Fluent News

APPLIED COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS VOL XV ISSUE 1 SPRING 2006

ACADEMIC A Dry Passage to the Afterlife AUTOMOTIVE Citron CS in a Crosswind ENVIRONMENTAL Activated Sludge Basins Get on Track FOOD Looking Inside Dough Mixers

Flexible Fliers

PROCESS INDUSTRIES SUPPLEMENT INSIDE!

EDITORS NOTE
HE TERM MULTIPHYSICS has been a part of simulation engineers vocabulary for some time. It describes any situation where two or more physical phenomena are coupled together. Often, the term is used to describe simulations that involve both fluid and structural mechanics, such as fluid-structure interaction (FSI). During the past few years, we have run stories on FSI in Fluent News and in the current issue, several stories are featured that illustrate different approaches to this difficult engineering problem. The articles cover applications ranging from aerospace (p. 5) to healthcare (p. 10). Most describe tightly coupled interactions between CFD and structural solvers and one illustrates the use of MpCCI (Meshbased parallel Code Coupling Interface, from Fraunhofer SCAI) to manage the coupled calculation (p. 11). Not all such applications are tightly coupled however, and the Support Corner (p. 34) describes a tool, based on user-defined functions in FLUENT, that can be used to transfer data between fluid and structural solvers for loosely coupled interactions. In addition to the FSI stories, several of the articles in the Process Industries supplement could be given the multiphysics label as well. Multiphase flows and reacting flows are examples where strong coupling exists between either separate fluid phases (p. S13 - S14) or chemical species through temperature-dependent reactions (p. S8 - S14). Traditional processes such as mixing are covered (p. S3 - S6) as are novel processes that involve the flow through microchannels (p. S7) or the extrusion of foam products (p. S16).

As is customary with Fluent News, the current slate of articles represents engineering efforts from many corners of the world. Air conditioning units being manufactured in Malaysia (p. 13) and aircraft fuselage design being performed in China (p. 19) are two examples. There are several articles from the US and Europe, covering topics such as automotive components (p. 16 - 17), a unique dough conditioner (p. 22), a car in a crosswind (p. 14), and a two-stroke engine (p. 18). A few new applications of CFD are also presented. The flow inside an infant incubator is optimized (p. 24), and a ventilation system is installed in an Egyptian tomb to help preserve the ancient wall paintings (p. 28). Students shine once again with their unbound energy for innovation. This time, their efforts are used to develop a human-powered submarine (p. 29). Last November, a 64-bit version of FLUENT running on a Windows Cluster was showcased at Supercomputing 2005. The performance of this exciting new capability is summarized (p. 30). In other product news, the upcoming releases of GAMBIT 2.3 and TGrid 4.0 are reviewed (p. 32). These new products and computing opportunities will make our work more manageable in the months and years to come. Please continue to keep us informed of your own efforts to push the limits of CFD and let us know what CFD has been able to do for you.

LIZ MARSHALL [email protected]

Fluent News is published by

10 Cavendish Court Lebanon, NH 03766 USA 603 643 2600 www.fluent.com 2006 Fluent Inc. All rights reserved. Editor: Liz Marshall Assistant Editor: Susan Wheeler Contributing Editors: Erik Ferguson and Keith Hanna Design: Lufkin Graphic Designs FLUENT, FiDAP, GAMBIT, POLYFLOW, G/Turbo, MixSim, FlowLab, Icepak, Airpak, and FloWizard are trademarks of Fluent Inc. Icepak and Airpak are joint developments of Fluent Inc. and ICEM-CFD Engineering. All other products or name brands are trademarks of their respective holders.

ON THE COVER: Contours of presssure on the wing of the Aermacchi M346 Advanced Trainer
Courtesy of Politecnico di Milano and Aermacchi SpA

ON THE SUPPLEMENT COVER: Contours of velocity magnitude on a plane between two impellers in a stirred tank and vortex structures near the upper impeller, colored by velocity magnitude
Courtesy of Prague Institute of Chemical Technology

CONTENTS
16

20

13

17

29

S3

S5

10

31

F E AT U R E S
5
FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION Flexible Fliers in the Transonic Regime Unconventional Sail Design Artificial Heart Valve Takes Shape FSI Controls Flow Rate

APPLICATIONS
13 14 16 17
HVAC Fan Research Makes Cool Air Conditioners AUTOMOTIVE Citron C5 in a Crosswind Torque Converters Get In Gear

18

POWER TOOLS Scavenging in a Stratified, Charged Two-Stroke Engine AEROSPACE Nacelle Impact on Aircraft Wing & Fuselage Compressors Benefit from the NASA Rotor 37

21 22 24 26

FOOD Image-based Meshing: Easy as Pie Looking Inside Dough Mixers HEALTHCARE CFD Assists Neonatal Intensive Care ENVIRONMENTAL Activated Sludge Basins Get on Track

8 10 11

19

20
Emissions Control Through Carbon Canisters

Fluent News Spring 2006

CONTENTS
D E PA RT M E N T S
28 29 29 30
ACADEMIC NEWS A Dry Passage to the Afterlife Student Submariners Peddle Their Way to Victory Convective Motions Inside a Gearbox PRODUCT NEWS Fluent & Microsoft Team to Deliver 64-bit FLUENT on Windows Clusters Quick Turnaround with Rapid Flow Modeling Impressive Preprocessing PARTNERSHIPS Discrete Element Modeling of Particles for FLUENT SUPPORT CORNER Mapping Thermal Data from FLUENT to Structural Codes Quickly AROUND FLUENT Fluent Opens Larger Office in Ann Arbor, MI Upcoming User Group Meetings 14 11

31 32 33 34

23

S7

32

36 36

17

27

P RO C E S S I N D U S T RY SUPPLEMENT
S6

s2 s3 s5

OVERVIEW Transporting CFD to Process Engineers MIXING Tracing Homogenization Finding the Optimum Blend Time Calculation

s12 s13

FURNACES Ultra-low NOx Burners Get Cracking MULTIPHASE Controlling Droplet Size Distribution in Emulsions Understanding Fluid-Bed Coating PUMPS Pumping out New Designs More Quickly EXTRUSION Polymer Processing Simulation for Foam Extrusion

S11

s14 s7 s8
S15 MICROREACTORS Liquid Mixing in Microreactors THERMAL RUNAWAY Preventing Runaway Reaction Accidents EMISSIONS Scrubbers for Flue Gas Cleanup

s15 s16

s10
4
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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

Flexible Fliers
in the Transonic Regime
By L. Cavagna, G. Quaranta, P. Mantegazza, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy D. Marchetti, M. Martegani, M346 Program, Aermacchi SpA, Varese, Italy

Pressure contours on the surface of the M346 Advanced Trainer

OR AN AIRCRAFT IN TRANSONIC FLIGHT, shock waves appear and move through the flow field. As a consequence of the unsteady flexible motion of the aircraft skin, shock waves dynamically modify the pressure distribution, eventually causing a drop in the flutter velocity, or speed at which the aircraft vibrations are no longer damped and instead grow in amplitude. The premature onset of flutter during transonic conditions, otherwise known as the transonic dip effect, is usually underpredicted by classical unsteady potential methods [1]. In a research project at the Politecnico di Milano [2], a computational aeroelastic (CA) model for deformable aircrafts in the transonic regime has been developed. Special care has been taken to create an environment that integrates all of the relevant physics, keeping in mind the high number of analyses that typically have

to be run during the development of an aircraft. The implemented methods have been applied to the new generation Aermacchi M346 trainer. The aeroelastic solver core is implemented in FLUENT through the Scheme programming language. Access to flow variables and data manipulation is permitted through an extensive use of user-defined functions (UDFs) called at different times by the master Scheme library. The structural model comes from the commercial finite-element code MSCNastran, which has a long tradition in the aerospace industry. The adoption of a partitioned approach for the solution of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems requires the definition of an interface method to

The Advanced Trainer M346 developed by Aermacchi

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

The aeroelastic procedure is illustrated for geometry elements (top) and the resulting mesh (bottom) for a case of amplified motion

exchange displacements and velocities from the structural grid to the aerodynamic wet surfaces of the CFD grid and to transfer back aerodynamic forces on the structural nodes. The structural and CFD models are described in a very different and often not compatible way; this is especially true in an industrial environment, where the models usually come from different departments. For the CA model developed at Politecnico di Milano, an interfacing procedure based on a mesh-free moving least squares (MLS) method [3] is used. This method is suitable for the treatment of geometrically complex configurations and, unlike many other interface methods, it ensures the conservation of momentum and energy transferred between the fluid and structure, a key factor for stability analysis like flutter. In fact, the comparison of spurious energy created or destroyed by the interface scheme may alter the stability boundary of the system.

The AGARD 445.6 wing showing two modes of structural deformation

The primary assessment necessary for the aeroelastic certification of an aircraft is related to analyses of the linearized solutions to catch instabilities and specifically, flutter conditions. In the case of strong nonlinearities in the flow field, it is necessary to assess the stability of each movement associated with each equilibrium point of the aeroelastic system. Consequently, any flight configuration could potentially assume a different stability behavior. However, if there are no abrupt changes in the fluid flow, it is

reasonable to consider the linearization around a specific flight condition as representative of the behavior at nearby flight points, which are characterized by small differences in the mass and stiffness distributions, and consequently small variations in the aircraft attitude. In the work presented by Melville [4] on an application similar to the one considered here, a stability investigation was conducted following a numerical experiment technique in which the stability is determined by analyzing the decaying or diverging behavior of time responses. This method is extremely time-consuming because a large number of analyses are required to bracket the flutter conditions. An approach based on the adoption of a CFD solver for generating reduced order models (ROMs) of transonic aerodynamics is more affordable and industrially oriented. As in classical flutter analyses, the result from this type of approach is a linearized model in either the frequency or time domain that can be used as an efficient tool for stability boundary assessment and dynamic loading response analysis. In order to avoid any possible source of error, a backup procedure should also be available to run the coupled nonlinear analysis. This alternative procedure can be used to verify and validate key instability points obtained by using the simplified linearized approach. A direct time integration can be easily implemented for this purpose using a loosely coupled, partitioned algorithm.

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

The structural model is represented as a set of modal shapes. To accelerate the solution time, the linearity of the problem is exploited, allowing the CFD grid deformation to be expressed as a superposition of grid deformations computed for each modal shape. All of the deformed grids associated with each modal shape are computed only once and stored in a database. Special care must be taken in the treatment of the governing surface movements since surface rotation can modify the CFD domain topology by creating cuts and new wall surfaces at the boundaries. As a result, the cor-

Cavagna, L., Quaranta, G., Ghiringhelli, G.L. and Mantegazza, P.: Efficient Application of CFD Aeroelastic Methods Using Commercial Software. In International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics IFASD-2005, Munich, Germany, June 28 - July 1 2005. Quaranta, G., Masarati, P. and Mantegazza, P.: A Conservative Mesh-free Approach for Fluid-structure Interface Problems. Papadrakakis, M., Oate, E. and Schrefler, B., Editors, in International Conference on Computational Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering, CIMNE, Santorini, Greece, 2005. Melville, R.: Nonlinear Mechanisms of Aeroelastic Instability for the F-16. AIAA Paper 2002-0871, January 2002. Yates, E.C.: AGARD Standard Aeroelastic Configurations for Dynamic Response. I wing 445.6. R 765, AGARD, 1985.

Modal amplitude

To correctly represent the structural deformation of the aircraft, the CFD computational grid must be modified at each time step in order to be compatible with the new aircraft shape. Grid deformation has a significant impact on the time required by CFD for aeroelastic simulations. For the sake of overall computational efficiency, nonlinear models for grid deformation have been avoided. Instead, an elastic analogy is used to represent the grid as a linear elastic continuum with a local Youngs modulus proportional to the minimal dimension of each element. The structural analogy provides ample freedom for choosing the material constitutive properties that will rule the grid deformation. Furthermore, by dividing the computational domain into different fluid zones, the deformation process can be customized by choosing different structural properties for the adjacent wall zones. The result is a flexible and extremely robust grid deformation algorithm.

rect treatment of these conditions ideally requires the creation of a new mesh during the transient simulation, significantly increasing the computational burden. To efficiently overcome this hurdle, a solution based on a non-conformal mesh topology is used. This allows distinct cell domains to be defined that are associated with the movable surfaces that may be deformed independently from the rest of the grid. The implemented solver has been applied to the AGARD 445.6 wing, a classic aeroelastic benchmark case with published data [5]. The results are in good agreement with measurements in the transonic regime and correctly predict the transonic dip.

0.6

0.5

VF

0.4

0.3

Experiment FLUENT 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 Mach number 1.0 1.1 1.2

0.2 0.4

The transonic dip, or decrease in flutter velocity index in the transonic regime, is nicely captured by the computational aeroelastic model
.002

References:
1 Isogai, K.: On the Transonic-dip Mechanism of Flutter of a Sweptback Wing. AIAA Journal, 17:735-795, 1979.

.001

.000

-.001

Mode 1 Mode 2 0 8 16 24 32 40 Structural dimensionless time 48

-.002

.15 .10 Modal amplitude .05 .0 -.05 -.10 -.15 -.20 0 4 12 8 Structural dimensionless time 16 Mode 1 Mode 2

Modal amplitude histories for the AGARD 445.6 wing for the case with Mach number 0.678 and flutter velocity index 0.34 (top) and 0.5 (bottom)

Different fluid domains and a non-conformal mesh are used to control the motion of the various surfaces

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

Unconventional

Sail Design
I

By Paolo Conti, Marco Argento, Matteo Scarponi, Dipartimento Ingegneria Industriale, Universit degli Studi di Perugia, Italy

N THE WORLD OF DINGHY AND YACHT racing, the sail design process is largely based on the experienced eye of the sailmaker; with few exceptions, the refinement of a given sail shape is a time-consuming process and requires a great amount of fullscale tests at sea. One of the most relevant issues in sail design is the correlation of a nominal sail shape with its wind-loaded shape and its actual performance. The aim of the present work is to provide a partial response to such a problem through the development of a systematic procedure for analysis and comparison of different sail designs. In particular, the goals are to estimate how given design factors affect the sails performance and to provide an analytical model of the phenomenon. The method used is based on coupled structural and CFD simulations and the Design of Experiments (DOE) technique. According to Richter et al. [1], computational fluid dynamics has demonstrated the ability to predict sail and appendage forces under upwind conditions. In their work, the authors integrated FLUENT and a proprietary software for structural analysis to estimate the flying shape of sails.

Thanks to CFD, an adequate degree of accuracy can also be obtained when predicting the behavior of a yacht sailing downwind [2]. Regression techniques can be regarded as well-established tools in the naval architecture domain [3]. Furthermore, DOE has proved to be a valuable tool in sail design [4]. However, the potential of DOE techniques has not been fully explored. DOE offers three advantages [5]. First, a number of parameters (both discrete and continuous) and responses can be involved. Second, regression models can be provided with reasonably low computational effort. Third, possible design trends can be identified by means of appropriate representation of responses, or response surfaces, over a given design space. The selected case study is the design of asymmetrical spinnakers used by the Tornado, the Olympic class catamaran. A set of parameters representing a full 3D spinnaker shape has been identified and their domains evaluated, in order to perform systematic perturbations on a given sail design and set up a DOE-driven analysis.

Tornado class catamaran

Photo Courtesy of HoldenSailing

The surface mesh on the sail and wind tunnel boundaries

A mesh sizing function whose source is the sail

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

Streamlines coloured by velocity magnitude; the spinnaker is viewed from the leeward side

Comparison between a design shape (left) (input to the iterative process) and the corresponding flying shape (right) after convergence is reached following four fluid-structure iterations

Although such parameters refer to a sail section at a given mast height, their perturbations have been propagated to the rest of the sail in order to obtain results consistent with common sailmaking practices. The selected process factors are the sail section camber, its position over the chord, and the section twist angle with respect to the sail foot chord (or bottom edge of the sail). Because of the need to sample a significant region of the design space, the various designs evaluated are considerably different from each other; notable differences have been observed in terms of the sail angle of attack at given reference heights. The structural behavior of the design shapes cant be represented as that of rigid bodies. In fact, the overall sail shape undergoes large displacements and a fluid-structure interaction approach becomes necessary. A numerical wind tunnel consisting of a coupled, iterative procedure involving structural and fluiddynamic calculations has been developed to estimate the wind-loaded shapes of given sails and their performance in terms of driving force, side force, and heeling moment. At each iteration, FLUENT evaluates the pressure field over a given sail surface and provides it to a structural module that yields a new loaded shape. For the purposes of the structural analysis, the sail is modeled as an infinitely flexible web with fixed elongation [6]. Each structural step consists of a constrained optimization routine whose objective function is the work of aerodynamic forces acting on the sail. Since a wind tunnel facility suitable for the testing of model sails is available at the University of Perugia, the computational domain for the CFD analysis has been scaled accordingly, for validation purposes. The numerical wind tunnel underwent preliminary

tests showing good agreement with actual flow field data. In order to be consistent with the actual process of sail trim, the ideal flow incidence with respect to a given reference section of the sail should be preserved until the iterative method converges. As an example, critical conditions may occur at low angles of attack, where the leading edge of the sail collapses easily. A proper module was therefore implemented through GAMBIT scripting language, which allowed the sail to be correctly positioned with respect to the flow field at the beginning of each FLUENT run, simulating actions taken by the helmsman. The problem just described implies that a unique meshing strategy must be suitable for several sail shapes (those generated at each step of the iterative process). The use of sizing functions allowed these difficulties to be overcome and, at the same time, provided a satisfactory mesh quality independent of the sail shape considered. Results of all simulations were collected and processed through an analysis of variance tools, in order to select the geometric parameters affecting sail performance. Regression models and response surfaces were then evaluated, in order to provide guidelines for future improvements of a given design. A validation of the present approach has been carried out by means of wind tunnel tests and consists of two stages. First, the performance in terms of driving force coefficient was evaluated. Second, the predicted and actual flying shapes of a given sail were compared. An optical measurement system [7] allowed the wind loaded shapes of model sails during wind tunnel runs to be digitized. In both cases, reasonable agreement with numerical results was found, which suggests the possibility of using the methodology described above as a valuable tool for sail designers.

Response surface showing the influence of camber and position, while twist is fixed to its mid-range value, obtained from the final regression model

References
1 Richter H.J., Horrigan K.C. and Braun J.C.: Computational Fluid Dynamics for Downwind Sails. In Proc. of The 16th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, 2003. Jones, P. and Korpus, R.: International Americas Cup Class Yacht Design Using Viscous Flow CFD. In Proc. of The 15th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, pp. 27-34, 2001. Battistin, D., Peri, D., and Campana, E.F.: Geometry and Resistance of the IACC Systematic Series Il Moro di Venezia. In Proc. of The 17th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, pp. 33-51, 2005. Lasher, W.C., Sonnenmeier, J.R., Forsman, D.R., Zhang, C. and White, K.: Experimental Force Coefficients for a Parametric Series of Spinnakers. In Proc. of The 16th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, 2003. Myers, R.H. and Montgomery, D.C.: Response Surface Methodology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2002. Le Maitre, O., Huberson, S.G. and Souza de Cursi, J.E.: Application of a Non-convex Model of Fabric Deformations to Sail Cut Analysis. J. Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 63, pp. 77-93, 1997. Barone, S., Bianconi, F., Conti, P., Razionale, A. and Scarponi, M.: Acquisition and Modelling of 3D Sail Shapes. CAD 2004, International CAD Conference and Exhibition, Pattaya Beach, Thailand, 2004.

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more.info@
[email protected]

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION
t = 1.00 sec

Artificial Heart Valve Takes Shape

By Jan Vierendeels, Joris Degroote, Kris Dumont, Lieve Lanoye, Pascal Verdonck, Ghent University, Belgium

t = 1.04 sec

t = 1.14 sec

T GHENT UNIVERSITY, BELGIUM, research on fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modeling has been ongoing since 1996. At the beginning, in-house codes were developed to compute the interaction between the motion of the cardiac wall and the blood flow in the heart [1]. During the past ten years, CFD and CSD (computational structural dynamics) packages have made significant progress and nowadays, the best approach for coupling fluid motion and structural displacement is to use existing software packages as partitioned solvers. When using a partitioned approach, however, it can be difficult to obtain convergence, especially when the interaction between the different motions is strong. This is the case for blood flow in the heart and for blood flow through a heart valve with flexible leaflets. Both of these types of blood flow have been simulated using the FSI approach developed at Ghent University. The blood flow in the moving geometries is computed with FLUENT 6.2, and the structural problem is solved using in-house software. The coupled calculation is robust and does not cause undue convergence difficulty, even for strongly interacting system responses. During the calculation, an implicit coupling method is used. For each new time, a new position of the boundary and the corresponding load distribution on that boundary is sought. This information is the result of simultaneous solutions of the CFD and CSD solvers, and could be obtained by alternating the solver calls. For strongly coupled cases however, such an approach can only be stabilized by reducing the underrelaxation factors or by using an Aitken-like technique, both of which tend to slow the rate of convergence.

t = 1.36 sec

t = 2.00 sec

To speed the convergence, a reduced order model is used [2]. If the Jacobian of the fluid solver were known when solving the structural problem, one would know how the load would change when a certain boundary displacement is applied, so the load change would not need to be calculated with the fluid solver. The boundary condition for the structural solver (the load) would not need to be assumed constant during this call, but could be written as a function of the unknown boundary position itself, resulting in a much better prediction for the boundary position. Since the Jacobian of the fluid solver is not available, a reduced order model of the solver can be built for which a Jacobian can be constructed. This approximation of the Jacobian of the fluid solver is then used for the coupled calculation. During each time step, whenever FLUENT is called a boundary displacement mode is applied and the corresponding load change at the boundary is retrieved through user defined functions (UDFs). This information is used to build up the reduced order model for the fluid problem. The structural solver is then called with the variable load boundary condition. FLUENT is called again and the reduced order model is updated. The loop is executed until a residual drop of four to five orders of magnitude is obtained. This new technique for FSI problems has proved to be robust and powerful, and is ideally suited for FSI problems with strong coupling.

References:
1

The figures show a flexible leaflet being opened by an accelerating flow; the stiffness of the leaflet is very small, so that it undergoes a huge displacement from the closed to the fully open position and back again

Vierendeels, J.A., Riemslagh, K., Dick, E. and Verdonck, P.R.: Computer Simulation of Intraventricular Flow and Pressure Gradients During Diastole. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering Transactions of the ASME, 122(6):667-674, 2000. Vierendeels, J.A.: Implicit Coupling of Partitioned Fluid-structure Interaction Solvers using a Reduced Order Model. In Proc. of the 35th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, June 6-9 2005, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. AIAA-2005-5135. AIAA Meeting papers on disc, vol. 10, nr 11-12. ISBN 1-56347-763-7.

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

FSI Controls

Flow Rate
By Subham Sett, ABAQUS, Inc., Providence, Rhode Island, USA

LOW CONTROL DEVICES are commonly employed in the automotive, biomedical, and consumer appliances industries to maintain a constant bulk flow rate for varying inlet pressures. Fluid pressure variations may result from pipe friction loss, downstream restrictions, distance from the water tower, or elevation of the water tap, for example. Minimizing the impact of inlet pressure variation on the flow is essential for the proper performance of fluid systems.

A schematic cross section of a typical VernaFlo device before (top) and after (bottom) the rubber component is deformed

Vernay VernaFlo flow controls are custom-designed flow management devices used in a wide range of applications where consistent, reliable fluid flow is essential. This study evaluates the performance of a custom VernaFlo device, using a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis with ABAQUS and FLUENT. The computational results compare favorably with available experimental data. In a typical VernaFlo device, an elastomeric rubber component is housed inside the flow path. This rubber insert rests on a rigid seat and deforms under the influence of the incoming flow. At low operating pressures the rubber component undergoes very little deformation and allows flow

The CFD sub-domain where the fluid flows (red) and the ABAQUS sub-domain which, for the VernaFlo valve, is a rubber insert that deforms for different flow rates (white)

Static flow pressure (top) and Mises stress (bottom) at 20, 40, 60, and 90 psi; at high pressures, the rubber insert moves closer to the axis, stabilizing the flow rate

Fluent News Spring 2006

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FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION

2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 20 40 80 60 Inlet pressure (psi) 100 120 ABAQUS-FLUENT Experiment

Experimental validation of the computation results

the ing the the

Flow rate (L/min)

flow to develop. With increasing upstream pressure, the deformation increases, restrictthe orifice diameter and thus limiting the fluid flow. Capturing the interaction between fluid flow and the structural deformation is critical to accurately predicting the shape of rubber component and the subsequent flow behavior.

The FSI analysis of the valve with ABAQUS and FLUENT makes use of a co-simulation technique managed by MpCCI (Mesh-based parallel Code Coupling Interface). The fluid and structural domains are modeled and solved separately, and solution information is exchanged at the fluid-structure interface. The ABAQUS sub-domain includes the rubber component, which is modeled using reduced order hybrid axisymmetric elements. The rubber component presses against a rigid seat. Penalty contact with a friction coefficient of 0.5 is defined between the rubber and the rigid seat. The simulation includes the effect of geometrical and material nonlinearities. The CFD sub-domain models the flow path, including a short upstream section, the section around the rubber component, and a long downstream section. The upstream variation in pressure is accounted for using a pressureinlet boundary condition, and a zero gauge pressure is used at the outlet. To enable local remeshing, the flow path is modeled using triangular elements. The water is modeled as a turbulent, incompressible fluid, and the cavitation model is enabled. The fluid-structure interface is defined using MpCCI. During the simulation, the pressures acting on the rubber component in the fluid sub-domain are mapped and transferred to the structural sub-domain in ABAQUS via MpCCI. ABAQUS computes the deformations and the resulting stress state in the structure. The interface deformation quantities are then mapped and transferred from the structural sub-domain to the fluid sub-domain in FLUENT via MpCCI. This process of exchanging solution quantities continues incrementally until the analysis is complete. The analysis results identify how variations in inlet pressure affect the bulk fluid flow rate through the device, and how the fluid flow affects the deformation of the rubber component. Contour plots of the fluid pressures at inlet pressure levels of 20, 40, 60 and 90 psi and the corresponding deformed shapes show that with an increase in the inlet pressure, the rubber component deforms and undergoes increased contact with the rigid seat. Partial contact is observed at 20 psi, and full contact is established at 60 psi. The constriction path narrows during the inlet pressure rise, resulting in an increased resistance to the fluid flow and a region of very high stresses. At a given deformation state, the increased material stiffness helps maintain the bulk flow rate at a fairly constant level. As the flow quickens through the narrow constriction region, the fluid pressure drops significantly, resulting in a dramatic drop in the absolute pressure of the liquid. Cavitation occurs at higher upstream pressures. The computational flow rate results were found to be in good agreement with experimental data. The flow rate increases from 0 to 2.1 liters/min during the initial pressure ramp-up from 0 to 20 psi and has nearly constant flow in the operating pressure range of 20 to 120 psi.

Velocity magnitude contours on a 2D model of the cross flow fan; the flow is from bottom to top

Contours of stream function for the cross flow fan

Acknowledgments
ABAQUS, Inc. would like to thank Jim Bailey at Vernay Labs for providing the model and experimental data for the Vernay VernaFlo device, and David Schowalter at Fluent Inc. for assisting with the cavitation modeling.

Velocity vector detail shows recirculation regions in one area of the cross flow fan

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Fluent News Spring 2006

HVAC

Cool Air Conditioners

By Teng-Kiat Lim Ph.D. and Chee-Onn Chan, Department of Research and Application, O.Y.L. R&D Center, Selangor, Malaysia

Fan Research Makes

S
radial component develops, driving the flow towards the side walls. This behavior is enhanced by the existence of an outlet front panel that partially blocks the flow. The CFD predictions were found to be in good agreement with air flow test measurements. Studies on new front panel designs are currently being conducted so that better air flow performance can be achieved. A two-bladed fan has also been studied. For this case, an unstructured mesh of about 1.2 million elements was needed to give a mesh-independent result. The 3D, double precision simulation also made use of the MRF and standard k- models. The results indicated that even though the front panel impacts the fan performance, a more uniform air flow distribution can be achieved, along with a lower pressure drop. The cross flow fan (CFF) operates in a fundamentally different way than axial or centrifugal fans. Flow enters across the full width of the rotating impeller and exits on the opposite side. The flow structure inside the impeller can be divided into two regions: an eccentric vortex or recirculation region having closed streamlines, and a through-flow region connecting the inflow and outflow sectors. The blades typically have a uniform thickness and a circular arc profile. The performance and stability of a CFF are governed by the geometrical parameters of the impeller and casing. Using the sliding mesh model, a transient 2D analysis was performed to study the effect of parameters such as blade angle, radius ratio, and number of blades. Maximum energy transfer through the impeller takes place in the region where the flow follows the blade curvature. Radial velocity is not uniform through the blade channels. More flow leakage is observed through the tongue clearance portion at low flow coefficients and static pressure is always negative in and around the impeller region

IGNIFICANT TECHNICAL CHALLENGES face companies in the HVAC industry today. In an increasingly competitive global market, HVAC systems need to make use of advanced technologies and improved component performance. At the O.Y.L. R&D Center, CFD is used for the analysis and optimization of fans, compressors, heat exchangers, and ducts, and it plays an important role in HVAC product lifecycle management (PLM) as well. CFD helps reveal flow structures and comprehensive flow field information where experimental techniques cannot provide adequate resolution. Consider, for example, a split-type air conditioner that consists of one outdoor condensing unit (housing an air-cooled condenser, propeller fan, and refrigerant compressor) and one or more indoor units (housing an evaporating coil and cross flow fan). Split-type air conditioners are popular in residential buildings because of their simplicity and flexibility. If the air flow in the outer unit is not properly controlled, however, poor recirculation can cause the coil temperature to rise and the system performance to suffer. A series of simulations has been performed to study the various components of this type of system, and based on the results, modifications have been made. A 3D model of a 3-bladed fan in the outdoor condensing unit was created and used to visualize the air flow near the housing and in the discharge. The steady multiple reference frames (MRF) model in FLUENT was used along with the standard k- turbulence model and standard wall functions. A tetrahedral mesh of about 1 million cells was generated using GAMBIT and TGrid. The triangular surface mesh was refined in the regions around the hub, tip, and blade edges. A uniform air velocity was imposed at the condenser inlet boundary, and a constant pressure was applied to the outlet. The results illustrated that when the steady incoming air flow enters the rotating zone of the fan, a strong

Absolute pressure on the 3-bladed fan (top) and 2-bladed fan (bottom)

Fluent News Spring 2006

13

AUTOMOTIVE

Citron
Vortex structures colored by streamwise velocity show the instantaneous and highly three-dimensional flow; note the interaction between the streamwise vortices formed at separation on the front fender and the A-pillar on the leeward side
Postprocessed by Ensight from CEI and Distene

S PASSENGER VEHICLES BECOME LARGER, their stability and safety characteristics become more sensitive to aerodynamic forces. Such effects are particularly important for vehicles exposed to a crosswind [1]. For instance, all drivers are familiar with the effect of cross-wind gusts, like those that may occur when a vehicle emerges from a tunnel or during overtaking. CFD can provide detailed information for understanding the changes in car behavior, handling, and performance under these conditions. Simulations are routinely performed at PSA using engineering approaches that are based on the solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. While this approach is often adequate for steady attached flows with no recirculation regions, numerous studies have shown the limitations of the RANS approach to accurately predict flows with massive separations and that are fundamentally unsteady. Large eddy simulation (LES) can have greater success than RANS methods in predicting separation and large scale unsteady flows, particularly in the wake and on the leeward side of vehicles under crosswind conditions. In recent years, this type of unsteady

calculation has been increasingly used in industry and FLUENT has made a special effort to develop industrial-strength validation examples for LES modeling techniques [2,3]. PSA Peugeot Citron has developed a strong expertise in CFD for external aerodynamics, cabin modeling, underhood thermal management, and more. In-house methodologies have been developed and are regularly improved, in order to fulfill new project requirements, which are getting more and more demanding, both in terms of accuracy and turn-over time. Computations are done in conjunction with wind tunnel experiments, either on full scale prototypes or, as in the case presented here, on a 1:5 scale model. Different measurement techniques are used, such as particle-image velocimitry (PIV), pressure taps, and tomography. The different methodologies also benefit from a collaboration between PSA and Fluent, and this was the basis of a recent joint project to address the potential benefit and cost of LES compared to the current RANS approach for semi-realistic configurations. Fujitsu/Siemens provided access to a large-scale high performance computing (HPC) facility for this project.

Model Drag (SCx) Forces Side (SCy) Lift (SCz)

Exp 0.70 2.22 1.40 -0.64 -0.42 0.12

SST k- 0.66 2.00 1.66 -0.60 -0.36 0.10

LES WALE LES WALE (35M cells) (65M cells) 0.69 2.19 1.27 -0.57 -0.49 0.21 0.68 2.18 1.30 -0.59 -0.49 0.23

RSM 0.71 2.30 1.82 -0.47 -0.46 0.03

v2-f 0.73 2.10 1.77 -0.47 -0.41 0.07

Detailed force and torque components acting on the vehicle; under crosswind conditions, the side force (SCy) and yaw moment (SCn) are the most influential for vehicle stability

Moments

Yawing (SCn) Rolling (SCl) Pitching (SCm)

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Fluent News Spring 2006

AUTOMOTIVE

C5 in a Crosswind
The RANS and LES simulations were performed on a 1:5 scale simplified model of a Citron C5. The crosswind effect was produced with the model placed at a yaw angle of 20. The Reynolds number of the flow, based on the incoming velocity and car height, H, was 6.19 x 105. The surface mesh (around 730,000 elements) was generated with ANSA and was locally refined close to the edges and on the leeward faces of the vehicle. The boundary layers were generated with the preprocessor TGrid, using 5 layers of prisms. The remaining part of the domain consisted of tetrahedral cells and was generated with the preprocessor GAMBIT. Sizing functions were used to control the growth rate and the cell size of the mesh in the region of separation on the leeward side of the car. The minimum resolution required to resolve the relevant turbulent length scales was estimated from prior RANS simulations. Two grids (of 35 million and 65 million cells) were created to address the sensitivity of the results to the mesh resolution. The body was placed in an open channel with a cross section of 14.5H x 7H. The channel inlet was located 5H from the front face of the body, and the channel outlet was located 8.5H from the rear. The boundary layers were modeled with the Werner-Wengle wall-function approach. The average y+ for the first cell off the wall was less than 50. The simulation benefited from the recent enhancements in numerics and sub-grid scale (SGS) modeling in FLUENT 6.2. The bounded central differencing scheme was used to prevent unphysical wiggles numerically introduced by the pure central differencing scheme. The non-iterative time advancement, or NITA algorithm significantly increased the speed of the transient calculation. The wall-adapting local eddy-viscosity (WALE) SGS model, which returns the correct wall asymptotic variation of the turbulent viscosity in a cost-effective manner, was used as well. The simulations were performed on a 96 CPU Fujistu cluster. For the 35M case, statistics were gathered during 16,000 iterations for an elapsed time of 70 hours. Statistics were gathered during 6,000 iterations for the 65M case, for an elapsed time of 50 hours. The full mean aerodynamic forces and torques were compared with RANS methods and experimental data. Under crosswind conditions, the side force and yaw moment are the most influential for vehicle stability. The LES results showed very good agreement with the experimental data for these quantities. The difference between measurements and calculations was 2% for the side force coefficient (SCy), and was in the range of 10% for the yawing moment (SCn). The LES runs also gave consistent results for the other aerodynamic force components; the drag force (SCx) was predicted with a 1% error, for instance. It is noteworthy that even if some RANS simulations are able to predict side force and yawing moment with reasonable accuracy, none of the turbulence models could predict consistent results for all of the force components and moments. Surface pressure coefficients also confirm the differences between the different computational methods used. On the A-pillar on the leeward side, especially, the pressure drop is too strong with the RANS model. The two LES runs gave comparable results, indicating that reasonable mesh independence was reached with the 35 M grid, as far as global force coefficients are concerned. The visualization of the mean velocity streamlines

By Sylvain Lardeau, PSA Peugeot Citron Automobile, Vlizy-Villacoublay, FRANCE, and Fabrice Mathey and Nicolas Valle, Fluent France

indicates the formation of two streamwise vortices on the leeward side of the vehicle. The first one is formed on the front fender and the second is formed on the A-pillar and along the side window. Animation and instantaneous flow visualization demonstrate the highly three-dimensional, unsteady nature of these vortices. The predominant peak frequencies calculated from a Fourier transform of the pressure signal at several locations on the leeward side is equal to 110 Hz, a value very close to the experimental peak frequency of 100 Hz. These simulations demonstrate how RANS and LES modeling approaches can complement each other to study car aerodynamics. Current RANS-based methodologies are able to correctly predict drag force components for attached flow and mild separation on realistic car geometries under uniform wind conditions. LES is a better tool for studying vehicle aerodynamics in crosswind conditions, since it provides a more accurate drag force component and pressure distribution along the vehicle. In addition, LES gave insight into the unsteady behavior of the flow, an important feature for both vehicle stability studies and aeroacoustic applications.

References:
1 Ryan, A. and Dominy, R.G.: The Aerodynamic Forces Induced on a Passenger Vehicle in Response to a Transient Cross-wind Gust at a Relative Incidence of 30 Degrees. SAE Paper 980392, 1998. Kim, S.E.: Large Eddy Simulation using Unstructured Meshes and Dynamic Subgrid-scale Turbulence Models. AIAA Paper no. 2004-2548, 2004. Mathey, F. and Cokljat, D.: Zonal Multi-domain RANS/LES Simulation of Air Flow over the Ahmed Body. In: Engineering Turbulence Modelling and Experiments, 6, pp. 647-656, Elsevier Ltd., 2005.

-0.5

-1.0 Cp -1.5

-2.0

Experiment LES RSM high-Re v2-f SST k- -0.5 0.0 0.5 X (m) 1.0 1.5 2.0

-2.5 -1.0

Surface mesh of the vehicle generated with ANSA

Surface pressure distribution on the windward side on the eye plane, z=1.250 m Fluent News Spring 2006

15

AUTOMOTIVE

ORQUE CONVERTERS ARE FLUID-COUPLING DEVICES that transmit power from vehicle engines to the wheels. They are used in automobiles with automatic transmissions to smoothly control the torque supplied to the wheels at all speeds. Torque converters are essentially chambers filled with transmission fluid, with the primary active parts being the pump (or impeller), stator, and turbine. The impeller blades rotate at the engine speed and impart angular momentum to the fluid as they force it radially outward. The turbine blades receive the fluid from the pump and turn it radially inward. The angular momentum thus absorbed by the turbine is passed to the transmission as torque. The flow exits from the turbine blade passages with little remaining angular momentum and encounters the stator blades, which accelerate the fluid back to the pump rotational speed. This action creates a torque on the stator, which is arrested by a non-rotating shaft built into the transmission housing. Torque multiplication results from the fact that the turbine torque is larger than that of the pump. Numerical simulations of torque converters are important because the complex topology and rotation of these devices make detailed experimental investigation virtually impossible. Simulations help identify optimal designs that yield improved performance and fuel economy. Using the multiple reference frames (MRF) model in FLUENT, a DaimlerChrysler torque converter has been studied. The MRF model allows the different parts of the torque converter (the pump, stator, and turbine) to be simulated using one relative orientation, but separate rotating frames. The model is well suited for torque converters, since the number of blades is chosen to prevent the amplification of harmonics and possible structural damage to the parts. This means that any single relative position of the blades is a good representation of the averaged behavior of the system as a whole. For the torque converter considered here, the number of blades for the pump, turbine, and the stator is 31, 29, and 20 respectively. A hexahedral mesh of about 2.9 million cells was used for the initial calculation. A pressure gradient-based mesh adaption was subsequently performed to enhance the solution accuracy. Using transmission fluid and a pump speed of 2000 rpm, the turbulent flow was captured using the realizable k- turbulence model. Custom postprocessing tools were created for the automatic extraction of torque converter quantities of interest, such as the mass-averaged flow angles at the inlet and outlet of each element, the efficiency, and the torque imbalance, for example. The results illustrated several flow features. Total pressure contours were used to illustrate the pressure loss across the stator blades. Velocity vectors were used to check for separation regions. The k-factor, the ratio of pump torque to the square root of pump speed and an indicator of the torque converter capacity, was found to be within 2% of measured values at all speed ratios (the ratio of turbine speed to pump speed) studied.

Torque Converters
By Vamshi Korivi, DaimlerChrysler, Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA Sandeep Sovani and Pepi Maksimovic, Fluent Inc.

An exploded view of the torque converter showing the pump (top), stator (middle), and turbine (bottom)

Get In Gear

Contours of total pressure on the blade surfaces of the three elements; large pressure losses can be seen across the stator blades (in the middle)

K-factor

FLUENT Efficiency 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 Speed ratio Experiment 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

Predictions of efficiency and k-factor as a function of speed ratio show good agreement with measured values

Predictions of efficiency, defined as the product of torque ratio and speed ratio, were found to be within 1.6% of the data at a speed ratio of 0.7. The torque ratio, defined as the ratio of turbine torque to pump torque, was found to be within 5% for speed ratios above 0.2. The ability to predict efficiency and torque ratios at high speed ratios is important for improving fuel economy.

16

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AUTOMOTIVE

Emissions Control Through

By Ranjit Singh, Expert Corporation, and Pepi Maksimovic, Fluent Inc.

Carbon Canisters
ARBON CANISTERS ARE DEVICES commonly used to control the emissions of volatile hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons (HC) are hazardous to human health and the environment. For automobiles, HC emissions are produced during the filling of the fuel tank, and during vehicle operation. When the engine is off, evaporation from the vehicle fuel system still occurs, even at ambient temperatures typical of the diurnal cycle. Allowable HC emission limits are set by government regulations; for example, the LEV II (Low Emitting Vehicle-II) standard allows a certain amount of hydrocarbon emissions for a specific range of gross vehicle weight. Carbon canisters are part of the evaporative emission control system, which includes the fuel tank, vent and purge valves, and fuel lines. The role of the carbon canister is to store the fuel vapor generated in the system instead of having it escape into the atmosphere. The HCs are then burned off by purging the canister into the intake manifold when the engine is running. An optimum design includes a high working capacity, minimal pressure drop in the evaporative emissions system, space and size restrictions, and the ability to meet the mandated emission standards. Furthermore, the carbon utilization in the canister should be uniform; when less carbon material is needed, savings are realized. In todays competitive market, carbon canister manufacturers must be able to predict canister performance without having to build and test various prototypes. One carbon canister design from Expert Corp. has been simulated using FLUENT. The purpose of the CFD simulation was twofold: first, to compute the canister capacity and pressure drop at 60 l/min of air flow, and second, to predict canister breakthrough for a gaseous mixture of butane and nitrogen entering the canister at 15 g/hr. The mixture reacts with packed carbon pellets (adsorbing and

desorbing), until breakthrough is achieved, i.e. when a set cumulative amount of butane passes through the canister outlet. Arrhenius reaction rates for the adsorption and desorption reactions were prescribed. The carbon pellets were modeled as a porous region. A mesh of 184,000 hexahedral elements was used for the laminar simulation. The CFD results were used to assess the design. Using pathlines, a region with little or no flow was identified in the first chamber. Ideally, the canister design should provide uniform utilization of the carbon media in all of the chambers, and this result suggests that it does not. Mass fraction contours were used to illustrate the distribution of butane at several times during the canister loading process. The growth of butane inside the canister is the result of the ongoing surface reactions with the carbon pellets, so this provides another measure of how well the unit is operating as a whole. A plot of the butane mass fraction at the outlet as a function of loading time can also be used to indicate the time when breakthrough is achieved. The carbon canister capacity is computed by integrating under this curve.

The geometry of the carbon canister, showing the inflow port (blue), 3 chambers packed with carbon pellets (gray) and vent port (yellow)

Pathlines show a dead zone in the upper left corner in the first carbon-filled chamber; the presence of dead zones points to underutilization of carbon

Contours of butane mass fraction on a slice through the canister during loading (left) and once the canister has reached capacity (right) Fluent News Spring 2006

17

POWER TOOLS

Scavenging in a Stratified, Charged

Two-Stroke Engine
By Wolfgang Emmerich, SOLO Kleinmotoren GmbH, Sindelfingen, Germany

WO-STROKE GAS ENGINES are commonly used in hand-held machines, such as chain saws and grass trimmers. These engines have a tendency to cause pollution as a result of unburned hydrocarbons being released along with the exhaust. At SOLO Kleinmotoren, a new by-pass system has been developed that allows the combustion chamber to be flushed with either a lean fuel mixture or pure air early in the engine cycle. Fuel is injected as a rich mixture later in the cycle when the outlet port is closed. The by-pass system prevents the fuel from escaping from the combustion chamber before combustion is complete. A numerical investigation of the by-pass system has been carried out using the dynamic mesh model in FLUENT. Throughout several engine cycles, the mass fractions of pure air, a rich fuel mixture, and a mixture of exhaust gases were tracked. Combustion was approximated by resetting the pressure, temperature, and components of the three gaseous species each time the piston was in the top dead center (TDC) position. The operation of the engine is illustrated at right. During the suction phase, clean air is drawn into the crank case (blue arrow) and a fresh mixture of fuel and air is drawn into the by-pass channel (green arrow). As the crank case compresses, the clean air enters the combustion chamber through transfer ports, while the fuel mixture is pressed into the chamber through an injection port. Due to fluid dynamic constraints dictated by the local flow, the fresh air in the chamber prevents the fuel mixture from leaving the combustion chamber directly through the outlet port. Only exhaust gases (red) and pure air can be released into the environment. The distributions for the three gaseous species at three different piston positions illustrate the success of the by-pass system. The blue surface corresponds to fresh air, the green surface to the fuel mixture, and the red surface to the exhaust gas mixture. At bottom dead center (BDC), the positions of the surfaces indicate that the fresh air forms a fluid shield between the fuel mixture and the outlet port. When the piston has advanced 50 beyond BDC, the fluid shield is not perfect, so a small portion of the fuel mixture can leak past the shield near the cylinder walls. When the piston has advanced 100 after BDC, the outlet port is closed by the rising piston, just before the fuel mixture has a chance to escape. The results of the simulation show the ability of the new engine to reduce environmental pollution by limiting the release of unburned hydrocarbons. The results also suggest that there is potential to improve the fluid dynamics of the fuel injection as well as the flushing of the combustion chamber to further enhance the performance of the new by-pass system.

A schematic of the engine with the by-pass system: pure air (blue) and fuel (green) enter through ports on the left; following combustion, pure air and exhaust gases leave through the outlet port on the right

Surfaces of fresh air (blue), fuel (green), and exhaust (red) at three piston positions: a) bottom dead center (BDC), where the air forms a fluid shield to block the fuel, b) 50 beyond BDC, where some fuel leaks past the air shield near the cylinder wall, and c) 100 beyond BDC, at which time the rising piston has closed the outlet port

18

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F L U E N T

N E W S

S U P P L E M E N T

Focus on CFD
For the Process Industries
s2 s3 s5 s7 s8 s10 s12 s13 s14 s15 s16
OVERVIEW Transporting CFD to Process Engineers MIXING Tracing Homogenization Finding the Optimum Blend Time Calculation MICROREACTORS Liquid Mixing in Microreactors THERMAL RUNAWAY Preventing Runaway Reaction Accidents EMISSIONS Scrubbers for Flue Gas Cleanup FURNACES Ultra-low NOx Burners Get Cracking MULTIPHASE Controlling Droplet Size Distribution in Emulsions Understanding Fluid-Bed Coating PUMPS Pumping out New Designs More Quickly EXTRUSION Polymer Processing Simulation for Foam Extrusion

OVERVIEW

PROCESS INDUSTRIES

Transporting CFD
to Process Engineers
By Ahmad Haidari, Chemicals and Process Industry Segment Manager, Fluent Inc.

HEMICAL AND OTHER PROCESS INDUSTRY companies are driving issues such as green engineering, energy reduction, chemical sustainability and corporate profitability through innovation and the use of ingenious engineering and technology. Simulation software plays a key role in helping engineers to better understand processes and is assisting in productivity and efficiency gains across the industry. CFD in particular is gaining broad traction with researchers, process engineers, and equipment designers to help analyze and design the flow and performance of process equipment such as stirred tanks, fluidized bed reactors, separators, combustion systems, heat exchangers, and polymer and material processing and handling equipment. Technical advances at Fluent have progressed in two distinct directions. The traditional focus on more reliable and advanced physical models is being complemented by highly customized interfaces to fit the modeling needs of a specific application or equipment design. These advances, combined with the successful track record of CFD in many companies, have brought the full power of CFD to process engineers. The applicability of CFD to process industry applications is achieved through ongoing focused development and user-driven projects. For example, three customerdriven technology developments have been implemented recently that uniquely expand FLUENTs capabilities. First, a population balance modeling effort was driven by a need to combine detailed fluid mechanics analysis with a better description of the size distribution of particles, bubbles, or droplets in a multiphase mixture. The

formulation accounts for phenomena such as nucleation, growth, dispersion, dissolution, aggregation, and breakage, so it is possible to describe and track changes in the particle population. Applications of this technology span a wide range of multiphase systems such as solid-liquid dispersions, crystallization, precipitative reactions, gas-sparged reactors, liquid-liquid dispersions, and liquid-liquid separation equipment. Second, for granular mixtures, the macroscopic particle model (MPM), available through user-defined functions (UDFs) in FLUENT, allows for the presence of large particles where particle collisions, rotation, adhesion, and other forces are accounted for using a hard sphere approach. Third, modifications to the volume of fluid (VOF) free surface model in FLUENT have been developed to simulate capillary-driven flow in an unsaturated porous region. The primary modeling goal was to study the spread of unbound liquid inside the voids formed by fibrous material, but the model also accounts for sorption (the physical bonding of moisture to the fiber), since the performance of many hygiene, food, and consumer products strongly depends on their sorption capacity. In this special newsletter supplement, a diverse sampling of process industry applications is presented. Traditional applications such as mixing in stirred tanks are joined by mixing in microchannels. Reacting flow is covered in the context of thermal runaway (and a promising antidote), the cleanup of emissions, and the optimization of an ethylene cracking furnace. Multiphase flow examples include a fluidized bed and droplet breakup validations. The use of CFD for designing special purpose pumps is also reviewed. Finally, simulations of the extrusion of foam a gas-impregnated polymer are described. As these articles illustrate, the use of CFD is spreading to more and more applications within the process industries. With increases in computing capacity and the advances in technology currently taking place, this expansion can only continue in the years to come.

The flow of macroscopic particles in a hopper

Fluent News is published by

10 Cavendish Court Lebanon, NH 03766 USA 603 643 2600 www.fluent.com 2006 Fluent Inc. All rights reserved. Editor: Liz Marshall Assistant Editor: Susan Wheeler Contributing Editors: Erik Ferguson and Keith Hanna Design: Lufkin Graphic Designs FLUENT, FiDAP, GAMBIT, POLYFLOW, G/Turbo, MixSim, FlowLab, Icepak, Airpak, and FloWizard are trademarks of Fluent Inc. Icepak and Airpak are joint developments of Fluent Inc. and ICEM-CFD Engineering. All other products or name brands are trademarks of their respective holders.

An iso-surface of liquid at two times, corresponding to a 10% saturation level predicted by FLUENTs wicking model

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Fluent News Spring 2006

MIXING

Tracing Homogenization
By Michal Mo st ek and Milan Jahoda, Department of Chemical Engineering, Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, Czech Republic

The two-impeller system with conductivity probes

HE BLENDING OF MISCIBLE LIQUIDS is a common mixing operation in the chemical, biochemical, food-processing, and other industries. Most frequently, it takes place in mechanically agitated tanks, where the miscible liquids are blended to a predetermined degree of homogeneity. One of the critical parameters of a mixer is the time of homogenization, or blending time. In practice, it is widespread to use empirical correlations derived from experiments to predict mixing times. However, these correlations have many limitations, mainly in the design of non-standard tank geometries and in cases with multiple impellers. Using CFD, the study of processes taking place in mixing tanks becomes easier and more economical than with the use of experiments. Thanks to the growing performance of todays computers and with the help of other timesaving tools like the preprocessor MixSim, an elementary simulation of a mixing system can be performed within an hour. For more advanced simulations, the possibility of parallel computations and the availability of new and faster non-iterative solvers today enable a detailed study of mixing tanks to be performed in a range of days and weeks, where it would have taken months not long ago. In mixing tanks, where baffles are used to eliminate the central vortex and prevent air entrainment in the system, two methods of simulating the impeller rotation are most often used. The multiple reference frames (MRF) method is a fast steady-state method, which together with the k- family of turbulence models, provides timeaveraged information about processes taking place in the system. The transient sliding mesh (SM) method is much more accurate and suitable for the simulation of homogenization. For both methods, the tank is divided into a cylindrical part containing the impeller and a stationary part containing the baffles and tank walls. In the MRF method the impeller maintains a fixed position

relative to the baffles, and the solution in the impeller region is solved in the rotating frame of the impeller. For the SM method, the grid for the impeller region rotates in time, so that transient effects, especially those applied to phenomena such as blending, can be captured. While the time-averaged k- models are often used in combination with the SM model, a transient turbulence model can also be used for the most comprehensive simulation of a transient process. When this level of detail is of interest, a transient turbulence model such as large eddy simulation (LES) can be used. To get the most out of this kind of modeling effort in terms of accuracy and precision, care must be taken when setting up the model, in terms of the size and density of the computational grid, the time step, and a suitable choice of sub-grid scale turbulence model. Two examples of liquid homogenization in a tank filled with water and equipped with either one Rushton turbine or two 6-bladed 45 pitched blade turbines mounted on a common shaft are presented below. For both cases, the tank diameter, T, is 0.29m and the shaft rotates at a constant speed of 300rpm. A second liquid (a saturated solution of NaCl) is introduced to the tank and the progress of blending is studied. Conductivity probes are used for experimental observations of tracer concentration, and CFD models are run for comparison. The measuring volume of the probe is approximately 0.55cm3. For the one-impeller system, the probe is placed between the baffles, with an off-bottom clearance of T/4 and at a distance of T/20 from the tank wall. For the twoimpeller system, one probe is placed near the tank bottom, with the same off-bottom clearance and distance from the wall as in the previous case. A second probe is placed at a distance of T above the first probe. The tracer is injected just below the free liquid surface, at a horizontal distance of T/4 from the tank wall, opposite the probe. Output signals from the

Contours and vectors of velocity magnitude in a vertical plane mid-way between two baffles, computed by the sliding mesh model and the standard k- (top) and LES (bottom) turbulence models

Fluent News Spring 2006

S3

PROCESS INDUSTRIES

MIXING

PROCESS INDUSTRIES

2.0

normalized concentration

1.5

1.0

0.5

experiments mrf ske sm ske sm les 2 4 time (s) 6 8 10

probes are processed by a conductivity meter, digitized by an A/D converter and registered by a computer for further processing in the form of dimensionless concentration values. In the simulations, structured grids composed of non-uniformly distributed hexahedral cells were made in GAMBIT. The tank volume was decomposed into many smaller volumes in order to make a grid usable for structured meshing. In the case of the one-impeller system, the whole vessel was divided into 611,000 hexahedral cells (99 x 37 x 168 along the axial, radial and tangential coordinates), in the case of the two-impeller system, the mesh consisted of 1,200,000 hexahedral cells (198 x 37 x 168 along the axial, radial and tangential coordinates). The first group of simulations of the flow field was performed using the MRF technique. By tracking the mixing of two fluids with equal properties, the solution of a single species equation could be used to follow the mixing progress. Converged solutions were obtained and then the flow field was frozen and only the unsteady solution of the passive scalar equation was performed. In the case of the SM and standard k- (SKE) turbulence model, the MRF solution was used as a starting point. The simulation was then switched to unsteady, with a time step set to 0.001s and the non-iterative time advancement (NITA) option. When the periodic steady-state was reached (after 25s in the case of the

0.0 0.0

one-impeller system and about 40s in the case of the two-impeller system), the homogenization simulation was initiated in the same way as described for the MRF simulation. The only difference was that the computations of tracer distribution in the vessels were solved together with the flow equations as the impeller mesh continued to rotate. In the case of the SM and LES approach, the MRF solution was again used as a starting point. The dynamic Smagorinsky-Lilly sub-grid scale model was chosen to capture the effects of turbulent eddies smaller than a cell size. Special attention was also given to the discretization schemes used. In particular, the bounded central differencing (BCD) scheme was used for discretization of the momentum and species transport equations, the body force weighted scheme was used for pressure discretization, and the fractional step method was chosen for pressure-velocity coupling. Comparison of the velocity fields calculated using the standard k- and LES models show the increased detail provided by the LES approach. For the two-impeller system, concentration maps at different times of the LES computation illustrate the complex dispersion of the tracer during the blending process. For both vessels, comparisons of the calculated and experimental concentration profiles indicate that the sliding mesh approach using LES provides the closest overall match to the probe readings throughout the blending process.

2.0

normalized concentration

1.5

1.0

0.5

experiments mrf ske sm ske sm les 5 10 time (s) 15 20 25

0.0 0.0

The time traces of normalized concentration recorded (top) at one location in the one-impeller tank and (bottom) at two locations in the twoimpeller tank during the homogenization process, comparing three modeling approaches with five identical experimental runs; the sliding mesh with LES approach is the closest fit to the data

Contours and vectors of velocity magnitude in a vertical plane mid-way between two baffles, computed by the sliding mesh model and standard k- (left) and LES (right) turbulence models

1 sec

5 sec

10 sec

15 sec

Contours of normalized tracer concentration in a vertical plane mid-way between two baffles after the tracer addition

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Fluent News Spring 2006

MIXING

Finding the Optimum

Blend Time Calculation

By Benoit Post, Fluent France, and Rajiv Lochan Rath, Fluent India

HE MIXING OF SINGLE AND MULTIPHASE FLUIDS in stirred tank reactors is a common operation in many industries, such as chemicals, water treatment, pharmaceuticals, and petroleum. Understanding the fluid flow in these tanks is critical for equipment design, scale-up, process control, and economic factors. CFD is now being used routinely to provide this information, enabling engineers to select the best agitator design to obtain the desired process performance. Blending time evaluation is one of the key objectives of such CFD studies, and there are currently several numerical approaches that can be used for this purpose [1]. The objective of a project recently performed at Fluent France and Fluent India was to compare these different approaches in terms of quantitative results and CPU time. A cylindrical, flat bottom, stirred tank with 4 baffles and a non-standard, Rushtontype impeller with 4 radial blades was used for the simulations. Owing to the rotational symmetry of the geometry, a 90 sector of the tank was modeled. The different approaches studied made use of either the multiple reference frames (MRF) or sliding mesh (SM) model. For the MRF runs, a steady-state flow field was first computed and a transient calculation of a tracer species was performed using the frozen flow field. The first such blending calculation was done using the default settings, including the use of relative velocities. A second blending calculation was performed with absolute velocities. For this case, the paddles on the impeller were changed to interior zones, since this setting is more appropriate for walls moving normal to the fluid when absolute velocities are used. The walls exerting shear on the fluid (the impeller disk) were not changed. For the transient sliding mesh calculations, the flow field and tracking of the tracer species were computed simultaneously. Two solver options were used: the iterative time advancement (ITA) scheme and the non-iterative time advancement (NITA) scheme, which was introduced in FLUENT 6.2. The sliding mesh results are the most rigorous, so they served as a standard for comparison with the other methods. A correlation was also used to compare the results. A steady state, MRF solution for the flow was first obtained. On this frozen flow field solution, the transient species calculation was performed after initializing a volume of tracer in the upper part of the vessel. The MRF flow field was also used as the starting point for the unsteady sliding mesh calculation. Before introducing the species, the sliding mesh calculation was done for a few cycles until periodic behavior was obtained. At this point, the species was introduced in the same location used for the MRF calculations, and the transient calculation of the flow field and species was performed.

Pathlines illustrate the two circulation loops in the vessel

Results were analyzed globally in terms of the blending time, t99, or time required to achieve 99% uniformity in the tank. A published correlation for t99 for a six-bladed Rushton turbine was used for comparison [2]. The blend time predicted by the Rushton correlation was found to be longer that that predicted by the CFD methods, a result that is due to the fact that the paddles on the impeller used have more surface area than a standard Rushton. In addition, the tracer species introduced from one location in the 90 model was equivalent to it being introduced from four locations in a 360 vessel.

The tracer species initial locations at t=0

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The correlation assumes that the species is introduced from one location, usually at the surface of the liquid. Comparison of the CFD methods revealed that the MRF model predicted longer mixing times than the sliding mesh model. The two MRF approaches predicted similar blend times, as did the two SM approaches.

Correlation for 6-bladed Rushton turbine Blending time(s): t99 19.0 (+/- 6)

MRF with relative velocities (default) 15.8 (+/- 4)

MRF with absolute velocities 15.3 (+/- 4)

Sliding Mesh with ITA scheme 14.8 (+/- 3)

Sliding Mesh with NITA scheme 14.9 (+/- 3)

The tracer distribution after 1.5 (left) and 3.0 (right) seconds for the MRF simulation

The various approaches were also compared by monitoring the CPU time required to reach t99. It was found that the sliding mesh model using the new NITA scheme takes about 4 times less CPU time than the sliding mesh model using the ITA scheme. The steady-state MRF solutions are much quicker, requiring about 2.5 times less CPU time than the sliding mesh model with the NITA scheme. The results were also analyzed locally by monitoring the mass fraction of the tracer species at several sensor locations. Two locations in particular are of interest: near the tip of the blade and near the top of the tank. Near the impeller, the sliding mesh case picked up the blade passing frequency, and in addition, a low frequency oscillation of greater amplitude that was also observed for the MRF approaches. This low frequency oscillation was also picked up at the top of the tank by the sliding mesh and MRF approaches, although the blade passing frequency was not (for the former). The low frequency oscillation is indicative of a macroscopic exchange of the tracer material between the upper and lower regions of the vessel. This type of result is not uncommon when a radial impeller is used and distinct circulation patterns develop above and below the impeller. Overall, the MRF model is an economic approach for delivering sufficient blending time information. If, however, an accurate representation of the transient dispersion of a tracer is required for reacting flows, for example the sliding mesh approach is necessary, and the NITA scheme in FLUENT now makes sliding mesh calculations much more affordable.

6E-03 5E-03 mass fraction 4E-03 3E-03 2E-03 1E-03 0E-03 0 2 4 6 8 time (s) 10 12 14 SM + ITA SM + NITA MRF ABS MRF REL

Mass fraction of the tracer species computed by the SM and MRF methods, recorded at points near the top of the vessel (top) and near the impeller (bottom)
6E-03 5E-03 mass fraction 4E-03 3E-03 2E-03 1E-03 0E-03 0 2 4 6 8 time (s) 10 12 14 SM + ITA SM + NITA MRF ABS MRF REL

References:
1 2 Marshall, E.M. and Bakker, A.: Computational Fluid Mixing. In: The Handbook of Industrial Mixing, Ch. 5. Paul, E., Atiemo-Obeng, V. and Kresta, S., Editors, John Wiley, 2004. Fasano, J.B., Bakker, A. and Penney, W.R.: Advanced Impeller Geometry Boosts Liquid Agitation. Chemical Engineering, August 1994.

Iso-surfaces of tracer mass fraction show the polarized species distribution in the vessel, even after the liquids are well mixed

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MICROREACTORS

Liquid Mixing in Microreactors

By M. Hoffmann, M. Schlueter, N. Raebiger; University of Bremen, Institute of Environmental Process Engineering (IUV), Bremen, Germany

ICROREACTORS ARE BASIC components of microfluidic systems for chemical and biochemical applications and are an important area of research in fields such as analytical chemistry, chemical engineering, and life science. They are well suited for the controlled mixing of reactants and show great potential for optimizing conventional processes. The large area-to-volume ratio of microreactors allows for a higher yield and selectivity than conventionally designed processes. To take advantage of the full potential of this ambitious technology, a fundamental understanding of the transport processes on the relevant time and length scales is necessary. One approach is through the application of CFD. An example that is currently undergoing study using numerical simulation is that of a T-shaped micromixer with a rectangular cross section. High resolution CFD simulations have been performed using FLUENT 6.1 at the Institute of Chemical Engineering at the University of Paderborn, Germany [1]. The computational domain is meshed by a block structured grid with about 970,000 cubic cells. A more refined computation is also being performed on a grid of about 9 million cells. For the entrance region in the mixing channel, inside the mixing zone, the grids have a spatial resolution of 2.5 and 1m respectively. The velocity field is given by the stationary solution of the Navier-Stokes equations using a velocity profile of fully developed, rectangular cross section duct flow at both inlets. At the outlet, the pressure is set to a reference value. All channels are closed at the top and a no-slip boundary condition is applied to all walls. The properties of water at 20C are used and a tracer is added at one of the inlets. The species transport model is used to track the motion of the tracer through the micromixer.

In addition to using a commercial CFD program for numerical flow visualization, microscale fluid flow visualization is an important tool for acquiring localized flow information within these devices. By means of two non-invasive measurement techniques, micro-laser induced fluorescence (micro-LIF) and micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV), the concentration and velocity fields have been measured. The tracer distribution at different cross sections enables a quantitative analysis of the mixer to be performed. To construct the tracer distribution, a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) is used. The CLSM can produce image slices with a minimum thickness of 2 microns. By combining a series of these slices, a three-dimensional rendering of the mixing quality in the mixing channel is possible. The mixing quality can then be quantified using Danckwerts intensity of segregation [1]. Other observations made in the CFD analysis and experimental tests include a secondary flow in the form of a vortex pair in the entrance region, which results from instabilities caused by centrifugal forces. The results are fundamental for improving the design rules for static micromixers and have enabled a validation of the CFD results.

Tracer profile in the y-z plane (top) on a crosssectional slice through the mixing channel (bottom) at x=100 m computed using CFD; the Reynolds number for the mixing channel is 186 (corresponding to an inlet velocity of 1.4 m/s for each inlet)
Courtesy of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Paderborn

Velocity field along a mixing channel with a width of 400 m and height of 200 m using micro-PIV; the measurement plane (x-y plane) is at z=143 m, and flow is from left to right

Acknowledgements:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the CFD work done by our collaborators, Dieter Bothe, Center of Computational Engineering Science, RWTH Aachen, Germany and Hans-Joachim Warnecke, Institute of Chemical Engineering, University of Paderborn, Germany.

References:
1 Bothe, D., Stemich, C. and Warnecke, H.-J.: Fluid Mixing in a T-shaped Micro-mixer. Chem. Eng. Sci. 61, 2950-2958, 2006.

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Concentration field in the mixing channel of a T-shaped micromixer with a width of 400 m and height of 200 m, constructed using image slices from a confocal laser scanning microscope and micro-LIF in the y-z plane, with an x range of 270 to 782 m; the Reynolds number of mixing channel is 207 and the flow is from back to front Fluent News Spring 2006

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Preventing

Runaway Reaction
Accidents
By D. Dakshinamoorthy and J.F. Louvar, Chemical Engineering Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

UNAWAY REACTIONS ARE AN ONGOING PROBLEM in the chemical industry, where they account for 26% of major accidents. Runaway reactions generate a sudden excess amount of heat, which can lead to an explosion. They can be stopped in two ways: by the addition of cold diluents and by the addition of an inhibitor, a chemical that acts to suppress the runaway reaction. The technology that involves the use of inhibitors is called shortstopping. Power failures are one of the main reasons for runaways, and after a power failure, the process of adding an inhibiting agent and mixing it with the reactor contents becomes a major problem in the shortstopping process. Jets or impellers, driven by a small generator, can be used for mixing under such circumstances. From a design standpoint, jet mixing is one of the simplest methods to achieve mixing. In jet mixing, a part of the liquid in the tank is drawn out through a pump and returned to the tank as a high-velocity jet through a nozzle, resulting in fluid mixing. In a recent project [1], CFD was used to compare the efficiency of jet mixers with impeller stirred vessels in shortstopping runaway reactions. On the basis of equal power consumption, this comparative study showed that jet mixers were ineffective when used for shortstopping, unless certain factors could be optimized. Due to the hazardous nature of runaway reactions, these factors cannot be determined with lab scale or pilot plant scale experiments, but CFD can be used to carry out virtual experiments instead. Using FLUENT, mixing with a jet mixer was first investigated for different nozzle diameters and angles of injection. To account for the external circulating pump, user-defined functions (UDFs) were used to ensure that the mass fractions of all species entering the vessel through the inlet were equal to those leaving through the outlet at each timestep. Before simulating the reacting flow of the shortstopping process, the flow model alone was validated. Since overall mixing controls the process, the predicted mixing times were compared with the available experimental correlations [2, 3] and found to be in excellent agreement. The converged flow results of the best jet configuration were then used for subsequent simulations of the runaway and inhibition reactions. Laminar volumetric reactions were modeled using UDFs. Guibert et al. [4] documented the kinetics of the considered runaway reaction. Before analyzing a specific runaway scenario, reactor conditions were varied and runaway behavior was studied. From all of the cases considered, the one with the fastest temperature increase was selected for further study, since it would be the most difficult to shortstop. For this scenario, as soon as the reactor temperature reached 450K, the inhibitor was added and the species transport equations for the inhibition reaction were solved simultaneously with the runaway reaction. The results were used to identify the major and minor factors that contribute to effective shortstopping when using a jet mixer. These factors include the location for adding the inhibitor; the amount of the inhibitor; the rate of the inhibition reaction; the power input; the use of a cold diluent; and the use of multiple nozzles. The temperature distribution in the reactor after the shortstopping process and the decrease in the average reactor temperature were used to assess the importance of each factor. For example, the temperature distribution on the mid-plane and an iso-surface of temperature equal to 500K (temperatures over 500K were considered hazardous) for two power levels was used to illustrate the importance of power input. The hotspots, or high temperature regions over 500K, decrease in size as the power is increased, which indicates improved shortstopping. In addition to the power input, the decrease in

Solution domain and pathlines for the jet mixer studied

Grid near the inlet

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mixing time (sec)

10

experiment FLUENT

10

101 102 103 Jet Reynolds number 104

Kinetic Details of Runaway and Inhibition

Runaway Reaction Guibert et al. [4] studied the kinetics of the propylene oxide polymerization reaction. The rate of the reaction is defined as a function of temperature, propylene oxide concentration, and catalyst concentration. Monomer polymerizes to polymer in the presence of a basic catalyst. The kinetic expressions for the monomer concentration and temperature are as follows: 1.

Comparison of the predicted mixing time and experimental data for a range of jet Reynolds numbers [2]

the final reactor temperature for the other factors was computed as well. When compared, the major factors that were found to contribute most to effective shortstopping were the use of cold diluents and the use of multiple nozzles. The factors found to be of less importance were the rate of the inhibition reaction, the location of the inhibitor injection, and the amount of inhibitor. The study clearly demonstrated the value of using CFD simulations in situations that are experimentally prohibitive.

2.

Acknowledgements:
The authors acknowledge NSF for their support of this particular project, and Dr. Vivek. V. Ranade and his student Dr. Avinash. R. Khopkar of IFMG, National Chemical Laboratories, Pune, India, for their technical contributions and inspiration.

References:
1 Dakshinamoorthy, D., Khopkar, A.R., Louvar, J.F. and Ranade. V.V.: CFD Simulations of Shortstopping Runaway Reactions in Vessels Agitated with Impellers and Jets. Accepted in the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 2005. Lane, A.G.C. and Rice, P.: An Investigation of Liquid Jet Mixing Employing an Inclined Side Entry Jet. Transactions of Institute of Chemical Engineers, 60, 171-176, 1982a. Lane, A.G.C. and Rice, P.: Comparative Assessment of the Performance of Three Designs for Liquid Jet Mixing. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Process Design and Development, 21, 650-653, 1982b. Guibert, M.R., Plank, A.C. and Gerhard, R.E.: Kinetics of the Propylene Oxide Oxypropylated Glycerol Reaction. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Process Design and Development, 10 (4), 497-500, 1971.

Inhibition Reaction The added inhibitor neutralizes the basic catalyst. The kinetic expression for the inhibition reaction is as follows: 3.

Kinetic Data for Inhibition and Runaway Reactions

Activation Energy Heat of Reaction Pre-Exponential Factor Specific Heat Capacity Pre-Exponential Factor Gas Constant E = 6.96E+08 J/kgmol H = -1.63E+06 J/kg(monomer) ko = 9.5E+11 kg(total)/(kg(cat)-hr) cp = 2930 J/kg(total)-K k1 = 9.5E+11 kg(total)/(kg(inh)-hr) R = 8314.34 J/kgmol-K

< 450K

> 550K

Contours of temperature on the mid-plane and an iso-surface of tempetature at 500k illustrate the temperature distribution after shortstopping with less (left) and more (right) power input Fluent News Spring 2006

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The mesh structure

Scrubbers for Flue

Gas Cleanup
ITH TODAYS INCREASINGLY RESTRICTIVE environmental regulations, there is an ongoing need for state-of-theart modeling of pollutant formation and removal in industrial processing units. A particularly important issue is the sulphur dioxide (SO2) content in the flue gases of power plants. A typical approach for removing this hazardous component is through absorption by limestone slurry droplets in so-called flue gas scrubbers. Scrubbers consist of large towers in which up to several thousands of nozzles provide a homogenous distribution of droplets within the gas flow. This leads to the highest possible absorption rate for a given slurry mass flow. To optimize the nozzle configurations for scrubbers, CFD simulation is one of the best tools to use. The absorption of SO2 is a complex process with several mechanisms to be considered. The continuous phase (gas) and discrete phase (droplets) have to be calculated as well as the interaction between them. The momentum and temperature of the droplets affect the gas flow and vice versa. Additionally, mass transfer between the droplet and gas phases has to be taken into account. Depending on the difference in the partial pressure of water vapor in the two phases, there might be evaporation from the droplets or condensation onto the droplet surfaces. Rapid changes in temperature cause both evaporation and condensation to have a significant influence on the SO2 absorption rate, which itself is governed by a complex ion chemistry mechanism within the droplets. The heat and mass transfer rates are dependent on the droplet surface area, which changes during evaporation or condensation, or whenever there is splashing at the walls. To account for the latter, an appropriate wall interaction model also has to be part of the CFD simulation. With FLUENTs user-defined function (UDF) capability, a set of models addressing these issues has been implemented, and a test case with typical scrubber conditions has been created to illustrate the capabilities. A cylindrical scrubber with two sets of eight radial spray bars was considered. The grid was built using the polyhedral mesh

By Christoph Hochenauer, Austrian Energy & Environment AG, Raaba/Graz, Austria, Martin Demuth, Institute for Process Technology & Industrial Environmental Protection, University of Leoben, Austria, and Wolfgang Timm, Fluent Germany

Mesh in the spray bank zone

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capability of FLUENT 6.3. The original mesh consisted of a total of 1.25 million cells, which were reduced to 250,000 cells after the tetrahedral elements were converted to polyhedra. Using sizing functions, a sufficient grid resolution in the near wall regions of the spray bank was ensured. A flue gas mass flow rate of 65kg/s was set at an inlet at the bottom of the unit with SO2 and water vapor mass fractions of 0.0024 and 0.12 respectively, and the remainder consisting of air. Sixty-six full cone nozzles were distributed in a circular pattern on the sixteen radial pipes for a total slurry mass flow rate of 330kg/s. Both the gas flow and the droplets started with an initial temperature of 316K. For the droplets, the dispersed phase model (DPM) was used with a large number of trajectories, whose interaction with the gas phase was evaluated separately. The RNG k- model and the stochastic tracking method were used to incorporate the effects of turbulent fluctuations on both phases in the simulation. In a surrounding air flow at ambient temperature, a water droplet is subject to a coupled heat and mass transfer process. With increasing velocity difference between the two phases the transfer is enhanced and can be calculated with the Ranz-Marshall law, which can be used for SO2 absorption as well as vaporization and condensation [1]. Since the latent heat of water

Contours of water vapor content (left), SO2 mass fraction (middle), and vertical velocity (right) on four slices within the scrubber; the flow in the unit is from bottom to top

is quite high, the droplet temperature change along its trajectory cannot be neglected, since a temperature change of 10K can significantly affect the SO2 partial pressure at the droplet surface. When droplets hit the wall there are several possibilities of what can occur. Under certain conditions a droplet can become part of the liquid film on the wall and in other instances there may be splashing and breakup of the droplets. The latter results in an increased number of droplets with a larger total surface area, a change that again significantly affects the momentum, heat and mass transfer rates. For this application, it was assumed that the wall interaction behavior was governed by dimensionless Weber and Reynolds numbers [2] and a model was developed accordingly. The removal of SO2 in the droplets is governed by a reaction with limestone, which can be described by the net reaction:

Droplet temperature evolution along some of the droplet trajectories

Additionally there are several dissolution reactions, since the formation of sulphurous and carbonic acid results in an ion chemistry mechanism that depends on the pH-value and the limestone and SO2 concentrations of the droplets [3]. This was implemented by means of an externally evaluated lookup table that was coupled with the discrete phase using FLUENTs particle scalar UDF, which allows additional droplet properties to be defined. Once the total sulphur content in a droplet has been evaluated, the new concentration of each ion is obtained from the table and stored in the respective DPM scalar. With this information the calculation of the SO2 partial pressure at the droplet-gas interface and the respective sink terms is possible to ensure SO2 mass conservation in both phases of the domain. The results obtained from the simulation are in very good agreement with real-life scrubbers. Austrian Energy & Environment AG now includes FLUENT with these special models in their scrubber design workflow. The polyhedral cell technology has proved to be a significant improvement in terms of meshing flexibility and simulation time, enabling engineers to perform a complete scrubber simulation within a few days. The reliability of the results has meant that they need to rely less on field tests as well.

References:
1 Aguayo, P. and Weiss, C.: Enthalpy Two Way Coupling for Near Vapor Saturated Polydispersed Spray Flows. 5th International Conference on Multiphase Flow, Yokohama, May 30 - June 4, 2004. Mundo, C. and Tropea, C.: Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Spray Characteristics in the Vicinity of a Rigid Wall. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 15:228-237, 1997. Weiss, C., Maier, H. and Brnthaler, K.: Modelling of the Mass Transfer Processes in the Chemisorption of Flue-Gas Components by Sprays. Proceedings of the ILASSEurope 2001; Zrich, 2-6 September 2001.

Droplet splashing and breakup at the walls; the droplet trajectories are colored by particle diameter, so the red trajectories occur before splashing and breakup occur

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FURNACES

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Ultra-low NOx Burners

By Robert J. Gartside and Peter R. Ponzi, ABB Lummus Global, Bloomfield, New Jersey, USA, and David G. Schowalter, Fluent Inc.

convection section

Get

wall burners cracking coils

hearth burners The geometry of the ethylene cracking furnace

NGINEERS AND MANAGERS involved in chemical and hydrocarbon processing are keenly aware of equipment efficiency and plant productivity, and the ongoing need for improvement in these areas. In ethylene production furnaces, light hydrocarbons are cracked in tubes that are suspended in a combustion chamber. The tubes have very short residence times. The critical parameters in the operation of this furnace are the transfer of the heat of cracking to the tube side hydrocarbons, control of the tube metal temperatures for prolonged run length, and the reduction of pollutants such as NOx to meet regulatory statutes. In the radiant section of a typical furnace, combustion heat is provided by burning fuel in hearth burners (located on the floor of the furnace and firing vertically) and in wall burners (positioned along the wall and firing radially along the wall).

Temperature contours in the original burner configuration (left) and the first ultra-low NOx design (right)

The John Zink Company has developed an ultra-low NOx burner (20 to 30 vppm) in which a portion of the fuel is premixed with all of the air in both the hearth and wall burners. The remaining fuel needed to achieve the firing rate is introduced in a staged manner to control the temperature of the combustion gases and thereby minimize the production of NOx. This is done through staged ports located in front of the hearth tile at the furnace floor. When the introduction of this burner technology was considered for a clients ethylene production furnace, it was suspected that, when compared to the original conventional burners that generally produce straight vertical flames attached to the furnace wall, these lean premixed burners might produce shorter flames that could roll over at the bottom of the firebox and impinge on the tubes. The negative impact of rollover would be the creation of hot spots on the process tubes and subsequent increase in coking within the tubes and shortening of tube life. To investigate this possibility, a realistic CFD study was conducted to compare the performance of the low NOx and original burners. The detailed CFD models one for each type of burner included locally refined meshes around the burner inlet ports and process tubes. Combustion was simulated on the firebox side to provide the heat generation. A reacting model for the hydrocarbon cracking that occurs inside the tubes was also included, as were the effects of turbulence and radiation. Overall, there was sufficient detail to accurately reflect the heat absorption and thus provide realistic tube heat fluxes and coil metal temperatures. The models contained between two and five

Temperatures on three cross-sectional planes in the original burner configuration (left) and the improved ultra-low NOx design (right)

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MULTIPHASE

Controlling Droplet Size Distribution in Cracking Emulsions

By L. Srinivasa Mohan, Fluent India, and Ahmad Haidari and Aniruddha Mukopadhyay, Fluent Inc.

million computational cells depending on the type of burner modeled, and they required up to a weeks worth of CPU time on a high speed computer cluster. The initial simulations compared the heater with the original burners to the heater with the new burners where the new burners were simply located at the same position as the original burners. The results of this study indicated that, while the original burner design provided straight flames, the new low NOx configuration resulted in flames that impinged on the tube surfaces. Based on these results, an optimization study using CFD was done to develop design modifications that would allow the ultra-low NOx burner to perform acceptably in the heater. These modifications included redirecting the angle of the fuel that was being injected through the ports in front of the new burners and relocating the burners on the furnace floor to provide lateral spacing into which the combusting gas could expand, thereby reducing the tendency for the flames to roll into the tubes. The modifications served to straighten the flames, making them more in line with those of the original burners. While the new design produces more diffuse flames than the original burner design, it is much improved from the first ultra-low NOx design. The new burner configuration, optimized by CFD, has been installed in the clients furnace. Flame quality and run length have been excellent and low NOx operation has been experienced. The start-up was smooth and downtime was minimal.

volume of droplet (m3)

Emulsions are an important class of materials produced and handled by the chemical, food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. They consist of two immiscible liquids, one dispersed in the other. The properties of an emulsion are based on the droplet size distribution (DSD) of the dispersed phase. Because they are often thermodynamically metastable, there is a persistent threat that the texture of the emulsion will be altered during the course of preparation or packaging, or during the subsequent shelf life. Many processes over widely varying length scales could cause the DSD to change, and it is important that they be well understood so that the emulsion quality can be maintained. For an ongoing project at Fluent, several aspects of droplet behavior have been studied using the volume of fluid (VOF) model. Some of the results have been compared to experiments that were carried out on microfluidic devices, where a precise droplet size distribution could be generated. For example, the generation of droplets at a T-junction using two streams of immiscible liquids has been simulated. Droplets of uniform size were rapidly and reproducibly produced at the junction as a result of the surface tension and the shearing motion of the fluid in the main channel, in agreement with measurements. In another study, the geometrically mediated breakup of droplets in a microfluidic device [2] was simulated. By changing the length of the arms of the T-junctions, the droplet can be split into daughter droplets of unequal size. By using a network of asymmetric T-junctions, emulsions of a given DSD can be produced. Both 2D and 3D simulations matched the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the experiments, such as the size of the daughter droplets for a given T-junction and the critical parameters required for droplet breakup as a function of capillary number.

continuous phase flow

dispersed phase flow

Schematic of the experimental setup [1]

1.2E-7 1E-07 8E-08 6E-08 4E-08 2E-08 0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 time (s) 0.5 0.6 0.7

Volume of droplets produced at the T as a function of time

Acknowledgement:
The authors wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the John Zink Company in the low NOx burner modification CFD studies.

References
1 2 Nisisako, T., Torri, T. and Higuchi, T.: Lab Chip. Vol 2, no 1. pp 24-26, 2002. Link, D.R., Anna, S.L., Weitz, D.A. and Stone, H.A.: Phy. Rev. Lett. Vol. 92, pp 1178-1180, 2004.

Droplet breakup at a symmetric (left) and an asymmetric (right) T-junction

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MULTIPHASE

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Understanding Fluid-Bed D Coating

Rod Ray, Lisa Graham, Rick Falk, Josh Shockey, and Leah Appel, Bend Research Inc., Bend, Oregon, USA, and Kumar Dhanasekharan, Fluent Inc. and L. Srinivasa Mohan, Fluent India

URING THE PAST DECADE, the use of fluidized bed systems for coating has developed to a point where this equipment is now used for applications in industries ranging from chemical to pharmaceutical to agriculture. The appeal of fluidized beds for coating is due to the high energy and mass transfer rates that are available in such a system. There are three types of fluidized beds that are typically used for this purpose: top-spray, tangential-spray, and bottom-spray. In a recent joint project involving engineers at Bend Research and Fluent, a fluidized bed with a bottom-spray of the Wurster type was studied. Fluid bed coaters are used to obtain controlled release or delayed release particles in pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. For these types of coatings, it is important to have control of both coating quality and coating uniformity. Typically, this process is run in batch mode with particles circulating through the coating zone multiple times in order to achieve the desired coating level. In this process, the particles are entrained in a high velocity gas, they pass through the Wurster column where coating is applied via a two-fluid atomizer, they then dry in the expansion chamber and fall back down to the bed to repeat the process. FLUENT has been used to help understand the process, design process conditions that yield products within an acceptable variation, and understand the effect of various parameters on product variability and quality.

Wurster gap coating solution fluidization air atomization air Schematic illustration of a process stream in a bottom-spray Wurster fluidized bed coater

Accounting for the presence of a secondary phase within CFD software is well established. Some of the more recent advances enable simulations of flows with very high solid loading, such as hoppers and chutes; flows with large particles, such as particle milling machines; gas-solid flows with particle size variation, such as polymerization reactors; and flows where the effects of particle shapes and particle mechanics are important. For the Wurster bed simulation, the Eulerian granular model in FLUENT was used. The results have led to a better understanding of the uniformity of coating, spray patterns, and fluidization behavior. Parameters that control the process efficiency and coating uniformity were studied. These included the equipment geometry, air flow rate, and other spray-related characteristics. Of particular importance for the equipment geometry is the Wurster gap, a small passage at the base of the unit between the inner and outer (annular) columns. During operation, the particles in the bed are fluidized and coated primarily in the inner column, where the fluidization velocity is highest. As a result, a steady fountain of solid particles is produced, and after reaching the upper region of the device, these particles stream down the walls of the outer section prior to being entrained through the gap and re-entering the primary fluidization region. The results indicated that there is a steady solids flux through the larger gap, but in the case of the smaller gap, the flow of solids through the gap is choked periodically and the bed does not maintain a steady fountain. This creates a non-uniform solids flux in the spray region, which could lead to problems with coating uniformity.

Contours of particle volume fraction for two different Wurster gap designs: wide (left) and narrow (right), for a similar air flow rate

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Fluent News Spring 2006

PUMPS

UCHENHAGEN has been producing process components for the brewery, beverage, dairy and food industries for more than seventy years. In addition, the valves, pumps, and cleaning devices they produce are also used in the cosmetics, healthcare, pharmacy, and fine chemicals segments, where hygiene and sterility play a major role. The company, which has been a member of the GEA group since 1999, introduced the first twin seat valve with a mixproof technology in 1967. Customers expectations about the quality of process technology used have been increasing ever since. Many products must meet the stringent requirements outlined in the European Hygienic Equipment Design Group (EHEDG) and 3A sanitary standards. All devices must be capable of cleaning and flushing and must be free from dead space (clearance volume). In the past, designers made predictions about the cleaning, purification, and purging capabilities of the new components only after expensive technological trials. Today, CFD is capable of mapping these prototypes, allowing designers to examine every corner of the valve, pump, or cleaning device. FLUENT is now used to accelerate process safety and the durability of Tuchenhagens components. The software makes flow patterns visible and tracks even the smallest of problem areas in the course of computations. As a result, the development costs associated with the recent generation of pumps have decreased by seven percent compared to the conventional development process. The time required to reach the mass production phase has been reduced by six to eight weeks for each new design. For many years, engineers at Tuchenhagen could design and build a new pump based solely on their years of experience. With CFD, the company now has at its disposal a fast and costeffective method to support this experience with numerical data. Using this principle, Tuchenhagen developed three new pumps last year. Their approach is to carry out a computation, then built the prototype and make measurements. To improve upon this process, they have defined special configuration attributes in the CFD software. In two cases, the pumps were modeled using CFD, then tested at the operating point, and quickly put into mass production. A typical pump simulation makes use of a hybrid mesh of about 1 million cells. The steady-state MRF model is used to simulate the rotation of the moving parts. The standard k- model with enhanced wall treatment is used for turbulence. The numerical simulations have reduced the time required to go from the first prototype to the actual mass-produced product. Additionally, material costs for high-grade steel during the prototyping phase do not need to be considered. Typically, making the first sample takes up to two weeks, and measurements take up another two to four weeks depending on the components. This is partly due to the fact that the cleanability of the products, which is so important to Tuchenhagen, must be repeatedly demonstrated in product trials. While it is not possible to entirely eliminate test runs, the company can now examine predictions of the wall shear stress, which is the deciding quantity for cleanability, since it is related to the ability of the fluid to dislodge dirt particles.

Pathlines through one of Tuchenhagens pump designs

Pumping out New Designs More Quickly

By Matthias Sdel, Tuchenhagen GmbH, Bchen, Germany

Velocity magnitude on different planes of a VARIVENT valve Type R

A VARIVENT mixproof valve Type R

Fluent News Spring 2006

S15

PROCESS INDUSTRIES

EXTRUSION

PROCESS INDUSTRIES

Polymer Processing
Simulation for Foam Extrusion
By Hirohisa Shiode and Takeharu Isaki, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., Material Science Laboratory, Chiba, Japan

ITSUI CHEMICALS and Mitsui Chemicals Group produce a wide variety of chemical products from catalysts to polymers and fabricated products like films and fibers. The Computational Science Department at the Material Science Laboratory investigates simulation technologies and applications to research and development in the areas of chemistry, engineering, polymeric material design and polymer processing. Since 1993, POLYFLOW has been used for polymer processing applications involving various rheology models, boundary conditions, and free surface flows, such as extrusions through complex and multi-layered dies and profile extrusions. One area of interest is foam extrusion, which includes gas dissolution into the polymer melt, viscosity reduction, nucleation with pressure drop, and bubble growth. The foam properties are closely related to cell structures, which are determined by the process conditions. A simulation method for gas-dissolved polymer flow has been developed for predicting these cell structures and the optimal die design. It makes use of a viscosity model, which is based on free volume theory [1,2] and which takes into account the temperature, pressure, and gas concentration in the melt. The model is implemented in POLYFLOW by means of userdefined functions (UDFs), and is used for 3D simulations of the flow through the die. To account for the shear-thinning behavior of the material, the Cross-Carreau model is adopted. As an example, the customized model has been applied to the flow through a coat hanger style die. The results indicate that the pressure drop through the die decreases with increasing gas concentration as a result of the associated drop in viscosity. This result is consistent with experimental observations. Further work is now being conducted to couple the flow simulations with nucleation and cell growth.

The pressure distribution in a coat hanger die with a gas concentration of 1%

35 30 pressure drop (MPa) 25 20 15 10 5 0 0.0

The geometry of a coat hanger die

0% gas 1% gas 2% gas 3% gas

The pressure drop through a coat hanger die along the centerline for gas concentrations ranging from 0 to 3%

0.2 0.4 0.6 dimensionsless length

0.8

1.0

References
1 2 Shiode, H. and Isaki, T.: Polymer-Supercritical Fluid Systems and Foams. Dec., Tokyo P-22 188, 2003. Willams, M.L., Landel, R.F. and Ferry, J.D.: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 77, 3701, 1955.

S16

Fluent News Spring 2006

AEROSPACE

The impact of a rear-mounted nacelle on the top surface of a wing is illustrated by static pressure contours

Nacelle Impact
on Aircraft Wing & Fuselage
By Zhu Jie, AVIC 1 (Aviation Industries of China) Commercial Aircraft Company, Shanghai, China

HE GENERAL CONFIGURATION and aerodynamic design integration of the nacelle on a commercial aircraft have an important influence on economy, safety, comfort, and performance. It is a complex yet important task to study the aerodynamic interference between the wing/body and engine nacelle and develop techniques for integrating these components during the design phase. These considerations have played a role in the development of the advanced regional jet ARJ21 from Chinas AVIC 1 Commercial Aircraft Company (ACAC). At ACAC, FLUENT was introduced during the pre-development phase, and it continues to play a major role in design, engine selection, and to save time spent on wind tunnel tests. Before applying the turbulent Navier-Stokes

equations to the complete aircraft, validations were performed on a simplified geometry. Using a 3D wing-body model, predictions of pressure and lift coefficient were compared to experimental data, and very good agreement was obtained. These results gave the engineers confidence in CFD, and its use has expanded to include many components and aspects of the full-scale aircraft. As an example, the flow above the joint that is formed between the wing and body of an aircraft has been examined. The flow in this region can separate, and if it is possible to reduce or eliminate the size of the separation region by design modifications, the flight performance of the plane can be improved. Engineers at ACAC have used FLUENT to study this phenomenon and improve the flow characteristics. Friction Drag 0.00412 0.00397 Total Drag 0.01959 0.01764

Pressure (Form) Drag Clean wing Wing with a rear-mounted nacelle 0.01547 0.01367

As another example, a rear-mounted nacelle configuration has been studied, in which the aircrafts engines are installed behind the wings. In this configuration, the position of the nacelle or the design of the wing can cause the wake of the wing to be entrained by the engine, compromising its performance. Using FLUENT, the pressure distribution on the wing for several different rear-mounted nacelle positions has been computed for a flight Mach number of 0.78 at an altitude of 35,000 feet. The results showed that the lift coefficient of the wing with this configuration is lower than that of a clean wing (without the interference of the nacelle). The drag coefficient is also lower, however, so that the lift/drag ratio is increased. Furthermore, the interference caused by rear-mounted nacelles makes the nose-down pitching moment decrease and it can reduce the trim drag produced by the elevators. The overall analysis of drag indicates that the existence of a rear-mounted nacelle will have little influence on friction drag, but can have the advantage of reducing the pressure drag.

The influence of a rear-mounted engine nacelle on components of drag for a case with a wing lift coefficient of 0.46

-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.2 0.4 x 0.6 0.8 1.0 experiment FLUENT Z = 0.75 Z = 0.37

Static pressure on the surface of the ARJ21

A comparison of the pressure coefficient computed by FLUENT and measured in the wind tunnel for two wing span locations for the simplified wing-body geometry

CP

Flow separation near the wing-body joint (lower left) was improved by using CFD to alter the design (lower right) Fluent News Spring 2006

19

AEROSPACE

Compressors Benefit from the

By R azvan Mahu and Cristina Oprea, TENSOR, Bucharest, Romania
100 total pressure ratio 80 percent span 60 40 experiment 20 0 FLUENT 1.24 1.28 1.32 1.90 2.10 2.30 2.2

NASA Rotor 37
T
experiment FLUENT 2.1

HE NASA ROTOR 37 is among the most popular rotors that have been manufactured to date. It was designed and tested in the early 1980s by Reid and Moore at NASA Glenn Research Center [1]. It consists of 36 blades with multiple arc profiles, and was designed for compressors and turbines with a compression ratio of 2.05 at a mass flow rate of 20.19 kg/s.

2.0

1.9 19.0

19.5 20.0 20.5 mass flow (kg/sec)

21.0

The total temperature ratio (left) and total pressure ratio (right) along the wing span, ranging from the blade root (0%) to the blade tip (100%), approximately 10cm from the leading edge at 98.7% of the maximum (experimentally measured) flow rate (20.93kg/s)

The predicted compression ratio is within 1% of the experimental values throughout the range of mass flow rates studied

Steady-state numerical simulations of the NASA Rotor 37 have been performed using FLUENT for one operating curve. Using a constant rotational speed (17,188 rpm), the simulations covered a range that extends from the maximum flow rate to the pumping regime. A fully structured mesh of 420,000 cells was built using GTurbo, Fluents turbomachinery preprocessor. During the preliminary runs, the shock wave accuracy was found to strongly depend on the mesh resolution around the blade. Consequently, most of the cells were concentrated near and between the blades. A comparison of turbulence models was also conducted early on, and the most suitable one for this case was found to be the realizable k- model. Since the mean y+ value was around 33, non-equilibrium wall functions were used. An axial flow direction was set at the inlet, and rotationally periodic lateral boundaries were used. An inlet temperature of 288.16K was assumed, and the exit pressure was altered for each of seven points on the operating curve that were simulated. Using data from published experimental results [2] a comparison of the radial variation of the pitch-averaged total pressure ratio was made, 10.19 cm from the blade leading edge. The results indicate that the total pressure is lower at the blade tip (100% span) resulting in losses due to the tip gap. A comparison of the total temperature ratio along the blade span, measured at the same location, shows an increase in the total temperature at the blade tip due to the friction between the fluid and the shroud, and to the detaching of the boundary layer. In both cases, the FLUENT results were in very good agreement with the data. Predictions of the efficiency of the compression process along the operating curve were found to be good at low flow rates, but to deviate from the data at large flow rates. The total temperature ratio along the operating curve was found to be in good agreement throughout the range, even though the computed values were higher. A comparison of the compression ratio as a function of the flow rate was found to be within 1% throughout the range studied. Contours of Mach number on a plane through the blades illustrate some of the characteristics of flow in transonic compressors. The detached bow shock wave at the leading edge of each blade generates a normal shock wave in the flow channel that is the main compression mechanism for this type of compressor. There is a low momentum fluid region behind the shock wave, which is the second main source of total pressure loss and compression efficiency.

Contours of Mach number at 70% of the blade height at 98.7% of the maximum experimental flow rate

References
1 Reid, L. and Moore, D.: Performance of Single-Stage, Axial-Flow Transonic Compressor With Rotor and Stator Aspect Ratios of 1.19 and 1.26 Respectively, and with Design Pressure Ratio of 2.05. Tech Rep. TP-1338, NASA. NASA/TM-2003-212457 Report, http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov

Pathlines colored by relative Mach number at 98.7% of the maximum experimental flow rate

20

Fluent News Spring 2006

FOOD

Image-based
I

Meshing:

Easy as Pie

By Emma Johnson, Roderick Ross and Philippe Young, Simpleware Ltd., Exeter, UK; Gavin Tabor, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

MAGED-BASED MESHING is opening up exciting new possibilities for the application of computational continuum mechanics (numerical methods such as CFD and finite element analysis (FEA)) to problems in biomechanics, biofluid dynamics and materials characterization. Software solutions that can rapidly generate robust, high quality meshes from complex 3D image data, as can be obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) or ultrasound for example, are increasingly in demand. Such software improves productivity, leads to significantly more accurate results and enables engineers to focus on the analysis and generation of results rather than on the geometry definition and mesh creation. The University of Exeter and Simpleware Ltd. have collaborated to illustrate the potential of new meshing techniques by generating a CFD model of a hot mince pie, cooling in a light breeze. The transient study uses Simpleware software to create a mesh from medical scan data and FLUENT to analyze the coupled heat transfer and fluid flow of the system. The example illustrates a number of more general points pertaining to multi-physics simulations on complex image-based domains. First, the method allows watertight surface meshes and fully volumetric meshes of complex structures to be generated. Second, the accuracy of the geometric reconstruction is only dependent on the image quality, which is a function of the scan resolution, noise, and contrast between the volumes of interest. In fact, because structures are defined by iso-surfaces that are interpolated across boundaries, the geometric reconstruction can be of sub-voxel accuracy. (A voxel is a volume pixel, or smallest volume for which image data can be stored.) Third, the method allows multiple structures to be identified and meshed, with perfectly conforming/non-overlapping boundaries, and with the option of defining contact surfaces between them. Finally material properties within a given structure can be assigned based on signal strength. In the pie example, thermal properties could be varied throughout the mesh of the crust based on fat content, for example, and the different regions could then be modeled as separate solid zones. A 60g mince pie was scanned using MRI. Four segmentation masks, representing the crust, filling, raisins, and air, were generated using Simplewares ScanIP segmentation software. A volumetric mesh was then generated in the +ScanFE mesh generation module and exported directly to FLUENT. The time required to go from the import of the 3D data through to the creation of the multi-part input mesh for FLUENT was less than 10 minutes on a PC. In FLUENT the physical properties were assigned and the filler temperature was set to 450K. A rectangular space was created around the pie with boundaries 30cm downstream and 4cm on either side of the pie. Upstream of the pie, an inlet condition was set with a velocity of 2m/s and temperature of 300K, akin to a short term cooling of the pie in a breeze. These boundary conditions were used for a transient calculation during which the filler was allowed to cool naturally for a time of 300s (5 minutes). The results show features such as the temperature gradients inside the pie and the recirculation zone downstream of the pie and inlet.

The segmentation of structures (crust, filling, raisins and air) in ScanIP software

Temperature contours and surfaces inside the pie, and velocity vectors showing the cooling breeze at the start of the calculation (top) and after several minutes (bottom)

More.info@
www.simpleware.com

Fluent News Spring 2006

21

FOOD

Looking Inside Dough Mixers

By Robin Connelly, Departments of Food Science and Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and Jozef Kokini, Department of Food Science, Center for Advanced Food Technology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

View of the C.W. Brabender, Inc. Farinograph twin sigma blade mixer

HEAT FLOUR DOUGH is a rheologically complex viscoelastic material, whose unique timedependent properties are governed by the rate, amount, and type of deformation applied. The structure and morphology of dough also depend on the available moisture and the extent to which the dough is mixed. As a result, dough is a very dynamic and unstable material, and dough mixers have evolved into highly complex geometries that shear, stretch, and fold. In addition, they often have close wall clearances to ensure that there are no regions of ineffective mixing. Changing between mixer types, especially between batch and continuous mixers, is difficult because of the very different flow, shear, extension, and mixing profiles that characterize each one. In industry, determining mixing times and designing mixer configurations is largely done on a trial and error basis. A more predictive approach is to calculate measures of mixing effectiveness through the use of mathematical modeling and numerical simulation. An ongoing project at the Center for Advanced Food Technology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service*, is using POLYFLOW to study the flow and mixing in typical dough mixer geometries with fluid models that range from simple Newtonian to non-linear viscoelastic [1,2]. The work featured here involves the numerical simulation of the flow and mixing in a fully filled Farinograph mixer using the mesh superposition technique and particle tracking with a Newtonian fluid model based on a high viscosity corn syrup [3]. Future work with this geometry will focus on extending the simulations to non-Newtonian fluid models. The Farinograph is a low shear rate batch mixer with two non-intermeshing, asymmetrical sigma blades, where the fast (right) blade turns at 93 rpm counterclockwise and the slow (left) blade turns at 62

rpm clockwise. CAD STEP representations of the blade geometries were provided by C.W. Brabender Instruments, Inc., South Hackensack, New Jersey, producer of the Farinograph Mixer. Because the blades turn at different speeds, two revolutions of the slow blade and three revolutions of the fast blade are required before there is repetition of the relative blade positions. The left (slow) blade mesh of 6232 tetrahedral elements and the right (fast) blade mesh of 6166 elements are superimposed on the bowl (41860 hexahedral elements) every 0.027 seconds, giving a total of 72 positions per blade cycle with 10 between positions for the slow blade and 15 between positions for the fast blade. The time marching flow simulation results are then used to generate particle tracking data for 10,000 massless material points initially randomly distributed throughout the flow domain, or a set of 1000 massless material points initially randomly distributed in a 1 cm3 box. As these abstract points are tracked throughout the flow domain, the associated local flow characteristics are recorded, thus providing a spatial and temporal history of phenomena such as stretching and deformation. Random distribution is a requirement of the statistical mixing measures that are used to evaluate the particle tracking results. The simulation results show that the differential in the speed of the two blades in the Farinograph causes an exchange of material between the blades to occur. The primary circulation pattern consists of material moving from the slow blade up toward the top of the mixer and over toward the fast blade, while the fast blade pushes material towards the slow blade near the bottom of the mixer. A slower mixing pattern is also observed where material around the blades moves from the center towards the walls and then up towards the top and back down in the center of the mixer. The zone in the

Mixing Index for Newtonian corn syrup for two mixer positions, where a value of 0 (blue) indicates pure rotation, 0.5 indicates simple shear, and 1 (red) indicates pure elongation

22

Fluent News Spring 2006

FOOD

center of the mixer between the two blades is shown to have excellent distributive and dispersive mixing ability with high shear rates and mixing index values [4]. The mixing index is a measure of the type of flow, with values that range from 0 for pure rotational flow to 0.5 for shear flow to 1 for pure elongational flow. A high value of the mixing index combined with a high shear stress and shear rate indicate an area in the mixer with potentially good dispersive mixing capability. That region also has fast distribution throughout both sides of the lower section of the mixer as shown by material point clusters that travel through it. In contrast, very slow mixing is seen in the area away from the region swept by the blades that is generally not filled during normal use of this mixer. The mean of the normalized length of stretch [5] calculated for material points in the Newtonian fluid case increased exponentially over time, indicating effective mixing for the majority of material points. In the area swept by the blades, the material points with the highest values of the length of stretch are generally located near the blade edges or in the area swept by the blade edges. However, material points with high length of stretch values are also found outside these zones in a more random distribution. The instantaneous efficiency, which can be thought of as the fraction of energy dissipated locally that is used to stretch a fluid element at a given instant in a purely viscous fluid [5], gives a picture of the most and least effective blade positions for applying energy to stretch rather than displace material points. The least effective blade positions are when the flattened central sections of both blades are horizontal, while the most effective mixing occurs when the flattened section of the fast blade is vertical. The mean time-averaged-efficiency [5] stays above zero while its standard deviation reduces over time, indicating that the majority of the points are continuously experiencing stretching at equivalent levels over time.

The overall result of this project has been to demonstrate the effectiveness of numerical simulation as a means to non-intrusively study the flow and mixing in a given mixer of materials with different rheological properties. The results also have established a basis of comparison between mixers with very different geometries. The simulations are providing guidance for the design of experiments that will be used to validate the findings of the simulations. Once the simulations are validated, they will be able to provide a much higher level of detail than the experimental results. The insight gained by this research has already stimulated the development of ideas by those involved on how the flow and mixing in a mixer affects the development of material structure, leading to profitable new lines of research.

References:
1 Connelly, R.K. and Kokini, J.L.: Analysis of Mixing in a Model Mixer using 2-D Numerical Simulation of Differential Viscoelastic Fluids with Particle Tracking. J. Non-Newt. Fluid Mech., 123:1-17, 2004. Connelly, R.K. and Kokini, J.L.: 2-D Numerical Simulation of Differential Viscoelastic Fluids in a SingleScrew Continuous Mixer: Application of Viscoelastic FEM Methods. Adv. Poly. Tech., 22(1):22-41, 2003. Connelly, R.K. and Kokini, J.L.: Mixing Simulation of a Viscous Newtonian Liquid in a Twin Sigma Blade Mixer. AIChE J., In Review, 2006. Yang, H.-H., Wong, T.H. and Manas-Zloczower, I.: Flow Field Analysis of a Banbury Mixer. In: Mixing and Compounding of Polymers: Theory and Practice, Ch. 7, pp. 187-223, Manas-Zloczower, I. and Tadmor, Z. Editors, Carl Hanser Verlag, New York, 1994. Ottino, J.M.: The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos and Transport. Cambridge University Press, 1989. Connelly, R.K. and Kokini, J.L.: 3D Numerical Simulation of the Flow of Viscous Newtonian and Shear Thinning Fluids in a Twin Sigma Blade Mixer. Adv. Poly. Tech., In Review, 2006. Grant numbers 2001-35503-10127 & 2003-3550313907.

Newtonian corn syrup fluid velocity vectors for blade positions of 180 and 270 on the z=0 (top), x=0 (middle), and y=4.225 cm (bottom) planes; the vectors are all the same length and colored by the velocity magnitude

Initial (left) and final (right) positions after 3 blade cycles (6 revolutions of the slow blade and 9 revolutions of the fast blade) of 1,000 material points in the Newtonian corn syrup, colored according to the length of stretch [6]

For the Newtonian corn syrup, 3D positions of 10,000 initially randomly distributed material points (top) and after three cycles (bottom) with concentrations of 1 (red) and 0 (blue) [6] Fluent News Spring 2006

23

HEALTHCARE

CFD Assists Neonatal

By Maciej K. Ginalski and Andrzej J. Nowak, Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland

Pathlines, colored by temperature, illustrated the circulation inside the left side of the incubator
/ Postprocessing courtesy of Michal Nowak

REMATURE INFANTS generally enter the world with little protection from the harsh environment. Thermal comfort thus plays a crucial role in their survival and health. To provide the optimal environmental conditions for these infants, incubators are widely used. However, due to the complexity of the physical processes occurring within modern neonatal units during treatment procedures, comprehensive analysis involving the thermal comfort of premature infants can be difficult. The application of analytical calculations is currently not practical, and therefore numerical modeling is required. At the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland, a CFD model of conjugate fluid flow and heat transfer in an infant incubator has been developed to support infant healthcare and improve medical equipment design. Accurate geometrical models representing the human body in a variety of postures are now easily created with high accuracy. Fluid flow analysis can be performed by taking into account mechanisms of heat transfer, such as radiation, convection, conduction, and even the evaporation of sweat and moisture from human skin. Since all infants, and particularly premature infants, are different from each other, the complex shape of the human body was generated using the CATIA package and described by a number of scaleable parameters. By changing the value of those parameters, a geometrical model can easily be adjusted to the individual

24

Fluent News Spring 2006

HEALTHCARE

Intensive Care
features of each analyzed patient or to his nursing position. The researchers used TGrid 4.0 to wrap the surface model of the infants body and to create the surface mesh to be exported to GAMBIT. In parallel, they created the geometry of the incubator using the CATIA package and combined the baby and incubator geometries using GAMBIT. Once a fine tetrahedral volume mesh was created, numerical calculations were performed in FLUENT. The research team enhanced the FLUENT model using several user-defined functions (UDFs) to control the processes of heat transfer together with internal heat generation inside the infants body, evaporation of moisture from the infants skin, and respiration. This last component of heat balance can be modeled as a steady-state or transient process. To make the calculation process fully automatic, managing software called MARCEL was developed to assist the team at all essential stages of the numerical simulation. MARCEL reads the provided data, manages the process of geometry and mesh creation, and sets the appropriate boundary and initial conditions. After receiving the results from the CFD solver, MARCEL then provides a basic report about the heat balance of the infant being analyzed. It is anticipated that a modified version of the program could be used by medical staff to perform heat balance calculations without possessing any knowledge of how to build and run CFD models. Validation of the code has been performed with comparison of the results to a series of clinical tests described in the medical literature. In all cases numerical models were created to represent analyzed infants and environmental conditions measured in the described tests. Results from the numerical simulations were compared with those obtained from the literature and proved to be very accurate. Researchers also performed a series of air temperature and velocity measurements inside an empty prototype of a new design. These measurements were fairly consistent with the results obtained from the numerical simulations. Based on this conclusion, modification of the ventilation system has been proposed and verified numerically. The incubator modeling project is still in the phase of testing and validation. However, even at the present stage, it is providing crucial information and is becoming an important tool in the treatment of premature babies at neonatal intensive care units.

Contours of velocity magnitude on two planes through the incubator; red regions correspond to the flow inlets at the ends and outlets at the sides

Temperature contours show a uniform field in the region surrounding the infant

Suggested Reading:
Ginalski, M., Nowak, A.J. and Wrobel, L.C.: Computational Model of Selected Transport Processes of the Premature Newborn Baby within an Infant Incubator. XXI International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Conference proceedings, Warsaw, Poland, August 2004. Ginalski, M., Nowak, A.J. and Wrobel, L.C.: Combined Heat and Fluid Flow in a Double Wall Infant Incubator. International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, Conference proceedings, Loutraki, Greece, October 2005. Ginalski, M., Nowak, A.J. and Brandt, J.: Numerical Optimization of the Infant Incubator Ventilating System. Conference Proceedings, XIX National Congress of Thermodynamics, Sopot, Poland, September 2005.

Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Nicolae Mera from the Center for Computational Fluid Dynamics at Leeds University, UK; Professor L.C. Wrobel from Brunel University, UK; Keith Hanna from Fluent Europe; and Michal/ Nowak for their contribution and help in the project.

Velocity vectors without (left) and with (right) an overhead plastic screen; the screen was found to help reduce radiative heat loss from the child

Fluent News Spring 2006

25

ENVIRONMENTAL

Activated Sludge Basins

Get on Track
By Gregory Cartland Glover, Karim Essemiani and Jens Meinhold, Veolia Environment R&D Center, Maisons Laffitte, France, and Stephanie Vermande, Technical Division of Veolia Water, St. Maurice, France

CTIVATED SLUDGE BASINS (ASBs) are a key step in the treatment of municipal wastewater. ASBs are used to degrade biochemically reactive pollutants from water that is discharged into the natural environment. The bacteria found in the sludge consume and assimilate nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous under several environmental conditions. The design of ASBs is difficult, however, due to factors including:

Hydrodynamic phenomena in the ps-ASB, showing gas fraction iso-surfaces (top) and pathlines of liquid velocity (bottom)

the treatment aims (pollutants to be degraded) the influent wastewater composition (time and location dependent) the application of liquid agitation and aeration (brushes, disks, membrane aerators, impellers, turbines and venturi tube mixers) the location and spatial requirements (local weather, above or below ground, sparsely or densely populated regions) the daily treatment loading (from a few hundred liters to thousands of cubic meters)

A study that was co-funded by Anjou Recherche, the R&D arm of Veolia Water, and the European Union was recently performed to develop a computational strategy for modeling ASBs. The primary focus of the study was to examine the effect of the local hydrodynamics on the biochemical reactions observed in ASBs for both pilot and real scale processes. The results provided an improved understanding of the hydrodynamic impact on the environmental conditions experienced by the bacteria. A pilot-scale ASB (ps-ASB) was used to establish a database of hydrodynamic data (circulation velocity and mean bubble sizes) and interphase mass transfer data under different operating conditions. The ps-ASB was then used to study the impact of the normal and abnormal operating conditions on the biochemical reaction phenomena by monitoring the change in concentration of key wastewater constituents, such as ammonia, organic carbon, nitrates, organic nitrogen, and particulate matter. The ps-ASB applied different environmental conditions in a programmed sequence. The different conditions were affected by contacting the mixed liquor, a mixture of wastewater and activated sludge, with air in the form of fine bubbles, and applying a circulation velocity with a marine-type impeller. This condition enabled the aerobic oxidation of both organic carbon and nitrogen (in the form of ammonia) to carbon dioxide and nitrate, respectively. A second condition only agitated the biomass in the mixed liquor to reduce the overall nitrogen content of the wastewater. Under these conditions a different type of biomass (anoxic bacteria) consumes the nitrate producing nitrogen, which then evolves as a gas. The operational data was used to create a

25 Feed concentration (mg/l) 20 Aerobic Reaction

15

experiment FLUENT ASM1 WEST ASM1 Ammonia Oxygen Nitrate

Anoxic Reaction

10

30

60

90

120 150 time (min)

180

210

240

270

Profile plots of the reaction phenomena in the ps-ASB

Each one of these factors influences the size, form, and mode of operation (continuous or sequenced batch treatment) that is used when designing an ASB. Variation in some of the factors, such as daily changes in the temperature and in the influent composition and flow rate, can impact the efficacy of the treatment process. Thus, for the design of any ASB, an appropriate selection of agitators and aerators is essential to provide optimal environmental conditions for the treatment of wastewater.

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Fluent News Spring 2006

ENVIRONMENTAL

hydrodynamic and biochemical reaction model of the ps-ASB. The first step was to model the biochemical reactions assuming perfectly mixed reactor conditions with the wastewater modeling tool WEST [1], which uses the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) protocol [2]. The mixed liquor composition and the calibrated kinetic and stoichiometric parameters derived from this global model were then applied to a converged local hydrodynamic solution constructed in FLUENT. The Eulerian multiphase model was employed with the dispersed phase form of the k- turbulence model to resolve the gas-liquid motion under steady flow conditions. The application of the ASM1 protocol to FLUENT was validated by analysis of the component profiles during the aerobic and anoxic reaction phases. The rates under the different operating conditions were accurate to within 10% of the experimentally measured reaction rates, where the accepted error was 10 to 15%. Liquid velocity pathlines and volume fraction contours of the ps-ASB were used to illustrate the hydrodynamics of the basin. The distribution of dissolved oxygen after one hour of aeration was also examined. The difference between the cold and warm iso-surfaces was found to be 0.4 mg/l over the range from 2.9 to 3.4 mg/l. At this point in the simulation, the oxygen concentration gradient does not influence which biochemical reaction processes are predominant. However, at a mean concentra-

tion of less than 0.5 mg/l different treatment regimes could be found in the reactor (informal aerobic and anoxic zones). The aeration and agitation regimes applied to the ps-ASB were considered to be perfectly mixed and at a comparatively small scale for treatment processes. Thus, the effects observed with the ps-ASB may be different from those of real scale Activated Sludge Basins (rs-ASBs) where volumes of up to 10,000m3 are widely used. At the larger scale, perfectly mixed reactor or plug flow regimes are not guaranteed, and the potential influence of the mixing regimes is far greater and more difficult to categorize. Thus, incorrect operating conditions will cause mixing regimes that would hinder the ability of the ASB to meet the treatment objectives. To test this possibility, two rs-ASBs with different geometries and hydrodynamic regimes were simulated. The basin rs1-ASB is a carrousel type ASB, whereas rs2-ASB is a race-track type ASB. The information derived from these simulations (circulation velocity and oxygen mass transfer characteristics) indicated how well each ASB could meet its objectives. The pathlines for rs1-ASB indicate that the conditions are near optimal, while pathlines in rs2-ASB showed that the process was not close to optimal conditions. The flow field in rs2-ASB was characterized by low horizontal liquid velocities and large recirculation zones and short-circuiting upstream of the bubble plumes. The liquid circulation patterns were disrupted by the bubble plumes, causing them

to degrade. In general, poor liquid circulation reduces the oxygen mass transfer rates and the dispersion of oxygen throughout the ASB. The ability of the biomass in this particular basin to aerobically treat the wastewater could therefore be limited by the operating conditions applied. Further simulations were performed to improve the aeration strategy by analyzing the effect that different aerator and agitator configurations had on these two design parameters. The simulations examined the positions of the aerators and agitators as well as the agitation rate and size of the impellers, with the single goal of improving the mass transfer characteristics of rs2-ASB. The hydrodynamics of the modified design showed improved liquid circulation with less disruption of the flow by the bubble plumes, resulting in a 250% increase of the circulation velocity. The computational strategies developed during the course of this study have enabled Veolia Water to obtain a numerical tool that can aide decisions made in selecting aeration and agitation configurations for Activated Sludge Basins, for the design of new technologies and retrofitting of existing installations.

References:
1 2 Hemmis, N.V., WEST, Hemmis N.V., Kortrijk, Belgium, 2003. Henze, M., Gujer, W., Mino, T., and van Loosdrecht, M.: Scientific and Technical Report No. 9. IWA Publishing, London, UK, 2000.

rs1-ASB

rs2-ASB

Modified rs2-ASB

Hydrodynamic phenomena in the rs-ASB, showing gas fraction iso-surfaces (top) and pathlines of liquid velocity (bottom)

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27

ACADEMIC NEWS

A Dry Passage to the Afterlife

By Essam E. Khalil and Omar A.A. AbdelAziz, Cairo University, Egypt

GYPT WAS ONCE HOME to the Pharaohs, one of the oldest and most sophisticated civilizations in the ancient world. Many Egyptian artifacts, treasures, and buildings are a priceless part of our world heritage. The Valley of the Kings at Luxor is a unique and world famous site where thousands of years ago, many Egyptian monarchs had elaborate tombs built to ensure their safe passage into the afterlife. Many of these tombs were robbed after being discovered, but others have survived and their greatest remaining treasures are the beautiful, vivid, yet fragile wall paintings and decorations that lie within. Each year, tourists flock to Egypt to see these awe-inspiring tombs, but their visits cause a major problem for curators. The heat and humidity given off by visitors in the enclosed chambers and passageways cause damage to the plasterwork and paintings. Hence, the ventilation system and resultant air flow patterns in a tomb are critical to the preservation of the exhibits so that they may be kept open to tourists for many years to come. The Egyptian government and the Supreme Council of Antiquities approached ventilation experts at Cairo University for help in solving this

problem for the archeaological tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The engineers were asked to devise a climate control system for these tombs; a pilot study was conducted on the tomb of Ramses VII. Using GAMBIT, a model of approximately one million cells was created that yielded good geometric representation of the tomb passageway with the sarcophagus in the main room and a large number of visitors. They then used custom models in FLUENT to simulate human breathing and heat generation, and considered a worst case scenario when 20 adult visitors are in the tomb at the same time. Parametric CFD simulations were performed to predict what the relative humidity, a key variable, would be like near the wall paintings for a given air extraction system design and tomb vent locations. Their modeling work was used to determine the optimized air flow pattern for the tomb. Based on their findings, the installation of raised flow exhausts that were unobtrusive to visitors was recommended. The tomb now has minimal adverse flow and humidity gradients within the chamber, thereby helping to preserve this priceless piece of history for future generations of visitors.

Predicted local humidity levels on a plane near the main wall paintings of the tomb of Ramses VII with a representative adult male tourist figure; the sarcophogus is in the foreground
Postprocessing courtesy of Maciej Ginalski

Convective
By Daniele Melideo, Davide Mazzini, Enrico

NUMBER OF BENEFITS have resulted from recent reductions in weight and improvements to the efficiency of aeronautical gearboxes. Reduced heat generation inside the gearbox means that less oil is needed to maintain a certain transmission operating temperature. In addition, reductions in surge system losses allow the lubrication system components, such as tanks, high pressure tubes, filters, and pumps to be smaller in size. In the framework of thesis work carried out in the Department of Mechanics, Nuclear and Production Engineering (DIMNP) of the University of Pisa, the convective motion of the air inside a gearbox induced by the rotation of the gear drive components has been investigated. FLUENT was used for the numerical modeling component of the project, which focused on a single gear pair. The reference equipment is located at the Research Center on

Predicted pathlines colored by moisture in the air in the tomb of Ramses VII; the flow is from left to right
Postprocessing courtesy of Maciej Ginalski

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Fluent News Spring 2006

ACADEMIC NEWS

Student Submariners Peddle Their Way to Victory

By Keith Hanna, Fluent News and Joost Sterenborg, Technical University Delft, Netherlands

ANY UNIQUE CFD applications come across the desk of Fluent News, and one that recently appeared was of a human powered submarine. Students from university engineering teams around the world have come together for an international humanpowered submarine competition for the last eight years. The teams of student engineers have to design their own submarines from the ground up using modern computer-based tools, and manufacture and test their designs for performance and safety. They also need to secure enough sponsorship funding to cover the cost of their team, including travel to the competition venue. WASUB, an intrepid team from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands approached Fluent Benelux, along with other companies

in the region, for sponsorship last year. They used Pro/ENGINEER from PTC to design their submarine in CAD, and FLUENT to hone the hull and fin shapes for optimal hydrodynamic drag characteristics. After extensive testing of the WASUB in the MARIN towing tank in Wageningen, the craft was shipped to America for the races. The team came away with several prestigious prizes, including best design and fastest in two categories. Throughout the process, the young engineers gained modern product design engineering experience in a competitive situation. Fluent salutes these brave Dutch submariners and their revolutionary WASUB design!

The WASUB Team in Maryland, June 2005

More.info@
http://wasub.oli.tudelft.nl

CAD layout of WASUB for a single human-powered propulsion system Axisymmetric FLUENT prediction of static pressure around the WASUB hull shape

Motions Inside a Gearbox

Manfredi, and Maria Vittoria Salvetti, The University of Pisa, Italy

Advanced Technology Mechanical Transmissions (CRTM) of DIMNP, as part of a collaboration with the Italian aerospace company Avio. The test section consists of two rotating shafts that support the test gears. Wheel lubrication is ensured by two spray bars injecting oil upstream and downstream of the mesh point, where the gear wheels come together. The first activity conducted was to test different turbulence models (Spalart-Allmaras, k-, k-, and Reynolds stress). Their performance was evaluated by studying 2D cases of Couette motion, consisting of two coaxial cylinders rotating at different velocities. The k- model was chosen as the most costeffective turbulence model, since it was able to capture the swirling velocity component better than the other RANS models, and did not require the additional computational resources of RSM. This model was used for subsequent numerical studies.

The 3D simulation of the gearbox focused on the air motion induced by the wheel rotation, and included the effects of protruding hardware, such as bolt heads. Owing to a plane of symmetry, half of the gearbox was modeled. The oil presence was neglected in the first round of simulations. The wheel rotation was simulated using the multiple reference frames (MRF) model. The gear teeth, small on the scale of the wheels, were neglected. The bolt heads were found to entrain the air creating a venting effect. While the wheel rotation produced mostly circumferential flow, a significant axial velocity was observed between the spray bars and the mesh point, suggesting a possible deflection of the oil jet. In the next stage of the work, a more refined grid and the use of the sliding mesh model will be adopted, and the oil presence will be taken into account.

Axial velocity on the symmetry plane, with vectors showing the axial flow near the mesh point

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PRODUCT NEWS

Fluent & Microsoft Team to Deliver

64-bit FLUENT on Windows Clusters
By Diana Collier, Barbara Hutchings, and Rongguang Jia, Fluent Inc.

ing the way for cluster-based FLUENT simulations for Windows users. With this 64-bit support, Windows users will now be able to run much larger simulations than currently feasible and they will also see performance improvements due to the enhanced memory management and wider memory bandwidth available with 64-bit processors. This good news for Windows users is the result of close collaboration between Fluent and Microsoft. With excellent technical support from Microsoft, Fluents development team has optimized FLUENT 6.3 on CCS. The resulting cluster solution uses the Microsoft MPI (Message Passing Interface) software layer for data communication between processors on the cluster, and supports a variety of interconnect options including Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), Infiniband, and Myrinet. FLUENT 6.3 also takes advantage of the Microsoft job scheduler that ships with CCS, providing an off-the-shelf solution for launching and controlling jobs on the cluster. Benchmarking The performance of 64-bit FLUENT under CCS is excellent. Speed improvements for serial performance, relative to the 32-bit FLUENT version, are in the range of 10-30% for many of the examples in Fluents standard benchmark problem set. Parallel scaling is also quite good. Initial scaling studies using the larger benchmarks on a Windows CCS cluster are on par with what is observed on similarly configured clusters running Linux. For example, on an 8-CPU cluster connected with GigE, a speed-up of 6.4 was obtained using the FL5L2 benchmark. Supercomputing 2005 Microsoft showcased their new high-performance computing platform at Supercomputing 2005 (SC05), held in Seattle November 14-18, 2005. FLUENT was proud to be part of the Microsoft exhibit, demonstrating FLUENT 6.3 running as a 64-bit application under Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 on a 16 CPU cluster provided by IBM and using a Myrinet interconnect. The showcased simulation was a multi-million cell model of a water ski jumper, courtesy of Sports Engineering Group, Sheffield Hallam University. In fact, several Fluent partners at SC05 demonstrated FLUENT simulations running on CCS clusters, including Dell, Mellanox, Voltaire, and Broadcom. The widespread success of these demonstrations, using pre-release versions of both the operating system and FLUENT, was a confirmation of Microsofts stated goal to provide HPC solutions that are easy to deploy, operate, and integrate with existing infrastructure and tools.
For information on obtaining FLUENT 6.3 beta for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, contact your local Fluent account manager.

Water ski jumper simulation showcased on the 64-bit Windows cluster at SC05
Courtesy of Sports Engineering Group, Sheffield Hallam University; postprocessed using EnSight from CEI

T
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 speedup FL5L1 FL5L2 FL5L3 Linear

4 6 number of processors

10

HE AVAILABILITY OF 64-BIT off-the-shelf computing from Intel and AMD has provided great value to Fluent customers seeking to run larger, more memory intensive CFD simulations. With the upcoming release of FLUENT 6.3, 64-bit will become an option to customers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Many FLUENT customers are already running a 32-bit version of FLUENT on the 64-bit Windows XP operating system, but in this configuration FLUENT does not take advantage of extended memory addressing. With FLUENT 6.3, full 64-bit capability will be supported on both desktop and server systems running Windows. On the server side, FLUENT 6.3 has been ported and optimized to run under the new Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS) operating system, open-

Parallel performance of 64-bit FLUENT running the FL5L1, FL5L2, and FL5L3 large benchmark cases, using Windows CCS 2003 on 3.4 GHz Intel EM64T dual-CPU nodes connected with gigE

30% performance boost 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

16.7% 14.3% 11.8% 12.5% 22.0% 15.3%

28.5%

15.7%

15s1 15s2 fl5s3 fl5m1 15m2 15m3 fl5l1

fl5l2

Serial performance boost with the 64-bit solution, relative to 32-bit, for the small (FL5S1 and FL5S2), medium (FL5M1, FL5M2, and FL5M3), and large (FL5L1 and FL5L2) benchmark cases

More.info@
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ ccs/overview.mspx

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Fluent News Spring 2006

PRODUCT NEWS

Quick Turnaround with

Rapid Flow Modeling

By Andr Bakker, FloWizard Product Manager, and Laurent Collonge, FLUENT for CATIA V5 Product Manager

HE OBJECTIVE OF RAPID FLOW MODELING is to bring CFD to the broader engineering design market, by providing fluid flow analysis tools that let engineers quickly turn their CAD models into CFD results. There are now two full-fledged rapid flow modeling products available in Fluents product line: FloWizard and FLUENT for CATIA V5. With these products, Fluent is taking the lead in what is expected to be a fast growing segment of the CFD software market. Many recent technology advances have made rapid flow modeling possible. The increased speed of computer hardware has reduced the calculation time for many CFD applications to fit within engineering design timeframes. A simulation that previously might have taken tens of hours on a workstation can now be run in well under an hour on a standard PC. On the software side, it is now possible to embed the CFD experience in highly automated products that significantly reduce the turnaround time for a fluid flow analysis.

Modern companies have an increasing need for engineering analysis to be tightly integrated into their design and PLM (product lifecycle management) processes. This requires software that interfaces well with CAD and other engineering software tools. It also means that the fluids analysis software should be accessible to engineering designers, who may have only intermittent needs to run simulations. FloWizard and FLUENT for CATIA V5 share characteristics that allow them to meet these needs. They each have a high level of connectivity with CAD or PLM products. This is important, since most of their users are engineers involved in product design. FloWizard accepts a wide variety of CAD and mesh file formats, and has tight CAD connections with SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER and UGS NX. FLUENT for CATIA V5 embeds the same rapid flow modeling technology deep into the CATIA V5 PLM system. Both packages focus on modeling well understood physics, including compressible and incompressible

Starting with a pump model in SolidWorks, engineers can quickly send their model to FloWizard. There it will be meshed and solved using FloWizards automated tools. The final results can be used by the engineer to decide upon possible design changes, thus closing the full design cycle.

fluid flow and heat transfer, both laminar and turbulent. Stationary equipment can be modeled as well as rotating machinery. Tasks that often require a lot of user interaction, such as geometry cleanup, meshing, and solving are fully automated. Not only does this save time, it also leads to a significantly reduced learning curve. Both products make use of the fast, accurate, and well-validated FLUENT 6 solver in the background. As an additional benefit, the files generated by FloWizard and FLUENT for CATIA V5 can be shared with FLUENT users as needed. This also helps improve the level of collaboration between the analysis and design teams. Furthermore, FloWizard

offers built-in collaboration tools that let multiple users simultaneously connect to the same session for design reviews. When there is a need to model large problems, both products offer the ability to run calculations in parallel on a local or remote network. In many companies, there is also a need to efficiently model recurring problems related to their product lines. For this purpose, custom tools can be built upon the rapid flow modeling platform. FloWizard is fully customizable using the Python programming language which has been used by several companies to build custom, organization specific analysis tools.

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PRODUCT NEWS

High quality Cooper and tet meshes in a redesigned adaptorconnector originating from a Pro/E part file

Impressive Prepro
By Erling Eklund, GAMBIT and TGrid Product Manager

HE SPRING RELEASES of several preprocessing products from Fluent promise many exciting new features and capabilities, ranging from CAD integration to wrapping technology.

GAMBIT In GAMBIT 2.3 the focus continues to be on CAD import, geometry manipulation, and advanced meshing. A new CATIA V5 translator has been added, as well as new CAD Connections for SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER, and UGS NX. These Connections use native surface, connectivity, and topology information, and eliminate the need to use a third party generic CAD format to translate your geometry model. With the CAD Connections, tools developed by Fluent reside in the CAD packages to perform a number of integrity checks prior to export, which guarantees that clean CAD integration is achieved. All edge and face construction tools in GAMBIT 2.3 can be utilized on these CAD geometries including the new closest point projection. In addition, design changes and general mesh-to-CAD conversion can be made using a new Advanced Covering algorithm. The cleanup tools continue to expand with a new sliver face removal capability. In the area of meshing, the size function capability has been improved through speed-ups and added functionality, such as individual minimum size assignments, 2D proximity, size function blending, and a new, exciting meshed size function, starting on a boundary layer cap. For boundary layers, a new first height, last-ratio-based cell growth function has been added, and the full 3D boundary layer can be examined prior to volume meshing. A new quad split option in tetrahedral meshing allows for combined hex and tet meshing, without the need for pyramids, which in many cases leads to significant cell quality improvements. TGrid The most important new feature in TGrid 4.0 is the surface wrapper, which allows connectivity, defeaturing, and surface meshing to be handled in a single operation. Once the large holes have been covered, the tool wraps the geometry with a high-quality surface mesh from which a volume mesh can then be created. Gaps, slivers, and overlaps in the geometry are automatically cleaned-up in the process. The advanced wrapping procedure provides a full spectrum of size controls, including local and global

A surface mesh of occupants in a truck cabin, created using the new surface wrapper in TGrid

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Fluent News Spring 2006

PARTNERSHIPS

Discrete Element Modeling of Particles for FLUENT

By Peter Weitzman and John Favier, DEM Solutions, Edinburgh, UK

The 3Matic-for-Fluent interface, showing all three levels of operations: Manual (buttons on top), Autofix (right panel), and Batch Fix (left panel)

cessing
proximity, curvature, and zone-based size functions. It also supports controlled size growth, and unique coarsening and feature capturing capabilities. Other functionalities include the ability to fully examine the region to be wrapped, prior to the wrapping procedure, with a guaranteed hole finder. There are local and global feature extraction capabilities, automatic fixing of incorrect topology, and automatic mesh quality improvement. Using a strategy based on an over-refined initial mesh, imprinting and coarsening together produce the highest-quality surface mesh on the market today that is based on wrapper technology. In addition to the introduction of the surface wrapper, the prism layer technology in TGrid 4.0 has been expanded. The initial normal growth direction has been improved, leading to overall speed and quality improvements. Two automated functions have been added: one to detect prism layer proximity/collision, which includes automatic prism height adjustment, and another to detect and peal off prism layers in sharp corners, which includes automatic non-conformal re-meshing of prism sides. The ability to handle prism layer growth on double-sided, zero-thickness walls has also been added. A large number of enhancements have also been added in the areas of surface mesh intersection, re-meshing, local manipulation, and more. 3Matic-for-Fluent The wrapping of highly complex industrial models often involves dealing with hundreds of files, all of different quality and origin. In collaboration with Materialise, a new product has been developed to meet this type of challenge. 3Matic-for-Fluent 1.0 is designed to handle all types of CAD formats (native, standard, and faceted) and produce a coherent, optimal, and clean faceted mesh that is ready to wrap in TGrid 4.0. This customized tool allows data to be handled in three ways. First, connectivity, cleanup, hole filling, and faceting of a single CAD file can be investigated, step-bystep, so that the impact of parameter settings can be better understood. Second, some of the files can be run through an auto-fix sequence to evaluate consistent behavior through different CAD formats. Third, hundreds of mixed CAD files can be run through the batch converter using the selected parameters, all producing TGrid mesh files.
3Matic-for-Fluent is sold and distributed by Fluent. Please contact your local Fluent office for more information.

EM SOLUTIONS is the developer of EDEM, discrete element method (DEM) software for particle flow simulation. EDEM is used to simulate the dynamics of solid particles including inter-particle and particle-wall collisions. Fluent and DEM Solutions have jointly developed a new plug-in for FLUENT that can be used to simulate the dynamics of multiphase fluid-particle systems. The EDEM plug-in complements the multiphase models already available in FLUENT by adding the ability to include particle attributes such as shape and size distribution, material properties, and initial placement, and to obtain detailed information on collisions, clumping, adhesion to boundary surfaces, and exchange with the surrounding fluid. In addition to the fluid drag, other forces such as gravity, electrostatic, electromagnetic, bonding, and cohesion can be applied to the particles. An open interface allows additional user-defined forces and coupling with other physical models. The EDEM plug-in can provide important information on multiphase flows across a broad range of industries and applications. It is useful in applications where the particles must be transported efficiently, without damage or excessive buildup, or when particle-equipment interactions are critical. Some examples are the optimization of pneumatic transport systems, fluidization, filtration, prevention of sand damage, and reactor transport. The EDEM software can be used by itself to model single-phase systems of solid particles. Some examples of single phase applications include bulk material handling in conveyors, chutes and hoppers, rock drilling, excavation, agricultural machinery, and various pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.

Entrainment of particles in an air-stream using FLUENT-EDEM co-simulation

More.info@
www.dem-solutions.com

Fluent News Spring 2006

33

SUPPORT CORNER

Mapping Thermal Data

from FLUENT to Structural Codes Quickly
By Aleksandra Egelja-Maruszewski, Fluent Inc.

Fluents add-on UDF for temperature

mapping is an excellent tool. It allows quick and accurate interpolation of temperatures between a CFD model and a structural mesh. It has cut the time and effort it takes us to map temperature data from FLUENT to FEA drastically. It is simple to use and flexible. If you need to map temperatures from a CFD model to a structural mesh, this is the tool to use.

N MANY MODERN PROCESSES TODAY there is an increased need to solve multiphysics problems, such as thermal coupling. Some of these problems can be solved with one simulation software only; others require the combination of multiple software packages. In extreme thermal environments, there are various types of thermal loads on components and structures. Applying these thermal loads correctly is one of the first steps required for achieving a reliable thermal stress analysis of the component. Thermal loads can be applied as a temperature distribution within the solid, or as heat transfer coefficients on the skin of the solid where the heat transfer takes place. Most CFD tools have advanced fluid dynamics and heat transfer algorithms, but do not have built-in advanced solid mechanics analysis capabilities such as thermal stress analysis and fatigue prediction. On the other hand, most of the advanced finite element analysis (FEA) tools have advanced solid mechanics algorithms, but do not offer the necessary advanced fluid dynamics and heat transfer capabilities to determine the correct thermal loads for the thermal stress analysis. For scenarios involving fluid flow and thermal loading, the two simulation tools become dependent on each other. To make it easier to perform combined simulations

such as these, engineers at Fluent have developed a user-defined function (UDF) for coupling CFD and FEA for thermal stress analysis. With this new capability, FLUENT is used to solve for the flow and thermal analysis in the fluid and solid zones of a part or component. The temperature data of the solid region is then supplied to the FE solver as the thermal load profile for the thermal stress analysis. Because the CFD mesh is typically much finer than the FE mesh, it is necessary to interpolate, or map, the CFD results to the FE mesh. The mapping is accomplished through a Scheme file (read into FLUENT) and the UDF. For the case of exporting data from FLUENT to ABAQUS, for example, the coupled solution would proceed as follows. 1. The user solves the case in FLUENT. 2. The user reads the Scheme file and compiled UDF into FLUENT. 3. The user reads the ABAQUS ASCII format mesh into FLUENT. The FLUENT UDF uses import filters to read the nodes, elements, and connectivity from the ABAQUS mesh.

William Towne CAE Engineer Performance Prediction Mercury Marine

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Fluent News Spring 2006

SUPPORT CORNER

The panel used for input to the mesh interpolator

4. For each FE node/element, the UDF finds the closest solution location in the CFD mesh. A binary space partitioning (BSP) tree is used to find the closest node by recursively subdividing the space containing the geometry, making fast geometric searching possible. 5. The UDF interpolates from the closest node. 6. The UDF instructs FLUENT to export the results in a format suitable for ABAQUS. There are two methods for performing this mapping procedure:

iterations back and forth between the solvers. Instead, it is designed to make individual data transfers easier to do. The UDF, which has panels for input, is currently available for ABAQUS, ANSYS, and PATRAN formats, but it can easily be customized for other structural analysis codes. The mesh can be built in millimeters, centimeters, inches, or meters. Temperatures can be in Kelvin, Fahrenheit, or Celsius. The UDF performs in serial and parallel versions of FLUENT. Data for different solid zones or wall zones can be exported separately by reading the individual mesh files of the zones. With additional customization, other properties can be exported as well. The compiled libraries are freely available for exporting steady-state data. Simply download the CFD/FEA Thermal Coupling UDF at no charge from the UDF examples section of the UDF archive on the User Services Center at www.fluentusers.com. (You will need your username and password to log on to the site.) To customize the UDF or obtain libraries for the export of transient or time-averaged data, or if you have questions regarding the use of this UDF, please contact your local Fluent office or log a help request through the Online Technical Support Portal, accessible from the User Services Center: http://clarify.fluent.com/eSupport

The temperature data inside the solid region is exported. For each node in the FE mesh of the solid region, temperature data will be written to an output file. The temperature and heat transfer coefficient at the walls that are solid/fluid interfaces are exported. For each surface element of the FE mesh, the temperature and heat transfer coefficient will be written to an output file.

The UDF is not designed to manage strongly coupled CFD and FEA calculations that require many

The geometry and mesh of the powerhead of a marine outboard is used to illustrate this capability. Using the UDF, a 2.8 million cell FLUENT mesh was mapped to a 430,000 element ABAQUS mesh in 14 seconds. Contour plots of static temperature computed by FLUENT (left) and ABAQUS (right) are shown for several views of the powerhead assembly
Courtesy of Mercury Marine

Fluent News Spring 2006

35

AROUND FLUENT

Fluent Worldwide
Corporate Headquarters
Fluent Inc. 10 Cavendish Court Lebanon, NH 03766, USA Tel: 603 643 2600 800 445 4454 Fax: 603 643 3967 Email: [email protected]

Fluent Opens Larger Office in Ann Arbor, MI

USA Regional Offices

Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Tel: 734 213 6821 Santa Clara, CA 95051 Tel: 408 522 8734 Morgantown, WV 26505 Tel: 304 598 3770 Austin, TX 78746 Tel: 512 306 9299 Evanston, IL 60201 Tel: 847 491 0200

European Regional Offices

Fluent Benelux Wavre, Belgium Tel: 32 1045 2861 Email: [email protected] Fluent Deutschland GmbH Darmstadt, Germany Tel: 49 6151 36440 Email: [email protected] Fluent Europe Ltd. Sheffield, England Tel: 44 114 281 8888 Email: [email protected] Fluent France SA Montigny le Bretonneux, France Tel: 33 1 3060 9897 Email: [email protected] Fluent Italia Milano, Italy Tel: 39 02 8901 3378 Email: [email protected] Fluent Sweden AB Goteborg, Sweden Tel: 46 31 771 8780 Email: [email protected]

LUENT HAS OPENED a new, larger office in Ann Arbor, MI. This expanded office location allows for the addition of more customer service staff, an expanded training facility, and a much larger computer resource center. The new training facility can accommodate more people and allows for the addition of new educational sessions on advanced automotive application areas such as underhood thermal management, noise prediction, and HVAC system analysis.

Fluent invites you to take full advantage of the facility. Meet with the US customer services team, get trained on new product innovations, and discuss how the Ann Arbor team can provide consulting services to meet your engineering needs. Fluent 3005 Boardwalk, Suite 100 Ann Arbor, MI 48108 734 213 6821

Asian Regional Offices

Fluent Asia Pacific Co., Ltd. Tokyo, Japan Tel: 81 3 5324 7301 Email: [email protected] Osaka, Japan Tel: 81 6 6359 7371 Fluent Software (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Shanghai, China Tel: 86 21 53855180 Email: [email protected] Fluent India Pvt. Ltd. Pune, India Tel: 91 20 2293770 Email: [email protected]

Upcoming User Group Meetings

US CFD Summit US Automotive CFD Summit Fluent Sweden Fluent Europe Fluent Benelux Fluent China ATES Korea Fluent France Fluent Germany Fluent Asia Pacific Fluent Italy Australia Fluent India Fluent in Spain International Oil & Gas CFD Conference Oct. 4 6 Nov. 6 7

Contact your local Fluent office for details.

May 22 24 Sept. 11 12 Sept. 18 19 Sept. 20 22

Distributors
ANOVA Ltd. Turkey ATES Korea Beijing Hi-Key Technology Corp. Ltd. China Beijing Tianyuan China (Icepack products only) Cavendish Instruments de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.(CIM) Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia CFD.HU Kft Hungary Flowmen Technology Co., Ltd. Taiwan Fluid Codes Ltd. UK (sole distributor for the Middle
East except for Hungary)

Nov. 8 10 Nov. 9 Nov. 14 Nov. 16 17 Nov. 21 Nov. 21 22 Nov. 21 22 Nov. 24 Nov. 30 Dec. 1

Fluvius Pty. Ltd. Australia & New Zealand J-ROM Ltd. Israel Plasma Venture Ltd. Russia (serving the Auto, Aero
and Oil/Gas industries only)

Process Flow Ltd. Finland & Baltics; Russia

(serving Chemical, Power and Electronics industries only)

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Fluent News Spring 2006

Qfinsoft South Africa Simcon Intl (Pvt.) Ltd. Pakistan SimTec Ltd. Greece (serving Southeastern Europe) SMARTtech Fluidos Services & Systems, Ltd. Brazil SymKom Poland Techsoft Engineering s.r.o. Czech Republic & Slovak Republic TENSOR SRL Romania