Workshop 08a

Tank Flushing
16.0 Release

Introduction to ANSYS Fluent

1 2015 ANSYS, Inc. February 26, 2015

 Introduction
Workshop Description:
In this workshop, you will model the filling and emptying of a water tank. The simulation will be
multiphase (volume of fluid) and transient (time dependent)
Learning Aims:
This workshop aims to teach skills in running multiphase simulations in Fluent. The entire
simulation approach is covered, including:
Setting up a 2-phase simulation
Using patch tools to control initialisation
Preparing a transient animation
Using Solution Controls to modify the problem definition (turn off the valve)
Learning Objectives:
This workshop teaches skills in the use of multiphase modelling, transient flow modelling,
generating images on-the-fly and preparing animations
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 Introduction
In this workshop, you will model the filling and emptying of a water tank. The transient
problem is solved as a multiphase (air/water) simulation using the volume of fluid (VOF)
multiphase model.
An initial water level is set in the tank. The water supply is turned on for the first second of
the simulation and then shut off for the rest of the simulation. The water level rises until
water flows out the U-tube generating a siphoning effect which effectively empties the tank.

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 Mesh Import
Start a new Fluent session
- 3D, Double Precision and Display Mesh After
Reading (Display Options)
Read or import the mesh file tankflush.msh.gz
Use the parallel processing operation if it is available
on the training computers
Click General in the tree
Scale the mesh to units of cm
Set View Length Unit In to cm to have Fluent display
lengths in centimeters
Verify the domain extents:
11 < x < 20.5 cm
20.25 < y < 26.5 cm
0 < z < 1 cm
Check the mesh
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 Mesh Import
Orient the view
Select Graphics in the tree
Click Views button in the center pane
In the panel that opens select front under
Views and click Apply, click Auto Scale
and then Close

Inlet
Ambient

Outlet
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 Define Simulation Type
In the General Panel
Choose Transient Solver
Enable Gravity
set Gravitational Acceleration to -
9.81 m/s2 in the y-direction

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 Enable Turbulence Model
Expand the Models branch in the
tree

Right click on Viscous, select

Model and then Realizable k-
epsilon

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 Enable VOF Multiphase Model
Enable the VOF multiphase model
Double-click on Multiphase in the Models branch
enable Volume of Fluid
Set Number of Eulerian Phases to 2
Ensure that Scheme is set to Explicit
Enable Implicit Body Force
Click OK

In some applications, sharp resolution of the interface might

not be necessary in all fluid zones and in such cases, using
Dispersed interface modeling or a combination of Sharp and
Dispersed modeling can help to make the simulation more
robust. In this application, though, we want to achieve
sharp resolution of the air water interfaces, so choose
"Sharp" under Interface Modeling.
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 Materials and Phases
Add Water to Materials
Expand the Materials branch, then expand the Fluid
branch, right click on Air and select Edit to open the
Materials panel
In the Materials panel, click Fluent Database, select
water-liquid from the Fluent Fluid Materials list, click
Copy and then click Close
Define the phases
Expand the Multiphase branch to expose the Phases
branch
Expand the Phases branch to access the individual
phases
Right click on phase-1 and select Edit
(continued on next slide)

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 Defining Phases
Define the Primary Phase
Change the material to water-liquid and the name of
the phase to water
Close the panel by clicking OK

Define the Secondary Phases

Right click Secondary Phase in the tree and select
Edit
Make sure the material is air and change the name to
Air
Following this step, the Phases branch should appear
as in the lower right

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 Multiphase Model Setup
Define Phase Interactions
Right click on Phase Interactions and select Edit
In the Phase Interaction Panel that opens, activate the Surface
Tension tab and click Surface Tension Force Modeling
Select constant in the pull-down list and enter 0.072 N/m for the
Surface Tension Coefficient
Click OK

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 Set Operating Conditions
Solution > Cell Zone Conditions
Left click Cell Zones Conditions in the tree, then
Operating Conditions in the center pane below the
Cell Zone Conditions box
Verify that Gravity is enabled and the Gravitational
Acceleration is set correctly
(9.81 m/s2 in the y direction)
Under Variable Density Parameters, activate
Specified Operating Density and keep the default
entry of 1.225 kg/m3 for the Operating Density

The operating density should be set to the density of the lightest fluid in
the domain when using the VOF model; otherwise, an erroneous
hydrostatic pressure distribution will occur.
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 Define Boundary Conditions [Inlet, Mixture]
Solution Setup > Boundary Conditions
Expand the Boundary Conditions branch in the
tree, then expand the branch for "inlet"
Right click on the main inlet branch, as shown
to the right and choose Edit to open the
Mass-Flow-Inlet panel for the Mixture entries
select Normal to Boundary for Direction
Specification Method
For the turbulent quantities, select Intensity
and Hydraulic Diameter, with TI of 5% and
HD of 2.1 cm

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 Define Boundary Conditions [Inlet, Phases]
Setup > Boundary Conditions
Now right click on "water"
to enter conditions for the
water phase
Set the mass flow rate
to 0.2 kg/s
Repeat this procedure for
the air phase (not shown)
Set the mass flow rate
for air to 0

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 Define Boundary Conditions [Outlet]
Setup > Boundary Conditions
Right click on "outlet" in the tree and select
Edit to open up the Pressure Outlet panel
for the mixture
For the turbulent quantities, select
Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter, with TI of
5% and HD of 12.5 cm
Click OK
Right click on "air" under the outlet branch
and select Edit
Switch to Multiphase tab and enter 1 for
Backflow Volume Fraction
Click OK

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 Define Boundary Conditions [Ambient]
Copy Boundary conditions from outlet to ambient
Right click outlet and select Copy
Select 'Outlet' and 'Ambient' as shown on the right
Select 'mixture' under 'Phase' and click Copy
Click OK when asked if you want to copy the boundary
conditions for mixture
Change 'Phase' to 'air' and repeat

The Copy Conditions panel is a quick way of transferring

common settings from one boundary to another. The To
Boundary Zones automatically displays boundaries of the same
type as the From Boundary Zone selection.

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 Define Solution Methods and Controls
Expand the Solution branch and click Solution Methods
Under Pressure-Velocity Coupling,
set Scheme to PISO
Under Spatial Discretization
Gradient Least Squares Cell Based
Pressure PRESTO!
Momentum Second Order Upwind
Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Turbulent Dissipation
Rate First Order Upwind
Volume Fraction Geo Reconstruct

In the Solution branch, click Solution Controls.

Set the Under-Relaxation factor for momentum to 0.3
Set the under-relaxation factors for Turbulent Kinetic
Energy and Turbulent Dissipation Rate (scroll down) to 0.5
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 Initial Solution
Initially, the tank is filled to a level of 6 cm with water.
Here you will first initialize the flow solution, then
create an adaption register and use the register to
define the initial location of the liquid surface.
Initialize the flow field
Select Solution Initialization in the tree
Select inlet from Compute from drop down
list
Scroll down and set air volume fraction to 1
Click Initialize
This will instruct the solver to fill the tank with air. The
next step is to partially fill the tank with water, resulting
in the proper initial condition..
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 Patch the Initial Liquid Region
Next, define the region of the domain to be
filled with liquid
In the top menu bar, select Adapt Region
Enter the values shown in the panel to the right
Click Mark. DO NOT CLICK ADAPT!
A message appears in the Fluent console
informing you that 3716 cells have been marked
To view the marked cells, click Manage
Verify the register hexahedron-r0 under
Registers is selected and click Display
You may need to zoom in (use the Fit to
Window icon) because the mesh was scaled
since it was first displayed
Close the Manage Adaption Registers panel and
the Region Adaption panel
The marked cells will be displayed in the
graphics window (see next page)

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 Initial Liquid Region - Adaption Register

Outline of region adaption register

showing the liquid distribution at time = 0

In the Manage Adaption Register on the

previous slide, use the Options... button to
enable mesh display together with the cells in
the adaption register. Selecting the "Filled"
and "Wireframe" boxes will help to make the
register more visible.

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 Patch Liquid in the Adaption Register
Patch the initial solution into the
adaption register
Click Patch under Solution
Initialization in the tree
In the panel that opens, under
Phase, select air
Select Volume Fraction under
Variable
Set Value to 0
Under Registers to Patch, select the
adaption register you created The specialized volume
Click Patch fraction patching options are
Close the Patch panel not necessary for this
problem.
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 Initialize Display Settings
Arrange two graphics windows side-by-side
Click in Window 2 to activate it to display the Initial Solution
Display contours of the volume fraction on the surface "sym1" as shown below

In multiphase problems,
displaying contours of
volume fraction to
confirm the correct initial
condition before
beginning to iterate is
highly recommended.

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 Initialize Display Settings
You can switch change the colour map used for plotting images.
We will change from Blue-Green-Red to a Grayscale scheme.
Choose Colormap
Set Colormap size to 10
Choose the gray Scheme
Apply

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 Modify Lighting
The "gray" colormap scale is more visually appealing if lighting is disabled
Choose Lights
Set Lighting Method to Off
Unselect Headlight On
Apply

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 Define Calculation Activities
In this step you will define activities that Fluent will perform during the calculation. These
activities are as follows:
To autosave case and data files
To turn off the supply of water after t = 1 second. (Mass flow rate boundary condition will
be changed to zero)

Start by expanding the Calculation Activities Branch

in the tree
Right click Autosave (Every Time Steps) and select
Edit

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 Autosave Inputs
Save the data file every 25 time steps
Enter tankflush.gz for the file name and append the
file name with time step
The File Name entry only appears in standalone Fluent. If you
are using Workbench, it uses its own internal naming
convention

Including .gz in the file name tells Fluent to

compress the data files produced by Autosave.
The time-step will be appended to the file name
such that the resulting names will be tankflush-
0025.dat.gz, tankflush-0050.dat.gz, etc.

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 Calculation Activities: Execute Commands
Define a command to modify the
boundary condition after 1
second:
Right Click Execute Commands in
the tree and select New
In the Panel that opens, set Defined
Commands to 1
Check Active and Enter the
following command to be executed.
Please make sure the spelling is
exactly as written as below, take
special care with the hyphens -:

Set "Every" to 100 , set "When" to

"Time Step" and click OK

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 Saving Images On-the-fly
Under Calculation Activities,
right click on Solution
Animations and choose Edit
Increase number of
sequences to 1
sequence-1, every 2 Time
Steps
Define, which will open the
Animation Sequence
window (continued on next
slide)
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 Saving Images On-the-fly
In the Animation Sequence panel, set
Window to 2, press Set and then
Contours
This will open the Contours
panel (continued on next slide)

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 Saving Images On-the-fly
Set up the contour panel as shown in the image below, then Display
Make sure the phase is "air" and the view is oriented as indicated in the lower right hand image
Close the contour panel, then OK to both panels opened on previous slide

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 Residuals Monitor
Edit the Residuals monitor
Reduce Iterations to Plot to 100. This will make the residuals scroll across the plot,
making it easier to see the current time step.

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 Run the Calculation
Before run the calculation, you should save the
case and data files as tank-flush-init.cas.gz
If running Fluent Workbench, Select Save Project
Can also use File > Export
For multiphase problems, saving files with the initial
condition is good practice because if something goes
wrong and you need to restart, you can skip the patching
step and just reload the initial data file
Select Run Calculation from the tree
Enter 0.01 s for Time Step Size
Enter 350 under Number of Time Steps
Click Calculate
The solution will require approximately half an
hour to compute. You can choose to run all of the
calculations or stop the iterations, read final data
file or check the provided animation.
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 Run the Calculation

This is a snapshot of the graphics windows after the completion of the first 100 time steps.
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 Post-Process Results
To run the animation,
expand the Animations
branch, right click on
Solution Animation Playback
and then Edit
- Use the Play button to view a
movie of the series of images (if
necessary, set the graphics
window to "2:Contours of
Volume fraction")
- If desired, this can be written
out as an mpeg movie (change
Write/Record Format from
Animation Frames to MPEG)

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 Post-Process Results [Workbench]
Locating the mpeg file
If you are running Fluent in Workbench, the mpeg file from
the animation sequence is written in the Workbench project
directory
To locate the file in Workbench, select Files in the
Workbench View menu
Order the files in descending order so the mpeg file is at or
near the top of the list

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 Post-Process Results [Workbench]
Locating the mpeg file (continued)
Right click on sequence-1.mpeg and select
Open Containing Folder
The mpeg file can be played in Windows
Media Player or similar programs

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 Post-Process Results
The Animation Playback tool can also be used to generate a sequence of
picture frames

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 Further Work
There are many ways the simulation in this
tutorial could be extended, for instance
reloading the saved initial case and data files and
then try:
Switching to different discretization schemes for the
volume fraction
Compressive or Modifed HRIC
Modifying the Time Step Size
Reduce the Time Step Size by a factor of
2 or 5
Use Variable Time Stepping to ensure that the
time step size corresponds to a predetermined
value for the Courant Number in the region of the
phase interface Courant number of 2
If HPC liceneses are available, try running the means the phase
calculation using different numbers of parallel interface is passing
processes and time the solution time with your only two cells per
watch
time step
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 Wrap-up
This workshop has shown the basic steps that are applied in VOF simulations:
Defining Phases and Phase Interaction
Setting boundary conditions per Phase and Solver Settings
Running a transient simulation whilst writing intermediate data files and animation data
Post-processing the results
One of the important things to remember in your own work is, before even starting the
ANSYS software, is to think WHY you are performing the simulation:
What information are you looking for
What do you know about the inlet conditions
In this case we were interested in how long it would take to completely empty the tank.
Knowing your aims from the start will help you make sensible decisions of how much of
the part to simulate, the level of mesh refinement needed, and which numerical schemes
should be selected.
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