Tutorial: Light-Off Simulation for Catalytic Converter

Introduction
The light-off process of a catalytic converter is very important for its performance. The con-
verter usually consists a honeycomb-type monolith. This honeycomb structure is modeled
using the porous media in FLUENT.
The temperature rise in the solid phase is important, but cannot be captured directly by
the porous media model. In this tutorial a dual cell approach is used to compute the heat
transfer between fluid and solid phases in a transient simulation.
In this tutorial you will learn how to:
• Read a mesh into TGrid.

• Create a dual cell mesh in TGrid.

• Read a mesh into FLUENT.

• Hook a UDF to FLUENT.

• Specify a porous media.

• Set solver parameters and volume monitors.

• Initialize and obtain the solution.

• Create animations.

Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the FLUENT interface and have completed
Tutorial 1 from the FLUENT 6.2 Tutorial Guide. Some of the basic steps in the setup and
solution procedures will not be shown explicitly.

Problem Description
This tutorial considers the model of a catalytic converter (Figure 1). The dual cell approach
requires two identical cell zones; one represents the fluid porous media and the other rep-
resents the corresponding solid zone. The mesh is created in TGrid based on the original
mesh by copying and translating the cell zone to a new location.

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Figure 1: Schematic of a Catalytic Converter

Preparation

1. Copy the mesh file, Light Off-original.msh and the UDF file, Light-Off.c to your
working directory.

2. Start the 3D version of TGrid.

Setup and Solution

Step 1: Create a Dual Cell Mesh in TGrid

1. Read the mesh into TGrid.

File −→ Read −→Mesh...
(a) Select the file, Light Off-original.msh and click OK.

2. Display the grid.

Display −→Grid...
(a) Under Face Zones, select all zones except default-interior.
(b) Click Display.
Use the left mouse button to rotate the grid and the middle mouse button to zoom
the grid.

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Y
X
Z

Mesh
Restrictions: TGrid 3.6 (3D)

Figure 2: Original Grid Display

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3. Delete all cell zones except brick fluid.

Mesh −→Zones...

(a) Under Options, select Delete.

(b) Under Cell Zones, deselect brick fluid and click Apply.

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4. Translate the fluid zone by 7 units in the Y direction.

(a) Under Options, select Translate.

(b) Under Cell Zones, select brick fluid.
(c) Under Y, enter 7 and click Apply.

5. Rename brick fluid as brick solid.

(a) Under Options, select Rename.

(b) Under Name, enter brick solid, click Apply and close the panel.

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6. Delete the inlet and outlet faces.

Boundary −→Zones...

(a) Under Options, select Delete.

(b) Under Face Zones, select v in, p out, and wall.
(c) Click Apply.

7. Rename the face zones.

(a) Rename brick fluid in as brick solid in.
i. Under Options, select Rename.
ii. Under Face Zones, select brick fluid in.
iii. Under Name, enter brick solid in and click Apply.
(b) Similarly, rename brick fluid out to brick solid out and brick shell to brick solid shell.

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8. Change the boundary type for brick solid in and brick solid out to wall.

(a) Under Options, select Change Type.

(b) Under Face Zones, select brick solid in.
(c) Under Type, select wall and click Apply.
(d) Similarly, set the wall boundary condition for brick solid out.

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9. Save the grid as Light Off-solid.msh.

File −→ Write −→Mesh...

10. Display the grid, selecting all zones except default-interior.

Y
X
Z

Mesh
Restrictions: TGrid 3.6 (3D)

Figure 3: New Grid

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11. Merge the original and new mesh file and create a dual cell mesh.
(a) Read the mesh files, Light Off-solid.msh and Light Off-original.msh into TGrid.
File −→ Read −→Mesh...

i. Select the files Light Off-solid.msh and Light Off-original.msh.

ii. Click OK.
(b) Save the dual cell mesh as Light Off.msh.
File −→ Write −→Mesh...

12. Exit TGrid.

File −→Exit...

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Step 2: Grid

1. Start the 3D version of FLUENT.

2. Read the mesh file, Light Off.msh.

File −→ Read −→Case...

3. Check the grid.

Grid −→Check
FLUENT will perform various checks on the mesh and will report the progress in the
console window. Pay attention to the reported minimum volume and make sure this
is a positive number.

4. Scale the grid.

Grid −→Scale...

(a) Under Unit Conversion, select in (inches) from the drop-down list to complete the
phrase Grid Was Created In in.
(b) Click Scale to scale the grid.
The values of the Domain Extents will be reported in the default SI units of meters.

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5. Display the grid (Figure 4).

Display −→Grid...

(a) Click Display and close the panel.

Y
Z X

Grid
FLUENT 6.2 (3d, segregated, lam)

Figure 4: Dual Cell Grid Display

Extra: Use the left mouse button to rotate the grid and the middle mouse button
to zoom the grid.

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Step 3: Models

1. Select the unsteady solver.

Define −→ Models −→Solver...

(a) Under Time, select Unsteady and click OK.

2. Turn on the energy equation.

Define −→ Models −→Energy...
(a) Turn on Energy Equation and click OK.

3. Turn on the standard k- turbulence model.

Define −→ Models −→Viscous...
(a) Select k-epsilon in the Model list.
The original Viscous Model panel will expand when you do so.
(b) Accept the default Standard models by clicking OK.

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Step 4: Compile the UDF

1. Find the cell zone IDs for the dual zones, brick fluid and brick solid.
Define −→Boundary Conditions...
(a) Under Zones, select brick fluid and take note of the ID (17).
(b) Under Zones, select brick solid and take note of the ID (7).

2. Modify the UDF by updating the two cell zone IDs with the current values.
(a) Open the UDF in a text editor and go to the dual cell user input section.
(b) Replace the existing values in the UDF with the current IDs for brick fluid and
brick solid respectively (17,7).
/******************* dual cell user input starts *******************/

/* Dual cell cell zone ID */

static int dual_cell_zone_ID[][2]={{17, 7},{-1, -1}};

/******************* dual cell user input ends ********************/

(c) Save the UDF and close the text editor.

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3. Compile the UDF.

Define −→ User-Defined −→ Functions −→Compiled...

(a) Under Source Files, click Add....

(b) In the Select File panel, select the source file, Light-Off.c.
(c) Click Build to build the directories.
(d) Read the information in the Information panel and click OK.
(e) Click Load to load the UDF.

4. Initialize the flow field.

Solve −→ Initialize −→Initialize...
(a) Click Init and Close the panel.

5. Hook the UDF.

Define −→ User-Defined −→Execute On Demand...

(a) Under Execute On Demand, select matching dual cell::libudf.

(b) Click Execute.
A message will appear in the console, informing that the matching is complete.
(c) Under Function, select check dual cell::libudf.
(d) Click Execute.
The UDF will check the matching and report the maximum distance between the
dual cells.

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Step 5: Materials
Define −→Materials...

1. Select solid for Material Type.

2. Change the value of Density to 271 and Thermal Conductivity to 150.

3. Click Change/Create and close the panel.

Step 6: Boundary Conditions

Define −→Boundary Conditions...

1. Set up brick fluid as a porous medium.

(a) In the Boundary Conditions panel, select brick fluid under Zone and click Set....
The Fluid panel opens.

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(b) Turn on Source Terms.

(c) Select Source Terms tab and select udf energy source fluid::libudf for Energy (scroll
down to the end).
(d) Turn on Porous Zone.
(e) Select Porous Zone tab, and under Viscous Resistance enter the following values:
Parameter Value
Direction-1 10000
Direction-2 1e+08
Direction-3 1e+08
(f) Under Inertial Resistance enter the following values:
Parameter Value
Direction-1 10
Direction-2 10000
Direction-3 10000
(g) Click OK to close the Fluid panel.

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2. Set the source term for brick solid.

(a) In the Boundary Conditions panel, select brick solid under Zone and solid under
Type.
(b) In the Question panel, click Yes.

(c) In the Solid panel, turn on Source Terms.

(d) Select udf energy source fluid::libudf for Energy (scroll down to the end).

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3. Set the inlet boundary condition.

(a) In the Boundary Conditions panel, select v-in under Zone and click Set....

(b) Enter the value of Velocity Magnitude as 10 and Temperature as 800.

(c) Click OK to close the panel.

Step 7: Solution

1. Set the solution parameters.

Solve −→ Controls −→Solution...
(a) Accept the default settings by clicking OK.

2. Set up monitors for solid and porous zones.

Solve −→ Monitors −→Volume...
(a) Set Volume Monitors to 2.
(b) Turn on Plot, Print, and Write options.
(c) Select Time Step under Every for both the monitors.
(d) Click Define... against the first monitor.

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i. Under Report Type, select Volume-Average.

ii. Under X Axis, select Flow Time.
iii. Under Field Variable, select Temperature... and Static Temperature.
iv. Under Cell Zones, select brick fluid.
v. Click OK.
(e) In the Define Volume Monitor panel, click Define... against the second monitor.
i. Under Cell Zones, select brick solid.
ii. Set all the other parameters similar to the first monitor.
iii. Click OK to close the panel.

3. Set up an animation for temperature on all walls.

Solve −→ Animate −→Define...
(a) Increase the Animation Sequences counter to 1.
(b) Set the animation counter to every five time-steps and click Define....
This opens the Animation Sequence panel.
(c) Make sure the Storage Type is set to Metafile.
This ensures that the animation frames are written to the hard disk as opposed
to being stored in RAM.

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(d) Under Display Type, select Contours.

i. In the Contours panel, under Options, turn on Filled.

ii. Under Contours of, select Temperature... and Static Temperature.
iii. Under Surface Types, scroll down and select wall.
iv. Click Display and close the panel.
(e) Click OK and close the Animation Sequence and Solution Animation panels.

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4. Save the case file.

File −→ Write −→Case...
(a) Under Case File, enter Light Off-init.cas.gz.
(b) Click OK to save the case file.

5. Request for 60000 iterations.

Solve −→Iterate...

(a) Set the Time Step Size to 0.001.

(b) Set the Number of Time Steps to 60000.
(c) Click Iterate.

6. Save the data file.

File −→ Write −→Data...
(a) Under Data File, enter Light Off-60sec.dat.gz.
(b) Click OK to save the data file.
Running the simulation for 60sec of flow time may take a long time. You can
read the case and data file already provided with this tutorial and see the results.

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Monitors
vol-mon-1
420.0000

400.0000

380.0000

Volume 360.0000
Weighted
Average
(k) 340.0000

320.0000

300.0000
0.0000 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 1.0000 1.2000 1.4000 1.6000 1.8000 2.0000
Y
Z X
Flow Time

Convergence history of Static Temperature on brick_fluid (Time=2.0000e+00)

FLUENT 6.2 (3d, segregated, ske, unsteady)

Figure 5: Volume Monitors at brick fluid at 2.0 sec

Monitors
vol-mon-2
370.0000

360.0000

350.0000

340.0000

Volume
Weighted 330.0000
Average
(k)
320.0000

310.0000

300.0000
0.0000 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 1.0000 1.2000 1.4000 1.6000 1.8000 2.0000
Y
Z X
Flow Time

Convergence history of Static Temperature on brick_solid (Time=2.0000e+00)

FLUENT 6.2 (3d, segregated, ske, unsteady)

Figure 6: Volume Monitors at brick solid at 2.0 sec

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Figure 7: Temperature Contours at 2.0 sec

Figure 8: Temperature Contours at 60.0 sec

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Step 8: Postprocessing

1. View the animation created during the simulation.

Solve −→ Animate −→Playback...

(a) Click the Play button ( ) and view the animation.

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