Module 4 – Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer

Over a Circular Cylinder

© 2005 ANSYS, Inc. 1 ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary

 Module 4 – Problem Description
Heat transfer and fluid flow over a circular, two-dimensional cylinder
will be investigated. Both the drag and heat transfer coefficients are
to be calculated. A schematic of the expected flow pattern is shown
below. When fluid flows over a blunt object, eddies may form on the
downstream side of the object. These eddies populate the wake
Region and make analytical solutions impossible.

For very slow speed flow,

eddies will not form. The
presence of eddies is
observed for Reynolds
numbers of approximately 10
or higher. Turbulent flow
spans the entire object for
Reynolds numbers is excess
of ~ 300,000.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 2

 Module 4 – Problem Description

The Reynolds number for flow over a circular cylinder is found

from
Velocity  Diameter VD
Re  
Kinematic Viscosity 
Consider a cylinder of diameter of 1 cm situated in a 25 oC
airstream whose velocity is 4 cm/sec. The surface temperature
of the cylinder is 50 oC. The resulting Reynolds number is 26.
The flow is expected to have a substantial laminar eddy region.
This module will guide you through the geometry creation,
meshing, setting boundary conditions, solution, and evaluation.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 3

 Module 4 – Features

Some of the key features presented during this tutorial are the use of:

• Cutting operation in DesignModeler

• Combined heat transfer and fluid flow simulation
• Creation of a locally refined mesh
• Calculating drag coefficients and convective heat transfer coefficients
using the function calculator

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 4

 DesignModeler – Geometry

Launch ANSYS
DesignModeler and
choose centimeter as the
length dimension. Create
a rectangular area 10 cm
wide by 2.5 cm high, as
shown here.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 5

 DesignModeler – Geometry

Extrude the rectangle 0.5 cm to create the shown volume.

Next, the cylinder will be cut away from the fluid region….

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 6

 DesignModeler – Geometry

Create a circle using the new sketch icon, . The center of

the circle should be located on the x axis. Use the Diameter
dimensioning tool to specify the circle diameter. Use the
Length/Distance dimensioning tool to specify the location of
the circle to be 2 cm from the y axis. The Graphics View and
Details View are shown below.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 7

 DesignModeler – Geometry

Cut away the circular region by extruding the circle and

providing the settings shown below. The completed geometry is
shown to the right. Since symmetry is being taken advantage of
only the upper portion of the geometry has been constructed.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 8

 CFX-Mesh

Click the Project Tab at the top of the ANSYS window and
select Generate CFX Mesh. The geometry will be loaded into
the CFX Mesh program.
The next slides will involve creating regions, specifying the
element deployment, and saving the mesh.
Provide the regions as
shown to the right. Since
the SymBottom region
actually contains two
surfaces, you will have to
hold the control button
down while selecting the
surfaces.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 9

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

Begin by setting the Default Body Spacing to 0.1 cm. Next, set up
an extruded mesh by clicking Options>Meshing
Strategy>Extruded 2D Mesh. Set the Number of Layers to 1. An
item called Extruded Periodic Pair will appear in the Tree View.
Select the SymBack and SymFront as Locations 1 and 2. A
preview of the mesh is shown.

Next, inflation elements will be

implemented along the cylinder
surface as demonstrated in the
following slide.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 10

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

Click Inflation>Insert>Inflated Boundary to construct the inflation

layers. Select the Cylinder Region as the Location. Provide the
inflation settings shown to the left and preview the mesh to obtain
the view to the right.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 11

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

Next, the mesh in the downstream region must be refined. Use will
be made of localized spacing by clicking Controls>Insert>Point
Spacing. Provide the settings seen below to the left.

These settings will create small (0.05 cm) elements within a zone of
1 cm (Radius of Influence) from a location of our choosing.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 12

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

Next, it is necessary to specify the area where the point spacing will
be in effect. Click Controls>Insert>Line Control and observe the
view to the left. We will apply the spacing to a line the extends
downstream of the cylinder. The line is defined by the location of
two points in the Details View. To specify the location of the
endpoints of the Line Control, click Cancel1, then Right Click and
select Edit2. Enter the numbers shown in 3. Click enter to see 4.

1 2

3 4

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 13

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

Repeat the procedure by creating the second endpoint of the line

control as shown below.

Next, click Point Spacing 1 in the

Tree View and select Apply. You
will see the view shown below.

The line can be seen in red,

extending between the two
points which were entered in
the Details View. The blue
spheres show the extent of the
mesh refinement away from
the line.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 14

 CFX-Mesh – Element Sizing

If the mesh is previewed again, a deployment similar to that shown

below will be created. The key mesh feature is the refinement
downstream of the cylinder.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 15

 CFX-Mesh – Save and Exit

The final step in the CFX Mesh program is saving the mesh by
right-clicking Mesh>Generate Body Mesh. Specify a file name
(module4.gtm). You can now save the mesh and region settings by
using File>Save As. Save the file as module4.cmdb and exit the
program.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 16

 CFX Pre – Import the Mesh

Launch the CFX program, specify the working directory to be the

same directory used to create the CFX-Mesh files. Begin with the
CFX-Pre program. You can load the geometry directly by
File>Open Simulation and set the file type to be .gtm. Select the
file module4.gtm and click Open. The geometry will be displayed to
the screen.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 17

 CFX Pre – Fluid Properties

Air will be the working fluid with constant properties evaluated at 25

oC. Click the Create Domain icon, , enter a domain name
“FluidRegion”, then click OK. From the drop-down menu for the
Fluids List, select Air at 25 C as the fluid. Then, click the Fluid
Models tab and change the Turbulence Model to None
(Laminar). Change the Heat Transfer Model from None to
Thermal Energy. Finally, click OK. The Tree View will reflect the
creation of the FluidRegion, as seen below.

Next, the boundary conditions

will be created at each named
region. The boundaries must
include both flow and thermal
conditions, as will be seen in
the following.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 18

 CFX Pre – Boundary Conditions

Use the Create Boundary icon, , to create a region called “Inlet”.

The boundary type will be Inlet and the location will be at the Inlet
region which was specified in CFX-Mesh. Click the Boundary Details
tab and enter a Normal Speed of 4 cm/sec and a Static Temperature
of 25 C, as shown to the below, then click OK.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 19

 CFX Pre – Boundary Conditions

Continue by applying symmetry conditions to the three symmetry

regions (SymBack, SymBottom, SymFront).

Next, apply an Outlet condition, named “Outlet” to the Outlet region,

with a zero average pressure.

Apply a Wall condition named “Wall” to the Cylinder region. For this
surface, change the Heat Transfer Option to Temperature and
enter a Fixed Temperature of 50 oC.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 20

 CFX Pre – Boundary Conditions

Finally, apply an Opening condition named “Top” to the Opening

region, as shown below to the left. Under the Boundary Details
tab, set the Mass and Momentum Option to be Static Pres.
(Entrain) and enter a Relative Pressure of 0 Pa and an Opening
Temperature of 25oC, as indicated to the right.
These settings will allow fluid to
enter or leave the top surface as
the air flows around the cylinder.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 21

 CFX Pre – Solver and Saving

Click the Solver Control icon, and set the Residual Target to
1e-6, then click OK.

Next, save the cfx file by File>Save Simulation As. Enter the
filename “module4”. Next, write the definition file by File>Write
Solver File. Provide the name “module4.def” for the definition file
and click OK.

When the Define Run window opens, click Start Run to begin the
calculation.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 22

 CFX Solve

The figure to the right shows the

decrease of residuals over the
first 100 iterations. The tab
above the residual plot indicates
that the three residuals are
related to momentum and mass
conservation equations. To view
the heat transfer residuals, click
the Heat Transfer tab. The
solution is not yet complete, the
residuals have not reached the
specified convergence level of
1E-6. Continue the solution by
Workspace>Restart Current
Run.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 23

 CFX Solve

Over the next 100 iterations, the

residuals will continue to
decrease, as shown to the right.
While the residuals have not yet
reached the target value of 1E-6,
we will take this opportunity to
view the results. Greater
accuracy can be achieved by
continually restarting the run until
the desired convergence is
reached. To view the reults, click
the Look At icon, .

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 24

 CFX Post

Specify the system of units which

should be used in the postprocessing.
Click Edit>Options>Units and set the
System to be SI.

Next, begin viewing results by turning

on the visibility of the SymFront
surface. In the Details View, set the
Color Mode to be Variable and
specify Velocity as the Variable, as
shown to the right.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 25

 CFX Post

The figure to the right shows the velocity contour plot. Notice the
zone of slow-moving (blue) fluid downstream of the cylinder.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 26

 CFX Post

To show both sides of the cylinder, we

will create an Instance Transform, .
Click the icon and input the name
“Midplane” for the instance transform.
Unselect Instancing Info From Domain
and provide the settings shown to the
right, then click Apply.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 27

 CFX Post

Next, select the SymFront surface in the

Tree View, click the View tab and set Apply
Instancing Transform to Midplane, the
screen will appear as shown to the right.
Click Apply when you’ve completed the
settings to see the view below

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 28

 CFX Post

Apply the instancing transform to

the Wireframe as well, using the
settings shown to the right. Next,
double click on SymFront in the
Tree view and set the contour
variable to be temperature,
observe the resulting plot which is
shown on the following slide.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 29

 CFX Post

Simplify the color plot by

selecting the Default
Legend from the Tree View
and changing the
Appearance settings to
match those shown below,
then click Apply.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 30

 CFX Post

Next, calculations of the heat transfer coefficient will be made.

Click the Function Calculator icon, . In order to evaluate the
average heat flux at the cylinder surface, provide the settings
shown below.

With this value of the average

heat flux, the heat transfer
coefficient can be calculated from
the following:
W
193.8 2
q m W
h   7.75 2 o
T o
25 C m C

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 31

 CFX Post

The CFX calculations can be compared with experimental

correlations, which, for the Reynolds number range is

hD
Nu D   0.911 Re 0.385Pr 0.333
k
When the values of the Reynolds number and Prandtl number are
inserted into this expression, the Nusselt number emerges as 2.85.
When the convection coefficient is solved, using a thermal
conductivity of air as 0.0261 W/m-oC, the heat transfer coefficient is
calculated to be 7.44 W/m2-oC, closely matching that calculated on
the previous slide.
While the CFX function calculator does calculate a quantity termed
the “wall heat transfer coefficient” this coefficient is based on the
temperature of the fluid very near a surface, not in the freestream. As
a consequence it is not useful for comparison purposes.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 32

 CFX Post

The drag coefficient can be determined by calculating the drag

force. Using the function calculator, sum the x-component of the
forces on the cylinder as shown below. Here, the summed force is
seen to be 6e-8 Newtons. Note that this force is summed over the
top half of the cylinder. The total drag force is twice the value
shown here, or 1.2e-7 Newtons. This drag force corresponds to a
drag coefficient calculated from the following

Fdrag
CD 
1
Aprojected V 2
2
Here, the projected area is equal
to the diameter times the length
of the cylinder, or 5e-5 m2.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 33

 CFX Post

Inserting the known values into the preceding equation, it is

found that the calculated drag coefficient is

1.2 10 7 N
CD  2
 2.53
1 kg  m
5 10 5 m 2  1.185 3   0.04 
2 m  s

This result agrees reasonably well with the expected result

obtained from the experiments of Prandtl and from Bairstow.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 34

 CFX Post

It is useful to view streamlines to show flow patterns. Click

the Create Streamlines icon, . Accept the default name
and attach the streamlines to the SymFront surface. Make
sure that the Streamline Type is changed to Surface
Streamline, as shown below. Reflect the streamline pattern
about the Midplane by providing the settings in the lower
right.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 35

 CFX Post

The resulting streamline pattern is shown below. There, the

large symmetric eddy pattern can clearly be seen.
This page marks the
completion of Module4.
The results file for
Module4 is contained on
the CD, titled
“module4.res”.

© 2006 ANSYS, Inc. 36