Express Introductory Training in ANSYS Fluent

Workshop 06
Using Moving Reference Frames and Sliding Meshes

Dimitrios Sofialidis
Technical Manager, SimTec Ltd.
Mechanical Engineer, PhD

PRACE Autumn School 2013 - Industry Oriented HPC Simulations, September 21-27,
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia

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 Workshop 06
Using Moving Reference Frames and
Sliding Meshes
14.5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
Fluent
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I Introduction [1]
Workshop Description:
The flow simulated is a vertical axis wind–turbine in which 4 outer
blades rotate relative to an inner hub, itself turning about a central axis.
Learning Aims:
This workshop teaches two different strategies for handling moving
objects within the flow domain.
1. Using a Moving Reference Frame approach (which uses a steady–state solution).
2. Using a Sliding Mesh approach (a transient calculation in which the parts are actually
moved each timestep).

Learning Objectives:
To understand ways of simulating moving parts, as well as introducing
transient simulations and generating images on–the–fly.

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 Introduction [2]
• To understand the motion we will be simulating, play the supplied movie file
"ws6–mesh–animation.avi". The centers of the blades rotate about the axis
displayed in the picture while each individual blade simultaneously rotates about
its own center.

• The first part of this workshop will simulate this motion without actually moving
the parts. Local accelerations can be added as source terms to each grid cell to
account for the motion of the parts. This technique is known as a Moving
Reference Frame (MRF) approach. Blade
"ypos"
• The second part of this workshop will actually move
the parts relative to each other. This technique is
known as a Sliding Mesh approach. Blade Blade
"xneg" "xpos"

Blade
"yneg"

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 Part 1: Using Moving Reference Frames

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 Starting Fluent in Workbench
1. Launch Workbench.
Start>Programs>ANSYS 14.5>Workbench 14.5.
2. Drag Fluent ("Component Systems") into the project schematic.
3. Change the name to Moving Reference Frame.
4. Double click on Setup.
5. Choose 2D and "Double
Precision" under Options and
retain the other default settings.

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 Import Mesh
• [In Fluent] File>Import>Mesh.
• Select the mesh file "ws6–simple–wind–turbine.msh" and OK.
• Check the scale (Problem Setup>General>Scale). The blades are 1m radius from
the origin (0,0), with the outer bounding box +/– 5m in all directions.
• After reading the mesh, check the grid using Mesh>Check option
or by using Check under Problem Setup>General.
The mesh check will fail! A number of warning messages
such as "WARNING: Unassigned interface zone detected
for interface xx" will be displayed.
To allow for the motion later in this workshop, there are
intentional non –conformal interfaces (where the mesh
nodes do not match across an interface). These need to be
paired up in the solver so that interpolation across the
interface can occur – so fluid can flow freely through.
More generally, if in DesignModeler you produce several
different parts, the mesh will also be non–conformal, and
you will need to perform the next step to make sure the
solver interpolates across the interface, otherwise the
interfaces would act like walls when the flow is calculated.
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 Display Mesh

• To display the mesh such that the zones have different colors,
as in the picture on slide 3, select "Display>Mesh" from the
menu bar, click the Colors… button, and select Color by ID.

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 Mesh Interfaces [1]
Under Problem Setup>Mesh Interfaces.
• Click Create/Edit.
• Enter "in–hub" in the field below Mesh Interface.
• Select "int–hub–a" in the column below Interface Zone 1.
• Select "int–hub–b" in the column below Interface Zone 2. Note how the nodes do not
• Click Create. match across the interface.
The boundary on the black
side is "Int–hub–a" and the
red side is "Int–hub–b".

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 Mesh Interfaces [2]
Create the interfaces "in_xneg", "in_xpos", "in_yneg" and "in_ypos" as
described in the table below to the left. After all the interfaces have been
created the mesh interface panel should appear as it does on the right:
Mesh Interface Interface
Interface Zone 1 Zone 2
in_hub int–hub–a int–hub–b

in_xneg int–xneg–a int–xneg–b

in_xpos int–xpos–a int–xpos–b

in_yneg int–yneg–a int–yneg–b

in_ypos int–ypos–a int–ypos–b

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 Setting up the Models
• Keep the Pressure Based, Steady State solver.
– Problem Setup>General>Solver.

• Turbulence model.
– Problem Setup>Models>Viscous.
– Double click and select k–epsilon (2 eqn) under
Model and Realizable under k–epsilon model and
retain the other default settings.

• Materials.
– For Materials, keep the default properties of
the material air:
density: 1.225 [kg/m³]
viscosity: 1.7894e–5 [kg/(ms)]

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 Cell Zone Conditions [1]
Under Problem Setup>Cell Zone Conditions.
• Select fluid–outer–domain and click Edit.
• Observe air is already selected and click OK.
fluid–outer–domain

fluid–blade–ypos
centroid at (0,1)

fluid–rotating–core
centroid at (0,0)

fluid–blade–xneg
centroid at (–1,0)

fluid–blade–xpos
centroid at (1,0)

fluid–blade–yneg
centroid at (0,–1)

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 Cell Zone Conditions [2]
Select "fluid–rotating–core" and click Edit.
• Observe air is already selected.
• Click Frame Motion, to activate the Moving Reference Frame model.
• Retain the (0,0) as Rotational–Axis Origin.
• Select 4 rad/s as Rotational Velocity and click OK.

We can account for the motion of the

parts, even in a steady state solver by
using this technique. By specifying the
rotation of the core, all the grid cells are
given an additional source term to
account for the local acceleration. This is
known as using a moving reference
frame.

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 Cell Zone Conditions [3]
Select "fluid–blade–xneg" and click Edit.
• Observe air is already selected.
• Click Frame Motion, to activate the Moving Reference Frame model.
• Set the Rotational–Axis Origin to (–1,0).
• Set the Rotational Velocity to –2 rad/s (note negative).
• Select "fluid–rotating–core"as Relative Specification and click OK.

This zone is rotating about

its own axis, which is 1m
away from the global (hub)
axis. The rotation speed is
half that of the outer hub.

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 Cell Zone Conditions [4]
Repeat the instructions on the previous Slide for the other 3 blades:
• Zone fluid–blade–xpos Axis [1 0] Speed –2rad/s Relative fluid–rotating–core
• Zone fluid–blade–yneg Axis [0 –1] Speed –2rad/s Relative fluid–rotating–core
• Zone fluid–blade–ypos Axis [0 1] Speed –2rad/s Relative fluid–rotating–core

It is worth taking a moment to check

back through all the cell zones just
defined to make sure the settings are
Axis is different for
correct.
each zone

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 Boundary Conditions [1]
Under Problem Setup>Boundary Conditions.
• "Vel–Inlet–Wind".
– Select "vel–inlet–wind", click Edit and set 10 (m/s) as Velocity Magnitude.
– Choose Intensity and Length Scale under Turbulence.
– Set Turbulence Intensity to 5 % and Turbulent Length Scale to 1 (m) and click OK.
• "Pressure–Outlet–Wind".
– Select "pressure–outlet–wind", click Edit and set 0 (Pa) as Gauge Pressure.
– Choose Intensity and Length Scale under Turbulence.
– Set Turbulence Intensity to 5 % and Turbulent Length Scale to 1 m and click OK.

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 Boundary Conditions [2]
Under Problem Setup>Boundary Conditions.
• Rotating wall.
– Select "wall–blade–xneg" then Edit.
– Select Moving Wall under Wall Motion.
– Select Rotational under Motion and retain 0 (rad/s) as Speed relative to cell zone.

The solver needs to know the speed of the

wall so as to properly account for wall
shear. Since the motion has been set in
the cell zone, we will simply tell the
boundary condition to use the same
conditions (that is, zero velocity with
respect to the cell zone).

Note that this panel will tell you which cell

zone is adjacent to this wall – look at the
greyed–out box on the second line.

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 Boundary Conditions [3]
Copy the boundary conditions to other zones.
1. Press button Copy...

To save time, when

boundaries have identical
parameters, we can copy
from one to (many) others.

2. Select "wall–blade–xneg".
3. Select the three other blades
zone ("wall–blade–xpos", "wall–
blade–yneg", "wall–blade–
ypos").
4. Click Copy, then OK.
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 Solution Methods
Under Solution>Solution Methods.
• Select "Coupled" for Pressure–Velocity Coupling.
• Select "Second Order Upwind" for the turbulence
equations.

Under Solution>Solution Controls.

• Retain the default settings.

Under Solution>Solution Initialization.

• Retain Hybrid Initialization.
• Click Initialize.

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 Write Case and Data File
The model is now ready to run.
First Save the Project to your normal working directory.
• File>Save Project.
Then Run the Calculation.
• Set 250 as Number of Iterations.
• Click Calculate to start the steady state simulation.
• It will reach the default convergence criteria in about 100 iterations.
Generally you should always
do further checks to
determine convergence.
However to save time in this
example we will simply
assume the default
convergence criteria are
sufficient.

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 Post Processing [1]
Post process the results in Fluent.
• Results>Graphics and Animations .
• Select Contours and click Set Up.
• Select Velocity under Contours of and Velocity Magnitude below that.
• Tick the box "Filled", but do not select any surfaces, then Display.
• Zoom in on the hub using the middle mouse button, by drawing a box
from top–left to bottom–right.

It is not necessary to
select a plotting surface
• Drag zoom box with middle mouse button.
when using Fluent in 2D.
• Opposite direction (right to left) will zoom out.
By default the plot value
• Use "Fit To Window" to reset if necessary.
is shown on all cells.

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 Post Processing [2]
The Velocity contours should look like this:
Without the cell zone motion
(MRF) this would have looked
much more symmetrical between
top and bottom.

You can save this image

from Fluent for use in a
report:
4 rad/s Hub • File>Save Picture.
Rotation
10 m/s • TIFF, and Colour.
wind • Resolution 1200 x 1200.
• "Save".

Save the project

• File>Save Project.

Close Fluent, and return to the ANSYS Workbench window.

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 Part 2: Using Sliding Meshes

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 Sliding Meshes – Introduction
There are times when the MRF assumption used in Part 1 is an over–
simplification of the problem.
– Only one position of the hub relative to the incoming wind was simulated.
– There will also be some vortices that affect each blade from other blades that have
just passed upwind.

In this next part, we will actually move the relative positions of all the
components within Fluent, and solve this in a transient (time–dependant)
manner.

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 Preparing Workbench
• On the Workbench Project Page, right–
click on the arrow at the top of the Fluent
model, and select "Duplicate".

• Name the newly created copy "Sliding

Mesh Model".

• Drag the results over from the MRF

model (drag a line from cell A3 to B3).
This is so we can use the steady–state
solution as a starting point for the new
Sliding Mesh computation.

• Launch Fluent by double clicking on the

new Solution cell (B3).
The message "Note: zone–surface: cannot create
surface from sliding interface zone" appears when
Fluent opens and reads the case and data files. It
simply means the boundaries of the non–conformal
interfaces match exactly, such that there are no non–
overlapping sections on either side of the interface.

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 Model Setup – General Comments

All the model setup values (boundary conditions, etc.) are available in the new
Fluent session.

You may want to have a look (boundary conditions, plot velocity contours etc.) to
observe this for yourself.

The following slides will show how to change this model to a sliding mesh case.

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 Solver Setup
Select Transient solver.
• Problem Setup>General>Solver.

Under Problem Setup>Cell Zone Conditions

Select "fluid–rotating–core" and click Edit.
• Click Copy to Mesh Motion in the
Reference Frame Tab to activate the
Sliding Mesh model.
The motion type is changed from "Frame Motion"
to "Mesh Motion".
• Move to the Mesh Motion Tab and observe the
rotation speed has been transferred.
• click OK.

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 Setting up Cell Zones
Repeat this process for the 4 blade regions:
fluid–blade–xneg
fluid–blade–xpos
fluid–blade–yneg
fluid–blade–ypos
• For each zone, on the Reference Frame tab, click "Copy to Mesh Motion".

• On the Mesh Motion tab, verify the axis,

rotation speed, and "relative to cell zone"
fields are correct.

For all four blades, their motion should

be relative to zone "fluid–rotating–core".
Therefore not only will each blade rotate
about its own axis, but in addition its axis
will translate to follow the motion of the
hub region ("fluid–rotating–core").

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 Setting up an Animation [1]
Solution>Calculation Activities>Solution Animations>Create/Edit.
• In the Solution Animation Panel increase the Animation Sequences to 1.
• Select Time Step under When and click Define.
• In Animation Sequence Panel select Window 2, SET, then Contours.

It is very useful with transient simulations to record key–frames of the

solution progress. Not only does this help understand the result, but
also aids de–bugging if the settings are not as intended.

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 Setting up an Animation [2]
On the Contour Panel:
• Set Contours of Velocity>Velocity Magnitude. Forcing a Max and Min value
• Select "Filled". will ensure all frames in the
• Deselect Global Range, Auto Range and Clip to Range. animation are consistent.
• Enter Min=0, Max=15.
• Deselect all surfaces.
• Click "Display".
• Close the Contour Panel.
• OK the Animation Sequence Panel.
• OK the Solution Animation Panel.

Graphic layout:
• Enable 2–window display.
• Use the middle mouse button
to zoom in on the blades in
graphic window 2.

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 Write Case and Data File
The model is now ready to run.
First Save the Project to your normal working directory.
• File>Save Project. An Initialization of this case is not necessary
because we want to continue the simulation with
Then Run the Calculation "start condition" of the Moving Reference Frame
• Set 0.005s as Time Step Size.calculation already performed.
• Set 314 as number of time steps.
4 rads/sec equates to 1.57secs/rotation. 0.005s x 314 = 1.57s.
• Click Calculate to start the transient simulation.
At each time step, Fluent iterates until the solution has converged for the
current time step (or the maximum number of iterations per time step is
reached), then advances to the next time step and iterates until the solution
has converged, and so on until the prescribed 314 time steps have been
completed. The total number of iterations required is around 2300.

If you are running short of time you can stop the simulation
early and proceed to checking the results (next slide). We
suggest you allow the solver to perform at least 79 timesteps
(0.4secs), the device will have moved 90°.

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 Residual Plots in Transient Simulations

• If you have time to run the transient calculation, and did not move ahead to
the post–processing steps, the residual plot (change the number of iterations
to plot to 100 before displaying) will look like the figure below. The residuals
form a sawtooth pattern, with high values at the beginning of the time step
which then decrease over a number of iterations until the convergence
criteria are reached.

Convergence achieved – solution advances to

next time step.

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 Reviewing the Solution
When the calculation is complete:
Graphics and Animations>Solution Animation Playback>Setup.
• Selecting the "Play" button will let you review the animation.

• Alternatively you can select Write/Record Format, and select MPEG.

Wait a few moments while the animation is built.
The animation will appear in the folder:
working directory\workbench_project_name\dp0\FLU–1\Fluent\sequence–1.mpeg

Save the Project.

• File>Save Project.
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 Comparing the Results
The images below show a comparison of the result from the MRF and sliding
mesh approaches. (Colour scale from 0 to 15 m/s).
Although the MRF approach gave a useful early indication of the velocity field
and wake behind the blades, a full Transient approach is needed to accurately
predict the flow field.

MRF Result (Part 1) Sliding Mesh Result (Part 2)

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 Optional Extras
If you have finished early, ahead of the rest of the class, you may want to
investigate reporting the torque on the blades by computing the moment about
the rotational axis.

• Use Report>Forces>Moments (and set appropriate axes).

• Pick the 4 blades.
• Compare the result from the two cases computed.

• The Moment Coefficient can also be plotted as a graph during the solution process
Monitors>Moment.
• Click the "Help" button on this panel and follow the link to "Monitoring Force and
Moment Coefficients" to find out more.
• Note that this reports a coefficient, which uses the values set in
Report>Reference Values (see help pages).
• Once set, if you run the solver on for further timesteps, you will see how the moment
varies sinusoidally as the device rotates.

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 Summary
This workshop has shown two techniques for performing a CFD simulation where objects
move within the flow domain.
Using MRF techniques, the flow can quickly be simulated using a steady–state solver by
applying appropriate acceleration terms to each grid cell. Although this works, it was not
ideal for this particular scenario. In the case of this wind turbine, the underlying physics of
this case require a transient simulation. Vortices break off the upwind blades, and the
downwind blades pass through these.
Therefore this workshop has also shown how the fluid region can be modified by the solver
at every timestep. There is no need to have to go back to the pre–processor to generate a
fresh mesh at each step.
The key feature needed in the mesh in order to do this was having different, disconnected
(non–conformal) cell zones. Since they are disconnected, Fluent could move them as a rigid
body.
If the parts actually change shape, there are further tools available in Fluent (the Dynamic
Mesh Model) which allow much greater changes to be made to the mesh, adding and
removing grid cells where necessary.

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