CFD Online Logo CFD Online URL
www.cfd-online.com
[Sponsors]
Home > Forums > Software User Forums > ANSYS > CFX

Boundary conditions for a Fan geometry

Register Blogs Community New Posts Updated Threads Search

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old   January 28, 2011, 06:46
Default Boundary conditions for a Fan geometry
  #1
Senior Member
 
---------
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 303
Rep Power: 18
saisanthoshm88 is on a distinguished road
I have a fan to be modeled in CFX – pre . I’m not clear about the kind of Boundary conditions to be imposed on the fan. The image attached to the post shows the Fan geometry. The fan is a part of a Heat oven geometry and is used to impart a forced convection inside the oven.
The fan has a thickness .It has a surface mesh and the internal volume of the fan is not meshed. So I wonder if the conception of treating the upper surfaces of the fan as inlet and the lower surfaces as the outlet holds good at all.
Can someone please help me out.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Fan.JPG (23.0 KB, 74 views)
__________________
Best regards,
Santhosh.
saisanthoshm88 is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   January 28, 2011, 08:01
Default
  #2
Super Moderator
 
Glenn Horrocks
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 17,850
Rep Power: 144
ghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really nice
Last time I saw a fan the flow did not go into one side of the blade and out the other. Why do you think this is an appropriate flow boundary for a fan?
ghorrocks is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   January 28, 2011, 08:05
Default
  #3
Senior Member
 
---------
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 303
Rep Power: 18
saisanthoshm88 is on a distinguished road
I'm not exactly aware of the kind of BCs by which a fan is modeled in CFX so I regret if my conception is misleading but please suggest upon the usual approach in which the fan shown in the image can be modeled in CFX.

I found it in the CFX help that the Fans and blowers are treated similar to liquid pumps.
__________________
Best regards,
Santhosh.
saisanthoshm88 is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   January 28, 2011, 16:12
Default
  #4
Super Moderator
 
Glenn Horrocks
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 17,850
Rep Power: 144
ghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really nice
Quote:
I found it in the CFX help that the Fans and blowers are treated similar to liquid pumps.
That's right.....

There are examples of how to model this sort of thing in the CFX tutorials which are installed by default.
ghorrocks is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   January 31, 2011, 03:19
Default
  #5
Senior Member
 
---------
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 303
Rep Power: 18
saisanthoshm88 is on a distinguished road
Sorry, I couldn't find the right tutorial from the documentation . can you please guide me upon that (or) is it something like-- Aerodynamic & structural performance of a centrifugal compressor.
__________________
Best regards,
Santhosh.
saisanthoshm88 is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   January 31, 2011, 07:11
Default
  #6
Super Moderator
 
Glenn Horrocks
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 17,850
Rep Power: 144
ghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really nice
It is best to do all the tutorials. It will be time well spent.

But for your case the rotating ones are the most important - flow in an axial rotor/stator is one example.
ghorrocks is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 6, 2011, 06:38
Default
  #7
Senior Member
 
---------
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 303
Rep Power: 18
saisanthoshm88 is on a distinguished road
Well Glenn, I've gone through stuff like : MRF method and moving mesh method which are the conventional approaches of Modeling a Fan for CFD analysis.

But what about an approach like meshing the internal volume of the Fan and using that volume to be a rotational domain.

(or) what if I choose the Fan to be a inlet, outlet (or) both as suggested in the CFX documentation and specify the velocity in terms of some cylindrical components so that I can mention the swirl component too.
__________________
Best regards,
Santhosh.
saisanthoshm88 is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 6, 2011, 17:39
Default
  #8
Super Moderator
 
Glenn Horrocks
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 17,850
Rep Power: 144
ghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really nice
Looks like you need to sort out what you want.

I think your second line is asking can you put the fan in as a solid object, I presume so you can do CHT on analysis. In V13 yes, you can do this. It did not work properly in previous versions. But if you are not doing CHT then CFX has been able to do it for years using the rotating frames of reference approach.

Your final line is suggesting you don't care about the details of the flow in the fan, just the flow it generates. If this is the case then forget about rotating frames of reference and model the fan as a momentum source. You can include swirl components. You need the fan performance curve to do this. There have been many posts on the forum for how to do this.
ghorrocks is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 6, 2011, 20:17
Default
  #9
Senior Member
 
---------
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 303
Rep Power: 18
saisanthoshm88 is on a distinguished road
You are right Glenn, I don't need the details of flow in the fan and i'm only interested in the flow it generates and of course i'm not doing the CHT analysis.

But I don't have the fan performance curve and the only information I have is that the Fan rotates at a speed of 2,300 r.p.m. I'm currently considering the MRF method . As far as I know it, in the MRF method fan blades are modeled stationary, but since the fluid domain surrounding them is in a rotating frame, the pressure jump and swirl will be given by the presence of the fan blades as walls.

I've defined the fluid domain surrounding the Fan to be a rotary domain but now I couldn't model the Fan surfaces as stationary walls. Because the CFX - pre doesn't allow to define a wall to be stationary in a rotating domain .
__________________
Best regards,
Santhosh.

Last edited by saisanthoshm88; February 7, 2011 at 03:30.
saisanthoshm88 is offline   Reply With Quote

Old   February 7, 2011, 05:33
Default
  #10
Super Moderator
 
Glenn Horrocks
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 17,850
Rep Power: 144
ghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really niceghorrocks is just really nice
Quote:
the only information I have is that the Fan rotates at a speed of 2,300 r.p.m.
Then I guess you better model it.

Quote:
As far as I know it, in the MRF method fan blades are modeled stationary, but since the fluid domain surrounding them is in a rotating frame, the pressure jump and swirl will be given by the presence of the fan blades as walls.
I do not know what you are talking about. Usually the fan rotates, so stick that in a rotating frame of reference, and the surrounding stuff is in a stationary frame of reference.
ghorrocks is offline   Reply With Quote

Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
hexagonal boundary conditions s_h Main CFD Forum 0 August 9, 2009 23:15
Boundary conditions for rotating fan rohit Siemens 3 October 4, 2008 05:18
Boundary conditions for rotating fan rohit Fidelity CFD 3 September 24, 2008 08:18
Water vapour condensation in CFX-5.7.1 hdj CFX 1 November 27, 2005 08:15
Convective Heat Transfer - Heat Exchanger Mark CFX 6 November 15, 2004 16:55


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 00:02.