Fluent newbie - Solver Settings for airfoil.
 

Hello,

I'm new using the Ansys Fluent. I have already created the mesh using ICEM CFD. It is a C-Grid Hexa Mesh. I've defined the airfoil as wall, fluid as fluid and the far-field as pressure farfield.

Now I'm setting up the Fluent solver. I'm wondering if you could help me get going. The chord lenght is 165mm and I will use velocity from 0 m/s to approximately 15 m/s with various angles of attack. My goal is to seek the Drag, Lift and Momentum.

Chord length: 0.165 m
Air Velocity: 0 - 15 m/s
Kinematic Viscosity: 1.4207E-5 m2/s

Mach number: 0 - 0.04408
Reynolds Number: 0 - 174210


Do you know of any good guide on how to choose appropriate models and appropriate solution method. I would like to know what equations are used for my solution.

*Added:

Since I have maximum Reynolds number of 174210 I would assume I do not have a Turbulent flow. °

Hi,

sounds like you have a good starting point. Check out the fluent manual for the basics, it is quite comprehensive on that level. That goes for user and therory guide. Your problem seems quite all right for a beginner. I can definitely recommend simcafe.org of Cornell for nice intro tutorials. I suppose there is a fluent one for an airfoil too, but i am not 100% sure. You should be able to find loads of helpful things.

As for "appropriate models" just go step by step. E.g. if you say you'd probably not get turbulence because you're about an order too low in Re, then you sorted that already. Your Mach numbers are super low, so you can compute incompressible flow. Your velocities are not so large either, so a choice at hand could be the pressure based solver. You can use both coupled or segregated, which ever works better for your convergence rate/ memory requirements. But nothing is a strict rule, you can also use the density based solver if it works better for you. The manual also explains the pros and cons quite well I suppose.

Good luck, Mo