Problem Specification

Consider fluid flowing through a circular pipe of constant cross-section.

The pipe diameter D = 0.2 m and length L = 8 m. The inlet velocity Ū z =
1 m/s. Consider the velocity to be constant over the inlet cross-section.
The fluid exhausts into the ambient atmosphere which is at a pressure
of 1 atm. Take density ρ = 1 kg/ m 3 and coefficient of viscosity µ = 2 x
10 - 3 kg/(ms). The Reynolds number Re based on the pipe diameter is

where Ū z is the average velocity at the inlet, which is 1 m/s in this

case.

Solve this problem using FLUENT. Plot the centerline velocity, wall skin-
friction coefficient, and velocity profile at the outlet. Validate your results.

Note: The values used for the inlet velocity and flow properties are
chosen for convenience rather than to reflect reality. The key parameter
value to focus on is the Reynolds no.

Preliminary Analysis

We expect the viscous boundary layer to grow along the pipe starting at
the inlet. It will eventually grow to fill the pipe completely (provided that
the pipe is long enough). When this happens, the flow becomes fully-
developed and there is no variation of the velocity profile in the axial
direction, x (see figure below). One can obtain a closed-form solution to
the governing equations in the fully-developed region. You should have
seen this in the Introduction to Fluid Mechanics course. We will
compare the numerical results in the fully-developed region with the
corresponding analytical results. So it's a good idea for you to go back
to your textbook in the Intro course and review the fully-developed flow
analysis. What are the values of centerline velocity and friction factor
you expect in the fully-developed region based on the analytical
solution? What is the solution for the velocity profile?

We'll create the geometry and mesh in ANSYS 12.1 which is the
preprocessor for FLUENT, and then read the mesh into FLUENT and
solve for the flow solution.

Step 1: Pre-Analysis & Start-up

If you would prefer to skip the mesh generation steps, you can create a
working directory (see below), download the mesh from here (right click
and save as pipe.msh) into the working directory and go straight to
step 4.

Strategy for Creating Geometry

In order to create the rectangle, we will first create the vertices at the
four corners. We'll then join adjacent vertices by straight lines to form
the "edges" of the rectangle. Lastly, we'll create a "face" corresponding
to the area enclosed by the edges. In Step 2, we'll mesh the face i.e.
the rectangle. Note that in 3D problems, you'll have to form a "volume"
from faces. So the hierarchy of geometric objects in GAMBIT is vertices
-> edges -> faces -> volumes.
Create a Working Directory

Create a folder called pipe in a convenient location. We'll use this as

the working folder in which files created during the session will be
stored.

Start ANSYS FLUENT

We'll run FLUENT within the ANSYS Workbench interface. Start

ANSYS workbench:

Start> All Programs> Ansys 12.1> Workbench

The following figure shows the workbench window.

Higher Resolution Image

On the left hand side of the workbench window, you will see a toolbox
full of various analysis systems. To the right, you see an empty work
space. This is the place where you will organize your project. At the
bottom of the window, you see messages from ANSYS.

Step 2: Geometry

Since our problem involves fluid flow, we will select the FLUENT
component on the left panel.

Left click (and hold) on Fluid Flow (FLUENT), and drag the icon into
the empty space in the Project Schematic. Here's what you get:

Since we selected Fluid Flow(FLUENT), each cell of the system

corresponds to a step in the process of performing CFD analysis using
FLUENT. Rename the project to Laminar Pipe.
We will work through each step from top down to obtain the solution to
our problem.
In the Project Schematic of the Workbench window, right click
on Geometry and select Properties. You will see the properties
menu on the right of the Workbench window. Under Advance
Geometry Options, change the Analysis Type to 2D.
 In the Project Schematic, double left click on Geometry to start
preparing the geometry. After you launch the web tutorials and
FLUENT, you will have to drag the browser window to the width of the
largest image (about 350 pixels). to make best use of screen real
estate, move the windows around and resize them so that you
approximate

this screen arrangement

At this point, a new window, ANSYS Design Modeler will be opened.

You will be asked to select desired length unit. Use the default meter
unit and click OK.
Creating a Sketch

Start by creating a sketch on the XYPlane. Under Tree Outline,

select XYPlane, then click on Sketching right before Details View.
This will bring up the Sketching Toolboxes.

Click Here for Select Sketching Toolboxes Demo

Click on the +Z axis on the bottom right corner of

the Graphics window to have a normal look of the XY Plane.

Click Here for Select Normal View Demo

In the Sketching toolboxes, select Rectangle. In

the Graphics window, create a rough Rectangle from starting from the
origin in the positive XY direction (Make sure that you see a letter P at
the origin before you start dragging the rectangle. The letter P at the
origin means the geometry is constrained at the origin.)
You should have something like this:
Note: You do not have to worry about geometry for now, we can
dimension them properly in the later step.

Dimensions and Constraints

Now we will specify the appropriate dimensions and constraints.

Under Sketching Toolboxes, select Dimensions tab, use the

default dimensioning tools. Dimension the geometry as shown:

insert geometry dimension

Under Details View on the lower left corner, input the value for
dimension appropriately.
V1: 0.1 m
H2: 8 m

Now that we have the sketch done, we can create a surface for this
sketch.

Concept>Surfaces From Sketches

This will create a new surface SurfaceSK1. Under Details View,

 select Sketch1 as Base Objects and then under Surface body select
the thickness to 0.1m and click Apply. Finally click Generate to
generate the surface.

You can close the Design Modeler and go back

to Workbench (Don't worry, it will auto save).

Go to Step 3: Mesh

See and rate the complete Learning Module

Go to all FLUENT Learning Modules

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

United States License

Step 3: Mesh

Save your work in Workbench window. In the Workbench window,

right click on Mesh, and click Edit. A new ANSYS Mesher window
will open. We will create a mesh with 100x5 elements along the pipe.
This means that we will divide the pipe with 100 elements in axial
direction and 5 elements along the radial direction.

In ANSYS Mesher, make sure that the unit we are working on is

meter Metric unit. On the top menu, click on Units and make sure
thatMetric (m, kg, N, s, V, A) is selected.
Since we are going to manually specify meshing type and element size,
we should turn off ANSYS build-in advanced sizing function.
UnderDetails of "Mesh", expand Sizing, select Off next to Use
Advanced Size Function.

Turn off advanced size demo

Meshing Method

We would also like to create a structured mesh where the opposite

edges correspond with each other. Let's insert a Mapped Face mesh.
Under Outline, right click on Mesh, move cursor to Insert, and
select Mapped Face Meshing. Alternatively, you can click on Mesh
Control on the third menu and select Mapped Face Meshing. Finally
select the pipe surface body in the Graphics window and
click Applynext to Geometry.

Mapped Face Demo

Edge Sizing

Now let us move on to specify the element sizing along the pipe radial
direction.
Outline > Mesh > Insert > Sizing
In the Graphics window, select both the left and right edge of the
geometry (press Ctrl + mouse click to multiple select). Under Details
of "Edge Sizing", click Apply next to Geometry. Change the edge
sizing definition Type to Number of Divisions. Enter 5 for Number
of Divisions.
Radial Sizing

Now continue with the sizing in the axial direction.

Outline > Mesh > Insert > Sizing
In the Graphics window, select all the top and bottom edge of the
geometry (press Ctrl + mouse click to multiple select). Under Details
of "Edge Sizing", click Apply next to Geometry. Change the edge
sizing definition Type to Number of Divisions. Enter 100
forNumber of Divisions.

Next to Behaviour, change Soft to Hard (This is to overwrite the

sizing function employed by ANSYS Mesher. Try meshing with soft
behavior and see what you get).

We have specified all the meshing conditions. Click Update on the

third menu to see the mesh.

Click on Mesh and look under Details of "Mesh", next

to Statistics, you should see that we have 6120 Elements for our
mesh.

Create Named Selection

Next, we will name the edges accordingly so that we can specify the
appropriate boundary conditions in the later step. We know the bottom
edges of the geometry are the centerline of the pipe, the left edge is the
inlet of the pipe, the right edge is the outlet of the pipe, top side edges
are wall and the top middle edge is the heated wall section. Let's name
the edges according to the diagram below.

Select the left edge and right click and select Create Named
Selection. Enter Inlet and click OK. Under Outline, you will see the
nameInlet under Named Selections.
Finish naming rest of the edges. Finally, click Update
 Step 4: Setup (Physics)
If you have skipped the previous mesh generation steps 1-3, you can
download the mesh by right-clicking here. Save the file as pipe.msh.
You can then proceed with the flow solution steps below.

Check the number of nodes, faces (of different types) and cells. There
are 500 quadrilateral cells in this case. This is what we expect since we
used 5 divisions in the radial direction and 100 divisions in the axial
direction while generating the mesh. So the total number of cells is
5*100 = 500.
Also, take a look under zones. We can see the four
zones inlet,outlet,wall, and centerline that we defined in GAMBIT.

In the Workbench window, this is what you should see currently in

the Project Schematic space.

Double click on Setup which will bring up the FLUENT Launcher.
Click OK to select the default options in the FLUENT Launcher.
Twiddle your thumbs a bit while the FLUENT interface comes up. This is
where we'll specify the governing equations and boundary conditions for
our boundary-value problem. On the left-hand side of the FLUENT
interface, we see various items listed under Problem Setup. We will
work from top to bottom of the Problem Setup items to setup the
physics of our boundary-value problem. On the right hand side, we have
theGraphics pane and, below that, the Command pane.
Check and Display Mesh

First, we check the mesh to make sure that there are no errors.

Problem Setup > General > Mesh > Display...

The long, skinny rectangle displayed in the graphics window

corresponds to our solution domain. Some of the operations available in
the graphics window to interrogate the geometry and mesh are:
Translation: The model can be translated in any direction by holding
down the Left Mouse Button and then moving the mouse in the
desired direction.

Zoom In: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box from
the Upper Left Hand Corner to the Lower Right Hand
Cornerover the area you want to zoom in on.

Zoom Out: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box
anywhere from the Lower Right Hand Corner to the Upper Left
Hand Corner.
Use these operations to zoom in and interrogate our mesh.

You should have all the surfaces shown in the above snapshot.
Clicking on a surface name in the Mesh Display menu will toggle
between select and unselect. Clicking Display will show all the
currently selected surface entities in the graphics pane. Unselect all
surfaces and then select each one in turn to see which part of the
domain or boundary the particular surface entity corresponds to (you will
need to zoom in/out and translate the model as you do this). For
instance, the surface labeled inlet should correspond to the part of the
wall where the fluid enters.
Any errors in the mesh would be reported at this time. Check the output
and make sure that there are no errors reported. Check the mesh size:
Problem Setup > General > Display...

Make sure all 5 items under Surfaces are selected. Then

click Display. The graphics window opens and the mesh is displayed
in it.

Some of the operations available in the graphics window are:

Translation: The mesh can be translated in any direction by holding

down the Left Mouse Button and then moving the mouse in the
desired direction.

Zoom In: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box from
the Upper Left Hand Corner to the Lower Right Hand
Cornerover the area you want to zoom in on.

Zoom Out: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box
anywhere from the Lower Right Hand Corner to the Upper Left
Hand Corner.

Use these operations to zoom into the mesh to obtain the view shown
below.
Note: The zooming operations cannot be performed without a middle
mouse button.

If you open the Display menu again,you can also look at specific parts
of the mesh by choosing the boundaries you wish to view
underSurfaces(click to select and click again to deselect a specific
boundary). Click Display again when you have selected your
boundaries. For example, the wall, outlet,
and centerline boundaries have been selected in the following view:

These options will display the graph:

For convenience, the button next to Surfaces selects all of the

boundaries while the button deselects all of the boundaries at once.

Close the Mesh Display Window when you are done.

Specify Governing Equations

We ask FLUENT to solve the axisymmetric form of the governing

equations.
General > Solver > 2D Space > Axisymmetric
The energy equation is turned off by default. Turn on the energy
equation.
Models > Energy - Off > Edit...
Turn on the Energy Equation and click OK.

By default, FLUENT will assume the flow is laminar. Let's tell it that our
flow is turbulent rather than laminar and that we want to use the k-
epsilon turbulence model to simulate our turbulent flow. This means
FLUENT will solve for mean (i.e. Reynolds-averaged) quantities at
every point in the domain. It will add the k and epsilon equations to the
governing equations to calculate the effect of the turbulent fluctuations
on the mean.
Models > Viscous - Laminar > Edit...

Under Model, select k-epsilon (2 eqn). Since we'll use the default
settings for the k-epsilon turbulence model, click OK.
This is what you should currently see under Models.

Now let's set the "material properties" i.e. properties of air that appear in
our boundary value problem.
Materials > Fluid air > Create/Edit...

Since variations in absolute pressure are small in our pipe, we'll use a
constant absolute pressure in the ideal gas law as discussed in the
powerpoint presentation. This is called the "Incompressible ideal gas"
model in FLUENT (it's non-standard nomenclature). Change
theDensity (kg/m3) from constant to incompressible-ideal-
gas. The constant absolute pressure to be used in the ideal gas
equation is specified later as Operating Pressure.

The other properties are also functions of temperature. However, we'll

use constant values equal to the average values over temperature
range obtained in the experiment. Enter the following constant values:
Cp (Specific Heat) (j/kg-k): 1005
Thermal Conductivity (w/m-k): 0.0266
Viscosity (kg/m-s): 1.787e-5
Molecular Weight (kg/kgmol): 28.97
Higher Resolution Image

Click Change/Create and Close the Create/Edit Materials window.

Specify Boundary Conditions

FLUENT uses gauge pressure internally in order to minimize round-off

errors stemming from small differences of big numbers. Any time an
absolute pressure is needed, it is generated by adding the so-called
"operating pressure" to the gauge pressure. This "operating pressure" is
also used in the "incompressible ideal gas" model as mentioned above.
We will specify the "operating pressure" as equal to the measured
ambient pressure since the absolute pressure in the pipe varies only
slightly from this (you do get significant variations in gauge pressures
though).

Boundary Conditions > Operating Conditions...

We'll use the default value of 1 atm (101,325 Pa) as the Operating
Pressure and click OK.

Next we will specify boundary for centerline.

We'll now set the value of the velocity at the inlet and pressure at the
outlet.

Boundary Conditions > centerline

We note here that the four types of boundaries we defined are specified
as zones on the left side of the Boundary Conditions Window.
Setcenterline boundary Type to axis from the drop-down menu.
Notice that there is nothing to set for the axis. Click OK. FLUENT will
set the radial gradients of velocity to be zero at this boundary.

Move down the list and select inlet under Zone. Note that FLUENT
indicates that the Type of this boundary is velocity-inlet. This turns
out to be the right boundary type to use.

Double Click on inlet and set Velocity Magnitude to 1. Click OK.

This sets the velocity of the fluid entering at the left boundary.

The (absolute) pressure at the outlet is 1 atm. Since the operating

pressure is set to 1 atm, the outlet gauge pressure = outlet absolute
pressure - operating pressure = 0. Choose outlet under Zone.
The Type of this boundary is pressure-outlet. If you double click
on outlet you will see that the default value of the Gauge
Pressure is 0. Click Cancel to leave the default in place.

Lastly, click on wall under Zones and make sure Type is set as wall.
Click Edit...and observe that on each of the tabs and note that only
momentum can be changed under the current conditions. This will not
be so under later exercises so make a note of the location of these
options. Click OK. FLUENT will impose no-slip at the wall

Step 5: Solution

Now we will be dealing with the Solution section of FLUENT. Let's first
look at the discretization method.

Solution > Solution Methods

Let's use the default first order discretization method. Now let's us look
at the convergence criteria.

Solution > Monitors > Residuals - Print, Plot > Edit...

The default convergence criteria is set to 0.001. Let's click OK and use
this default value.

At this point, everything is set up properly. We just need to give an initial

condition for FLUENT to start the calculation.
Solution > Solution Initialization
Under Compute from, select Inlet and click Initialize.

Now we can solve for a solution.

Solution > Run Calculation
Enter 500 for Number of Iterations and click Calculate. You will
see a window message saying Calculating the solution... Wait for
FLUENT to finish the calculation. FLUENT obtain solution at about 83
iteration. Let's check out our result. Close FLUENT and return
toWorkbench

Step 6: Results
Velocity Vectors

One can plot vectors in the entire domain, or on selected surfaces. Let
us plot the velocity vectors for the entire domain to see how the flow
develops downstream of the inlet.

Results > Graphics and Animations

Under Graphics double click on Vectors and then click on Display.

Zoom into the region near the inlet. (Click hereto review the zoom
functionality discussion in step 4.) The length and color of the arrows
represent the velocity magnitude. The vector display is more intelligible
if one makes the arrows shorter as follows: Change Scale to 0.4 in
the Vectors menu and click Display.

You can reflect the plot about the axis to get an expanded sectional
view:

Main Menu > Display > Views...

Under Mirror Planes, only the axis (or centerline) surface is listed
since that is the only symmetry boundary in the present case.
Selectaxis (or centerline)and click Apply. Close
the Views window.
The velocity vectors provide a picture of how the flow develops
downstream of the inlet. As the boundary layer grows, the flow near the
wall is retarded by viscous friction. Note the sloping arrows in the near
wall region close to the inlet. This indicates that the slowing of the flow
in the near-wall region results in an injection of fluid into the region away
from the wall to satisfy mass conservation. Thus, the velocity outside
the boundary layer increases.
By default, one vector is drawn at the center of each cell. This can be
seen by turning on the grid in the vector plot: Select Draw Grid in
theVectors menu and then click Display in the Grid Display as well
as the Vectorsmenus. Velocity vectors are the default, but you can also
plot other vector quantities. See section 27.1.3 of the user manual for
more details about the vector plot functionality.

Centerline Velocity

We'll plot the variation of the axial velocity along the centerline.

Results > Plots > XY Plot... > Set Up...

Make sure that Position on X Axis is set under Options, and X is

set to 1 and Y to 0 under Plot Direction. This tells FLUENT to plot the
x-coordinate value on the abscissa of the graph.

Under Y Axis Function, pick Velocity... and then in the box under
that, pick Axial Velocity.

Please note that X Axis Function and Y Axis Function describe

the x and y axes of the graph, which should not be confused with
the xand y directions of the pipe.

Finally, select centerline under Surfaces since we are plotting the

axial velocity along the centerline. This finishes setting up the plotting
parameters.
Click Plot.

This brings up a plot of the axial velocity as a function of the distance

along the centerline of the pipe.
In the graph that comes up, we can see that the velocity reaches a
constant value beyond a certain distance from the inlet. This is the fully-
developed flow region.

Change the axes extents: In the Solution XY Plot window, click on

the Axes... button. Under Options, deselect Auto Range. The
boxes under Range should now be activated. Select X under Axis.
Enter 1 for Minimum and 3 for Maximum under Range.

We'll turn on the grid lines to help estimate where the flow becomes fully
developed. Check the boxes next to Major Rules and Minor
Rulesunder Options. Click Apply.

Now, pick Y under Axis and once again deselect Auto

Range under Options, then
enter 1.8 for Minimum and 2.0 for Maximum underRange. Also
select Major Rules and Minor Rules to turn on the grid lines in the
direction. We have now finished specifying the range for each axis, so
click Apply and then Close.

Go back to the Solution XY Plot menu and click Plot to plot the graph
again with the new axes extents. We can see that the fully-developed
region starts at around x=3m and the centerline velocity in this region
is 1.93 m/s.
Saving the Plot

Save the data from this plot:

In the Solution XY Plot Window, check the Write to File box
under Options. The Plot button should have changed to Write....
Click onWrite.... Enter vel.xy as the XY File Name and click OK.
Check that this file has been created in your FLUENT working directory.

Now, save a picture of the plot:

Leave the Solution XY Plot Window and in the main FLUENT

window click on:

File > Save Picture

Under Format, choose one of the following three options:

EPS- if you have a postscript viewer, this is the best

choice. EPS allows you to save the file in vector mode, which will offer
the best viewable image quality. After selecting EPS,
choose Vector from under File Type.

TIFF- this will offer a high resolution image of your graph. However, the
image file generated will be rather large, so this is not recommended if
you do not have a lot of room on your storage device.

JPG- this is small in size and viewable from all browsers. However, the
quality of the image is not particularly good.

After selecting your desired image format and associated options, click
on Save...

Enter vel.eps, vel.tif, or vel.jpg depending on your format choice and

click OK.

Verify that the image file has been created in your working directory.
You can now copy this file onto a disk or print it out for your records.
Coefficient of Skin Friction

FLUENT provides a large amount of useful information in the online

help that comes with the software. Let's probe the online help for
information on calculating the coefficient of skin friction.

Main Menu > Help > User's Guide Index...

Click on S in the links on top and scroll down to skin friction

coefficient. Click on the first link (normally, you would have to go
through each of the links until you find what you are looking for). We can
see an excerpt on the skin coefficient as well as the equation for
calculating it.

Click on the link for Reference Values panel, which tells us how to
set the reference values used in calculating the skin coefficient.

Set the reference values:

Problem Setup > Reference Values or Main Menu > Report >
Reference Values...

Select inlet under Compute From to tell FLUENT to calculate the

reference values from the values at inlet. Check that density is 1 kg/m3
and velocity is 1 m/s. (Alternately, you could have just typed in the
appropriate values). Click OK.
Go back to the Solution XY Plot menu. Uncheck the Write to
File check box under Options and since we want to plot to the window
right now. We can leave the other Options and Plot Direction as is
since we are still plotting against the x distance along the pipe.

Under the Y Axis Function, pick Wall Fluxes..., and then Skin
Friction Coefficient in the box under that.

Under Surfaces, select wall and deselect centerline by clicking on

them.

Reset axes ranges: Go to Axes... and re-select Auto-Range for

the Y axis. Click Apply. Set the range of the X axis from 1to 8 by
selectingX under Axis, entering 1 under Minimum, and 8
under Maximum in the box (remember to deselect Range Auto-
Range first if it is checked).
Click Apply, then Close, and Plot in the Solution XY Plot Window.

We can see that the fully developed region is reached at around x=3.0m
and the skin friction coefficient in this region is around 1.54. Compare
the numerical value of 1.54 with the theoretical, fully-developed value of
0.16.
Save the data from this plot: Pick Write to File under Options and
click Write.... Enter cf.xy for XY File and click OK.

Velocity Profile

We'll next plot the velocity at the outlet as a function of the distance from
the center of the pipe. To do this, we have to set the y axis of the graph
to be the y axis of the pipe (the radial direction).

To plot the position variable on the y axis of the graph,

uncheck Position on X Axis under Options and choose Position
on Y Axisinstead. To make the position variable the radial distance
from the centerline, under Plot Direction, change X to 0 and Y to 1.
To plot the axial velocity on the x axis of the graph, for X Axis
Function, pick Velocity...and Axial Velocity under that.

Since we want to plot this at the outlet boundary,

pick outlet under Surfaces.

Change both the x and y axes to Auto-Range. (Don't forget to click

apply before selecting a different axis)

To compare the velocity profile with theoretical parabolic profile,

click Load File...and select profile_fdev.xy

Uncheck the Write to File check box under Options so that we can
see the graph. Click Plot.
Does this compare well with the theoretical parabolic profile?

Save the data from this plot: Pick Write to File under Options and
click Write.... Enter profile.xy for XY File and click OK.
To see how the velocity profile changes in the developing region, let us
add the profiles at x=0.6m (x/D=3) and x=0.12m (x/D=6) to the above
plot. First, create a line at x=0.6m using the Line/Raketool:

Main Menu > Surface > Line/Rake

We'll create a straight line from (x0,y0)=(0.6,0) to (x1,y1)=(0.6,0.1).

Select Line Tool under Options. Enter x0=0.6, y0=0,x1=0.6,y1=0.1.
Enter line1 under New Surface Name. Click Create.

To see the line just created, select

Main Menu > Display > Mesh

Note that line1appears in the list of surfaces. Select all surfaces

except default-interior. Click Display. This displays all surfaces but
not the mesh cells. Zoom into the region near the inlet to see the line
created at x=0.6m. (Click here to review the zoom functionality
discussion in step 4.) line1 is the white vertical line to the right in the
figure below.
Similarly, create a vertical line called line2at x=1.2; (x0,y0)=(1.2,0) to
(x1,y1)=(1.2,0.1) in this case. Display it in the graphics window to check
that it has been created correctly.

Now we can plot the velocity profiles at x=0.6m (x/D=3) and x=0.12m
(x/D=6) along with the outlet profile. In the Solution XY plot menu, use
the same settings as above. Under Surfaces, in addition to outlet,
select line1 and line2. Make sure Node Values is selected under
Options. Click Plot. Your symbols might be different from the ones
below. You can change the symbols and line styles under
the Curves...button. Click on Help in the Curves menu if you have
problems figuring out how to change these settings.
The profile three diameters downstream is fairly close to the fully-
developed profile at the outlet. If you redo this plot using the fine grid
results in the next step, you'll see that this is not actually the case. The
coarse grid used here doesn't capture the boundary layer development
properly and under predicts the development length.

In FLUENT, you can choose to display the computed cell-center values

or values that have been interpolated to the nodes. By default, the Node
Values option is turned on, and the interpolated values are displayed.
Node-averaged data curves may be somewhat smoother than curves
for cell values

Step 7: Verification & Validation

It is very important that you take the time to check the validity of your
solution. This section leads you through some of the steps you can take
to validate your solution.

Refine Mesh

Let's repeat the solution on a finer mesh with more smaller element
size.Repeat the mesh steps, but this time use edge sizing of 50 and
0.02. In the workbench, under Force Convection project, right click
on Fluid Flow (FLUENT) and click duplicate. Rename the duplicate
project toForce Convection Refined Mesh. You should have two
projects cell in workbench.

Double click on Mesh for Forced Convection Refined Mesh. A

new ANSYS Mesher window will open. Under Outline, expand mesh
tree and click on Edge Sizing.
Under Details of "Edge Sizing", enter 60 for Number of Divisions.

Similarly, specify element size of 0.015m for Edge Sizing 2.

Click Update to generate the new mesh. Under Statistics, we should

have mesh with 24,420 elements.
Close the ANSYS Mesher and go back to Workbench windows.
Under Forced Convection Refined Mesh, right click on Fluid
Flow (FLUENT) and click Update. Wait for a few minutes for
FLUENT to obtain a solution.

We would want to compare the solution between the two meshes. To do

that, drag the Solution cell of Forced Convection Refined
Mesh to Results cell of Forced Convection.

Finally, double click on Results cell of Forced Convection to

compare. Under Outline tab, click on the results of interest to analyze.
Centerline Pressure
Let's us look first look at the Pressure drop along the centerline.

Higher Resolution Image

The refined mesh pressure correspond better with the experimental

data.

Centerline Temperature

Higher Resolution Image

Wall Temperature
Higher Resolution Image

What can you say about mesh refinement after comparing the results?