Lecture 3 Two-way FSI Overview, Geometry and Meshing 14.

5 Release

Solving FSI Applications Using ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS CFX

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Outline
Coupling Overview
This lecture starts by describing how the FSI coupling process works. The main features and capabilities are then discussed along with the current limitations.

Workflow Overview
This section provides a high level view of the FSI workflow for a simple 2-way FSI analysis

Geometry & Meshing

Here well cover what you need to consider when creating the geometry and mesh for a co-simulation analysis

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Coupling Overview
Simulations involving multiple physics requires solution of multiple fields Fields are coupled: solution data from one field is required by one (or more) other field Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics
Structural Mass Momentum Turbulence Thermal Heat Transfer
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Coupling Overview
CFX solves Mass and Momentum in a single matrix (fully coupled) Other fields (Turbulence, Heat Transfer, ) are solved in a segregated manner Iterations are required to convergence sequentially (segregated) solved fields

Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics

Structural Mass Momentum Turbulence Thermal Heat Transfer
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Coupling Overview
MAPDL solver usually solves Structural OR Thermal fields Multifield (MFS) solver can couple fields in a segregated manner in MAPDL Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics
Structural Mass Momentum Turbulence

MFS
Thermal

Heat Transfer
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Coupling Overview
The MAPDL solver can also couple fields using a fully coupled approach

Different elements are used to couple different fields

E.g. SOLID 226 can couple thermal and structural fields

Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics

Structural Thermal Mass Momentum Turbulence

Heat Transfer
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FEA and CFD Element Background

Mechanical/MAPDL use elements that combine mesh and physics, e.g. SOLID185 is a structural element SOLID278 is a thermal element SOLID226 is a coupled field element CFX uses mesh elements as a computational stencil Physics is not associated with elements Different element types only for different shapes (tet, hex, etc) Use of multiple elements (for multiphysics) requires: Data transfer between different element types Sequencing of element solutions The Multifield solver (MFS) provides an infrastructure for this
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The MFX Solver

The MFX solver is the external variety of the MFS solver It couples the MAPDL solver and the CFX solver together MFX and MFS cannot be combined Notice the Structural Thermal coupling has been removed below

Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics

Structural

MFX

Mass Momentum Turbulence

OR
Thermal

MFX
Heat Transfer

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The MFX Solver

To couple CFX with a Structural Thermal simulation use Coupled Field Elements MFX can only couple to 1 element type on the MAPDL solver side Only one SOLVE command is allowed in the MAPDL solver

Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics

Structural Thermal
Mass Momentum

MFX

Turbulence

Heat Transfer
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Iterative Coupling
Iterations are required to converge the quantities transferred between the MAPDL and CFX solvers Just like iterations are required to converge segregated fields
within the CFD or FEA solvers

Force/displacement or Temperature/Heat Flow are the

transferred quantities

Fluid Dynamics Solid Mechanics

Structural MFX Mass Momentum

Turbulence

Heat Transfer
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Iterative MFX Coupling

A transient 2-way FSI simulation has three levels of iterations:
Time Loop Coupling / Stagger Loop Field Loop The transient loop each loop/step moves forward in time, as in a standard CFD or FEA transient simulation. Loads / displacements are updated between the FEA and CFD solvers. The usual inner loop, used to converge the field(s) within a solver named Coefficient Loops in CFX and Equilibrium Iterations in ANSYS.

End Field Loop End Coupling / Stagger Loop End Time Loop

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Iterative Coupling
Time Loop Coupling Loop Field Loop

Field loop iterations stop when the field reaches its convergence target (or Max Iterations/Time Step in Fluent)
The CFX field loop does not need to be converged every Coupling Iteration, only by the end of the last Coupling Iteration

Coupling loop iterations stop when the forces / displacements reach their convergence targets or max number of Coupling Iterations
End Field Loop End Coupling Loop End Time Loop Ensure the individual field solvers AND the forces / displacements are converged before starting the next time step

E.g.: CFX set to 10 iterations/time step, System Coupling set to 5 Coupling Iterations and 100 time steps are solved. CFX could perform a total of 10*5*100 = 5,000 iterations in total if convergence is poor
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MFX Key Features

Steady or Transient 1-way and 2-way co-simulation with surface force/displacement coupling and/or surface Temperature/Heat Flow coupling between CFX and ANSYS Mechanical/MAPDL Full range of CFX capabilities FSI interfaces on SOLID, SHELL or SOLSH elements Restarts supported with CFX and/or MAPDL changes Integrated post-processing with ANSYS CFD-Post Parameterization, design exploration and optimization Coupling Iterations produce an implicit solution
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MFX Key Features

Load transfer mapping is fully conservative for conserved quantities (Heat Flow, Force) Both globally and locally at the element level General Grid Interface (GGI) algorithm for force and profile
preserving algorithm for displacement Non matching meshes supported

Interface load under relaxation controls

Interface data convergence checking Supports Large Models CFX can use distributed parallel processing on n machines MAPDL solver can use local (shared memory) parallel Remote Solver Manager (RSM) supported
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MFX Key Features

No additional licenses Need any CFX/CFD/CFD-Flo license and an ANSYS Mechanical
or above license

Workbench based setup and execution Windows 32/64-bit, Linux 64-bit Command line execution outside of Workbench Can use separate machines and mix Windows, Linux Can use MAPDL to create the structural model Solver data transfer across standard sockets (TCP/IP) Third Party Coupling Scheme Not Required Efficient, no intermediate files Takes place in memory (RAM)
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MFX Whats Not Supported

Cannot specify multiple load steps in Mechanical Cannot provide a pre-stressed structural model Alternative: start with a FSI simulation with some data
transfers suppressed, then restart after unsuppressing data transfers

Cannot use multi-configurations or remeshing in CFX

Many Mechanical features based on newer contact elements (CONTA17*) are not supported Work-arounds discussed later

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Comparing MFX/CFX with System Coupling/Fluent

MFX allows 2-way thermal and structural coupling, including coupled field element solutions. This is not available in SC until version 15.0. MFX allows forces to be transferred from a pair of wall boundaries to a set of shell elements (2-to-1 mapping). SC is limited to 1-to-1 mapping for co-simulation. Mesh smoothing options with CFX are more robust and have more control than Fluent. MFX allows mixed steady/transient couplings and allows restarts from steady-state to transient, neither of which are supported with SC (at 14.5)

SC/Fluent allows re-meshing whereas MFX is limited to mesh smoothing.

MFX does not support many features based on CONTA17* elements. These are fully supported with SC. SC support local/shared memory and distributed parallel for MAPDL, whereas MFX only support local parallel for MAPDL. SC has an easier to use WB workflow for restarts. Creation of backup points is simpler with SC. SC requires an "ANSYS Structural" or higher license plus any Fluent license. MFX requires an "ANSYS Mechanical" or higher license plus any CFX/CFD-Flo license, or a single "ANSYS Multiphysics" license, or a single "ANSYS Mechanical CFD-Flo" license.

Cases requiring transient rotor-stator can be solved with MFX/CFX but cases requiring FSI regions in sliding mesh zones cannot be solved with SC/Fluent
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Outline
Coupling Overview
This lecture starts by describing how the FSI coupling process works. The main features and capabilities are then discussed along with the current limitations.

Workflow Overview
This section provides a high level view of the FSI workflow for a simple 2-way FSI analysis

Geometry & Meshing

Here well cover what you need to consider when creating the geometry and mesh for a co-simulation analysis

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Workbench Workflow
Standard WB workflow for 2-way FSI Drop a CFX system onto the Setup cell of a Transient Structural system

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Geometry is shared by default Fluid and structural meshes are created separately CFX Solution cell controls the FSI simulation Structural Solution not used for FSI, but can be used to check the structural model
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Workflow Overview - Mechanical

Import / create geometry:

Extract fluid regions in DM if

necessary

Set up Mechanical model:

Very similar to a standard

Mechanical model Create the FSI interface region where fluid forces will be received

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Workflow Overview
Mesh fluid region

Setup CFX model

Define Coupling Timestep controls Create fluid domain as usual,

enabling Mesh Motion

FSI Interface will be a Wall Boundary

where the motion is received from MAPDL solver

In addition to usual CFX solver

controls, set coupling solver controls

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Workflow Overview
Run in the CFX Solver Manager

Both codes started

automatically

Or can launch one at a time

(different machines, clusters)

Solution output from both

codes tracked in the CFX Solver Manager

Both solutions can be postprocessed in CFD-Post

Some limitations for

Mechanical results in CFD-Post

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Workflow Outside Workbench

Can also run the solutions outside of Workbench Can be easier when restarts are required Can use WB for Geometry, Mesh and Mechanical, then export the CFX mesh/setup and ANSYS Input file and continue outside of WB
Fluid and Solid Geometry Solid Mesh: suppress fluid bodies in here Structural Setup: Write Input File when complete (Tools > Write Input File) Fluid Mesh: suppress solid bodies in here

Export the fluid mesh, then run CFX outside of WB, providing the fluid mesh and the Mechanical Input File. Alternatively, connect to a CFX system then pull the .cfx file outside of WB
23 2011 ANSYS, Inc. July 26, 2013

Release 14.5

Outline
Coupling Overview
This lecture starts by describing how the FSI coupling process works. The main features and capabilities are then discussed along with the current limitations.

Workflow Overview
This section provides a high level view of the FSI workflow for a simple 2-way FSI analysis

Geometry & Meshing

Here well cover what you need to consider when creating the geometry and mesh for a co-simulation analysis

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Release 14.5

Geometry Considerations
Helpful to use a single CAD file containing both the fluid and solid regions Ensures that FSI interface region lines up Fluid geometry/mesh may need to include fillets if present in the
solid Small mismatch OK ~ half the local element edge length

Can import separate CAD files into DesignModeler and move / transform as necessary Consider if the fluid bodies should be split to control mesh
motion or if subdomains are needed

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Geometry Considerations
To use shell elements in Mechanical, make a Surface body in DM Given a fluid body, use Create > Thin/Surface with zero thickness When you select a face, the side with the positive surface normal is highlighted in green Force passed to Mechanical is a vector, so the surface normal
direction doesnt matter, but...

Outward pointing normal

Inward pointing normal

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Geometry Considerations
Shell element assume the nodes are at the mid-plane of the true geometry Forces from a Fluid Solid Interface will be
applied at the mid-plane by default Negligible error for thin geometries
Outward pointing normal

Correct interpretation of the physics is given by using Offset Type Offsets the shell element nodes to the top
or bottom of the thickness In the pipe example shown, assuming internal flow with outward pointing normals, use Offset Type = Bottom
Locates the nodes at the true Fluid Solid Interface
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Meshing
When meshing the fluid, suppress the solid region in Meshing And visa-versa Interface mesh does not need to match Force still locally and globally conservative Similar mesh length scales will maintain the
load transfer resolution

Solid

Fluid

Fluid exerts pressure normal to fluid boundary elements

Solid

Difference in element normal Fluid directions across interface can produce twisting on coarse meshes with surface curvature Force vector is transferred to the solid, Create a matching mesh if necessary... but does not act normal to the solid
elements results in a twisting force
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Meshing
Matching interface mesh mesh the fluid and solid parts together, using a single Part The structural Model cell contains the fluid & structural bodies in one Part Mesh both fluid and solid regions in the Mechanical Model, then use File
> Export to write out a Fluent mesh (.msh) Suppress the fluid region, continue with the Mechanical Model definition Import the Fluent mesh into CFX-Pre in a CFX Component System

No automatic mesh update in CFX-Pre

Fluid and Solid Geometry in a single Part Mesh both fluid and solid, export mesh, then suppress fluid Import fluid mesh

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Meshing
It is also possible to create fluid and solid meshes outside Workbench (e.g. ICEM) Import the fluid mesh into CFX-Pre manually Import the solid mesh into Finite Element Modeler, then connect
to a Mechanical system:

Fluid and solid meshes can be created together if necessary so that nodes match at the interface Meshing the fluid volume then extracting the surface mesh to
use as a Mechanical shell mesh is also possible
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Summary
The MFX solver allows fields solved in different solvers to be coupled together

For 2-way FSI analyses iterations are typically used between the solvers within each time step so that the forces/displacements can converge at that time step
The workflow involves identifying boundary regions in Mechanical and CFX that will send/receive data. All coupling settings are defined in CFX-Pre in Workbench. The fluid and structural geometries should physically match at the FSI interface An offset may be required when using shell elements Poor mesh resolution on curved surfaces can lead to errors in the force transfer. Use of a matching mesh avoids this.

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