[ANSYS Meshing] Meshing a 3d VAWT

Rudysa2 · February 28, 2011, 01:49

Hello, thank you for taking your time to read this. Please keep in mind I am new to Ansys.

We have an experimental set up of a wind turbine rotating a model VAWT.
I am attempting to model this on Ansys to help determine what models we would like to use next. I have currently created the geometry for a four bladed savonius turbine. In the image below the outer box is suppose to simulate the open atmosphere. The small rectangular box leading to the turbine is the wind tunnel. I have created a plane about halfway inside the wind tunnel box to simulate the actual distance from the wind turbine to the wind tunnel fan. This plane is to be the velocity inlet.

The geometry was made using workbench, I have access to solidworks which is likely what I will use for the next geometries. I run the mesher in Ansys and everything seems fine (it uses tetrahedrals on the turbine and quadrahedrals on the boxes). Now when I get to running fluent my problem is that there are only two boundary conditions, the interior solid and wall solid.

My question is how do I make the geomtries appear as boundary conditions? I want the outer box as the atmosphere conditions, the wind tunnel box to be a solid, the plane inside the wind tunnel box to be a velocity inlet, and the turbine itself to be a rotating solid. I have been told this will require a sliding mesh?

Thanks again for your time. Also if you have any links that will provide me help with the sliding mesh it would be much appreciated.

PSYMN · February 28, 2011, 22:57

I get asked this a lot on CFD-Online...

I made this movie to help...

http://www.youtube.com/user/ansysinc#p/u/8/-6Z2v8geroQ

Best regards,

Simon

PSYMN · February 28, 2011, 22:58

But looking at your model, I wonder if you have a body for the fluid at all? If not, perhaps you should have created the far field box as a big solid rather than as a "thin solid"...

Oh well, you should be able to tell if your mesh is filling your fluid zone or not.

If not, look into enclosure or using solids instead of thin solids.

February 28, 2011, 01:49	Meshing a 3d VAWT	#1
Rudysa2 New Member Rudy Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Hello, thank you for taking your time to read this. Please keep in mind I am new to Ansys. We have an experimental set up of a wind turbine rotating a model VAWT. I am attempting to model this on Ansys to help determine what models we would like to use next. I have currently created the geometry for a four bladed savonius turbine. In the image below the outer box is suppose to simulate the open atmosphere. The small rectangular box leading to the turbine is the wind tunnel. I have created a plane about halfway inside the wind tunnel box to simulate the actual distance from the wind turbine to the wind tunnel fan. This plane is to be the velocity inlet. The geometry was made using workbench, I have access to solidworks which is likely what I will use for the next geometries. I run the mesher in Ansys and everything seems fine (it uses tetrahedrals on the turbine and quadrahedrals on the boxes). Now when I get to running fluent my problem is that there are only two boundary conditions, the interior solid and wall solid. My question is how do I make the geomtries appear as boundary conditions? I want the outer box as the atmosphere conditions, the wind tunnel box to be a solid, the plane inside the wind tunnel box to be a velocity inlet, and the turbine itself to be a rotating solid. I have been told this will require a sliding mesh? Thanks again for your time. Also if you have any links that will provide me help with the sliding mesh it would be much appreciated.

February 28, 2011, 22:57	Named Selections...	#2
PSYMN Senior Member Simon Pereira Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 2,663 Blog Entries: 1 Rep Power: 47	I get asked this a lot on CFD-Online... I made this movie to help... http://www.youtube.com/user/ansysinc#p/u/8/-6Z2v8geroQ Best regards, Simon

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February 28, 2011, 22:58		#3
PSYMN Senior Member Simon Pereira Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 2,663 Blog Entries: 1 Rep Power: 47	But looking at your model, I wonder if you have a body for the fluid at all? If not, perhaps you should have created the far field box as a big solid rather than as a "thin solid"... Oh well, you should be able to tell if your mesh is filling your fluid zone or not. If not, look into enclosure or using solids instead of thin solids.