Wall and Boundary Scale Divergence - All other terms converging nicely
 

Hello,

I am a long time user of CFX (~10 years), but have never encountered this issue before, so am in need of some help.

My Wall and Boundary Scale equations are diverging in my run, while all other residuals and user points are trending perfectly. Since this isn't affecting any flow variables, I'm unable to properly diagnose the location in CFX-Post. I have tried this with two different inflation layer schemes, after finding that the first one had transitional y+ values (between 2 and 40). The next mesh put 20 layers in the same thickness where 12 were previously.

I am modelling a centrifugal compressor with a slightly non-traditional layout due so some flow regulating IGV's on the axial inlet. Those IGV's are isolated in their own annular passage (radius ratio only around 1.3), and therefore the stationary domain is applied around them with well-posed axial sector stage interfaces on the upstream and downstream sides . The rotor domain encapsulates the entirety of the rest of the problem with an axial inlet and radial outlet. Both stationary and rotating walls are present in the rotor side mesh, with counter-rotating walls applied appropriately. There is also a free-slip "straw" extending axially from the tip of the compressor nose to the inlet. Inflation layers wrap from this straw onto the viscous surfaces.

K-epsilon solves the problem quite well. SST diverges within 45 iterations as Wall and Boundary scale go to 1e+25. This is independent of time step (since I don't believe that equation adheres to the timescale value).

Thank you very much in advance!

The wall scale equation rarely causes a problem so the fact you are having issues with it suggests something is unique in your case. I recall the wall scale equation is just a simple diffusion equation so should be very stable.

The only thing I can suggest causing this would be poor mesh quality. It probably is just one or two elements which are really bad and causing local divergence. I would do some mesh diagnostics to try to find these bad elements and fix them up.

There are also a few parameters you can use to control the wall scale equation but this is not really addressing the real problem. I suspect you need to fix those bad elements and then everything will work fine.

About 10 years ago I have seen such a problem before. If I remember it correctly, it had to do with the free slip condition on certain walls. I would set them back to no-slip to see if the problem disappears.