Query on Scaling down and similitude

ramki · July 6, 2009, 08:19

i have a big tidal turbine to be modelled using CFD and find out the pressure and shear forces that are experianced by the turbine blade. as the size of the turbine is very big i am a little worried about the mesh count. so i thought of doing analyis for a scalled down model. but how do i scale up the forces back to the original size turbine from the prototype results. and please throw some light on what are the non-dimensional numbers to be considered to achieve static and dynamic similitude. Please help me in this regard

Thanks & regards
T. Sriramakrishna

Ananda Himansu · July 7, 2009, 06:10

Scaling down will not reduce your mesh count. Your mesh count is determined by the ratio of the largest to the smallest among the length scales that you wish to take into account. The length scales are determined by the corresponding physics you wish to resolve.

July 6, 2009, 08:19	Query on Scaling down and similitude	#1
ramki New Member sriramakrishna Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 17	i have a big tidal turbine to be modelled using CFD and find out the pressure and shear forces that are experianced by the turbine blade. as the size of the turbine is very big i am a little worried about the mesh count. so i thought of doing analyis for a scalled down model. but how do i scale up the forces back to the original size turbine from the prototype results. and please throw some light on what are the non-dimensional numbers to be considered to achieve static and dynamic similitude. Please help me in this regard Thanks & regards T. Sriramakrishna

July 7, 2009, 06:10		#2
Ananda Himansu New Member Ananda Himansu Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA Posts: 17 Rep Power: 16	Scaling down will not reduce your mesh count. Your mesh count is determined by the ratio of the largest to the smallest among the length scales that you wish to take into account. The length scales are determined by the corresponding physics you wish to resolve.