Charles Robinson CFD Applications

HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

I. Problem Description
Three-dimensional air flow through an axial, multistage fan will be solved in this analysis.
There are two sections of flow created by this multistage fan. In the first stage, flow is created
by a 9 bladed rotor, which rotates at 1800 rpm. In the second stage, the flow is "straightened
out" by means of a 12 bladed stator section located just downstream of the rotor section, as
shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

At the inlet to the rotor, air at 0 Pa (gauge) is drawn in. At the outlet, air is exhausted at 0 Pa
(guage).
Some important features of this problem solution include:
• Use of the standard κ−ε tubulence model
• Use of the Periodic Boundary Condition
• Use of the Mixing Plane Boundary Condition at the interface of the rotor and stator
• Computation and Display of the computed circumferential averages on a surface

II. Boundary Conditions

Recall that there are two sections of flow within this multistage fan. The geometry will
simalarly be broken up into two sections, the rotor section and the stator section. Since each
section of the fan is symmetric, only a portion of each section is needed for modeling in order to
obtain a solution for the entire geometry. Use of the periodic boundary condition is required to
do this.
Since there are 9 rotor blades and 12 stator blades, one-ninth of the rotor section and
one-twelfth of the stator section will be modeled. The effective representation of this model is
also shown in Fig. 1. The walls of each section, parallel to the fluid flow through the fan are
assigned a periodic, rotational boundary condition.
Observing the flow path through the fan, the outlet of flow from the rotor section
essentially becomes the inlet of flow for the stator section. Since each section has different
geometry, the Mixing Plane boundary condition must be applied in order to develop a solution.
This allows for the steady-state solution of flow between two adjacent, however geometrically
Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

different sections of flow, just as in this problem. In the mixing plane, Fluent effectively solves
the flow in the rotor section and in the stator section separately from the prescribed boundary
conditions. The boundary conditions at the outlet of the rotor section and at the inlet of the
stator section are then consistently updated using a circumferential average of these values.
Since the rotor has a constant angular velocity, the fluid in this section is given a
rotational motion type about the negative z-axis and a moving reference frame with an angular
velocity of 1800 rpm. Similarly, the stator fluid section is given a rotational motion type,
however, with zero angular velocity since the stator remains sationary.
The rotor hub and shroud (bottom and top parts of the mesh shown in Fig. 2.2) are
defined as moving walls with rotational motion types with repect to the absolute reference
frame. This will allow them to rotate with the grid due to their periodic characteristic, but remain
stationary with respect to the fluid.
The rotor intlet and stator outlet are assigned pressure inlet and pressure outlet
boundary conditions consistent with the given information, 0 Pa (guage). (In order to obtain a
good approximation for the flow at the pressure outlet, the Radial Equilibrium Pressure
Distribution is selected). The boundary conditions at both the outlet of the rotor section and
the inlet of the stator section are automatically defined as a result of creating the mixing plane.

III. Mesh
A tet/hybrid meshing scheme is used to mesh each section of the geometry. The mesh
along the boundaries is shown below in Fig. 3.1 (without the shroud), and also in Fig. 3.2 (with
the shroud).

Fig. 3.1 Mesh at boundary without shroud

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

Fig. 3.2 Mesh at boundary with shroud

The internal mesh of the two sections is shown below in Fig. 3.3.

Fig. 3.3 Internal mesh

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

IV. Solution
The solution controls were modified from the default settings to better suit this flow
problem. All under-relaxation factors were lowered to 0.5, Second-Order Upwind was used
for momentum discretization and the Power Law was used for Turbulence Kinetic Energy
dicretization.
In addition to the default residuals, a surface monitor was set at the stator outlet to
monitor the mass flow rate. Convergence of the mass flow rate (mass continuity of the
problem) provides a good indication of sthe overall solution convergence. The residual history
and mass flow rate history at the stator exit are shown in the plots below.

Fig. 4.1 Residual History

Fig. 4.2 Mass Flow Rate at Stator Outlet

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

V. Results
A check of the mass flux balance of the system reveals good convergence of the
solution since the remaining flux is substanitally small in magniude.

Fig. 5.1 Mass Flux Balance

Note: The mass flux shown here only represents the mass flux through 1/9 and 1/12 of the rotor and stator sections,
respectively.

To observe simple representations of the fluid flow solution, surface plots of the flow
properties were developed on two surfaces created using Iso-Surface. One surface located at
the mixing plane (z = -1) and the other midway between the shroud and hub of the rotor and
stator fan sections ( y = 0.12). A plot of the velocity vector field on the y = 0.12 surface is
shown below in Figures 5.2, and 5.3.

Fig. 5.2 Velocity Vectors near Rotor Blade

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

Fig. 5.3 Velocity Vectors near Stator Blade

A plot of the entire velocity contour on this plane is shown below in Fig. 5.4.

Fig. 5.4 Volcoty Contour Plot on y = 0.12 plane

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

A radial plot of the circumferential averages of total pressure on surface z = -1, the
mixing plane surface, is also useful. This shows the greatest losses in the flow are experienced
at the hub, Fig. 5.5 below.

Fig. 5.5 Circumferential Average of Total Pressure at mixing plane

Special Note- This plot was created by typing the following commands in Fluent's console
window:
>plot
/plot>circum-avg-radial (specifies type of plot)
averages of>total-pressure (specifies fluid property to plot)
on surface [] 17 (surface from which to plot results)
number of bands [5] 15 (number of cicumferential band values to plot)
The default number fluent assigned to the Iso-Surface, z = -1 when it was created
was 17.
The total pressure contours at the rotor blade surface are shown below in Fig. 5.6
(a),(b).

Fig. 5.6 (a) Rotor Blade Total Pressure Contour

Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

Fig. 5.6 (b) Rotor Blade Total Pressure Contour

VI. Conclusions
This Fluent Tutorial, number 17, provides a detailed analysis of steady-state flow
through a turbomachine fan which makes use of several design and pre-processing shortcuts
applicable in a variety of fluid flow problems.
• Use of the periodic boundary condition in this solution may be similarly applied in any
problem that is geometrically axissymmetric in two dimensions or in three dimensions.
• The mixing plane boundary condition may be used to develop the steady-state solution to
flow problems with multi-interface goemetries where local interaction effects are of less
importance. (Local interaction effects would include wakes and shock waves).
• Flow problems involving rotation may be effectively defined with the application of rotational
boundary conditions to the geometry and the fluid.
Charles Robinson CFD Applications
HW 4, Fluent Tutorial 17

VII. Additional Analysis

In order to better understand and appreciate the mesh that was used in this analysis, an
attempt to re-create a similar geometry and a mesh are shown below in Fig. 7.1 and 7.2.
(Note: No dimensions were given). One face from each section was meshed using map
scheme. Next, the rotor section volume and stator section volume were meshed using a
Tet/Hybid meshing scheme with an interval size of 0.2.

Fig. 7.1 Mesh at boundaries with shroud

Fig. 7.2 Internal Mesh

A difficult geometry to mesh, even in two sections, since the rotor blade and stator blade add
complexity to the mesh. A grid check performed in gambit showed only 60% of the elements
with less than 0.4 equiangle skew. There are over 200,000 mesh volumes in this mesh.