Chapter 10

Transient Flow Modeling

Introductory FLUENT
Training

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Transient Flow Modeling
Motivation Training Manual

• Nearly all flows in nature are transient!

– Steady-state assumption is possible if we:
• Ignore transient fluctuations
• Employ ensemble/time-averaging to remove unsteadiness (this is what is done
in modeling turbulence)

• In CFD, steady-state methods are preferred

– Lower computational cost
– Easier to postprocess and analyze

• Many applications require resolution of transient flow:

– Aerodynamics (aircraft, land vehicles,etc.) – vortex shedding
– Rotating Machinery – rotor/stator interaction, stall, surge
– Multiphase Flows – free surfaces, bubble dynamics
– Deforming Domains – in-cylinder combustion, store separation
– transient Heat Transfer – transient heating and cooling
– Many more.

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Transient Flow Modeling
Origins of Transient Flow Training Manual

• Naturally occurring transients

– transient flow due to growth of instabilities within the fluid or a non-equilibrium
initial fluid state
– Examples: natural convection flows, turbulent eddies of all scales, fluid waves
(gravity waves, shock waves)
• Forced transients
– Time-dependent boundary conditions, source terms drive the transient flow field
– Examples: pulsing flow in a nozzle, rotor-stator interaction in a turbine stage

Kelvin-Helmholtz Cloud Instability Buoyant Box Falling Into a Pool of Water

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Transient Flow Modeling
Transient CFD Analysis Training Manual

• Simulate a transient flow field over a specified time period

– Solution may approach:
• Steady-state solution – Flow variables stop changing with time
• Time-periodic solution – Flow veriables fluctuate with repeating pattern
– Your goal may also be simply to analyze the flow over a prescribed time
interval.
• Free surface flows
• Moving shock waves
• Etc.

• Extract quantities of interest

– Natural frequencies (e.g. Strouhal Number)
– Time-averaged and/or RMS values
– Time-related parameters (e.g. time required to cool a hot solid, residence
time of a pollutant)
– Spectral data – fast Fourier transform (FFT)

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Transient Flow Modeling Workflow Training Manual

• Enable the transient solver.

• Set up physical models and boundary conditions as usual.

– Transient boundary conditions are possible – you can use either a UDF or
profile to accomplish this.

• Prescribe initial conditions

– Best to use a physically realistic initial condition, such as a steady
solution.

• Assign solver settings and configure solution monitors.

• Configure animations and data output/sampling options

• Select time step and max iterations per time step

• Prescribe the number of time steps.

• Run the calculations (Iterate)

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Transient Flow Modeling
Enabling the Transient Solver Training Manual

• To enable the transient solver, select the Transient button on the General
problem setup form:

• Before performing iterations, you will need to set some additional controls.
– Solver settings
– Animations
– Data export / Autosave options
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Transient Flow Modeling
Selecting the Transient Time Step Size Training Manual

• Time step size, t, is set in the Run Calculation form.

– t must be small enough to resolve time-dependent features; make sure
the convergence is reached within the number of Max Iterations per Time
Step
– The order or magnitude of an appropriate time step size can be estimated
as:

– Time step size estimate can also be chosen so that the transient
characteristics of the flow can be resolved (e.g. flow within a known
period of fluctuations)

• To iterate without advancing in time, specify zero time steps. This

will instruct the solver to converge the current time step only.

• The PISO scheme may aid in accelerating convergence for many

transient flows (set in the Solution Methods form).

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Transient Flow Modeling Options Training Manual

• Adaptive Time Stepping

– Automatically adjusts time-step size
based on local truncation error analysis
– Customization possible via UDF
• Time-averaged statistics
– Particularly useful for LES turbulence
calculations

• For the density-based solver, the Courant

number defines:
– The global time step size for density-based
explicit solver.
– The pseudo time step size for density-
based implicit solver
• Real time step size must still be defined in
the Iterate panel

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Transient Flow Modeling – Animations Training Manual

• You must set up any animations BEFORE performing iterations.

– Animation frames are written/stored on-the-fly during calculations.

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Transient Flow Modeling
Creating Animations – Alternate Method Training Manual

• Another method in FLUENT is

available which makes use of the
Execute Commands feature.
• Text commands or macros can be
defined which are executed by the
solver at prescribed iteration or
time step intervals.
• This approach is very useful in
creating high-quality animations
of CFD results.
– A command is defined which
generates an animation frame
(contour plot, vector plot, etc.)
and then writes that frame to a
hard copy file.
– Third-party software can then
be used to link the hard copy
files into an animation file
(AVI, MPG, GIF, etc.)

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Transient Flow Modeling
Performing Iterations Training Manual

• The most common time advancement

scheme is the iterative scheme.
– The solver converges the current time
step and then advances time.
– Time is advanced when Max
Iterations/Time Step is reached or
convergence criteria are satisfied.
– Time steps are converged sequentially
until the Number of Time Steps is
reached.

• Solution initialization defines the initial

condition and it must be realistic.
– Sets both the initial mass of fluid in the
domain and the initial state of the flow
field.

• Non-iterative Time Advancement

(NITA) is available for faster
computation time.

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Transient Flow Modeling
Convergence Behavior Training Manual

• Residual plots for transient simulations are not always indicative of a

converged solution.
• A residual plot for a simple transient calculation is shown here.
• You should select the time step size such that the residuals reduce
by around three orders of magnitude within one time step.
– This will ensure accurate resolution of transient behavior.

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Transient Flow Modeling
Tips for Success in Transient Flow Modeling Training Manual

• Use PISO scheme for Pressure-Velocity Coupling – this scheme

provides faster convergence for transient flows than the standard
SIMPLE approach.
• Select the time step size so that the solution converges nominally
three orders of magnitude for each time step (of course, convergence
behavior is problem-specific).
• Select the number of iterations per time step to be around 20 – it is
better to reduce the time step size than to do too many iterations per
time step.
• Remember that accurate initial conditions are just as important as
boundary conditions for transient problems – initial condition should
always be physically realistic!
• Configure any animations you wish to see before running the
calculations.

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