2D simulation turned out to be 3d!!
 

Hello, every one. I was simulating the flow field around an airfoil using 2 dimensional geometry and with one element in the third dimension. However when I check the y plus or wall shear distribution of the foil surface, it was not 2d at all! See at http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9940/yplus.png
how could that happen. i set the front and back sides as symmetry boundaries. Could it be the element aspect ratio that caused the problem? The first grid node was placed at 0.01 mm from the surface and the 3rd dimensional thickness was 1 cm. Or can I force the symmetry boundaries as translational periodic ones? And how to? I am using CFX 10.0.

Hi,

The thickness of the 3rd dimension should be approximately equal to the smallest element edge length. This effect can also be caused by your mesh not being perfectly 2D (ie the planes are not flat or angled or the extrusion is not straight).

Glenn

Hi.Glenn. Thanks for your reply. I extrude the mesh in ICEM with one cell thickness in Z direction. If this thickness is of the magnitute order of the boundary cell, it is very cumbersome to set boundaries condtions, and I have to zoom in constantly. Before extrusion, it might be better to set tolerance first, am I right?

Hi,

Yes, making the extrusion thickness equal the smallest element edge length can make working with the geometry difficult. But sometimes it can eliminate problems like what you see so I would give it a try.

While you are at it, put in a feature request to your support person for a true 2D model in CFX. It must be the most requested feature for years in CFX but still you have to do this single element thickness thing. The more requests there are for it the more likely it is for it to happen.

Glenn Horrocks

Hi Zei, it is nice to find somebody doing the same thing. I am trying to do airfoil simulations in CFX too. Do you create your mesh in CFX pre-pro or GAMBIT? Is there any good links that provide guides to newbie like me in using CFX?

Hi, LSC.
I an using ANSYS ICEM and GRIDGEN to generate the mesh, and they are both good meshers. For begginners, the best way is to read carefully the tutorials and go through all by yourself to get a quick understanding of the whole procedures of a simulation.

Hi Zie, thanks for replying. I am wondering when you did your meshing, does your trailing edge as a finite thickness or the Upper and lower surface joins at a common vertex? Because I was facing problem with 0 thickness at trailing edge when I do meshing in GAMBIT..

http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/fluent/airfoil/index.htm
if you are using gambit, read the link above will be much help I think. it's a c-type mesh. So if your airfoil is zero thickness at the trailing edge, just use this type of mesh.

because I understand that fluent solves 2D which CFX aren't capable of..I read that for 2D simulations I can have a trailing edge of zero thickness but for 3D the zero thickness will cause problems during mesh which I encountered too..do you have any problems like this where the trailing edge is of a finite thickness? pls advice..

If you can generate 2D mesh first, then in the third dimension you just extrude one element thickness then you will get the 3d mesh which CFX can read.

ok..thanks for your advice..I'll try that out..one element thickness which mean? usually I sweep with 1 unit which is I think 1 metre in the z direction

if the first layer grid is of milimeter magnitude or even much smaller, you sweep 1 meter in the Z direction, that will lead to high aspect ratio. You'd better sweep one element as thick as the smallest element in the boundary layer.

ok..have you managed to get the lift coefficients and drag coefficients?

3D airfoil simulation..
 

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Well the tutorial examples provided with CFX are a good place to start. Wasn't that obvious?

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sometimes I wonder .... :rolleyes:

LOL, best post ever! :)
Did you notice the sticky post on the main cfx thread?

thanx......

which university are you attending? taking an aerodynamic degree and if you have no previous exposure to cfd or other numerical methods I'd be worried if I were you.

To be honest the way you ask your questions "I need to do a final year project to get my degree.. The title is 3d airfoil simulation.. However, i dont have any idea what to do and how to start.. Anybody can help me?"

seriously.. what response did you expect to get? :confused:

You'd also have a supervisor that comes with the said project title. Did you ask him/her what you should be doing? I assume to ask questions here you would have access to ansys academic license ...

consult your supervisor about your project, and get someone to teach you the fundamentals. one this is done and if CFX is still the tool you will use you should start working through the tutorials then on your problem

surely as you said you learn how to use matlab and c++ so you know the drill... be prepared for long working hours and...

good luck