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Mesh Generation
Geometry created or imported into
preprocessor for meshing.
Mesh is generated for the fluid region
(and/or solid region for conduction).
A fine structured mesh is placed
around cylinders to help resolve
boundary layer flow.
Unstructured mesh is used for
remaining fluid areas.
Identify interfaces to which boundary
conditions will be applied.
cylindrical walls
inlet and outlets
symmetry and periodic faces
Section of mesh for tube bank problem
Post-processing
Extract relevant engineering
data from solution in the
form of:
x-y plots
contour plots
vector plots
surface/volume integration
forces
fluxes
particle trajectories
Advantages of CFD
Low Cost
Using physical experiments and tests to get essential engineering data for
design can be expensive.
Computational simulations are relatively inexpensive, and costs are likely
to decrease as computers become more powerful.
Speed
CFD simulations can be executed in a short period of time.
Quick turnaround means engineering data can be introduced early in the
design process
Ability to Simulate Real Conditions
Many flow and heat transfer processes can not be (easily) tested - e.g.
hypersonic flow at Mach 20
CFD provides the ability to theoretically simulate any physical condition
Limitations of CFD
Physical Models
CFD solutions rely upon physical models of real world processes (e.g.
turbulence, compressibility, chemistry, multiphase flow, etc.).
The solutions that are obtained through CFD can only be as accurate as
the physical models on which they are based.
Numerical Errors
Solving equations on a computer invariably introduces numerical errors
Round-off error - errors due to finite word size available on the computer
Truncation error - error due to approximations in the numerical models
Round-off errors will always exist (though they should be small in most
cases)
Truncation errors will go to zero as the grid is refined - so mesh
refinement is one way to deal with truncation error.
Computational Computational
Domain Domain
Fully Developed
Uniform Inlet
Inlet Profile
Profile
poor better
Summary
Computational Fluid Dynamics is a powerful way of modeling fluid
flow, heat transfer, and related processes for a wide range of important
scientific and engineering problems.
The cost of doing CFD has decreased dramatically in recent years, and
will continue to do so as computers become more and more powerful.