Step 1 The Geometry

Basically, in 2D we are only working with surfaces and not solid bodies therefore
the maority of the geometry will use sketches to create surfaces which !"S#S
can then use$ To start with there is a check list of e%erything that needs to be
done during the modelling stage&
Determine the geometry of the airfoil' hydrofoil to be used
(reate a coordinate )le of the pro)le
(reate a new plane at the centre of the turbine
*mport the airfoil line geometry +this will import at the origin,
(reate a new plane and rotate -. degrees in / direction using a0is
transform
(reate a circular pattern of the airfoil pro)le three times and rotate about
the rotated plane1s new 0 a0is$
(reate a new sketch at the turbine1s centre plane and create a circle from
the centre of the turbine to outside of the airfoil pro)le
(lick generate and start a new sketch
(reate a rectangle and make it big enough so that the walls will not
interfere with the turbine
(reate another circle e0actly the same as the pre%ious one + a 2T3 should
appear specifying tangency,
(lick generate
Generate one 2surface from edges3 for all three airfoils
Generate 2surfaces from sketches3 for other the two sketches
(reate a Boolean and subtract airfoil surfaces from the circle surface
!lmost all turbines use di4erent airfoil' hydrofoil pro)les but the most common is
the symmetrical "!(! 5 digit series such as the naca..16$ 7sing a pro)le
generator, create a coordinate )le with roughly 8.9:. points; no more than this
are necessary$ <ersonally * used the "!(! 5 digit series pro)le generator at
http&''www$ppart$de'aerodynamics'pro)les'"!(!5$html for symmetrical pro)les
and !irfoiltools http&''airfoiltools$com'airfoil'naca5digit for unsymmetrical
cambered pro)les, both are %ery e4ecti%e$ =nce a pro)le is selected you1re going
to need get it in the right format so that Designmodeler can read it$ * suggest
you run through this tutorial at
http&''www$mne$psu$edu'cimbala'>earning'!"S#S'?orkbench@Tutorial@!irfoil$pdf
made by <enn State 7ni%ersity and o4ers an e0cellent tutorial o%er the basics of
airfoil Aow$ =nce you ha%e your airfoil data )le open !"S#S ?=BCBD"(E and
drag a Auid Aow +Fluent, from the analysis systems toolbar into the workspace$
(lick on geometry and wait for Designmodeler to open$
=nce Designmodeler has opened select the G# plane and then click on the new
plane button on the top toolbar$ Select 2from coordinates3 from the drop down
2type3 menu and enter the negati%e radius of your turbine for the y direction and
the positi%e half chord length for the 0 direction, click generate$ The reason we
do this is * could only get !"S#S to import the airfoil at the origin and therefore *
had to mo%e the turbines origin to accommodate$ "e0t select the newly created
plane and click on 2new plane3 icon again, select rotate about 0 a0is under the
2Transform 1 +BHB,3 heading and enter a %alue of -. degrees, click generate$
This will allow you to select the y a0is when creating a pattern for the airfoils$
"e0t go to conceptIIJD cur%e and browse 2coordinates )le3 for the airfoil
coordinate )le you created$ This should import the airfoil line at the origin$ ?e
then create a pattern& (reateII<attern and select the airfoil line and also
change linear to circular$ Select the a0is of rotation to be the y a0is we rotated by
selecting that plane from the modelling tree and selecting the y a0is +note if you
ha%e followed step by step this should already be acti%e in the graphics window,$
(hange instances to the number of blades reKuired and click generate$
=nce the array of blades has been created, create a new sketch in what should
be 2plane 53 or the origin of the turbine$ Sketch a circle from the origin roughly
twice the diameter of the turbine +although not important it ust has to be a little
bigger to account for accuracy of sliding mesh,$ generate this sketch and create
another sketch in the same manner this time drawing a large rectangle which will
be the main Auid /one also create another circle the e0act si/e as the )rst, note
that when sketch a 2T3 should appear specifying tangency of the two circles$
(lick generate and then mo%e to conceptII surface from edges$ Select all three
of the airfoils and click apply, then generate$ The ne0t step is to create the Auid
surfaces so select conceptIIsurface from sketches, and select the )rst of the
two sketches, change add material to add fro/en$ (lick generate and repeat with
the remaining sketch$ ?ith all surfaces created the ne0t step is to remo%e the
airfoils from the circle surface to e4ecti%ely create a 2wall /one3$ Select Boolean
from createIIBoolean and change type to subtract$ Select the circle as the
target and all of the airfoils as the 2tool3 bodies$ ?ith this completed you should
ha%e a circular surface domain with airfoils 2cut out3 all inside a larger
rectangular surface domain if so then mo%e to the ne0t step if not start again or
run through the steps indi%idually checking if e%erything is correct$ Sa%e proect
and e0it
Step 2 9 Heshing
The ne0t step is the most critical and is what caused me the most problems
howe%er, it is also the simplest as * will tell you what to select and how to select
them so you hopefully don1t run into the same problems * faced$ 7pdate the
proect and double click the mesh cell in workbench$ =nce loaded the geometry
should appear within the meshing utility$ To 2/oom )t3 click the / a0is in the
lower right corner$ Select the mesh from the utility tree and then select both the
rectangle and the circle$ Then on the top toolbar, select mesh controlIImethod$
(hange Kuadrilateral dominant to triangle and click generate repeat the but
select mesh controlIIre)nement +this is not necessary but gi%es a much )ner
mesh, either keep at re)nement 1 or change to J depending on reKuired mesh
densit
7sing the selection tools +green faced cube icons, along the toolbar +namely
%erte0, edge, face and body, select the edge tool and then select the edge of the
circle$ This will bring up two layer bo0es in the bottom left corner of the graphical
window and means that at the point selected there is two edges which is correct,
one for the rectangle and one for the circle$ !t this point using (TB> select both
of these bo0es +highlighted in red when selected, and go to mesh
controlsIIsi/ing$ (hange the 2type3 to number of di%isions or if you prefer,
specify the element length$ (hange the %alue to whate%er is necessary$ This will
gi%e a much neater mesh at the interface between the two /ones$ =nce
completed click meshII generate mesh and wait for your mesh to be displayed
hopefully it should look neat$ #ou may also specify edge si/ing1s on the airfoil
edges if necessary$
The ne0t step is to create named selections of each of the key points, these are&
the inlet, outlet, hydrofoils, interface, rectangle surface and circle surface$ 7sing
the selection tools from the pre%ious step select the body icon and select the
rectangle domain, right click and name 2rectangle@surface3, repeat with the
circle domain using 2circle@surface3 for the name$ "ote that at this step it is
important that the 2body3 select tool is used as Auent will not produce surfaces
bodies$ Then change to the edge selection and name the leftmost and rightmost
%ertical line inlet and outlet respecti%ely$ Loom in on the turbine area containing
the airfoils and select one of the airfoil edges$ The two bo0 symbol should
reappear in the left corner and should be in two di4erent colours these colours
represent the surface on which the edges are located$ Select the rectangle with
the colour of the circle domain and then name selection airfoil or hydrofoil$
Bepeat with the two remaining airfoils and sa%e$ >astly select the edge of the
circle area, the two bo0es in the left corner will reappear and it1s the one the
same colour as the rectangle area you need; name this 2circle@edge3$ Eopefully
if set up correctly the maority of the work is done howe%er, this is where most of
my problems occurred so if things don1t work out in the ne0t step either start
again from scratch +sometimes easier and helps you speed up your
Designmodeler skills, or follow the guide step by step checking for errors$
Step J Fluent
Setting up Auent depends on what type of simulation you are running and
therefore it is important that you understand the Auid dynamics of your problem$
For the purpose of this tutorial, Auent will be set up for a hydro turbine in a free
stream of 2$Mm's and a turbulent %iscosity of .$6$ The pressure based sol%er will
be used as * am assuming the Aow to be incompressible due to the low speed$
The transient solution will be used due to the simulation being time dependant$
Before starting, * ad%ise checking that the boundary condition /ones match +i$e$
/one type and number of /ones not necessarily the names, with the bulleted list
below if not a problem lies in the naming of the /ones in !"S#S Heshing$
To start o4, update the workbench )le and open Auent$ ! start9up bo0 will appear
showing se%eral options$ * set mine to double precision, two dimensional, running
5 parallel processes$ Bunning parallel processes greatly speeds up the solution
time of the problem especially when used on a network though, depending on
your license, this option may not be a%ailable$ !fter clicking ok, Auent will load
the geometry and then display it in the graphics window$ *nitially you can check
the mesh and run Kuality checks to determine the characteristics of the mesh$ *n
2General3, set the sol%er to pressure based and transient$ Ho%e to models and
select 2%iscous laminar3, this will allow you to change the %iscous model of the
problem for this tutorial we1ll use laminar$ Select
materialsIIAuidIIairIIeditIIAuent database and scroll down to )nd E2=
liKuid$ This will add water to the list of Auid materials$ "e0t, mo%e to cell /one
conditions and click 2circle surface3, here we will set up the sliding mesh
beha%iour of the turbine blades$ (hange material name to water and check the
mesh motion tick bo0$ Depending on your turbine1s diameter and half chord
length used in the geometry enter these for the rotational a0is origin, making
sure the y9direction is negati%e$ The turbine used is set to spin at 12$M rad's a
TSB of 2$M$ !fter that, click ok and mo%e to 2rectangle surface3 changing only the
material to water and lea%ing the rest the same$ Ho%e to boundary conditions
and ensure the list of /ones is as follows&
(ircle@edge
Eydrofoil1, 2 and J
*nlet
=utlet
*nterior Bectangle@surface
*nterior 9 (ircle@surface
Surface body 9 Bectangle surface
Surface body 9 (ircle surface
*f these /ones are not present check the naming of the sections in !"S#S
Heshing$ ?hen we named certain section it automatically assigned the correct
/ones to the sections howe%er a few need to be changed for the interface$ First,
check each of the hydrofoils are walls, then mo%e to inlet and edit$ (hange the
%elocity speci)cation method to %elocity components and magnitude and enter a
%alue of 2$Mm's for the 09%elocity, click ok$ "e0t mo%e to 2circle@edge3 and
change the type to interface and do the same with 2surface body circle
surface3$ Ddit 2outlet3 and check if gauge pressure is /ero$ !ll the /ones should
be correctly set up, so now mo%e to the 2interfaces3 options$
(reating the interface allows Auent to treat the two areas +circle and rectangle,
as an interface whereby the Auid is allowed to Aow across the domains$ First,
select 2change'create3 and then enter a name for the interface in the 2mesh
interface3 bo0$ Select 2circle@edge3 in 2interface /one 13 and 2surface body
circle surface3 for 2interface /one 23$ !s the turbine is periodic and the solution
repeats after a gi%en time during the Kuasi9steady state, the 2interface options3
should be de)ned as 2periodic boundary conditions3$ "e0t change the 2periodic
boundary condition3 options from translational to rotational and uncheck the
auto compute o4set tick bo0$ (lick create and the interface should be now shown
in the interfaces list$ !t this point it is possible to check whether or not the
sliding mesh is set up correctly$ *n order to do this click 2pre%iew mesh motion3
and enter a small time step such as .$1 and number of time steps to M$ (lick
pre%iew and if /oomed in on the turbine the turbine should be shown to rotate$
Sometimes if the rotational origin is set up incorrectly this will show and the
turbine will rotate o4 centre then an error will occur$
!fter checking the mesh motion go to the 2reference %alues3 tab and re%iew the
information$ The reference %alues used here are what !"S#S uses to calculate
%alues such as moment coeNcient lift and drag %alues etc$ therefore you can set
these to reAect the dimensions of your turbine$ From e0perience * think 2length3
is the span of the turbine and for a 1m diameter this is roughly .$86m$ #ou can
lea%e these as they are and ust enter the set %alues in your eKuations later on$
(ompute the reference %alues from the inlet$ "e0t mo%e to 2solution controls3
and change the 2turbulent %iscosity3 to .$6$
*n order to obtain accurate results we need to change the con%ergence criteria to
1e9M$ Go to monitorIIresiduals, print, plot and change each of the con%ergence
check criteria to 1e9M$ "e0t we can set !"S#S up to e0port the moment
coeNcient produced on each blade edit the 2moment3 option$ Select each of the
hydrofoils on the right hand pane and change the moment centre to the centre of
the turbine$ (heck 2write3 to write a moment )le +note if per /one is selected it
will write' plot the moment coeNcient for each of the hydrofoil /ones,$ #ou can
also check 2plot3 so that the moment coeNcient will be plotted in the graphics
window whilst the solution is running howe%er if you need to speed this is not
necessary and slows the solution, you can also choose to not plot the residuals$
*n order to start the solution, the problem needs to be initialised so mo%e to
2solution initialisation3 and compute from inlet$ Then mo%e to 2run calculations3
and enter a desired time step si/e and number of time steps$ Baring in mind that
initially the turbine is spinning the water in the circular domain, and therefore the
number of time steps has to be enough for the domain to settle and the solution
to reach a Kuasi9steady state$ Dnter the number of iterations reKuired per time
step; %arious cfdonline forums ha%e tended toward 1.92. iterations howe%er, do
your e0periment for time a%ailable and accuracy of results$
!ll settings are now complete so all that is left to do is click calculate$
(alculations usually take up to M hours running on a Kuad core iM machine, for a
simulation time of M seconds, roughly anyhow$