Hi

I am simulating a micron scale tile moving in water as a 2d simulation in FLUENT, for which I am using FLUENT's 6dof solver.

I was wondering how I should calculate the mass and moments of inertia (for the 6dof udf) for my tile since it is a 2d simulation. What value should I use for the depth (z direction)? Should I assume that the depth is 1m? (This means my tile has dimensions 500 micron X 500 micron x 1m)

Thanks!

Even if your model is 2-D, it will have 3 moments of inertia if it is symmetrical (square, rectangular, circular, etc) and 6 moments of inertia if it is not symmetrical. Here are the formulae for the 3 moments of inertia about axii passing through the CG of the body.

Ix=0.5*mass*y^2

Iy=0.5*mass*x^2

Iz=(mass/12)*(x^2+y^2), where x and y are the respective x and y dimensions of the body...

check this link also

http://www.efunda.com/math/math_home/math.cfm

hope this helps..

Rajesh

No! if you're running a 2d simulation you only have three degrees of freedom: translation along x and y and rotation around z axis. So consider to have unity depth. Luca

Thanks for the responses! I am still confused though.

If I calculate moment of inertia according to the formula

Ix=0.5*mass*y^2

Iy=0.5*mass*x^2

Iz=(mass/12)*(x^2+y^2)

then I am assuming that the depth is 0. How do I calculate mass in that case? Since mass = density * x* y * depth, what should I take the depth as?

On the other hand, if I calculate the moment of inertia by considering unit depth, do I only need to specify mass and Izz (since it is a 2d problem)?

Thanks!

http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Aero...E031/0/d18.pdf....

Hi

Thanks - the link was very helpful!

I still have some doubts though:

1) Why does FLUENT need values of Ixx, Iyy if it is a 2d simulation? Shouldn't Izz be enough?

2) What value of mass should I input? Should I input m = density*x*y*1? (my dimensions are actually 500 micron X 500 micron X 30 micron)

Thanks again!

You can read the page more carefully (especially the example section). Or you can try reading any classical mechanics text like the one by Etkins..How Euler's equations of motion are formulated..

if your dimensions are 500 x 500 x 30 ..then mass would be density x 500 x 500 x 30..whether or not the body is having 2-D motion or 3-D motion.

I don't know how Fluent is simulating the solid body motion. I have experince with CFD-FASTRAN. I presume that both the approaches are same

In this case,

1) There will be a moment of inertia tensor for each 3-D body having 9 components of mass moment of inertia.. 2) We assign the motion to that 3-D body only. Its a different issue whether the body is having 3 degrees of freedom (2-D motion) or 6 degrees of freedom. However, if its a 2-D MOTION, the solver will not consider the forces in z-direction and the acceleration in that dierction will be zero. "That doesn't mean that the 3-D body is having only two moments of inertia!"

Rajesh

[Hossein1]

Originally Posted by Rajesh
;139268

http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Aero...E031/0/d18.pdf....

If anyone has this document, could you please upload it here so that people can use? The link is no longer active.
Thanks

[rsaurabh]

Have you got the material available on link. it is not working. if somebody has downloaded the material please share it.
My Email id is: saurabh194.gpt@gmail.com