Mech

301 Fluid Mechanics CFD Project-II December 8, 2017

Flow and Heat Transfer in a Mixing Elbow

Objectives
The main objectives of the project are to learn (i) how to set up and perform flow simulations with
heat transfer and mixing, (ii) post-processing and interpretation of the numerical solutions, (iii)
creation of flow geometry and meshing, (iv) grid refinement and grid convergence.
For this purpose, we will study fluid flow and heat transfer in a mixing elbow taken from ANSYS-
FLUENT tutorial. The original problem is 3D but we will perform simulations only for a 2D
(planar) case for simplicity.
Problem description
The flow to be simulated is shown schematically in Figure 1. The problem is to predict the flow
and temperature fields in a “mixing elbow". This is a common pipe structure used in process plants
and process industries, where fluids of different temperatures and velocities are mixed. The aim
is to compute the temperature and velocity profiles at the outflow part of the upper right corner.
As seen in Fig. 1, a cold fluid at 293.15 K (20oC) flows into the pipe through a large inlet and
mixes with a warmer fluid at 313.15 K (40oC) that enters through a smaller inlet located at the
elbow. The mixing elbow configuration is encountered in piping systems in power plants and
process industries. For simplicity, here we consider only a two-dimensional planar geometry
instead of the actual three-dimensional pipes. It is often important to predict the flow field and
temperature field in the area of the mixing region in order to properly design the junction.

Figure 1: Flow geometry and boundary conditions for Task 1.



Mech 301 Fluid Mechanics CFD Project-II December 8, 2017

Your Tasks:
You have two tasks labeled as “Task 1” and “Task 2”. Task 1 is required and will be performed
by everybody. Task 2 is optional and you will get bonus for it. I strongly recommend you do both
“Task 1” and “Task 2”. We assume that flow is incompressible.
Task 1: In this part, you need to import the geometry and mesh directly from OpenFOAM tutorial
repository. The main job is to include heat transfer, i.e., solve energy conservation equation
together with the mass and momentum conservation (Navier-Stokes) equations. For this purpose,
do the following steps.
1. Go to OpenFOAM tutorial folder and find the example: /incompressible/icoFoam/elbow.
In this example, geometry and mesh (unstructured) are created in ANSYS-Fluent and then
imported to OpenFOAM. You can use the "fluentMeshToFoam elbow.msh" command
instead of "blockMesh" in order to create the geometry and mesh. Use the default geometric
dimensions and boundary conditions, for which the flow is fully laminar. Since it is fully
laminar flow, you can use "icoFoam" solver to solve the flow field as discussed in tutorial
sessions. The geometry and mesh are shown in Fig. 2.
2. Modify “icoFoam” solver such that the energy conservation equation is also solved to
determine the temperature field. You can refer to the manual. Solve the "elbow" problem
using the OpenFOAM solver with the default "elbow" initial and boundary conditions for
pressure, velocity and temperature fields.
Velocity BC:
• Large inlet: A uniform velocity at 1 m/s
• Small inlet: A uniform velocity at 3 m/s (except for Step 4 for which you need to use
different values).
• Outlet: The zero-gradient boundary condition is applied for velocity.
Pressure BC:
• Large and small inlets: The zero-gradient boundary condition is applied for pressure.
• Outlet: Pressure is constant at the exit. Since flow is incompressible, exact value of
the pressure at the exit is not important and you can simply set it to zero.
Temperature BC:
• T @ Wall_4 and Wall_8 (lateral surfaces): Zero-gradient.
• T @ Velocity_inlet_5 (large inlet): 290 K
• T @ Velocity _inlet_6 (small inlet): 310 K
• T @ Pressure_outlet_7 (outlet): Zero-gradient
3. Post process and visualize the flow and temperature fields: After you solve the problem
with the modified solver, the temperature field should look something like that shown in
Fig. 3.
4. Repeat simulations for larger velocity in the smaller inlet, i.e., repeat simulations for 𝑣 =
2 m/s, 𝑣 = 4 m/s and 𝑣 = 6 m/s while keeping the velocity in the larger inlet the same. For
this, you need to modify velocity BCs for the small inlet. Compare results for all three
cases and discuss about effects of jet velocity on mixing.


Mech 301 Fluid Mechanics CFD Project-II December 8, 2017

Figure 2: The channel geometry and unstructured computational grid as imported from the repository
/incompressible/icoFoam/elbow.

Figure 3: Typical temperature distribution obtained from the simulation. As you can see, a cool and a
hot flow enter from two different inlets, get mixed and then exit from the outlet. In this problem,
the inlet flows have constant temperature and the walls are considered to be adiabatic.


Mech 301 Fluid Mechanics CFD Project-II December 8, 2017

Task 2 (Optional with 50% bonus): This part is optional but you are strongly recommended to
do it. You can get 50% more points when you complete Task 2 properly. The main task is to create
the computational geometry, generate a structured computational grid, perform grid refinement
and perform simulations for the laminar flow case. Specifically, perform the following steps:
1. Consider the flow shown in Fig. 4. For this case, create the geometry and generate a
structured mesh using the blockMesh utility. For this step, among many such tutorial that
are available online, you are recommended to watch the tutorial posted on “YouTube”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJTSKaxG58Y
2. Generate at least two sets of computational grids: (i) The first one must contain as many
grid cells as the unstructured grid you used in Task 1. (ii) The second grid must be at least
twice as fine as the first one, i.e., it must contain at least 4 times more grid points than the
first grid.
3. Perform simulations for three jet velocities in the small inlet, i.e., for 𝑣 = 0.8 m/s, 𝑣 = 1.6
m/s and 𝑣 = 2.4 m/s.
4. Discuss about the effects of grid refinement on solution quality.
5. Discuss about the effects of jet velocity on mixing.
6. Compare your results with the results of Task1.

Figure 4: Flow geometry and boundary conditions for Task 2.

Format of the Report

Your report should contain the following sections:
1. Introduction: This section contains a general introduction to the project addressing
questions such as “what is the problem you studied?”, “why is this problem important”,


Mech 301 Fluid Mechanics CFD Project-II December 8, 2017

“what are the previous studies if there is any”, “which tools are used?” and “what have you
done in your work?”. You can also give an outline of your report in the last paragraph.
2. Description of the physical problem: In this section, describe the physical problem that you
have studied (some sketches might help), the initial and boundary conditions, material
properties, etc. Discuss the mathematical model (equations), numerical method and also
the software you use.
3. Results and Discussions: This section is the most important part of your report. In this
section, report your findings and discuss about them. You may organize this section as
follows:
a. Describe the computational domain and present a sample grid used in computations
including a close-up view.
b. Show some qualitative results such as contour plots for the temperature and
pressure fields, vector plots of the velocity fields for selected cases, and interpret
the results. You may also include blown out plots showing important regions such
as the vicinity of the smaller inlet where mixing occurs.
c. Show some quantitative results such as velocity and temperature profiles in selected
cross-sections, particularly between the smaller inlet and exit sections.
d. Discuss about the effects of jet velocity on mixing.
e. Discuss about the effects of grid refinement on quality of computational results. Is
grid convergence achieved? What is the grid needed to achieve grid convergence?
f. Compare your results with the results you obtained for Task1. You can use
temperature and velocity fields for this purpose and the grid size you determine in
part e.
g. Anything that you think it is interesting to report.

Deadline: 5:00pm, Friday, December 29, 2017