Tutorial 8.

Using Multiple Rotating Reference Frames

Introduction
Many engineering problems involve rotating flow domains. One example is the centrifugal
blower unit that is typically used in automotive climate control systems. For problems
where all the moving parts (fan blades, hub and shaft surfaces, etc.) are rotating at a
prescribed angular velocity, and the stationary walls (e.g., shrouds, duct walls) are sur-
faces of revolution with respect to the axis of rotation, the entire domain can be referred
to as a single rotating frame of reference. However, when each of several parts is rotating
about a different axis of rotation, or about the same axis at different speeds, or when the
stationary walls are not surfaces of revolution (such as the volute around a centrifugal
blower wheel), a single rotating coordinate system is not sufficient to “immobilize” the
computational domain so as to predict a steady-state flow field.
In FLUENT, the flow features associated with multiple rotating parts can be analyzed
using the multiple reference frame (MRF) capability. This model is powerful in that
multiple rotating reference frames can be included in a single domain. The resulting flow
field is representative of a snapshot of the transient flow field in which the rotating parts
are moving. However, in many cases the interface can be chosen in such a way that the
flow field at this location is independent of the orientation of the moving parts. In other
words, if an interface can be drawn on which there is little or no angular dependence,
the model can be a reliable tool for simulating time-averaged flow fields. It is therefore
very useful in complicated situations where one or more rotating parts are present.
This tutorial illustrates the procedure for setting up and solving a problem using the
MRF capability. As an example, the flow field on a 2D section of a centrifugal blower
will be calculated. The example will be limited to a single rotating reference frame.
The following FLUENT features will be demonstrated in this tutorial:

• Specifying different frames of reference for different fluid zones.

• Setting the relative velocity of each wall.
• Calculating a solution using the segregated solver

Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the menu structure in FLUENT and that
you have completed Tutorial 1 . Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not
be shown explicitly.

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In general, to solve problems using the MRF feature, you should be familiar with the
concept of creating multiple fluid zones in your grid generator.

Problem Description
This problem considers a 2D section of a generic centrifugal blower. A schematic of the
problem is shown in Figure 8.1. The blower consists of 32 blades, each with a chord length
of 13.5 mm. The blades are located approximately 56.5 mm (measured from the leading
edge) from the center of rotation. The radius of the outer wall varies logarithmically
from 80 mm to 146.5 mm. The total pressure at the inlet is defined to be 200 Pa and the
flow discharges to ambient conditions (static pressure = 0 Pa). The blades are rotating
with an angular velocity of 261 rad/s. The flow is assumed to be turbulent.

Pressure-inlet-5

261 rad/s
35 mm

56.5 mm

blower blades
(13.5 mm chord length)

Pressure-Outlet-9

145 mm

Figure 8.1: Schematic of the Problem

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Setup and Solution

Preparation
1. Download multiple_rotating.zip from the Fluent Inc. User Services Center or
copy it from the FLUENT documentation CD to your working directory (as de-
scribed in Tutorial 1).

2. Unzip multiple_rotating.zip.
blower.msh can be found in the /multiple rotating folder created after unzipping
the file.

3. Start the 2D version of FLUENT.

Step 1: Grid
1. Read in the mesh file (blower.msh).
File −→ Read −→Case...

2. Check the grid.

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

3. Smooth and swap the grid.

Grid −→Smooth/Swap...
Node smoothing and face swapping will improve the mesh quality. This step is
recommended for triangular and tetrahedral meshes.

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(a) Retain the default smoothing parameters and click Smooth.

(b) Click Swap repeatedly until the Number Swapped under Swap Info is zero.

4. Display the mesh (Figure 8.2).

Display −→Grid...
The mesh consists of three fluid zones, fluid-13, fluid-14, and fluid-18. These are
reported in the console window when the grid is read. In the Grid Display panel, the
fluid zones are reported as interior zones interior-61, interior-62 and interior-66. In
a later step, you will learn how to associate a fluid zone with an interior zone. The
fluid zone containing the blades will be solved in a rotational reference frame.

The fluid zones are separated by wall boundaries. These boundaries were used in
the grid generator to separate the fluid zones, and will be converted to interior zones
when the boundary conditions are set later in this tutorial. Each of these wall zones
also has an associated “shadow wall” which was created by FLUENT when it read
the grid. Shadow walls are created whenever a wall has fluid zones on both sides.

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Grid
FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 8.2: Mesh of the 2D Centrifugal Blower

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Step 2: Models
1. Keep the default solver settings.
Define −→ Models −→Solver...

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2. Turn on the standard k- turbulence model.

Define −→ Models −→Viscous...

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Step 3: Materials
You will use the default material, air, with its predefined properties, for all fluid zones.
No action is required in the panel.
Define −→Materials...

Extra: If needed, you could modify the fluid properties for air or copy another material
from the database.

See Chapter 8 of the User’s Guide for details.

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Step 4: Boundary Conditions

Define −→Boundary Conditions...

1. Change wall-2 and wall-3 type to interior.

The zones wall-2 and wall-3 are the interfaces between the three fluid zones. They
need to be changed to type interior, as discussed earlier. The resulting interior faces
are those that have fluid cells on both sides but do not require any boundary condi-
tions to be set.

(a) Select wall-2 in the Zone list and then select interior in the Type list.
FLUENT will prompt for confirmation before changing the zone type.

(b) Click Yes and FLUENT will fuse wall-2 and wall-2-shadow together to form
interior-2.

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(c) Click OK to keep the default Zone Name.

(d) Repeat the previous steps to change wall-3 to an interior zone named interior-3.

2. Identify the rotating fluid zone (i.e., the zone containing the blades) by displaying
the mesh for each zone.
Display −→Grid...
It is unclear when you read the grid which fluid zone corresponds to which interior
zone. While the interior zones can be selected individually in the Grid Display panel,
the fluid zones cannot. Commands in the text interface, however, can be used to
make this association.
(a) Deselect all surfaces by clicking on the unshaded icon to the right of Surfaces.
(b) Click the Outline button at the bottom of the panel to select only the outline
surfaces of the domain.
(c) Click Display.
Only the domain boundaries and interior walls will be displayed.
(d) In the console window, type the commands shown in boxes in the dialog below.
Hint: You may need to press the <Enter> key to get the > prompt.

> display
/display> zone-grid
()
zone id/name(1) [()] 13
zone id/name(2) [()] <Enter>

The resulting display (Figure 8.3) shows that zone fluid-13 corresponds to the ro-
tating region.

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Thread Grid: (13)

FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, lam)

Figure 8.3: Mesh in fluid-13

3. Define a rotational reference frame for fluid-13.

Define −→Boundary Conditions...
(a) Keep the Rotation-Axis Origin default setting of (0,0).
This is the center of curvature for the circular boundaries of the rotating zone.
(b) Select Moving Reference Frame from the Motion Type drop-down list.
Hint: Use the scroll bar to access the Motion Type list.
(c) Scroll down further, and set the Speed under Rotational Velocity to 261 rad/s.

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Note: Since the other fluid zones are stationary, you do not need to set any bound-
ary conditions for them. If one of the remaining fluid zones was also rotating,
you would need to set the appropriate rotational speed for it.

4. Set the following conditions (see Figure 8.1) for the flow inlet (pressure-inlet-5).

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Note: All pressures that you specify in FLUENT are gauge pressures, relative to
the operating pressure specified in the Operating Conditions panel. By default,
the operating pressure is 101325 Pa.
See Section 8.13 of the User’s Guide for details.

5. Set the backflow turbulence parameters for the flow outlet (pressure-outlet-9) to the
same values used for pressure-inlet-5.

Note: The backflow values are used only if reversed flow occurs at the outlet, but it
is a good idea to use reasonable values, even if you do not expect any backflow
to occur.

6. Define the velocity of the wall zone representing the blades (wall-7) relative to the
moving fluid zone.
With fluid-13 set to a rotating reference frame, wall-7 becomes a moving wall.
(a) In the Momentum section of the Wall panel, enable the Moving Wall option.
The panel will expand to show the wall motion parameters.
(b) Under Motion, select Relative to Adjacent Cell Zone and Rotational.
(c) Set the (relative) Speed to 0 rad/s.
The Rotation-Axis Origin should be located at x = 0 m and y = 0 m. With
these settings, the blades will move at the same speed as the surrounding fluid.

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Step 5: Solution
1. Choose the second-order discretization scheme for the governing equations.
Solve −→ Controls −→Solution...

(a) In the drop-down lists next to Momentum, Turbulence Kinetic Energy, and
Turbulence Dissipation Rate, select Second Order Upwind.
The second-order scheme will provide a more accurate solution.
(b) Keep the default parameters for all other solution controls.

2. Enable the plotting of residuals during the calculation.

Solve −→ Monitors −→Residual...
(a) Select Plot under Options, and click OK.

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3. Initialize the solution using the boundary conditions set at pressure-inlet-5.

Solve −→ Initialize −→Initialize...

(a) Select pressure-inlet-5 in the Compute From drop-down list.

(b) Select Absolute under Reference Frame.
(c) Click Init to initialize the solution.

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Note: In this tutorial, you chose an Absolute reference frame for initializing the
solution. In certain cases, Relative to Cell Zone may help the solution converge
faster.
See Chapter 26.15 of the User’s Guide for guidelines.

4. Save the case file (blower.cas).

File −→ Write −→Case...

5. Start the calculation by requesting 400 iterations.

Solve −→Iterate...

During the calculation, FLUENT will report that there is reversed flow occurring at
the exit. This is due to the sudden expansion, which results in a recirculating flow
near the exit.
The solution will converge in around 160 iterations (when all residuals have dropped
below 0.001).

6. Save the case and data files (blower2.cas and blower2.dat).

File −→ Write −→Case & Data...
Note: It is good practice to save the case file whenever you are saving the data.
This will ensure that the relevant parameters corresponding to the current
solution data are saved accordingly.

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Step 6: Postprocessing
1. Display filled contours of total pressure (Figure 8.4).
Display −→Contours...

(a) Select Pressure... and Total Pressure in the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Select Filled under Options.
(c) Click Display.
Total pressure contours show the expected pressure jump across the blower blades.

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1.13e+03
1.03e+03
9.25e+02
8.23e+02
7.22e+02
6.20e+02
5.18e+02
4.16e+02
3.15e+02
2.13e+02
1.11e+02
9.50e+00
-9.22e+01
-1.94e+02
-2.96e+02
-3.97e+02
-4.99e+02
-6.01e+02
-7.03e+02
-8.04e+02
-9.06e+02

Contours of Total Pressure (pascal)

FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, ske)

Figure 8.4: Contours of Total Pressure

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2. Display velocity vectors (Figure 8.5).

Display −→Vectors...

(a) Set the Scale factor to 5.

(b) Click Display to view the vectors.
By default, Auto Scale is chosen. This will automatically scale the length of velocity
vectors relative to the size of the smallest cell in the mesh. To increase the length
of the “scaled” vectors, set the Scale factor to a value greater than 1.

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6.83e+01
6.49e+01
6.15e+01
5.81e+01
5.47e+01
5.13e+01
4.78e+01
4.44e+01
4.10e+01
3.76e+01
3.42e+01
3.08e+01
2.74e+01
2.39e+01
2.05e+01
1.71e+01
1.37e+01
1.03e+01
6.87e+00
3.45e+00
3.93e-02

Velocity Vectors Colored By Velocity Magnitude (m/s)

FLUENT 6.2 (2d, segregated, ske)

Figure 8.5: Velocity Vectors

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3. Report the mass flux at pressure-inlet-5 and pressure-outlet-9.

Report −→Fluxes...

(a) Keep the Mass Flow Rate setting under Options.

(b) Select pressure-inlet-5 and pressure-outlet-9 in the Boundaries list.
(c) Click Compute.
The net mass imbalance should be no more than a small fraction (say, 0.5%) of the
total flux through the system. If a significant imbalance occurs, you should decrease
your residual tolerances by at least an order of magnitude and continue iterating.
The flux report will compute fluxes only for boundary zones. To report fluxes on
surfaces or planes, use the Surface Integrals... option in the Report menu.

Summary
This tutorial illustrates the procedure for setting up and solving problems with multiple
reference frames using FLUENT. Although this tutorial considers only one rotating fluid
zone, extension to multiple rotating fluid zones is straightforward as long as you delineate
each fluid zone.
Note that this tutorial was solved using the default absolute velocity formulation. For
some problems involving rotating reference frames, you may wish to use the relative
velocity formulation. See the User’s Guide for details.

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