Fluid Dynamics

CAx Tutorial: Axial Fan

Outline Tutorial # 9

Deryl O. Snyder
C. Greg Jensen
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

Special thanks to:

PACE, Fluent, UGS Solutions, Altair Engineering;

and to the following students who assisted in the creation of the Fluid Dynamics tutorials:

Leslie Tanner, Cole Yarrington, Curtis Rands, and Curtis Memory.

 Axial Fan
Transonic 3-D Flow
In this tutorial, Gambit will be used to import and mesh the geometry for the problem.
Once this is complete, Fluent will be used to solve for the flow field.

This tutorial will provide an outline to guide the user through creating a 3-D Euler
mesh in Gambit and provide experience with setting up mesh interfaces and moving
meshes in Fluent.

The methods expressed in these tutorials represent just one approach to modeling, defining and
solving 3-D problems. Our goal is the education of students in the use of CAx tools for model-
ing, defining and solving fluids application problems. Other techniques and methods will be
used and introduced in subsequent tutorials.

Create a Fluent model of the three-bladed axial fan

shown below. The fan is to rotate at 1000 RPM
about the Y-axis. Display and animate iso-contours
of Y velocity and monitor the startup flow field.

3
 Axial Fan
Meshing Geometry
The fan geometry was created in a popular
CAD package and saved as a STEP file.
Import the STEP file named
“Axial_Fan_fan.stp”.
Use the following settings:

Model Scale Factor = 0.001

No Stand-Alone Edges
Heal Geometry
Make Tolerant

Begin by meshing the leading and trailing

edges of the blades (6 total). Create Quad
elements with an interval size = 0.004 and
Type = Map.

Then split the quad elements into Tri ele-

ments with the Split Quad Faces function.
This is found by clicking on the Move Face
Nodes button with MB3.

Mesh the blade tips with Tri elements of

Interval Size = 0.004.

Now create a size function for the blades.

Use the following parameters:

Source = The edges that form the upper

and lower blade surfaces. Do not forget
the edges on the blade hub.
Attachment = Upper and lower blade faces.
Start Size = 0.004
Growth Rate = 1.2
Size Limit = 0.01

Initialize the size function and mesh the

blade faces with Tri elements.

4
 Axial Fan
Meshing Geometry
Create another size function whose source
is the edges that form the blade roots and
attach to the nine faces that form the hub.
Use the same parameters as the previous
function. Mesh the hub faces with Tri ele-
ments.

Finally, create a size function with the same

parameters as previously, with the follow-
ing changes:

Source = Blade tip faces

Attachment = Entire volume

Mesh the volume with Tetra elements.

Now create boundary conditions as fol-

lows:

Blade and hub faces = WALL

Semi-circle Walls = WALL
Circle face on positive Y-axis = PRES-
SURE_INLET
Circle face on negative Y-axis = PRES-
SURE_OUTLET

5
 Axial Fan
Meshing Geometry
Now import the STEP file named
“Axial_Fan_cone.stp”.

Hide the fan volume to facilitate the mesh-

ing process.

The cone mesh is easily created with one

size function whose source is the cone faces
and the circle face they attach to. The
attachment is the volume.

Initial Size = 0.01

Growth Rate = 1.3
Size Limit = 0.03

Set appropriate boundary conditions for

the cone volume.

In addition, it is necessary to specify two

separate fluid zones.

Operation > Zones Command > Specify

Contiuum Types

Set one fluid zone for each volume.

Save and export the mesh file.

If problems are encountered in meshing the

geometry, the meshed geometry can be loaded
from the file “Axial_Fan_Meshed.dbs” and
“Axial_Fan_Meshed.msh”.

6
 Axial Fan
Starting in Fluent
Load the mesh file into the 3-D version of
Fluent. Check the mesh for any errors.

Change the units for length and angular

velocity to inches and RPM respectively.

Since the fan will be rotating, this problem

will require an unsteady solver. Also, the
laminar viscous model will be sufficient.

Move the Reference Pressure location to (0,

0.051, 0.07)

Enter the boundary conditions window.

Change the fan pressure outlet and the

cone pressure inlet both to Interface.

Enter the setup window for the fan fluid

zone. Note this zone will have the same
name given in Gambit on the previous
page when fluid zones were specified.

Change the Rotation Axis Direction to the

positive Y-axis and change Motion Type to
Moving Mesh. Scroll down and enter 1000
RPM into the Rotation Velocity entry field.

By default, this tells the entire fan zone to

rotate with the above settings. This
includes the walls contained in that zone.
Therefore the fan blades and hub walls can
be left at their default settings as a station-
ary wall. However, the fan casing wall
does not rotate with the blades.

Enter the fan wall settings window and

change the wall motion to Rotational about
the positive Y-axis at 0 RPM.

7
 Axial Fan
Defining the Problem
Change the Under Relaxation value for
pressure to 0.7 and the Pressure-Velocity
Coupling to SIMPLEC.

In this case, the fan domain will be initial-

ized to 0 m/s. This will allow visualization
of the startup sequence of the fan. When
initializing the domain select Absolute
under Reference Frame. If the relative ref-
erence frame were selected, Fluent would
initialize the domain with radial velocity
components corresponding to the fan rota-
tional velocity.

Enable residual plotting and disable con-

vergence checking.

Now display the mesh and preview the

mesh motion to ensure that the fan is tur-
ing in the proper direction.

Solve > Mesh Motion...

The fan should be rotating about the posi-

tive Y-axis according to the right-hand rule.

Before creating an iso-surface to view the

flow progression through the domain, one
time step must be solved in order to pro-
vide Fluent flow variables to calculate with.

Iterate one time step of size 0.001 s with 50

iterations.

8
 Axial Fan
Analyzing the Solution
Display > Iso-Surface...

Create an iso-surface of Y-Velocity with an

iso-value of -3.0 m/s.

Set up an animation of the iso-surface

growth.

Solve > Animate > Define...

Activate one animation to save for every

time step. Click Define...

Increment Window to 1 and click Set.

Select Contours.

Select Draw Grid and display the fan,

cone, and the iso-surface.

Now display contours of Velocity

Magnitude.

Check Filled and uncheck Auto Range.

Re-display the contours.

Continue interating 45-50 more time steps.

View the animation.

Solve > Animate > Playback...

If problems are encountered in setting up the

problem, the initialized problem can be loaded
as a Case & Data from the file
“Axial_Fan_Initialized.dbs”.