Centrifugal Fan Simulation.
 

Hi guys!! I have posted before but to be honest the responses were pretty disappointing. Anyway i am trying again and i would try to be concise. I am a newbie to ansys and i have done some 2D simulations in fluent from tutorials.

Objective: Simulate flow in centrifugal fan (3D)
What i have: IGES/CAD model of the fan with casing.

Now i am confused how to go about it. Should i use fluent or CFX? How do i mesh the geometry and how to define rotating domain? A simple overview of steps would be great. cheers.

Hi,
your questions are very general and you should get replyes to your questions by reading few tutorials about multiple reference frames (mrf) and sliding meshes.

1- import your cad geometry into the pre-processor software for mesh generation: you can use whatever software you want, ansys meshing, gambit, icem, pointwise. Fix the geometry if needed (short edges, cracks, holes, etc.)

2- you have to create 2 fluid domains (or zones), one "rotor", which includes the blades, and one "stator", which includes the outer fluid zone.
You can create interfaces between rotor and stator if you want (a must if you plan to use sliding mesh, optional if you use mrf). Set boundary conditions.

3- once you created the mesh you can import it to fluent or cfx, both are good softwares for these types of problems.
Set properties of fluid, set turbulence model, wall function, rotor (set mrf or sliding mesh and assign a correct axis of rotation and rotational velocity) and stator zones, boundary conditions and solution methods and strat your simulation.

Daniele