VOF modelling, water drainage from an elevated tank
 

Hi,
I am trying to simulate water draining from at a tank at 10 meter elevation through a pipe by the aid of gravity. As seen in the figure 1

I am using ANSYS FLUENT to do that. I am using VOF for modelling.
I am having difficulties in defining the inlet and outlet boundary condition.
Right now, I am using pressure-inlet and pressure-outlet for inlet and outlet boundary conditions,
but after running the code,the results is as shown in figure 2,

anyone have an idea about that, and how to resolve this issue?

i guess that since you have a gravity driven flow, you should make additional sets in fluent
by setting the operational density to 0 and the reference density equal to the fluid that you are simualting, the gravitational influence will be considered in the equations

how to change the operational density ?
 

Dear Jabba,
Thanks a lot for your replay.
you mean to change the density of the water to zero from the material edit window ?
if not, how to change the operational density ?

thanks.... :)

So,

Gravity has to be enabled. Hence give always a refrence density: either the lighter phase or zero ( i usually give zero). You habe very difficult simulation with both pressure B.C: here you have to patch the pressure fied with the hydrostatic head or define proper profiles at the pressure intlet /outlet.

After doing this then we can discuss whether VOF or MultiFluid-VOF is appropriate for the simulation

Good Luck

looking into the plots, we are experiencing high reversal flows coming from the outlet. This occurs because of the pressure B.C. Put zero density and define pressure profile for the inlet since there you have at the beginning water (tank regio).

hi, you should keep the water density in materials tab with usual values
the operating density should be changed at Boundary Conditions or Cell zone Conditions > Operating Conditions > Check Specified Operating Density and setting it to 0 or to the lighter phase density
and then you should also change the reference density at Reference Values tab to the value of the water density

through this way, the hidrostatic pressure will be considered in the calculation

don't forget to set the gravity magnitude and direction properly

regards