mesh resolution.

Flow Around Tall Building

Square Cyinder Atmospheric B Layer

a. For a piecewise validation study, you could investiate: the flow around a circular
cylinder and the atmospheric boundary layer profile in separate, isolated
domains (see above). These studies would indicate the likely level of error (
through Richardson Extrapolation) and an appropriate level of mesh resolution for
the full CFD study. The CFD investigation of flow around the square cylinder
could be used to inform the cell size on the building surface and the time step
required to resolved the vortex shedding. The CFD investigation of the atmos-
pheric boundary layer could be used to inform the mesh resolution on the
ground to ensure that the correct level of shear was generated in the wind
profile.

b. The similarity validation study of the scale model could be used to determine
the cell size required on the surface of the building and the time step required
to resolve the vortex shedding from the building. However, these parameters
would have to be scaled carefully for the full-scale model, as the Reynolds number
is lower for the scale model. For the full-scale model, the cell size would need to be
smaller as the boundary layer thickness reduces with increasing Reynolds number.
Suggested Exercise (3)

One of the components in your piecewise validation study is a circular cylinder. You would
like to carry out a CFD investigation of the flow over this cylinder at a Reynolds number of
1 Million (1e6), but you do not have any experimental measurements yourself.

a. How could you obtain some experimental measurements yourself that could be
used for validation?
Drag Coefficient [ - ]

1.0

0.1

102 103 104 105 106 107

Reynolds Number [ - ]

A. There are many different approaches that could be used to obtain experimental
measurements that you could use for validation. You could try searching the
literature (journal papers, conference papers and the wider internet) for experimental
measurements. If you cannot find experimental measurements, then the next best
thing is to consult engineering textbooks. The Figure above is an example of the
time-averaged drag coefficient for a circular cylinder, which can be found in most
fluid mechanics text books. You can calculate the drag coefficient using CFD and
then compare the value with the plots from the text book. While this is not the
most comprehensive approach for validation, it still gives a good indication of the
accuracy of the CFD calculation.

In this example, at a Reynolds number of 1 Million, the drag coefficient should be

around 0.1.
Suggested Exercise (4)

Open up either Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Paint or another suitable program. Change
the colour of a line, text or object to an RGB value of (100, 120, 240), rather than using the
default colour picker.
Hint: You will find that the colour changes to a soft shade of blue which you could not normally
find in the default colour picker.

Text

When you select an RGB of (100, 120, 240), your shape, lines and text should take a soft
shade of blue (shown above).
Suggested Exercise (5)

Locate the 60 Pa contour band in Figure 7 by counting the contour bands.

Hint: The 60 Pa contour band is below the aerofoil between the 80 Pa and 40 Pa contour bands.
Notice that it is easier to locate the 60 Pa contour band when the labels are provided.

Pressure (Pa)
-200 -100 0 100 200

-80 -80
-40 -40

40
80

40

The 60 Pa contour is here

Suggested Exercise (6)

Use either the snipping tool / screen capture programme to save the two mesh images below.
Import them into an image editor and create a Figure with a zoom box.
Hint: Remember to add a rectangle to show where the zoom box is located!

Figure 1: Mesh near the leading edge of an aerofoil. The zoom box highlights the near-field
mesh.

The Figure above has been created with a zoom box to highlight the resolution near the
leading edge of the aerofoil. When you create a Figure with a zoom box, remember to
add a rectangle to show the reader where the zoom box originates from! You can make
the zoom box transparent or empty with no colour, as long as it is clear to the reader.
Suggested Exercise (7)

Recreate the table below with improved formatting.

Hint: You will need to remove the vertical lines and move the units into the axis titles.

Your reformatted table should look something like this. Notice how much clearer the table
is after the simple re-formatting.

To create this table:

1) Remove the vertical lines
2) Move the units to the column headers
3) Increase the line spacing between rows
Suggested Exercise (8)

Try saving a graph as a bitmap image (PNG, JPEG, BMP or TIF) with resolutions of 72 dpi
and 300 dpi. Import the images into a document and compare the resolution.
Hint: You will notice that the 72 dpi image has noticeably worse resolution. It may appear blurry
and difficult to read.

(a) 72 dpi (b) 300 dpi

Suggested Exercise (9)

Try saving a graph as a bitmap image (PNG, JPEG, BMP or TIF) and as a vector image (PDF,
EPS or SVG). Import the images into a document and zoom in on the images.
Hint: You will notice that the bitamp image loses resolution as you zoom in on the image. The
vector image does not lose resolution..

40

30
Thrust [kN]

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Wind Speed [m/s]

(a) Vector Image (b) Bitmap Image (300 dpi)