[dkowalewski]

Hi

I'm having a problem with the symmetry boundary condition on a combustion chamber in fluent. When I use it on my model, there appears to be a wall where the symmetry plane is (ie. two chambers instead of one). Any help would be appreciated.

[-mAx-]

does the plane appear with symmetry set-up in the BC list (in fluent)?

[dkowalewski]

Yes, the symmetry plane appears in the BC menu, but it seems to just calculate as if the half was one container, then just reflects that result over the plane.

[-mAx-]

Originally Posted by dkowalewski

then just reflects that result over the plane.

that's the definition of symmetry.
If your geometry is symmetric, and your BC are also symmetric. Then you split your geometry along its symmetry and you compute on one half, because you know that the result will be symmetric.
Purpous of use of symmetry is to save computationnal effort.
But maybe I didn't understand your problem

[dkowalewski]

Yes, I'm splitting it in half to save computations, but there's a wall where the plane of symmetry is, so instead of having 1 chamber, I have 2. Is there any way to get rid of that?

[-mAx-]

if you split your domain along your symmetry, then you delete the volume you don't need.
The closed volume remaining is "closed" by the symmetry plane (which is not considered as a wall... since it appears in fluent BC as symmetry).
Can you post a picture?

[dkowalewski]

So here's a quick render I did of the setup. The line that goes straight down the centre is the plane of symmetry. There are three entrances for gases, side facing you and on the left and right sides. The pathlines are clearly following the plane of symmetry as if it were a wall.

Thanks

[-mAx-]

Per definition, on symmetry plane you shouldn't have velocity normal to the plane.
In other words: on the symmetry you have V.n = 0 where n is the normal vector.
So on symmetry you have only coplanar components and no normal component.

If the pathlines go through the plane in the middle then your flowfield isn't symmetric (that's why I didn't call it symmetry since it is not mathematically correct)

[dkowalewski]

I see, so would this be reasonable to do if I did not have those inlets pointing towards the plane?

Thanks for the help!

[-mAx-]

Are your Boundary Conditions also symmetric?