Lecture 08

Introduction to the CFD

Methodology and CFX 14. 5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
CFD Professional
© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 1 Release 14.5
 Introduction
• All CFD simulations follow the same key stages. This lecture will explain:
– The basics of what CFD is and how it works
– The different steps involved in a successful CFD Project
– How to work with CFX

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 2 Release 14.5

 What is CFD
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the science of predicting fluid flow,
heat and mass transfer, chemical reactions, and related phenomena
• The equations used ensure the conservation of mass, momentum, energy,
etc.
• CFD is used in all stages of the design process:
– Conceptual studies of new designs
– Detailed product development
– Troubleshooting
– Redesign
• CFD analysis complements testing and experimentation by reducing total
effort and cost required for experimentation and data acquisition

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 How Does CFD Work?
• ANSYS CFD solvers are based on the finite
volume method
– Domain is discretized into a set of control volumes Control
Volume*
– General conservation (transport) equations for
mass, momentum, energy, species, etc. are solved
on this set of control volume

Unsteady Advection Diffusion Generation Equation f

Continuity 1
– Partial differential equations are discretized into a X momentum
Y momentum
u
v
system of algebraic equations Z momentum w
Energy h
– All algebraic equations are then solved numerically
to render the solution field
NOTE: in CFD-Professional the Unsteady term = 0

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 4 Release 14.5

 Step 1 – Define Your Modeling Goals
• What results are you looking for (i.e. pressure drop, mass flow rate) and
how will they be used?
• What are your modeling options?
– What physical models will need to be included in your analysis?
– What simplifying assumptions do you have to make?
– What simplifying assumptions can you make (i.e. symmetry, periodicity)?

• What degree of accuracy is required?

• How quickly do you need the results?

• Is CFD an appropriate tool?

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 Step 2 – Identify the Domain to Model
• How will you isolate a piece of the Domain of Interest
as Part of a Larger
complete physical system? System (not modeled)

• Where will the computational domain

begin and end?
– Do you have boundary condition information
at these locations?
– Can the boundary condition types
accommodate that information?
– Can you extend the domain to a point
where reasonable data exists?

• Can the problem be simplified or approximated as a 2D

or axisymmetric problem?
Domain of interest
isolated and meshed
for CFD simulation.

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 Step 3 – Create a Solid Model
• How will you obtain a model of the fluid region?
– Make use of existing CAD models?
– Extract the fluid region from a solid part?
– Create from scratch?

• Can you simplify the geometry?

– Remove unnecessary features that would complicate
meshing (fillets, bolts…)?
– Make use of symmetry or periodicity if both the
solution and boundary conditions are symmetric /
periodic?

• Do you need to split the model so that boundary

conditions or domains can be created?

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 Step 4 – Design and Create the Mesh
• What degree of mesh resolution is required in each
region of the domain?
– Can you predict regions of high gradients?
• The mesh must resolve geometric features of interest
and capture gradients of concern, e.g. velocity,
pressure, temperature gradients
• What type of mesh is most appropriate?
– How complex is the geometry?
– Can you use a quad/hex mesh or is tri/tet more suitable?
• Do you have sufficient computer resources?
– How many cells/nodes are required?
– How many physical models will be used?

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 Step 5 – Set up the Solver
• For a given problem you will need to:
– Define material properties
• Fluid
• Solid

– Select appropriate physical models

• Turbulence, heat transfer etc. For complex problems solving a
simplified or 2D problem will provide
– Prescribe boundary conditions on all external faces valuable experience with the models
and solver settings for your problem in
a short amount of time
– Provide initial conditions
– Set up solver controls
– Set up convergence monitors

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 Step 6 – Compute the Solution
• The discretized conservation equations are solved
iteratively until convergence
• Convergence is reached when:
– Changes in solution variables from one iteration to the
next are negligible
• Residuals provide a mechanism to help monitor this
trend
– Overall property conservation is achieved
• Imbalances measure global conservation
– Quantities of interest (e.g. drag, pressure drop) have A converged and mesh-independent
reached steady values solution on a well-posed problem will
provide useful engineering results!
• Monitor points track quantities of interest
• The accuracy of a converged solution depends on
– Appropriateness and accuracy of physical models
– Mesh resolution and independence
– Numerical errors
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 Step 7 – Examine the Results
• Examine the results to review solution and extract
useful data
• Visualization tools can be used to answer such
questions as:
– What is the overall flow pattern?
– Are key flow features being resolved?
• Numerical reporting tools can be used to
calculate quantitative results:
– Forces and moments
– Average heat transfer coefficients
Examine results to ensure property conservation
– Surface and volume integrated quantities and correct physical behavior. High residuals may
– Flux balances be caused by just a few poor quality cells.

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 Step 8 – Consider Model Revisions
• Are the physical models appropriate?
– Is the flow turbulent?
• Are the boundary conditions correct?
– Is the computational domain large enough?
– Are boundary conditions appropriate?
– Are boundary values reasonable?
• Is the mesh adequate?
– Can the mesh be refined to improve results?
– Does the solution change significantly with a refined
mesh, or is the solution mesh independent?
High residuals may be caused by
– Does the mesh resolution of the geometry need to be just a few poor quality cells
improved?

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 12 Release 14.5

 Introduction to CFX
• The remainder of the lecture will now focus on CFX, covering the following
topics
– Launching CFX, either inside or outside of ANSYS Workbench
– A typical CFD study workflow performed with CFX
– A summary of files and file types

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 CFX-Pre - Workspace
CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post
Main Menu

Main Toolbar

Viewer Toolbar

Outline Tree

Viewer Window

Message Window

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 CFX-Pre - Workflow
Mesh and region CFX- CFX- CFD-Post
control
• Import, delete,
Pre Solver
transform meshes
• View & edit mesh
• To define your simulation,
regions generally follow the Outline
Analysis Type
• Steady State / tree from top to bottom
Transient
Domain
• Right-click to insert
• Double-click entries in the
boundary conditions Outline tree to edit
Boundary Conditions
Initialisation • Right-click on entries in the
• Starting point for the
solver in the absence of a
Outline tree to insert new
previous solution items or perform
Solver settings operations
• Convergence controls
• Results files controls
• Numerical schemes • Some items are optional,
• Monitor points depending on your
Library objects simulation
• Optional. Referenced elsewhere in the setup
• Import Materials & Reactions from libraries provided
• Insert Expressions, AV’s, Fortran routines

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 CFX-Pre – Workflow Example
• Load Mesh
CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post
– Right-click on ‘Mesh’

A Default Domain is automatically

created when the mesh is imported. It
contains all 3D regions in the mesh.
Every domain contains a default
boundary condition.

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 CFX-Pre – Workflow Example
• Define Domain Properties CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

– Right-click on the domain and pick Edit

– Or right-click on ‘Flow Analysis 1’ to insert a new domain
When editing an item a new tab panel
opens containing the properties. You
can switch between open tabs.

Sub-tabs contain
various different
properties

Complete the
required fields on
each sub-tab to
define the domain

Optional fields are

activated by
enabling a check
box

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 CFX-Pre – Workflow Example
• Create Boundary Conditions CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

– Right-click on the domain to insert BC’s

After completing
the boundary
condition, it
appears in the
Outline tree
below its domain

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 CFX-Pre – Workflow Example
• Define Solver Settings CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

– Right-click on Solver Control and pick Edit

All solver
controls have
default values

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 CFX-Pre – Workflow Example
• Start Solver CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

– Just close CFX-Pre

• Files are automatically saved
• Check mark shown next to Setup
– Right-click on Solution and select Edit or Refresh
• Refresh runs the solver with default settings
• Edit opens the Solver Manager

Right-click
to solve

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 CFX Solver Manager
• Defining a Run CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

– CFX-Pre will have written a .def file

and this is automatically selected as
the Solver Input File
– Can enable Initial Values check box if
you have a previous solution to use as
the starting point
– Parallel settings are defined here
• Allows you to divide a large CFD
problem so that it can run on more
than one processor/machine
– Start Run

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 CFX Solver Manager
• Workspace Create new monitors CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

Solution Monitors Text output from the Solver

• Monitor the convergence of • Lots of info in here
the solver • Can also view the .out file in
• Plot residuals, imbalances, a text editor
monitor points, forces,
fluxes…

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 CFX Solver Manager
CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

• When the Solver finishes, start CFD-Post

– Just close the CFX Solver Manager
• Check mark shown next to Solution
– Right-click on Results and select Edit to start
CFD-Post

Right-click
to start
CFD-Post

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 CFD-Post
• Workspace CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post

Editor Tabs
• Outline
• Variables
• Expressions
• Calculators

Outline Tree
Outline tree
displays all post-
processing objects.
Right-click or
double-click to edit
in the Details Pane

Details Pane
Viewer Window

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 24 Release 14.5

 CFD-Post
CFX-Pre CFX-Solver CFD-Post
General Workflow
• Prepare locations where data will • Generate qualitative data at
locations
be extracted from, or plots
generated
– E.g. Planes, Isosurface

• Generate quantitative data at

locations

• Create variables/expressions which

will be used to extract data (if
necessary)
– E.g. Drag, pressure ratio
• Generate Reports

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 Common File Types
.wbpj (Workbench Project File)

Import Mesh
.cmdb, .cfx5, .def, .res, …

Open
CFX-Pre .cfx (CFX-Pre Database)
.cfx, .def, .res
.def (Solver Input or Definition File)

.res CFX-Solver .out (Solver Output File)

.res (Results File)

.def, .cmdb .cst (CFD-Post State File)

CFD-Post .cse (CFD-Post Session File)
(Mesh Files)

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 Workshop 01 – Mixing Tee
• Introductory tutorial for CFX
• Starting from existing mesh
– generated in earlier tutorial during the DM / Meshing session

• Model set-up, solution and post-processing

• Mixing of cold and hot water in a T-piece
– How well do the fluids mix?
– What are the pressure drops?

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. December 12, 2013 27 Release 14.5