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Ship - SimFlow CFD Software Help
10-13 minutes
In this tutorial you will learn how to perform a simulation of a body
floating on a water surface. This floating body can be considered a
“ship” since it will be moving at a constant speed with respect to the
water surface. In the first part of the tutorial the ship will have fixed
location and orientation. In the second part you will enable dynamic
motion of the model so that it could adjust its location and
orientation to achieve dynamic equilibrium.
Create New Case
After you start simFlow, in the launcher window:
1. Specify a Case Name, e.g.: simple_body
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2. Click Create Case to start a new case and open main window
All your project files will be stored under <Workspace>/<Case
Name>/<Case Name> directory.
Load Geometry
For the next step you to download the geometry file. In the main
window:
1. Make sure you are in the Geometry panel
2. Click Load Geometry button to open file browser
3. Select geometry
file simple_body.stl or simple_body.stl.gz
4. Click Open to load geometry
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Geometry
After geometry is loaded it will be displayed in the graphics window.
Create Water Region
Now you will create a geometry that will tell the program where the
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water should be located in the computational domain.
1. Click Create Box
2. Double click on the box_1 geometry name and change it to water
3. Define box point of origin
4. Define dimensions of the box
Box defining the water region will be slightly bigger than the
computational domain which will ensure that both mesh and its
boundaries will be marked as containing water.
Create Refinement Region
To better resolve flow near the water surface, you will create a
geometry that will mark a refinement region.
1. Click Create Box
2. Double click on the box_1 geometry name and change it
to refinement
3. Define box point of Origin
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4. Define Dimensions of the box
Meshing Parameters
Now you will define meshing parameters for the geometry:
1. Navigate to the Hex Meshing panel
2. Enable meshing on simple_body geometry
3. Enable boundary layer on simple_body
4. Click on simple_body to display meshing properties
5. Increase minimum refinement on the geometry
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Refinement Parameters
To increase mesh density near the water surface you need to
define refinement inside the refinement geometry:
1. Enable refinement
2. Click the refinement geometry to display properties
3. Increase the refinement Level
Base Mesh Definition
Now you need to define the flow domain:
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1. Switch to the Base tab
2. Define minimum point of the base mesh
3. Define maximum point of the base mesh
4. Setup base mesh division
If you are running in the evaluation mode, you will have to reduce
the mesh division to create mesh that is below the node limit.
Base Mesh Boundaries
You also need to change names and types of base mesh
boundaries:
1. Change X- boundary name to inlet
2. Change X+ boundary name to outlet
3. Change Y- boundary name to symmetry
4. Change Y+ boundary name to symmetry
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5. Change Z- boundary name to wall
6. Change Z+ boundary name to top
7. Change Y- boundary type to symmetry
8. Change Z- boundary type to wall
Define Location In Mesh
Now you need to define which part of the mesh should be retained:
1. Click on the Point tab
2. Specify a location outside the simple_body geometry, but inside
the Base Mesh
Start Meshing Process
When everything is set up you can start the meshing process.
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1. Go to Mesh tab
2. Click Mesh button to start the meshing process
Mesh
When the meshing process is finished, the mesh will be displayed
in the graphics window.
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Select Solver
For this simulation you have to select a multi-phase solver that
uses the Volume of Fluid method:
1. Go to Setup panel
2. Enable Multiphase filter
3. Pick the interFoam solver
4. Click Select to configure system for the picked solver
Turbulence
For turbulence modeling you will use the k-ω SST model:
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1. Go to Turbulence panel
2. Select RANS modeling
3. Select k-ω SST model
Transport Properties
Now you need to do some small modifications to the material
properties for the two phases:
1. Go to Transport Properties panel
2. Double click on phase1 and change the name to water
3. Double click on phase2 and change the name to air
4. Change the density of air to 1.2
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Solution Parameters
For free surface simulations it is often required to increase number
of iterations per time step, to do so:
1. Go to Solution panel
2. Click on the PIMPLE tab
3. Increase Outer Correctors to 3
4. Disable Momentum Predictor for stability
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Boundary Conditions – inlet (I)
Now you will define boundary conditions at the inlet:
1. Go to Boundary Conditions panel
2. Select Velocity Inlet boundary character
3. Define Reference Value for velocity
Boundary Conditions – inlet (II)
You will now define only air at the inlet:
1. Click on the Phases tab
2. Change water phase boundary condition to Fixed Value
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Boundary Conditions – outlet (I)
You will now define boundary conditions at the outlet:
1. Select Outflow boundary character
2. Change water phase fraction boundary condition to Variable
Height
3. Set Upper Bound to 1
After you change phase fraction boundary condition the character
will switch form Outflow to Custom. Do not change it back
to Outflow afterwards.
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Boundary Conditions – outlet (II)
Now define velocity boundary conditions at the outlet:
1. Click on the Flow tab
2. Change velocity boundary condition to Outlet Phase Mean
Velocity
3. Set mean velocity equal to the inlet value
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Boundary Conditions – top
For the top boundary condition you will define open boundary
condition by specifying total pressure:
1. Select Pressure Inlet boundary character
Boundary Conditions – wall
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Since you are performing simulation in a frame of reference
associated with the boat you have to define velocity on the wall:
1. Click on wall boundary
2. Click the Flow tab
3. Define velocity equal to that at the inlet
Initial Conditions – basic
For initial conditions you can leave all the default values except
velocity. For velocity you need to define value equal to that at
the inlet:
1. Go to Initial Conditions panel
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2. Specify initial velocity in the domain
Initial Conditions – patch(I)
Now you need to define where the water will be located in the
domain:
1. Click the Patch tab
2. Enable patching inside the water geometry
3. Click Fields
4. Enable water phase fraction
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Initial Conditions – patch(II)
To specify value inside the water geometry:
1. Click the water geometry
2. Set water phase fraction to 1
3. Click Both to apply value inside the domain and on the boundaries
Controls
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Now you need to define how often results should be saved on disk
and enable automatic time stepping.
1. Go to Controls panel
2. Select Adjustable Run Time to write results at specified times
3. Set Write Interval
4. Enable Adjustable Time Step to enable automatic time step
selection
Monitors
To observe the progress of the simulation you want to monitor the
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force on the simple_body:
1. Go to Monitors panel
2. Click the Forces tab
3. Select simple_body boundary for monitoring
Run Simulation
With everything set up, you can now start the simulation:
1. Go to RUN panel
2. Specify initial time step size
3. Specify duration of the simulation
4. Click Run Simulation
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End time in steady state simulation represents the number of
iterations.
End time in transient simulation (such as this one) is expressed in
seconds.
Force Graph
While the simulation is running in the Force tab in the graphic
window a graph displaying forces acting on the simple_body can
be observed.
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Start ParaView
When the simulation is finished you can start ParaView for post-
processing:
1. Go to POSTPROCESSING panel
2. Start ParaView
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Load existing results into ParaView:
3. Click Last Frame to select the latest result set
4. Click Apply to load results
Display Water
To have a more natural view you will display only water phase:
1. Click Clip
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2. Change Clip Type to Scalar
3. From Scalars select alpha.water
4. Change clip value to 0.5 (this value should represent the free
surface)
5. Click Apply to create clip
6. Select U to color water phase with velocity
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Load Geometry
To better visualize the water phase you will load
the simple_body geometry:
1. Click Open to display file browser
2. Navigate to the constant/triSurface sub-directory of your
case directory
3. Select simple_body.stl
4. Click OK to load geometry
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Visualization
After manipulating the orientation and position in the graphics
window you can see an image similar to the one below.
Select Dynamic Mesh Solver
In the second part of the tutorial you will enable dynamic motion of
the model. To do this you need to return to the main simFlow
window and enable a Dynamic Mesh solver.
1. Go back to Setup panel
2. Enable Dynamic Mesh filter
3. Pick the interDyMFoam solver
4. Click Select to configure system for the new solver
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Define Dynamic Mesh Parameters
Now you need to define dynamic mesh parameters for for
the simple_body. For inertial properties you will assume that the
body was made out of wood with density of half that of water.
1. Go back to Dynamic Mesh panel
2. Enable Six Degrees of Freedom model
3. Select simple_body as moving boundary
4. Reduce Inner Distance to make moving mesh closer to the body
5. Specify mass of the body
6. Specify moments of inertia for the body
7. Set Relaxation to 1
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Dynamic Mesh Constraints
You want to simulate motion of the boat caused by the flow field,
however you need to add certain constraints to prevent the model
from drifting away. Additionally you will add dumping to the
translational and rotational motion to reduce oscillations of the
model while achieving the equilibrium orientation.
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1. Enable Line Translation Constraint
2. Set Z direction for line constraint to allow only motion in the vertical
direction
3. Enable Axis Rotation Constraint
4. Set Y dirction for axis constraint to allow only pitch motion
5. Enable Damper Line Restraint
6. Set Damping that will help suppress vertical oscillations
7. Enable Damper Angular Restraint
8. Set Damping that will help suppress angular oscillations
Updating Solution Parameters
For dynamic mesh simulation you need to update certain solution
parameters to increase stability:
1. Go to Solution panel
2. Click on the PIMPLE tab
3. Increase Outer Correctors to 3
4. Increase Non-Orthogonal Correctors to 2
5. Disable Momentum Predictor for stability
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Update Boundary Conditions – wall
Since you are performing simulation in a frame of reference
associated with the boat you have to define velocity on the wall:
1. Go to Boundary Conditions panel
2. Click on wall boundary
3. Click the Flow tab
4. Change velocity boundary condition type to Fixed Value
5. Define velocity equal to that at the inlet
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Continue Simulation
With everything set up, you can now continue the simulation:
1. Go to RUN panel
2. Increase the duration of the simulation
3. Click Continue Simulation
Forces
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After switching to dynamic mesh simulation, forces acting on the
body will adjust to achieve new equilibrium.
Refresh Paraview
After the simulation is finished you need to load the latest results
into Paraview.
1. Select simple_body.foam in the Pipeline Browser
2. Click Refresh to scan workspace for the new results
3. Click Last Frame to load latest result set
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Finish
While the original simple_body geometry is still visible, you can
observed how the model moved and rotated to achieve the
equilibrium.
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This concludes this tutorial.
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