[kevinlea]

Hi,

I am working on a stirred tank reactor project using OpenFOAM. From my research, it involves multiple reference frame (one rotating zone enclosing the rotating impeller, and a stationary zone outside the rotating zone).

I have made the mesh for the tank, impeller shaft, impeller, rotating zone, and stationary zone. I also define the interface boundary between the rotating zone and stationary zone as cyclicAMI (please correct me if this is not the right boundary definition). The rest of the boundary are fixed value for velocity and zero gradient for pressure.

The solver I am using is pimpleDymFOAM. I am running into the problem where the Courant number keeps getting larger during the simulation. I hope someone can take a look at what I have done wrong. I have attached my files below. Thank you.

Reactor mesh image:http://imgur.com/4FmRwEx
Reactor image: http://imgur.com/dy1cVub


Kevin Lea

[nicholas.jones]

Hey Kevin,

Although I am no expert, I have found that some of my previous convergence problems were due to poor mesh. You might want to analyse your mesh in greater detail, and consider using snappyHexMesh instead of Salome (looks like salome to me, I may be wrong).

More detail on your mesh may be helpful (checkMesh).

[chegdan]

Kevin,

if you post your surfaces you are using; some information about your mesh e.g. the cell count you would like; and the simulation conditions then we may be able to help. Your case had no mesh and could not be run. Be more specific and I will see what i can do to help.

[kevinlea]

Originally Posted by chegdan

Kevin,

if you post your surfaces you are using; some information about your mesh e.g. the cell count you would like; and the simulation conditions then we may be able to help. Your case had no mesh and could not be run. Be more specific and I will see what i can do to help.

Thanks Dan,

I don't know how to upload the mesh files because of file size limit. Can I email you the files?
I meshed with Salome with Netgen, but I think the culprit is how I define my cyclicAMI boundaries.

For the rotating zone enclosing the impeller, I exclude the impeller and impeller shaft volume, so that the rotating zone is a cylindrical donut with hollow impeller inside. Then I define the outer top, side, and bottom surfaces as cyclicAMI.

For the stationary zone, I exclude the rotating zone and impeller shaft volume, so it is a cylindrical donut with hollow rotating zone inside. I define the inside boundary touching the rotating zone also as cyclicAMI.

Is it necessary to exclude their containing elements' volume for both zone for the multiple reference frame setup?

Thanks
Kevin

[chegdan]

If you are using MRF, there is no need to use Cyclic AMI (though it is possible). If you want to use dropbox and provide a public link i can give it a go to mesh your surfaces and get a steady simulation started.

[kevinlea]

Originally Posted by chegdan

If you are using MRF, there is no need to use Cyclic AMI (though it is possible). If you want to use dropbox and provide a public link i can give it a go to mesh your surfaces and get a steady simulation started.

Dan,

Thanks for your help. I have attached the stl files of the parts. Please read the text file for clarification on my setup.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zq9ae20kfg...actor.zip?dl=0

Thanks
Kevin

[sharonyue]

Hi kevin,

When you are using sliding mesh, you have to make sure that your mesh is indeed sliding. Otherwise this means Courant number keeps getting larger. I suggest you check out your mesh, make a slice on the AMI patch to see if the patch is sliding smoothly, or its fixed.

[kevinlea]

Originally Posted by sharonyue

Hi kevin,

When you are using sliding mesh, you have to make sure that your mesh is indeed sliding. Otherwise this means Courant number keeps getting larger. I suggest you check out your mesh, make a slice on the AMI patch to see if the patch is sliding smoothly, or its fixed.

Hi Sharon,

Thank you for your feedback. I believe am not using the sliding mesh method. I am trying to implement MRF method to solve the rotation of the impeller. I hope you briefly explain what are the necessary boundaries that I need to define for this setup.

Thanks
Kevin

[kevinlea]

Hi All,

I am still working on this project. I hope I can get some clarification on what I should define the boundary conditions for the following elements in the reactor for the MRF approach.

1. Interface boundary between the rotating frame and the stationary frame
2. Impeller boundary
3. Impeller shaft boundary

Thanks
Kevin