How to simulate the fan driven by the airflow?
 

Dear All, The problem I get is to use Fluent to simulate the fan's rotation and the fan is driven by the incoming airflow. I want to know the RPM of the fan when it is driven by the airflow at a special speed. Now, the problem lies in that I don't know how to setup the fan and make the fan can be driven by the incoming air flow. An example for this problem is the wind power generation. Is there anyone can give me some suggestion of that. Many thanks! Best regards, Jason

Re: How to simulate the fan driven by the airflow?
 

Sounds like a "6 DOF" problem requiring dynamic meshing. Search this message board and the fluent docs for that. Quite interesting but challenging too.

Good luck

Max

Re: How to simulate the fan driven by the airflow?
 

I am afraid you can't. Even if you use slidding meshes you will need to know rotation speed before iterate. Fluent ask you for problem's statement. Solutions: (a) simple lab. scale test prior to numerical simulation (b) try to use any chart from fan's manufacturer (c) in case of wind turbine try to obtain an order of magnitude by using WT design strategies; ie. starting from blade and rotor characteristics (chord variation, blades number, caleage angle, etc) find omega.