Computational Fluid Dynamics

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical
analysis and data structures to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows are used to
perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with
surfaces defined by boundary conditions. With high-speed supercomputers, better solutions
can be achieved. Ongoing research yields software that improves the accuracy and speed of
complex simulation scenarios such as transonic or turbulent flows. Initial experimental
validation of such software is performed using a wind tunnel with the final validation coming
in full-scale testing, e.g. flight tests.

The fundamental basis of almost all CFD problems is the Navier–Stokes equations,
which define many single-phase (gas or liquid, but not both) fluid flows. These equations can
be simplified by removing terms describing viscous actions to yield the Euler equations.
Further simplification, by removing terms describing vorticity yields the full potential
equations. Finally, for small perturbations in subsonic and supersonic flows
(not transonic or hypersonic) these equations can be linearized to yield the linearized
potential equations.

Methodology

In all of these approaches the same basic procedure is followed.

 During preprocessing
 The geometry and physical bounds of the problem can be defined
using computer aided design (CAD). From there, data can be suitably processed
(cleaned-up) and the fluid volume (or fluid domain) is extracted.
 The volume occupied by the fluid is divided into discrete cells (the mesh). The
mesh may be uniform or non-uniform, structured or unstructured, consisting of a
combination of hexahedral, tetrahedral, prismatic, pyramidal or polyhedral elements.
 The physical modeling is defined – for example, the equations of fluid motion
+ enthalpy + radiation + species conservation
  Boundary conditions are defined. This involves specifying the fluid behaviour
and properties at all bounding surfaces of the fluid domain. For transient problems,
the initial conditions are also defined.
 The simulation is started and the equations are solved iteratively as a steady-state or
transient.
 Finally a postprocessor is used for the analysis and visualization of the resulting
solution.

Discretization methods

The stability of the selected discretisation is generally established numerically rather than
analytically as with simple linear problems. Special care must also be taken to ensure that the
discretisation handles discontinuous solutions gracefully. The Euler equations and Navier–
Stokes equationsboth admit shocks, and contact surfaces.

Some of the discretization methods being used are:

Finite volume method

The finite volume method (FVM) is a common approach used in CFD codes, as it has an
advantage in memory usage and solution speed, especially for large problems, high Reynolds
number turbulent flows, and source term dominated flows (like combustion).

In the finite volume method, the governing partial differential equations (typically the
Navier-Stokes equations, the mass and energy conservation equations, and the turbulence
equations) are recast in a conservative form, and then solved over discrete control volumes.
This discretizationguarantees the conservation of fluxes through a particular control volume.
The finite volume equation yields governing equations in the form,

where ’Q’ is the vector of conserved variables, ‘F’ is the vector of fluxes, ’V’ is the volume

of the control volume element, and ’A’ is the surface area of the control volume element.
Finite element method

The finite element method (FEM) is used in structural analysis of solids, but is also
applicable to fluids. However, the FEM formulation requires special care to ensure a
conservative solution. The FEM formulation has been adapted for use with fluid dynamics
governing equations. Although FEM must be carefully formulated to be conservative, it is
much more stable than the finite volume approach. However, FEM can require more memory
and has slower solution times than the FVM.

In this method, a weighted residual equation is formed:

where Ri is the equation residual at an element vertex ’i’, ’Q’ is the conservation equation
expressed on an element basis, Wi is the weight factor, and Ve is the volume of the element.

Finite difference method

The finite difference method (FDM) has historical importance and is simple to program. It is
currently only used in few specialized codes, which handle complex geometry with high
accuracy and efficiency by using embedded boundaries or overlapping grids (with the
solution interpolated across each grid).

where ’Q’ is the vector of conserved variables, and F, G, and H are the fluxes in the x,y,
and z directions respectively.
Background to Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD):

Fluid mechanics

Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics

of fluids (liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided
into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of
forces on fluid motion. It is a branch of continuum mechanics, a subject which models matter
without using the information that it is made out of atoms; that is, it models matter from
a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from microscopic. Fluid mechanics, especially fluid
dynamics, is an active field of research with many problems that are partly or wholly
unsolved. Fluid mechanics can be mathematically complex, and can best be solved
by numerical methods, typically using computers. A modern discipline, called computational
fluid dynamics (CFD), is devoted to this approach to solving fluid mechanics problems.

Main branches

Fluid statics

Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies fluids at rest. It
embraces the study of the conditions under which fluids are at rest in stable equilibrium; and
is contrasted with fluid dynamics, the study of fluids in motion. Hydrostatics offers physical
explanations for many phenomena of everyday life, such as why atmospheric
pressure changes with altitude, why wood and oil float on water, and why the surface of
water is always level and horizontal whatever the shape of its container. Hydrostatics is
fundamental to hydraulics, the engineering of equipment for storing, transporting and using
fluids. It is also relevant to some aspect of geophysics and astrophysics (for example, in
understanding plate tectonics and anomalies in the Earth's gravitational field),
to meteorology, to medicine (in the context of blood pressure), and many other fields.

Fluid dynamics

Fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the science
of liquids and gases in motion. Fluid dynamics offers a systematic structure—which underlies
these practical disciplines—that embraces empirical and semi-empirical laws derived
from flow measurementand used to solve practical problems. The solution to a fluid
dynamics problem typically involves calculating various properties of the fluid, such
as velocity, pressure, density, and temperature, as functions of space and time. It has several
subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion)
and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide range of
applications, including calculating forces and movements on aircraft, determining the mass
flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting evolving weather patterns,
understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modeling explosions. Some fluid-dynamical
principles are used in traffic engineering and crowd dynamics.

In a mechanical view, a fluid is a substance that does not support shear stress; that is why a
fluid at rest has the shape of its containing vessel. A fluid at rest has no shear stress.

Navier–Stokes equations

The Navier–Stokes equations (named after Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel
Stokes) are differential equations that describe the force balance at a given point within a
fluid. For an incompressible fluid with vector velocity field ‘u’, the Navier–Stokes equations
are

These differential equations are the analogues for deformable materials to Newton's equations
of motion for particles

The Navier–Stokes equations describe changes in momentum (force) in response

to pressure ’P’ and viscosity, parameterized by the kinematic viscosity ‘υ’ here.
Occasionally, body forces, such as the gravitational force or Lorentz force are added to the
equations.

Inviscid and viscous fluids

An inviscid fluid has no viscosity, υ=0 . In practice, an inviscid flow is an idealization, one
that facilitates mathematical treatment. In fact, purely inviscid flows are only known to be
realized in the case of superfluidity. Otherwise, fluids are generally viscous, a property that is
often most important within a boundary layer near a solid surface, where the flow must match
onto the no-slip condition at the solid. In some cases, the mathematics of a fluid mechanical
system can be treated by assuming that the fluid outside of boundary layers is inviscid, and
then matching its solution onto that for a thin laminar boundary layer.

For fluid flow over a porous boundary, the fluid velocity can be discontinuous between the
free fluid and the fluid in the porous media. Further, it is useful at low subsonic speeds to
assume that a gas is incompressible—that is, the density of the gas does not change even
though the speed and static pressure change.

Newtonian versus non-Newtonian fluids

A Newtonian fluid (named after Isaac Newton) is defined to be a fluid whose shear stress is
linearly proportional to the velocity gradient in the direction perpendicular to the plane of
shear. This definition means regardless of the forces acting on a fluid, it continues to flow.
For example, water is a Newtonian fluid, because it continues to display fluid properties no
matter how much it is stirred or mixed. A slightly less rigorous definition is that the drag of a
small object being moved slowly through the fluid is proportional to the force applied to the
object. (Compare friction). Important fluids, like water as well as most gases, behave—to
good approximation—as a Newtonian fluid under normal conditions on Earth.

By contrast, stirring a non-Newtonian fluid can leave a "hole" behind. This will gradually fill
up over time—this behaviour is seen in materials such as pudding, oobleck, or sand (although
sand isn't strictly a fluid). Alternatively, stirring a non-Newtonian fluid can cause the
viscosity to decrease, so the fluid appears "thinner". There are many types of non-Newtonian
fluids, as they are defined to be something that fails to obey a particular property—for
example, most fluids with long molecular chains can react in a non-Newtonian manner.

Equations for a Newtonian fluid

The constant of proportionality between the viscous stress tensor and the velocity gradient is
known as the viscosity. A simple equation to describe incompressible Newtonian fluid
behaviour is

For a Newtonian fluid, the viscosity, by definition, depends only

on temperature and pressure, not on the forces acting upon it. If the fluid
is incompressible the equation governing the viscous stress (in Cartesian coordinates) is

where ’k’ is the second viscosity coefficient (or bulk viscosity). If a fluid does not obey this
relation, it is termed a non-Newtonian fluid, of which there are several types. Non-Newtonian
fluids can be either plastic, Bingham plastic, pseudoplastic, dilatant, thixotropic, rheopectic,
viscoelastic.

In some applications another rough broad division among fluids is made: ideal and non-ideal
fluids. An Ideal fluid is non-viscous and offers no resistance whatsoever to a shearing force.
An ideal fluid really does not exist, but in some calculations, the assumption is justifiable.
One example of this is the flow far from solid surfaces. In many cases the viscous effects are
concentrated near the solid boundaries (such as in boundary layers) while in regions of the
flow field far away from the boundaries the viscous effects can be neglected and the fluid
there is treated as it were inviscid (ideal flow). When the viscosity is neglected, the term

containing the viscous stress tensor in the Navier–Stokes equation vanishes. The
equation reduced in this form is called the Euler equation.

Equations of fluid dynamics

The foundational axioms of fluid dynamics are the conservation laws,

specifically, conservation of mass, conservation of linear momentum (also known
as Newton's Second Law of Motion), and conservation of energy (also known as First Law of
Thermodynamics). These are based on classical mechanics and are modified in quantum
mechanics and general relativity. They are expressed using the Reynolds transport theorem.

In addition to the above, fluids are assumed to obey the continuum assumption. Fluids are
composed of molecules that collide with one another and solid objects. However, the
continuum assumption assumes that fluids are continuous, rather than discrete. Consequently,
it is assumed that properties such as density, pressure, temperature, and flow velocity are
well-defined at infinitesimally small points in space and vary continuously from one point to
another. The fact that the fluid is made up of discrete molecules is ignored.

For fluids that are sufficiently dense to be a continuum, do not contain ionized species, and
have flow velocities small in relation to the speed of light, the momentum equations
for Newtonian fluids are the Navier–Stokes equations—which is a non-linear set
of differential equations that describes the flow of a fluid whose stress depends linearly on
flow velocity gradients and pressure. The unsimplified equations do not have a
general closed-form solution, so they are primarily of use in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
The equations can be simplified in a number of ways, all of which make them easier to solve.
Some of the simplifications allow some simple fluid dynamics problems to be solved in
closed form.

In addition to the mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations,

a thermodynamic equation of state that gives the pressure as a function of other
thermodynamic variables is required to completely describe the problem. An example of this
would be the perfect gas equation of state:

where p is pressure, ρ is density, T the absolute temperature, while Ru is the gas

constant and M is molar mass for a particular gas.

Conservation laws

Three conservation laws are used to solve fluid dynamics problems, and may be written
in integral or differential form. The conservation laws may be applied to a region of the flow
called a control volume. A control volume is a discrete volume in space through which fluid
is assumed to flow. The integral formulations of the conservation laws are used to describe
the change of mass, momentum, or energy within the control volume. Differential
formulations of the conservation laws apply Stokes' theorem to yield an expression which
may be interpreted as the integral form of the law applied to an infinitesimally small volume
(at a point) within the flow.

Mass continuity (conservation of mass): The rate of change of fluid mass inside a control
volume must be equal to the net rate of fluid flow into the volume. Physically, this statement
requires that mass is neither created nor destroyed in the control volume, and can be
translated into the integral form of the continuity equation:

Above, ρ is the fluid density, u is the flow velocity vector, and t is time. The left-hand side
of the above expression is the rate of increase of mass within the volume and contains a triple
integral over the control volume, whereas the right-hand side contains an integration over the
surface of the control volume of mass convected into the system. Mass flow into the system
is accounted as positive, and since the normal vector to the surface is opposite the sense of
flow into the system the term is negated. The differential form of the continuity equation is,
by the divergence theorem:

Conservation of momentum: Newton's second law of motion applied to a control volume, is a

statement that any change in momentum of the fluid within that control volume will be due to
the net flow of momentum into the volume and the action of external forces acting on the
fluid within the volume.

In the above integral formulation of this equation, the term on the left is the net change of
momentum within the volume. The first term on the right is the net rate at which momentum
is convected into the volume. The second term on the right is the force due to pressure on the
volume's surfaces. The first two terms on the right are negated since momentum entering the

system is accounted as positive, and the normal is opposite the direction of the velocity
and pressure forces. The third term on the right is the net acceleration of the mass within the
volume due to any body forces (here represented by fbody. Surface forces, such as viscous
forces, are represented by Fsurf, the net force due to shear forcesacting on the volume surface.
The momentum balance can also be written for a moving control volume.

The following is the differential form of the momentum conservation equation. Here, the
volume is reduced to an infinitesimally small point, and both surface and body forces are
accounted for in one total force, F. For example, F may be expanded into an expression for
the frictional and gravitational forces acting at a point in a flow.
In aerodynamics, air is assumed to be a Newtonian fluid, which posits a linear relationship
between the shear stress (due to internal friction forces) and the rate of strain of the fluid. The
equation above is a vector equation in a three-dimensional flow, but it can be expressed as
three scalar equations in three coordinate directions. The conservation of momentum
equations for the compressible, viscous flow case are called the Navier–Stokes equations.

Conservation of energy: Although energy can be converted from one form to another, the
total energy in a closed system remains constant.

Above, h is enthalpy, k is the thermal conductivity of the fluid, T is temperature, and Φ is the
viscous dissipation function. The viscous dissipation function governs the rate at which
mechanical energy of the flow is converted to heat. The second law of
thermodynamics requires that the dissipation term is always positive: viscosity cannot create
energy within the control volume. The expression on the left side is a material derivative.

Compressible vs incompressible flow

All fluids are compressible to some extent; that is, changes in pressure or temperature cause
changes in density. However, in many situations the changes in pressure and temperature are
sufficiently small that the changes in density are negligible. In this case the flow can be
modelled as an incompressible flow. Otherwise the more general compressible
flow equations must be used.

Mathematically, incompressibility is expressed by saying that the density ρ of a fluid

parcel does not change as it moves in the flow field, i.e.,
where D/Dt is the material derivative, which is the sum of local and convective derivatives.
This additional constraint simplifies the governing equations, especially in the case when the
fluid has a uniform density.

For flow of gases, to determine whether to use compressible or incompressible fluid

dynamics, the Mach number of the flow is evaluated. As a rough guide, compressible effects
can be ignored at Mach numbers below approximately 0.3. For liquids, whether the
incompressible assumption is valid depends on the fluid properties (specifically the critical
pressure and temperature of the fluid) and the flow conditions (how close to the critical
pressure the actual flow pressure becomes). Acoustic problems always require allowing
compressibility, since sound waves are compression waves involving changes in pressure and
density of the medium through which they propagate.

Newtonian vs non-Newtonian fluids

All fluids are viscous, meaning that they exert some resistance to deformation: neighbouring
parcels of fluid moving at different velocities exert viscous forces on each other. The velocity
gradient is referred to as a strain rate; it has dimensions T-1. Isaac Newton showed that for
many familiar fluids such as water and air, the stress due to these viscous forces is linearly
related to the strain rate. Such fluids are called Newtonian fluids. The coefficient of
proportionality is called the fluid's viscosity; for Newtonian fluids, it is a fluid property that is
independent of the strain rate.

Non-Newtonian fluids have a more complicated, non-linear stress-strain behaviour. The sub-
discipline of rheology describes the stress-strain behaviours of such fluids, which
include emulsions and slurries, some viscoelastic materials such as blood and some polymers,
and sticky liquids such as latex, honey and lubricants.

Inviscid vs viscous vs Stokes flow

The dynamic of fluid parcels is described with the help of Newton's second law. An
accelerating parcel of fluid is subject to inertial effects.

The Reynolds number is a dimensionless quantity which characterises the magnitude of

inertial effects compared to the magnitude of viscous effects. A low Reynolds number
(Re<<1) indicates that viscous forces are very strong compared to inertial forces. In such
cases, inertial forces are sometimes neglected; this flow regime is called Stokes or creeping
flow.

In contrast, high Reynolds numbers (Re>>1) indicate that the inertial effects have more effect
on the velocity field than the viscous (friction) effects. In high Reynolds number flows, the
flow is often modeled as an inviscid flow, an approximation in which viscosity is completely
neglected. Eliminating viscosity allows the Navier–Stokes equations to be simplified into
the Euler equations. The integration of the Euler equations along a streamline in an inviscid
flow yields Bernoulli's equation. When, in addition to being inviscid, the flow
is irrotational everywhere, Bernoulli's equation can completely describe the flow everywhere.
Such flows are called potential flows, because the velocity field may be expressed as
the gradient of a potential energy expression.

This idea can work fairly well when the Reynolds number is high. However, problems such
as those involving solid boundaries may require that the viscosity be included. Viscosity
cannot be neglected near solid boundaries because the no-slip condition generates a thin
region of large strain rate, the boundary layer, in which viscosity effects dominate and which
thus generates vorticity. Therefore, to calculate net forces on bodies (such as wings), viscous
flow equations must be used: inviscid flow theory fails to predict drag forces, a limitation
known as the d'Alembert's paradox.

A commonly used model, especially in computational fluid dynamics, is to use two flow
models: the Euler equations away from the body, and boundary layer equations in a region
close to the body. The two solutions can then be matched with each other, using the method
of matched asymptotic expansions.

Steady vs unsteady flow

A flow that is not a function of time is called steady flow. Steady-state flow refers to the
condition where the fluid properties at a point in the system do not change over time. Time
dependent flow is known as unsteady (also called transient). Whether a particular flow is
steady or unsteady, can depend on the chosen frame of reference. For instance, laminar flow
over a sphere is steady in the frame of reference that is stationary with respect to the sphere.
In a frame of reference that is stationary with respect to a background flow, the flow is
unsteady.
Laminar vs turbulent flow

Turbulence flow is characterized by recirculation, eddies, and apparent randomness. Flow in

which turbulence is not exhibited is called laminar. The presence of eddies or recirculation
alone does not necessarily indicate turbulent flow—these phenomena may be present in
laminar flow as well. Mathematically, turbulent flow is often represented via a Reynolds
decomposition, in which the flow is broken down into the sum of an averagecomponent and a
perturbation component.

It is believed that turbulent flows can be described well through the use of the Navier–Stokes
equations.