Adama Science and Technology University

School of Mechanical, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Program: MSc. in Automotive Engineering

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Lab Report

By

Tigist Andarge

ID.NO PGR/19303/12

Submitted to: Dr. Addisu Bekele (Ass.pro)

Submission date: January 2021

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... ii

1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Theoretical background......................................................................................................... 1
1.1.1 Design consideration ...................................................................................................... 3
1. 2 Objectives of the study......................................................................................................... 5
1.2.1 General objective ............................................................................................................ 5
1.2.2 Specific objectives .......................................................................................................... 5
2. Simulation of laminar circular pipe flow .................................................................................... 6
2.1 parameters and considerations used for the simulation of laminar flow inside a circular
pipe.......................................................................................................................................... 6
3. Simulation of turbulent circular pipe flow ............................................................................... 13
3.1 parameters and considerations used for the simulation of laminar flow inside a circular pipe .. 13
4. Compression between the turbulent and turbulent fluid flow results through pipe. ............... 19
4.1 The development of the velocity boundary layer in a pipe. ............................................................. 19
4.2 Shear stress ....................................................................................................................................... 19
4.3 Pressure Distribution along Pipe ...................................................................................................... 19
5. Compare CFD with AFD result of friction factor for laminar flow ......................................... 20

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 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Theoretical background
Fluid flow is classified as external and internal, depending on whether the fluid is forced to flow over
a surface or in a conduit. Internal and external flows exhibit very different characteristics. Internal
flow is where the conduit is completely filled with the fluid, and flow is driven primarily by a
pressure difference.
The nature of the pipe flow is strongly dependent on whether the flow is laminar
or turbulent. This is a direct consequence of the differences in the nature of the
shear stress in laminar and turbulent flows. The shear stress in laminar flow is a
direct result of momentum transfer among the randomly moving molecules (a
microscopic phenomenon). The shear stress in turbulent flow is largely a result of
momentum transfer among the randomly moving, finite-sized fluid particles (a
macroscopic phenomenon). The net result is that the physical properties of the
shear stress are quite different for laminar flow than for turbulent flow.
LAMINAR AND TURBULENT FLOWS
The flow regime in the first case is said to be laminar, characterized by smooth streamlines and
highly ordered motion, and turbulent in the second case, where it is characterized by velocity
fluctuations and highly disordered motion.
Reynolds Number
The transition from laminar to turbulent flow depends on the geometry, surface roughness, flow
velocity, surface temperature, and type of fluid, among other things. After exhaustive
experiments in the 1880s, Osborne Reynolds discovered that the flow regime depends mainly on
the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces in the fluid. This ratio is called the Reynolds number.
Reynolds number= inertial force/ viscous force
ρVdD
Re = μ

Under most practical conditions, the flow in a circular pipe is laminar for Re≤ 2300, turbulent
for Re ≤ 4000, and transitional in between.
CFD software analysis
In a CFD software analysis, the examination of fluid flow in accordance with its physical
properties such as velocity, pressure, temperature, density and viscosity is conducted. To

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virtually generate an accurate solution for a physical phenomenon associated with fluid flow;
those properties have to be considered simultaneously. ANSYS FLUENT is used most of the
time to analyze the parameter associated with fluid flows.
ANSYS FLUENT provides comprehensive modeling capabilities for a wide range of
incompressible and compressible, laminar and turbulent fluid flow problems. Steady-state or
transient analyses can be performed. In ANSYS FLUENT, a broad range of mathematical
models for transport phenomena (like heat transfer and chemical reactions) is combined with the
ability to model complex geometries. Examples of ANSYS FLUENT applications include
laminar non-Newtonian flows in process equipment; conjugate heat transfer in turbomachinery
and automotive engine components; pulverized coal combustion in utility boilers; external
aerodynamics; flow through compressors, pumps, and fans; and multiphase flows in bubble
columns and fluidized beds.
It is CFD solver and post-processing program that uses the finite-volume method (or control-
volume method), the simplest implementation of the finite-element method. It can handle both
structured and unstructured grids.
ANSYS Workbench platform which is a framework for the complete simulation process is used
on this report. For example, for a typical CFD analysis a project schematic is created that
includes access to programs for geometry creation (using ANSYS Design Modeler), meshing
(using ANSYS Meshing), CFD simulation (using ANSYS FLUENT), and post processing. The
series of processes CFD will follow to analyze the pipe flow will be shown figure 1.

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 Figure 1.Flow Chart for “CFD Process” for pipe flow

1.1.1 Design consideration

For this lab we will consider air flowing through pipe as shown in Figure 2. The pipe has an
inner diameter D = 0.05238 m, length L= 7.62 m. The inlet flow has uniform (or constant over
the cross-section) velocity U = 0.2 m/s and temperature T = 298 K. The fluid exits into the
m,i

ambient atmosphere at a pressure of 1 atm. The Reynolds number based on pipe diameter is 655
for laminar and 111,569 for turbulent.

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 Figure 2. Schematic of flow of air through a PVC pipe.

Considerations
 Since the flow is axisymmetric (only need to solve the flow in a single plane from the
centerline to the pipe wall).
 Boundary conditions need to be specified include inlet, outlet, wall, and axis, as will be
described details later.
 Uniform flow was specified at inlet, the flow will reach the fully developed regions after
a certain distance downstream.
 No-slip boundary condition will be used on the wall and constant pressure for outlet.
Symmetric boundary condition will be applied on the pipe axis.

Uniform grids will be used for the laminar flow whereas non-uniform grid will be used for the
turbulent flow.

Work bench set up

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 Figure 3.project schematic
1. 2 Objectives of the study
1.2.1 General objective
 The main objective of this report is to study CFD analysis of laminar and turbulent pipe
flows.

1.2.2 Specific objectives

The specific objectives of this lab report is

 To simulate and to compute axial velocity profile, centerline velocity, centerline pressure,
and friction factor for laminar and turbulent pipe flow.
 To compare the simulation results of laminar pipe with turbulent pipe flow,
 To compare the analytic and numerical results of the wall shear stress through pi

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 2. Simulation of laminar circular pipe flow
Laminar flow, type of fluid (gas or liquid) flow in which the fluid travels smoothly or in regular
paths or the movement of liquids without turbulences. The fluid flows in parallel layers with no
disruption between them in contrast to turbulent flow, in which the fluid undergoes irregular
fluctuations and mixing. The fluid in contact with the horizontal surface is stationary, but all the
other layers slide over each other.
The CFD simulation of laminar pipe flow done by taking a symmetry axis at the center of the
pipe in to solve the flow in a single plane from the center line to the pipe wall. The boundary
conditions were uniform flow at the inlet, constant pressure at the outlet, no-slip condition at the
wall and symmetry boundary condition at the pipe axis.
Simulation will be conducted only for laminar circular pipe flows, i.e. the Reynolds number is.
Reynolds number based on pipe diameter and mean inlet velocity is 655in the current simulation.
CFD predictions of friction factor and fully developed axial velocity profile will be compared
with AFD data.
2.1 parameters and considerations used for the simulation of laminar flow inside a circular
pipe
After the geometry creation, the fluid flow through the pipe is analyzed for laminar flow as
follows.
1. The edges of the pipe is meshed uniformly with number of division 453 for the horizontal
direction (between wall and axis) and 45 in vertical direction (between inlet and outlet)
2. The flow is steady and axis symmetry
3. The material used here is air with density of 1.17kg/m3 and viscosity value of
0.00001872kg/m.s.
4. The cell condition is fluid type (air).
5. The boundary conditions are:

o At the inlet velocity is considered with 0.2m/s and 0 gauge pressure.

o At the outlet pressure outlet is considered with 0 pressure gauge
o The wall motion is considered as stationary wall and there is no slip for shearing
condition and also the operating pressures is taken as 97725.9pa.

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6. For the reference value, the area of the pipe considered at the value of 0.002154869, the length
0.05238, and temperature is 298.16.

7. For the methods the pressure velocity coupling the scheme is simple, the spatial discretization
gradient is green gauss cell based and the pressure is second order and the momentum is second
order upward.

8. The Residual convergence criterion is up to 1e-6 for all three (continuity and Y velocity).

9. To obtain the solution the initialization methods is standard, the reference frame is relative to
zone and gauge pressure and axial pressure is 0 and 0.2 respectively. The number of iterations to
1000.

The generated uniform mesh for the laminar circular pipe flow was as presented below.

Figure 4.uniform generated mesh

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2.1 Residual plot
Is a graph that shows the residuals on the vertical axis and the independent variable on the
horizontal axis. If the points in a residual plot are randomly dispersed around the horizontal axis,
a linear regression model is appropriate for the data; otherwise, a nonlinear model is more
appropriate.
 The laminar pipe flow residual plot was as shown below.

Figure 5.residual plot

2.2. Centerline axial velocity distribution: The laminar pipe flow centerline axial velocity
distribution was displayed below.

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 Figure 6. Centerline axial velocity distribution

2.3 Centerline pressure distribution. There is a pressure difference, ∆𝑃 = 𝑃1 − 𝑃2 between

inlet section of the horizontal pipe and outlet pipe.
 The laminar pipe flow centerline pressure distribution was as shown below.

Figure 7. Centerline pressure distribution

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2.4. Wall shear stress distribution:
The shear stress in laminar flow is a direct result of momentum transfer among the randomly
moving molecules.
 The laminar pipe flow wall shear stress distribution was as presented below.

Figure 8. Wall shear stress distribution

2.5. Axial velocity profiles at 10d, 20d, 40d, 60d and 100d: The laminar pipe flow axial velocity
distribution in all axial locations was as shown below

Figure 9. Axial velocity at all axial locations

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2.6. Velocity vector: The laminar pipe flow velocity vectors at the region flow begins to become
fully developed was as displayed below.

Figure 10. Velocity vectors

2.7. Contours of velocity: The laminar pipe flow velocity contours was as shown below.

Figure 11. Contours of radial velocity

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Figure 12. Contours of axial velocity.

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 3. Simulation of turbulent circular pipe flow
The CFD simulation will be conducted for turbulent pipe flows. For turbulent pipe the Reynolds
number is 111,569.

3.1 parameters and considerations used for the simulation of laminar flow inside a circular
pipe
1. The edges of the pipe is meshed by using non uniform mash type with following number of
sizing:
 The horizontal edges (between wall and axis) divided vertically in to a number of
divisions of 564.
 The left (inlet) and right (outlet) edges are divided horizontally in to a number of
divisions of 15 with bias factor of 3.1117.
2. The flow is steady and axis symmetry
3. The material used here is air with density of 1.17kg/m3 and viscosity value of
0.00001872kg/m.s.
4. The cell condition is fluid type (air).
5. The boundary conditions are:

o At the inlet velocity is considered with 34.08m/s and 400 gauge pressure.
o At the outlet pressure outlet is considered with 0 pressure gauge
o The wall motion is considered as stationary wall and there is no slip for shearing
condition and also the operating pressures is taken as 97725.9pa.

6. For the reference value, the area of the pipe considered at the value of 0.002154869, the length
0.05238, and temperature is 298.16.

7. For the methods the pressure velocity coupling the scheme is simple, the spatial discretization
gradient is green gauss cell based and the pressure is second order and the momentum is second
order upward.

8. The Residual convergence criterion is up to 1e-6 for all five (continuity and Y velocity).

9. To obtain the solution the initialization methods is standard, the reference frame is relative to
zone and gauge pressure and axial pressure is 400 and 34.8 respectively. The number of
iterations of 1000.

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Generated mesh: The generated mesh for turbulent pipe flow was as shown below.

Figure 13. Generated mesh

3.2 Residual plot: The turbulent pipe flow residual history was as shown below.

Figure 14. Residual plot of turbulent flow.

3. 3 Centerline axial velocity distribution: The turbulent pipe flow centerline axial velocity
distribution was as shown below.

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 Figure 15. Centerline axial velocity distribution

3.4 Centerline pressure distribution: The turbulent pipe flow centerline pressure distribution
was as shown below.

Figure 16. Centerline pressure distribution

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3.5. Wall shear stress distribution: The turbulent pipe flow wall shear stress distribution was as
presented below.

Figure 17. Wall shear stress distribution

3.6. Axial velocity profiles at 10d, 20d, 40d, 60d and 100d: The turbulent pipe flow axial
velocity distribution in all axial locations was as described below.

Figure 18 Axial velocity at all axial locations

3.7. Velocity vector: The turbulent pipe flow velocity vectors at the region flow begins to
become fully developed was as shown below.

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 Figure 19. Velocity vectors axis

3.8. Contours of velocity: The turbulent pipe flow contours was as shown below

Figure 20 Contours of radial velocity

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Figure 21. Contours of radial velocity

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4. Compression between the turbulent and turbulent fluid flow results
through pipe.
4.1 The development of the velocity boundary layer in a pipe.
 In laminar flow, the velocity profile is parabolic, but much flatter or fuller in turbulent
flow.
 The velocity profile is parabolic in laminar flow and much flatter in the fully developed
region. In turbulent flow due to eddy motion and more intense radial path mixing
 For turbulent flow, the velocity gradients on the wall are much greater than for laminar
flow, although the turbulent boundary layer is thicker than the laminar layer for the same
free-stream velocity value...

4.2 Shear stress

 When the flow becomes completely turbulent, the friction factor reaches a limit.
 Shear stress in laminar flow is a direct consequence of the transfer of momentum between
randomly moving molecules (a microscopic phenomenon). The shear stress in turbulent
flow is largely a result of momentum transfer among the randomly moving, finite-sized
fluid particles (a macroscopic phenomenon). The net result is for laminar flow, the
properties of the shear pressure are very different than for turbulent flow.
 For turbulent flow, the wall shear pressure is much greater than for laminar flow,
although the turbulent boundary layer is thicker than the laminar one for the same free-
stream velocity value.
 In turbulent flow, the entry period is slightly shorter.

4.3 Pressure Distribution along Pipe

Shear stress characteristics are very different for laminar flow than for turbulent flow.
For turbulent flow, the wall shear stress is much greater than for laminar flow, although the
turbulent boundary layer is thicker than the laminar one for the same free-stream velocity value.
In a turbulent flow, the entry period is much shorter.

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5. Compare CFD with AFD result of friction factor for laminar flow
The values of friction factor can be obtained by using analytical method
(AFD) and CFD
AFD friction factor, f=64⁄𝑅𝑒, where Re is Reynolds number.

CFD friction factor, f = 8𝜏⁄𝜌𝑣 2

Where 𝜏wall shear stress is is 𝜌 density and v is the inlet velocity.

In this section the analytic and numerical result of the friction factor and their relative error
(between AFD and CFD) is calculated in between fully developed region. The relative error
between AFD friction and friction factor computed by CFD, which is computed by:
𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐶𝐹𝐷 − 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐴𝐹𝐷
%𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100%
𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐴𝐹𝐷

AFD result (analytic)

𝑓 =64⁄𝑅𝑒 where, for the flow design 𝑅𝑒 = 655

𝑓 =64⁄655 = 0.09770992366
To calculate the CFD value of friction factor the wall shear stress distribution file is exported to
EXCEL and the desired shear stress value at the fully developed region is taken and then inserted
to the equation.

Since the flow is fully developed between the pipe length of 4m and 7.62m, so our area of
interest is between this intervals.
At pipe length of 4m.
CFD result (numerical)
The value of wall shear stress is obtained from wall stress x-y plot after importing it to excel as
𝜏 =0.000572pa, 𝜌=1.17kg/m3 and V=0.2m/s
f = 8𝜏⁄𝜌𝑣 2 = 8(0.000572)/1.17(0.2)2=0.09777777778

𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐶𝐹𝐷 − 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐴𝐹𝐷 0.09777777778 − 0.09770992366

%𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100% = × 100%
𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝐴𝐹𝐷 0.09770992366
%𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 =0.069%

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From this result we can conclude that result shows that there is no difference between the
computational fluid dynamics and analytical fluid dynamics.

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