Computational Fluid

Dynamics
(CFD)

Outline
What is CFD?
Why use CFD?
Where is CFD used?
CFD process
Physics
Modeling
Numerics
Resources

What is CFD?

What is CFD and its objective?

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Historically Analytical Fluid Dynamics (AFD) and EFD
(Experimental Fluid Dynamics) was used. CFD has
become feasible due to the advent of high speed
digital computers.
Computer simulation for prediction of fluid-flow
phenomena.
The objective of CFD is to model the continuous fluids
with Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) and discretize
PDEs into an algebra problem (Taylor series), solve it,
validate it and achieve simulation based design.

Why use CFD?

Why

use CFD?

Analysis and Design

Simulation-based design instead of build & test
More cost effectively and more rapidly than with
experiments
CFD solution provides high-fidelity database for
interrogation of flow field

Simulation of physical fluid phenomena that are

difficult to be measured by experiments
Scale simulations (e.g., full-scale ships, airplanes)
Hazards (e.g., explosions, radiation, pollution)
Physics (e.g., weather prediction, planetary boundary
layer, stellar evolution)

Knowledge and exploration of flow physics

Where is CFD used? (Aerospace)

Where is CFD used?
Aerospace

Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports

F18 Store Separation

Wing-Body Interaction

Hypersonic Launch
Vehicle
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Where is CFD used? (Appliances)

Where is CFD used?
Aerospace

Appliances

Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports

Surface-heat-flux plots of the No-Frost

refrigerator and freezer compartments helped
BOSCH-SIEMENS engineers to optimize the
location of air inlets.
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Where is CFD used? (Automotive)

Where is CFD used?
Aerospace
Appliances

Automotive

Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports

External Aerodynamics

Interior Ventilation

Undercarriage
Aerodynamics

Engine Cooling

Where is CFD used? (Biomedical)

Where is CFD used?
Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive

Biomedical

Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports

Medtronic Blood Pump

Temperature and natural

convection currents in the eye
following laser heating.
Spinal Catheter

Where is CFD used? (Chemical Processing)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical

Chemical Processing

HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports

Polymerization reactor vessel - prediction

of flow separation and residence time
effects.

Twin-screw extruder
modeling

Shear rate distribution in twinscrew extruder simulation

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Where is CFD used? (HVAC&R)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing

Streamlines for workstation

ventilation

HVAC&R

Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports
Mean age of air contours indicate
location of fresh supply air

Particle traces of copier VOC emissions

colored by concentration level fall
behind the copier and then circulate
through the room before exiting the
exhaust.

Flow pathlines colored by

pressure quantify head loss
in ductwork
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Where is CFD used? (Hydraulics)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R

Hydraulics

Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports
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Where is CFD used? (Marine)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics

Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation
Sports
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Where is CFD used? (Oil & Gas)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine

Volume fraction of gas

Flow vectors and pressure

distribution on an offshore oil rig

Volume fraction of oil

Volume fraction of water

Analysis of multiphase
separator

Oil & Gas

Power Generation
Sports
Flow of lubricating
mud over drill bit

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Where is CFD used? (Power Generation)

Where is CFD used?

Aerospace
Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas

Flow around cooling

towers

Flow in a
burner

Power Generation
Sports
Flow pattern through a water
turbine.

Pathlines from the inlet

colored by temperature
during standard
operating conditions 14

Where is CFD used? (Sports)

Where is CFD used?
Aerospace

Appliances
Automotive
Biomedical
Chemical Processing
HVAC&R
Hydraulics
Marine
Oil & Gas
Power Generation

Sports
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CFD Work Flow

Geometry description
Grid generation and Resolution
Specification of flow conditions/types and properties
Selection of models (Physics)
Specification of initial and boundary conditions
Specification of numerical parameters and Flow solution
Post processing: Analysis, and visualization

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Geometry description
Integration packages
CAD
Catia
Uni Graphics
Solids works
Proe
Auto Desk
Ansys workbench
CAE
Ansa
Hyper mesh
Icem CFD
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Grid generation
Grids (Surface Mesh)
Trias
Quad
Grid Volume Mesh (Fluid/Solid)
Structured (hexahedral)
Unstructured (tetrahedral).
Prisms for boudarylayer

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Grid Resolution

Grid resolution near the wall

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Flow conditions and

Flow conditions and properties required based on the
properties
type of application

Fluid Mechanics
Inviscid

Viscous
Laminar

Turbulence
External

Compressible
(air, acoustic)

Incompressible
(water)

Internal

(airfoil, ship)

(pipe,valve)

Flow Proprties like density, viscosity etc

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Physics
CFD codes typically designed for representation of
specific flow phenomenon
Viscous vs. in viscid (no viscous forces) (Re)
Turbulent vs. laminar (Re)
Incompressible vs. compressible (Ma)
Single- vs. multi-phase (Ca)
Thermal/density effects and energy equation (Pr, g, Gr,
Ec)
Free-surface flow and surface tension (Fr, We)
Chemical reactions, mass transfer

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Initial and boundary

conditions
steady/unsteady flow

IC should not affect final solution, only convergence

path, i.e. iteration numbers needed to get the
converged solution.
Robust codes should start most problems from very
crude IC, . But more reasonable guess can speed up
the convergence.
Boundary conditions
No-slip or slip-free on the wall, periodic, inlet (velocity
inlet, mass flow rate, constant pressure, etc.), outlet
(constant pressure, velocity convective, buffer zone,
zero-gradient), and non-reflecting (compressible flows,
such as acoustics), etc.

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Numerical parameters & flow

solution

Numerical parameter
used to control flow solution.
Monitor residuals (change of results between iterations)
Number of iterations for steady flow or number of time
steps for unsteady flow
Flow solution
Solve the momentum, pressure Poisson equations and
get flow field quantities, such as velocity, turbulence
intensity, pressure and integral quantities (forces)

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Numerical parameters & flow

solution

Typical time history

of residuals

The closer the flow

field to the
converged solution,
the smaller the
speed of the
residuals
decreasing.

Solution converged, residuals do

not change after more iterations
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Post-processing

Analysis, and visualization

Calculation of derived variables
Vortices
Wall shear stress
Calculation of integral parameters: forces,
moments
Visualization (usually with commercial software)
Simple X-Y plots
Simple 2D contours
3D contour carpet plots
Vector plots and streamlines (streamlines are
the lines whose tangent direction is the same as
the velocity vectors)
Animations (dozens of sample pictures in a
series of time were shown continuously)
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Governing Equations
(Equations based on average velocity)

ux u y uz 0
t x
y
z
Continuity
u x
u x
u x
u x
p

xx yx zx g x

ux
uy
uz
x
y
z
x x
y
z
t

Equation of motion

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Navier-Stokes Equations

Claude-Louis Navier

George Gabriel Stokes

C.L. M. H. Navier, Memoire sur les Lois du Mouvements des Fluides, Mem. de lAcad. d. Sci.,6, 398 (1822)
C.G. Stokes, On the Theories of the Internal Friction of Fluids in Motion, Trans. Cambridge Phys. Soc., 8, (1845)

Navier-Stokes Equations
(constant and )
2 ux 2 ux 2 ux
u x
u x
u x
u x
p
2 2 2 g x

ux
uy
uz
x
y
z
x
y
z
t
x
2
2
2

u y
u y
u y

uy
u y
p
y
y

ux
uy
u z 2 2 2 g y
x
y
z
y x y
z
t

u z
u z
u z
u z
p 2 uz 2 uz 2 uz

ux
uy
u z 2 2 2 g z
x
y
z
z
z
t
x y

D
2
v p v g
Dt

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NavierStokes Example
2
2
2
u y
u y
u y
u y
p uy uy uy

u x u y u z 2 2 2 g y
x
y
z
y x y z
t

d 2 uy
dp
0 2 g
dy
dx
Integrate

x dp
g C1
dx dy

duy

Fluid
L

x2 d p
Integrate u y g C1 x C2
2 dy

B.C. u y 0 at x 0, u y 0 at x L
C1

L dp

2 dy

Final Expression u y

C2 0

1 dp
2

g
(
Lx
x
)

2 dy

y
x
Laminar Flow
Static Parallel Plates
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Modeling

Mathematical representation of the physical problem

Some problems are exact (e.g., laminar pipe flow)
Exact solutions only exist for some simple cases. In
these cases nonlinear terms can be dropped from the NS equations which allow analytical solution.
Most cases require models for flow behavior [e.g., K-, K, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations (RANS)
or Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for turbulent flow]
Initial Boundary Value Problem (IBVP), include:
governing Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), Initial
Conditions (ICs) and Boundary Conditions (BCs)

30

Turbulent Flow Representation

(K- as an example)

u i u u' Where : u' deviating velocity, u constant net velocity

in the direction of flow, and u i instantaneous velocity

31

Turbulent Boundary Layer

y

Bulk Stream

x
U0

Edge of boundary layer

Outer layer

Fully turbulent layer

Sublayer + buffer layer
Wall
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Wall Shear Stress

dU

dy

y u y

Friction Velocity

u
y 0

Viscous Length Scale

y+ is similar to a local Reynolds number.

Small y+ - Viscous effects dominate
Large y+ - Turbulence dominates

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y+ and Turbulence Models

Low-Re models require a y+ resolution of < 1 to guarantee
accuracy
Low-Re models are necessary to accurately estimate
skin friction and flow separation
High-Re models use wall functions to approximate
averaged turbulent flow properties
Less accurate, but more computationally efficient

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Numerics / Discretization
Computational

solution of the IBVP

Method dependent upon the model
equations and physics
Several components to formulation
Discretization and linearization
Assembly of system of algebraic equations
Solve the system and get approximate
solutions

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Finite Differences
Approximating

the derivative with a

difference quotient from the Taylor series

Function

of One Variable

Choose mesh size x

Then uj ~ u(jx)

Taylor Expansion
2

u(x

+ x) = u(x) + u(x)x + 1/2 u(x)(x)

3
4
+ 1/6 u(x)(x) + O(x)

u(x

x) = u(x) u(x)x + 1/2 u(x)(x)2

3
- 1/6 u(x)(x) + O(x)4

First Derivative Approximations

Backward

difference: (uj uj-1) / x

Forward

difference: (uj+1 uj) / x

Centered

difference: (uj+1 uj-1) / 2x

Taylor Expansion
u(x) = u(x) u(x x) + O(x)
x
u(x) = u(x + x) u(x) + O(x)
x
u(x) = u(x + x) u(x x) + O(x)
2
2x

Second Derivative Approximation

Centered
Taylor

difference: (uj+1 2uj + uj-1) / (x)

Expansion

u(x) = u(x + x) 2u(x) + u(x x) + O(x)

2
(x)

Error
Truncation

Error: introduced in the solution

by the approximation of the derivative

Local Error: from each term of the equation
Global Error: from the accumulation of local
error

Round

off Error: introduced in the

computation by the finite number of digits used

by the computer

Software and resources

CFD software was built upon physics, modeling, numeric .

Two types of available software
Commercial - FLUENT, CFX, StarCCM+,
COMSOL,Powerflow,CFDACE,CFD++,ScTetra,Openform
More information on CFD can be got on the following
website:
CFD Online: http://www.cfd-online.com/
CFD software
FLUENT: http://www.fluent.com/
COMSOL http://www.comsol.com/
CD-adapco: http://www.cd-adapco.com/
Grid generation software
Gridgen: http://www.pointwise.com
GridPro: http://www.gridpro.com/
Visualization software
Tecplot: http://www.amtec.com/
Fieldview: http://www.ilight.com/
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