Creating & Meshing 2D Planar Surface (for simulating 2D Centrifugal Fan)
 

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to Ansys Fluent, so apologies if this turns out to be a dumb question...

My aim is to setup a 2D flow simulation of a forward-curved centrifugal fan. However, I have been struggling on the creation of the geometry.

I have previously not experienced any problems importing 3D Solidworks geometry into DesignModeler. For 2D geometries, am I right that it would only work if it involves planar surfaces created from closed-loop sketches (eg: complete circle, rectangle etc.) ?

My original plan was to first create a 2D circular disk of zero thickness, then drawing and circular patterning the outline of the centrifugal fan blades, then making zero thickness planar surfaces out of the blades as well, but I was stuck on the problems illustrated from the two attached images.

Attachment 53395

Attachment 53396

So somehow, whenever I tried to mesh the imported 2D geometry, even if its just a plain zero thickness circular disk without the blade outlines drawn on it, it would somehow extrude itself into a 3D column. Just wondering if anyone could point out what I had done incorrectly ?
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This problem did not occur if I tried drawing the geometry just from DesignModeler, but for drawing complex geometries like the blades, does DesignModeler have the features from other CAD programs like Solidworks (eg: centreline, circular pattern, equation-driven curves etc.) such that I can define the 2D blades (eg: inlet angle, outlet angle etc.) ?