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FLUENT - Laminar Pipe Flow

Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University


Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Laminar Pipe Flow


Created using ANSYS 13.0. Tutorial instructions work with ANSYS 14.0 and 15.0. There are minor layout changes in ANSYS 15.0.
This tutorial has videos. If you are in a computer lab, make sure to have head phones.

Problem Specification

Consider fluid flowing through a circular pipe of constant radius as illustrated above. The figure is not to scale. The pipe diameter D = 0.2 m and
length L = 8 m Consider the inlet velocity to be constant over the cross-section and equal to 1 m/s. The pressure at the pipe outlet is 1 atm. Take
density = 1 kg/ m 3 and coefficient of viscosity = 2 x 10 -3 kg/(m s). These parameters have been chosen to get a desired Reynolds number of
100 and don't correspond to any real fluid.
Solve this problem numerically using ANSYS FLUENT. Present the following results:
Velocity vectors
Velocity magnitude contours
Pressure contours
Velocity profile at the outlet
Skin friction coefficient along the wall
Provide comparisons of the results with the full-developed analytical solution. Verify your results.
Go to Step 1: Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Pre-Analysis & Start-Up


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Pre-Analysis & Start-Up


Preliminary Analysis

Start-Up
Prior to opening ANSYS, create a folder called pipe in a convenient location. We'll use this as the working folder in which files created during the
session will be stored. For this simulation Fluent will be run within the ANSYS Workbench Interface. Start ANSYS workbench:
Start> All Programs> Ansys 13.0> Workbench
The following figure shows the workbench window.

Higher Resolution Image

Management of Screen Real Estate


This tutorial is specially configured, so the user can have both the tutorial and ANSYS open at the same time as shown below. It will be beneficial
to have both ANSYS and your internet browser displayed on your monitor simultaneously. Your internet browser should consume approximately
one third of the screen width while ANSYS should take the other two thirds as shown below.

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If the monitor you are using is insufficient in size, you can press the Alt and Tab keys simultaneously to toggle between ANSYS and your internet
browser.
Go to Step 2: Geometry
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Geometry


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Geometry
For users of ANSYS 15.0, please check this link for procedures for turning on the Auto Constraint feature before creating sketches in
DesignModeler.

Fluid Flow (FLUENT) Project Selection


On the left hand side of the workbench window, you will see a toolbox full of various analysis systems. To the right, you see an empty work space.
This is the place where you will organize your project. At the bottom of the window, you see messages from ANSYS.
Left click (and hold) on Fluid Flow (FLUENT) , and drag the icon into the empty space in the Project Schematic. Your ANSYS window should
now look comparable to the image below.

Since we selected Fluid Flow (FLUENT), each cell of the system corresponds to a step in the process of performing CFD analysis using
FLUENT. Rename the project to Laminar Pipe.
We will work through each step from top down to obtain the solution to our problem.

Analysis Type
In the Project Schematic of the Workbench window, right click on Geometry and select Properties , as shown below.

The properties menu will then appear to the right of the Workbench window. Under Advance Geometry Options , change the Analysis Type to
2D as shown in the image below.

Launch Design Modeler


In the Project Schematic, double click on Geometry to start preparing the geometry.
At this point, a new window, ANSYS Design Modeler will be opened. You will be asked to select desired length unit. Use the default meter unit
and click OK .

Creating a Sketch
Start by creating a sketch on the XYPlane. Under Tree Outline, select XYPlane, then click on Sketching right before Details View. This will
bring up the Sketching Toolboxes.
Click Here for Select Sketching Toolboxes Demo
Click on the +Z axis on the bottom right corner of the Graphics window to have a normal look of the XY Plane.
Click Here for Select Normal View Demo
In the Sketching toolboxes, select Rectangle. In the Graphics window, create a rough Rectangle by clicking once on the origin and then by
clicking once somewhere in the positive XY plane. (Make sure that you see a letter P at the origin before you click. The P implies that the cursor is
directly over a point of intersection.) At this point you should have something comparable to the image below.

Dimensions
At this point the rectangle will be properly dimensioned.
Under Sketching Toolboxes, select Dimensions tab, use the default dimensioning tools. Dimension the geometry as shown in the following
image.

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Under the Details View table (located in the lower left corner), set V1 = 0.1m and set H2 = 8m, as shown in the image below.

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Surface Body Creation


In order to create the surface body, first (Click) Concept > Surface From Sketches as shown in the image below.

This will create a new surface SurfaceSK1. Under Details View, select Sketch1 as the Base Objects by selecting one of the lines of the sketch
and by clicking apply. Then select the thickness to be 0.1m and click Generate to generate the surface.

Saving
At this point, you can close the Design Modeler and go back to Workbench Project Page .
Save the project by clicking on the "Save As.." button,

, which is located on the top of the Workbench Project Page . Save the project as "LaminarPipeFlow" in your working directory. When you save
in ANSYS a file and a folder will be created. For instance if you save as "LaminarPipeFlow", a "LaminarPipeFlow" file and a folder called
"LaminarPipeFlow_files" will appear. In order to reopen the ANSYS files in the future you will need both the ".wbpj" file and the folder. If you do
not have BOTH, you will not be able to access your project.

Go to Step 3: Mesh
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Mesh


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Mesh
In this section the geometry will be meshed with 500 elements. That is, the pipe will be divided into 100 elements in the axial direction and 5
elements in the radial direction.

Launch Mesher
In order to begin the meshing process, go to the Workbench Project Page, then (Double Click) Mesh.

Default Mesh
In this section the default mesh will be generated. This can be carried out two ways. The first way is to (Right Click) Mesh > Generate Mesh, as
shown in the image below.

The second way in which the default mesh can be generated is to (Click) Mesh > Generate Mesh as can be seen below.

Either method should give you the same results. The default mesh that you generate should look comparable to the image below.

Note that in Workbench there is generally at least two ways to implement actions as has been shown above. For, simplicity's sake the "menu"
method of implementing actions will be solely used for the rest of the tutorial.

Mapped Face Meshing


As can be seen above, the default mesh has irregular elements. We are interested in creating a grid style of mesh that can be mapped to a
rectangular domain. This meshing style is called Mapped Face Meshing. In order to incorporate this meshing style (Click) Mesh Control >
Mapped Face Meshing as can be seen below.

Now, the Mapped Face Meshing still must be applied to the pipe geometry. In order to do so, first click on the pipe body which should then
highlight green. Next, (Click) Apply in the Details of Mapped Face Meshing table, as shown below.

This process is shown here

Now, generate the mesh by using either method from the "Default Mesh" section above. You should obtain a mesh comparable to the following
image.

Edge Sizing
The desired mesh has specific number of divisions along the radial and the axial direction. In order to obtain the specified number of divisions Ed
ge Sizing must be used. The divisions along the axial direction will be specified first. Now, an Edge Sizing needs to be inserted. First, (Click)
Mesh Control > Sizing as shown below.

Now, the geometry and the number of divisions need to be specified. First (Click) Edge Selection Filter,
. Then hold down the "Control" button and then click the bottom and top edge of the rectangle. Both sides should highlight green. Next, hit Apply
under the Details of Sizing table as shown below.

Now, change Type to Number of Divisions as shown in the image below.

Then, set Number of Divisions to 100 as shown below.

Follow the same procedure as for the edge sizing in the radial direction, except select the left and right side instead of the top and bottom and set
the Number of Division to 5. Then, generate the mesh by using either method from the "Default Mesh" section above. You should obtain the
following mesh.

As it turns out, in the mesh above there are 540 elements, when there should be only 500. Mesh statistics can be found by clicking on Mesh in
the Tree and then by expanding Statistics under the Details of Mesh table. In order to get the desired 500 element mesh the Behavior needs to
be changed from Soft to Hard for both Edge Sizing's. In order to carry this out first Expand Mesh in the tree outline then click Edge Sizing and
then change Behavior to Hard under the Details of Edge Sizing table, as shown below.

Then set the Behavior to Hard for Edge Sizing 2. Next, generate the mesh using either method from the "Default Mesh" section above. You
should then obtain the following 500 element mesh.

Radial Sizing

Create Named Selections


Here, the edges of the geometry will be given names so one can assign boundary conditions in Fluent in later steps. The left side of the pipe will
be called "Inlet" and the right side will be called "Outlet". The top side of the rectangle will be called "PipeWall" and the bottom side of the
rectangle will be called "CenterLine" as shown in the image below.

In order to create a named selections first (Click) Edge Selection Filter,

. Then click on the left side of the rectangle and it should highlight green. Next, right click the left side of the rectangle and choose Create Named
Selection as shown below.

Enter Inlet and click OK, as shown below.

Now, create named selections for the remaining three sides and name them according to the diagram.

Save, Exit & Update


First save the project. Next, close the Mesher window. Then, go to the Workbench Project Page and click the Update Project button,
.
Go to Step 4: Physics Setup
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Physics Setup


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments
Useful Information
Click here for the FLUENT 6.3.26 version.

Physics Setup
Your current Workbench Project Page should look comparable to the following image. You should have checkmarks to the right of Geometry an
d Mesh.

Next, the mesh and geometry data need to be read into FLUENT. To read in the data (Right Click) Setup > Refresh in the Workbench Project
Page as shown in the image below. If the refresh option is not available, simply omit this step.

After you click Update, a question mark should appear to the right of the Setup cell. This indicates that the Setup process has not yet been
completed.

Launch Fluent
Double click on Setup in the Workbench Project Page which will bring up the FLUENT Launcher. When the FLUENT Launcher appears
change the options to "Double Precision", and then click OK as shown below.The Double Precision option is used to select the double-precision
solver. In the double-precision solver, each floating point number is represented using 64 bits in contrast to the single-precision solver which uses
32 bits. The extra bits increase not only the precision, but also the range of magnitudes that can be represented. The downside of using double
precision is that it requires more memory.

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Twiddle your thumbs a bit while the FLUENT interface starts up. This is where we'll specify the governing equations and boundary conditions for
our boundary-value problem. On the left-hand side of the FLUENT interface, we see various items listed under Problem Setup. We will work from
top to bottom of the Problem Setup items to setup the physics of our boundary-value problem. On the right hand side, we have the Graphics pa
ne and, below that, the Command pane.

Check and Display Mesh


First, the mesh will be checked to verify that it has been properly imported from Workbench. In order to obtain the statistics about the mesh (Clic
k) Mesh > Info > Size, as shown in the image below.

Then, you should obtain the following output in the Command pane.

The mesh that was created earlier has 500 elements(5 Radial x 100 Axial). Note that in FLUENT elements are called cells. The output states that
there are 500 cells, which is a good sign. Next, FLUENT will be asked to check the mesh for errors. In order to carry out the mesh checking
procedure (Click) Mesh > Check as shown in the image below.

You should see no errors in the Command Pane. Now, that the mesh has been verified, the mesh display options will be discussed. In order to
bring up the display options (Click) General > Mesh > Display as shown in the image below.

The previous step should cause the Mesh Display window to open, as shown below. Note that the Named Selections created in the meshing
steps now appear.

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You should have all the surfaces shown in the above snapshot. Clicking on a surface name in the Mesh Display menu will toggle between select
and unselect. Clicking Display will show all the currently selected surface entities in the graphics pane. Unselect all surfaces and then select each
one in turn to see which part of the domain or boundary the particular surface entity corresponds to (you will need to zoom in/out and translate the
model as you do this). For instance, if you select wall, outlet, and centerline and then click Display you should then obtain the following output
in the graphics window.

Now, make sure all 5 items under Surfaces are selected. The

button next to Surfaces selects all of the boundaries while the


button deselects all of the boundaries at once. Once, all the 5 boundaries have been selected click Display, then close the Mesh Display window
. The long, skinny rectangle displayed in the graphics window corresponds to our solution domain. Some of the operations available in the
graphics window to interrogate the geometry and mesh are:
Translation: The model can be translated in any direction by holding down the Left Mouse Button and then moving the mouse in the desired
direction.
Zoom In: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box from the Upper Left Hand Corner to the Lower Right Hand Corner over the
area you want to zoom in on.
Zoom Out: Hold down the Middle Mouse Button and drag a box anywhere from the Lower Right Hand Corner to the Upper Left Hand Corner.

Use these operations to zoom in and interrogate the mesh.

Define Solver Properties


In this section the various solver properties will be specified in order to obtain the proper solution for the laminar pipe flow. First, the axisymmetric
nature of the geometry must be specified. Under General > Solver > 2D Space select Axisymmetric as shown in the image below.

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Next, the Viscous Model parameters will be specified. In order to open the Viscous Model Options Models > Viscous - Laminar > Edit.... By
default, the Viscous Model options are set to laminar, so no changes are needed. Click Cancel to exit the menu.
Now, the Energy Model parameters will be specified. In order to open the Energy Model Options Models > Energy-Off > Edit.... For
incompressible flow, the energy equation is decoupled from the continuity and momentum equations. We need to solve the energy equation only
if we are interested in determining the temperature distribution. We will not deal with temperature in this example. So leave the Energy Equation
set to off and click Cancel to exit the menu.

Define Material Properties


Now, the properties of the fluid that is being modeled will be specified. The properties of the fluid were specified in the Problem Specification secti
on. In order to create a new fluid (Click) Materials > Fluid > Create/Edit... as shown in the image below.

In the Create/Edit Materials menu set the Density to 1kg/m^3 (constant) and set the Viscosity to 2e-3 kg/(ms) (constant) as shown in the image
below.

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Click Change/Create. Close the window.

Define Boundary Conditions


At this point the boundary conditions for the four Named Selections will be specified. The boundary condition for the inlet will be specified first.

Inlet Boundary Condition


In order to start the process (Click) Boundary Conditions > inlet > Edit... as shown in the following image.

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Note that the Boundary Condition Type should have been automatically set to velocity-inlet. Now, the velocity at the inlet will be specified. In
the Velocity Inlet menu set the Velocity Specification Method to Components, and set the Axial-Velocity (m/s) to 1 m/s, as shown below.

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Then, click OK to close the Velocity Inlet menu.

Outlet Boundary Condition


First, select outlet in the Boundary Conditions menu, as shown below.

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As can be seen in the image above the Type should have been automatically set to pressure-outlet. If the Type is not set to pressure-outlet,
then set it to pressure-outlet. Now, no further changes are needed for the outlet boundary condition.

Centerline Boundary Condition


Select centerline in the Boundary Conditions menu, as shown below.

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As can be seen in the image above the Type has been automatically set to wall which is not correct. Change the Type to axis, as shown below.

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When the dialog boxes appear click Yes to change the boundary type. Then click OK to accept "centerline" as the zone name.

Pipe Wall Boundary Condition


First, select pipe_wall in the Boundary Conditions menu, as shown below.

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As can be seen in the image above the Type should have been automatically set to wall. If the Type is not set to wall, then set it to wall. Now, no
further changes are needed for the pipe_wall boundary condition.

Save
In order to save your work (Click)File > Save Project as shown in the image below.

Go to Step 5: Numerical Solution


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Laminar Pipe Flow - Numerical Solution


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments
Useful Information
Click here for the FLUENT 6.3.26 version.

Numerical Solution
Second Order Scheme
A second-order discretization scheme will be used to approximate the solution. In order to implement the second order scheme click on Solution
Methods then click on Momentum and select Second Order Upwind as shown in the image below.

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Set Initial Guess


Here, the flow field will be initialized to the values at the inlet. In order to carry out the initialization click on Solution Initialization then click on St
andard Initialization, Compute from and select inlet as shown below.

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Then, click the Initialize button,

. This completes the initialization.

Set Convergence Criteria


FLUENT reports a residual for each governing equation being solved. The residual is a measure of how well the current solution satisfies the
discrete form of each governing equation. We'll iterate the solution until the residual for each equation falls below 1e-6. In order to specify the
residual criteria (Click) Monitors > Residuals > Edit..., as shown in the image below.

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Next, change the residual under Convergence Criterion for continuity, x-velocity,and y-velocity, all to 1e-6, as can be seen below.

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Lastly, click OK to close the Residual Monitors menu.

Monitor Drag
The following video shows you how to monitor the drag coefficient during iterations in addition to the default residuals. The equation for the drag
coefficient is given in this pdf file.

Execute Calculation
Prior, to running the calculation the maximum number of iterations must be set. To specify the maximum number of iterations click on Run
Calculation then set the Number of Iterations to 100, as shown in the image below.

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As a safeguard save the project now. Now, click on Calculate two times in order to run the calculation. The residuals for each iteration are
printed out as well as plotted in the graphics window as they are calculated. After running the calculation, you should obtain the following residual
plot.

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The residuals fall below the specified convergence criterion of 1e-6 in about 48 iterations, as shown below. Actual number of convergence steps
may vary slightly.

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At this point, save the project once again.
Go to Step 6: Numerical Results
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Numerical Results


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Numerical Results
The results steps shown below are for the CFD-Post postprocessor that is included in ANSYS Workbench. For instructions to view the results in
the traditional FLUENT post-processor, click here.

Velocity Vectors
The following video shows how to visualize velocity vectors.
Summary of the above video:
1.
2.
3.
4.

At the project schematic, double click on Results


Click on the Z axis to view the XY plane
Click periodic 1
Add velocity vector
a. Click on vector icon between the Location drop down menu and the Contour icon
b. In the Details menu, select periodic 1 for the Location
c. Click Apply
5. To make the vector symbols smaller
a. In the details menu of Velocity vectors, select the Symbol tab
b. Enter 0.1 for the Symbol Size

Velocity Magnitude Contours


The following video shows how to plot velocity magnitude contours. In order to get a better view of the contours, the video also shows how to
stretch the domain in the radial direction as well as reflect it about the axis.
Summary of the above video:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Click on the Contours icon next to the Velocity Vectors icon


Name it Velocity Magnitude
In the Details of Velocity magnitude, selection periodic 1 for Location
In the variable dropdown menu, select Velocity
Click Apply
To get more contours
a. Scroll down the details geometry tab
b. Enter 51 contours in the # of Contours blank
7. To scale the diagram
a. Click on the View tab inside the Details menu
b. Check Apply Scale
c. Enter 10 in the radial direction (2nd blank)
d. Click Apply
8. Turn off the wireframe by unchecking Wireframe under User Locations and Plots in the main tree
9. To reflect the diagram to better represent a pipe
a. Scroll down the View tab
b. Check Apply Reflection Mirroring
c. In the Method dropdown menu, select ZX Plane
In ANSYS version 14.5, only one half of the pipe cross-section is displayed after using the mirroring option. You can work around this
by applying the mirroring condition in the "Default transform" setting instead of the "View" Tab from the above video. To do this select

"Default Transform" in the left-hand menu, uncheck "Instancing Info from Domain", check "Apply Reflection" and select to mirror about
the ZX Plane.

Velocity Profile at the Outlet


The following video shows how to plot the velocity profile at the outlet.
Summary of the above video:
1. Create a line at the outlet
a. Click on the Location icon at the toolbar
b. Select Line
c. Name it Pipe Outlet
d. For Point 1, enter 8 0 0
e. For Point 2, enter 8 .1 0
f. Click on Apply
2. Uncheck Velocity magnitude and check Wireframe to verify the location of the two points
3. Plot the axial velocity along this line
a. Click on the Chart icon in the toolbar
b. Name it Velocity Profile
c. Click on the 3D viewer by clicking the tab at the bottom
d. Click on the Data Series tab in Details of Velocity Profile
e.

3.

e. In the Location dropdown menu, select Pipe Outlet


f. Click on the X Axis tab
g. In the Variable dropdown menu, select Velocity U
h. Click on the Y Axis tab
i. In the Variable dropdown menu, select Y (radial distance)
j. Click Apply and you should see a plot in the Chart Viewer tab to the right
4. To export the data to Excel, in the Details of Velocity Profile, click Export
Tip: You can increase the number of Samples along the "Pipe Outlet location" to get a smoother curve (though it might not make a difference
here since the radial mesh is very coarse). See snapshot below.

Axial Variation of Pressure


The following video shows how to plot the pressure variation along the wall and the axis.
Summary of the above video:
1. Go to 3D Viewer tab
2. To plot the pressure along the centerline
a. In the toolbar, click on the Location dropdown menu
b. Select Line
c. For Point 1, enter 0 0 0
d. For Point 2, enter 8 0 0
3.

3. To plot the pressure along the pipe wall, duplicate Centerline under User Locations and Plots
a. For Point 1, enter 0 0.1 0
b. For Point 2, enter 8 0.1 0
4. Create a Chart by clicking the Chart icon in the toolbar
a. Name this Axial Pressure Variation
b. In the Details menu, click on the Data Series tab
c. In the Locatin dropdown menu, select Centerline
d. Click on the X Axis tab
e. For the Variable dropdown menu, select X
f. Click on the Y Axis tab
g. For the Variable dropdown menu, leave as pressure
h. Go back to Data Series tab
i. Add another line by clicking on the New Icon
j. For Location dropdown menu, select Pipe Wall
You can increase the number of Samples for "Centerline" and "Pipe Wall" locations to get smoother curves.

Skin Friction Coefficient


The video below explains how the skin friction coefficient is calculated in FLUENT and the need for setting reference values.

To plot the skin friction coefficient in CFD Post, follow the steps in the video below.
Summary of the above video:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Go to the Project Schematic page, click on Solution


In Fluent, under Reference values, make sure the density and velocity are of value 1
Click on File > Data File Quantities, select Skin Friction Coefficient
Click on Run Calculation tab > Calculate
Go back to Project Schematic
Double click on Results
Create a Chart by clicking on the Chart Icon in the toolbar
a. Name it Cf
b. Click on the Data Series tab in Details of Cf window
c. For the Location dropdown menu, select Pipe Wall
d. For the X Axis tab, select Variable X
e. For the Y Axis tab, select Variable Skin Friction Coefficient
f. Press Apply
8. To get a smoother plot
a. Go to Pipe Wall in the tree
b. Scroll down in Geometry tab
c. Increase Sample to 100
d. Press apply
Go to Step 7: Verification & Validation
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Laminar Pipe Flow - Verification & Validation


Authors: Rajesh Bhaskaran and John Singleton, Cornell University
Problem Specification
1. Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
2. Geometry
3. Mesh
4. Physics Setup
5. Numerical Solution
6. Numerical Results
7. Verification & Validation
Exercises
Comments

Verification & Validation


It is very important that you take the time to check your solution. This section leads you through some checks on the solution.

Check Boundary Conditions


In the previous step, we already checked that the FLUENT solution satisfies the boundary conditions on velocity. One can check the boundary
condition on pressure in a similar fashion.

Check Mass Imbalance


On the menu bar, click on Report > Result Reports. Make sure Fluxes is highlighted and click Set Up.... Check that Mass Flow Rate is selected
before selecting all the boundaries except interior-surface_body, as shown in the figure below.

Check Momentum Imbalance


The following video shows you how to evaluate the momentum imbalance in the axial direction. This pdf file derives the equation to implement.

Check Discretization Error


Let's repeat the FLUENT solution on a finer mesh. For the finer mesh, we will increase the number of radial divisions from 5 to 10. In the Workbe
nch Project Page right click on Mesh then click Duplicate as shown below.

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Rename the duplicate project to Laminar Pipe Flow (mesh 2) . You should have the following two projects in your Workbench Project Page .

Next, double click on the Mesh cell of the Laminar Pipe Flow (mesh 2) project. A new ANSYS Mesher window will open. Under Outline ,
expand Mesh and click on Edge Sizing , as shown below.

Under Details of "Edge Sizing", enter 10 for Number of Divisions , as shown below.

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Sometimes, you need to turn-off "Advanced Size Function" under "Details of Mesh" to get the mesher to accept the modified settings. That way
the Advanced Size Function feature will not over-ride your settings (this feature is useful for meshing complex geometries). Click Mesh in the tree
and turn off Advanced Size Function under "Details of Mesh" as shown below.

Then, click Update to generate the new mesh.

The mesh should now have 1000 elements (10 x 100). A quick glance of the mesh statistics reveals that there are indeed 1000 elements.

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Compute the Solution


Close the ANSYS Mesher to go back to the Workbench Project Page . Under Laminar Pipe Flow (mesh 2) , right click on Fluid Flow
(FLUENT) and click on Update , as shown below.

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Now, wait a few minutes for FLUENT to obtain the solution for the refined mesh. After FLUENT obtains the solution, save your project.
It is necessary to check that the solution iterations have converged. Launch FLUENT by double clicking on Solution of the "Laminar Pipe Flow
(mesh 2)" project in the Workbench Project Page . After FLUENT launches, select Monitors > Residuals > Edit... and then Plot , as shown in
the images below.

It looks like my solution hasn't converged, so I need to run more iterations by selecting Run Calculation . You may want to increase the number
of iterations to, say, 1000. Ensure that you have a converged solution and save the project.

If you double-click on Results for mesh 2 in the project page, you'll see that all results have been updated for the new mesh. Also, you can drag S
olution for the original mesh on to Results for mesh 2 in the project page. CFD-Post will automatically add the results from the original mesh to
the plots for mesh 2. For instance, you will get the velocity profiles for both meshes in the same plot and you can export that to Excel and
compare with the full-developed analytical solution.
For instructions to compare results in the traditional FLUENT post-processor, click here and scroll down.

Check Against Hand Calculations


The following figure shows the comparison of the velocity profile at the outlet. Note that the green line represents hand calculated values.

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