I am running the simulations of a turbulent jet flow. The simulition is successfully finished when i use 1e-3 sec as the time step. However, when i change to use 1e-4 sec (with the same setup of the others), there is always a overflow problem. I thought it was due to the mesh quality. So i checked it in Ansys ICEM. It said the quality was good. Does anyone confront this kind of problem? please give me some clue. Cheers!

This can sometimes happen if you have too fine a mesh as well. Check your domain advection time. A typical time step is usually 1 advection time whereas 1/3 of the advection time would be considered small but can aid convergence.

Hi,

Using either a smaller timestep or finer mesh often causes the simulation to loose stability. There are a number of reasons but the most common one is that the mesh is now starting to resolve turbulent eddies. This leads to a minimum size allowable for timesteps. That is why it is recommended to increase the timestep agressively in steady state simulations after the initial transient is under control.

Glenn Horrocks

Thanks, Glenn. When you said 'increase the timestep agressively in steady state simulations after the initial transient is under control', do you mean that i should do a steady-state simulation first to get some results to set as the initial conditions for the later transient simulation?

Thanks for the response, John. I have a rookie question: how to check the advection time of my domain? cheers.

Hi,

You should model the physics as they are in the real world. If it starts from a steady state condition then yes, start with a steady state simulation. If it starts from a known condition (ie from rest, or some other known condition) then start straight into the transient simulation.

Glenn Horrocks

Hao,

I'm new here but I have found this:

http://www.cfd-online.com/Forum/cfx_...cgi?read=28402