4 Boundary and Solver Conditions

4.1 Fluid domain

Initial runs to determine a base mesh where performed using ANSY CFX using the SST turbulence model. All steady state runs were completed at a Reynolds Number of 14 million. The corresponding freestream velocity was Ux = 3.2294m/s. The boundary conditions consisted of a uniform velocity at the inlet, an outflow condition at the outlet, a constant pressure at the far-field boundary, and a no-slip wall condition on the Suboff surfaces.

Farfield

Outlet

Inlet

Figure 4-1 Fluid domain conditions in ANSYS CFX

After the fluid domain is defined, it is imperative to ensure convergence can be achieved, which typically involves creating monitor points, defining the appropriate time step and the application of under relaxation factors.

4.1.1

Monitor points 60

ANSYS CFX Solver displays a plot of the Root Mean Square (RMS) of the residuals of the calculated mass and momentum (refer Figure 4-2). Sung (1996) explains that when solving engineering problems a numerical solution is considered converged the magnitude in the residuals is less than 1x10-4. In addition to the above, the hydrodynamic forces and coefficients continuously were monitored, with the fluctuations providing an indication of the accuracy and stability of the solution. This is crucial to fully resolve the generated flow structures, as a high degree of instability or fluctuations will affect the quality and accuracy of the flow structures will not be resolved accurately, (see section 5.2.)

Figure 4-2 Convergence history - RMS of the residuals

4.1.2

Time stepping

For steady-state problems, the ANSYS CFX Solver applies a false time step as a means of under relaxing the equations as they iterate towards the final solution (ANSYS CFX release 11). If the solution is unstable, the time scale needs to be refined. However if the time step is to small the simulation time will dramatically increase. ANSYS CFX suggests a small time scale is necessary for highly turbulent flows, and for this reason a small physical time scale was used for this study. Initially a user defined time scale of 7x10-3 was used until the solution began to fluctuate or bounce about a constant value, at which point the time step was then reduced to 7x10-5, (Figure 4-3). When this method is employed it is imperative that the solution continues to solve for a minimum of 500 iterations to ensure the solution is not just confined to a single oscillation of the larger time scale and complete resolution of the flow structures is achieved. 61

Timestep changed from 7x10-3 to 7x10-5

Figure 4-3 Cd convergence history - reduction of the time step removes the large oscillation in the solution

4.1.3

Under relaxation factors

Ackerman (2008), found the initial solutions to be unstable and applied under relaxation factors to stabilise the solution. However, it is recommended that under relaxation factors be used in moderation to ensure the solution is converging to a true solution and not a manufactured or desired result. The under relaxation factors in this study similar to Ackermans and are shown in Table 4-1 together with the default values.

Table 4-1Under relaxation factors used (Ackerman 2008)

Relaxation Factor Overlap relaxation fluids Solver relaxation fluids Solver relaxation scalar Model coefficient relaxation Outerloop relaxation default Relax mass Wall scale relaxation Default Value 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.75 0.75 0.75 Changed Values 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.5 0.5

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