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The tutorials in this set illustrate various STAR-CCM+ facilities for simulating multi-phase fluid flow problems. These comprise: A gravity-driven free-surface flow. A forced free-surface flow with capillary effects. A forced free-surface flow with cavitation effects. A particle-laden flow. A solid particle erosion analysis. An Eulerian multiphase flow. The starting point for the first three tutorials is a mesh consisting of a single layer of polygonal prisms. This is suitable for performing a planar, two-dimensional analysis and is shown below.
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Under the action of gravity, water flows into the right chamber under assumed turbulent conditions. At the same time, water also flows in through the top left boundary so as to maintain a constant fluid level. The pressure in the right chamber increases due to the air compression, resulting in a reduction of the flow rate thorough the pressure boundary. After some time all fluid elements are at rest and in a hydro-static equilibrium.
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The grid must be aligned with the X-Y plane. The grid must have a boundary plane at the Z = 0 location. The mesh imported for this tutorial was built with these requirements in mind. Were the grid not to conform to the above conditions, it would have been necessary to realign the region using the transformation and rotation facilities in STAR-CCM+. Select Mesh > Convert to 2D... In the Convert Regions to 2D dialog that appears, make sure the checkbox of the Delete 3D regions after conversion option is ticked, and click OK.
Once you click OK, the mesh conversion will take place and the new two-dimensional mesh will be shown, viewed from the z-direction, in the Geometry Scene 1 display. The mouse rotation option is suppressed for two-dimensional scenes. Right-click the Physics 1 continuum node and select Delete. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog.
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The Physics Model Selection dialog should look like this when you are done.
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To initialize the turbulence parameters: Select the Chambers > Initial Conditions > Turbulence Intensity > Constant
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It is not necessary to define a similar distribution for the Air node because any user-specified initial condition for the volume fraction of the last-defined phase in multi-phase flows is always ignored. Instead, this condition is obtained by subtracting the sum of the volume fraction distributions of the other phases from 1.0. Save the simulation.
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Value dialog.
Change the H2O value to 1.0 Leave the Air value as 0.0 and click OK. This in effect enforces the condition that only water may enter the solution domain through that boundary. This completes the boundary conditions specification. Save the simulation.
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The number of inner iterations per time-step is set to 20 by default. This is more than is necessary for this simulation so the value may be reduced. Select the Maximum Inner Iterations node. In the Properties window, change the Max Inner Iterations property to 5.
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Make the Scalar Scene 1 display active to look at the initialization result.
As expected, at the start of the run the left chamber is entirely filled with water whereas the right chamber and the connecting channel are entirely filled with air. A small region in which both fluids are apparently present is visible at the interface between the two fluids, but this effect is simply due to the coarseness of the mesh. Save the simulation.
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Visualizing Results
The Scalar Scene 1 display shows the water volume fraction profile at the end of the 5.0 s run.
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most Linux and Unix systems. An example of such an animation is shown below.
Summary
This STAR-CCM+ tutorial introduced the following features: Starting the code and creating a new simulation. Importing a mesh. Converting a three-dimensional mesh to a two-dimensional one. Visualizing the mesh structure. Defining models for multi-phase flow problems. Defining the material properties required for the selected models. Setting initial conditions and reference values. Creating and applying field functions. Defining boundary conditions. Setting solver parameters for an unsteady run. Initializing and running the solver for a given number of time-steps. Analyzing results using the built-in visualization facilities.
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There are special requirements in STAR-CCM+ for three-dimensional meshes that are to be converted to two-dimensional. These are: The grid must be aligned with the X-Y plane. The grid must have a boundary plane at the Z = 0 location. The mesh imported for this tutorial was built with these requirements in mind. Were the grid not to conform to the above conditions, it would have been necessary to realign the region using the transformation and rotation facilities in STAR-CCM+. Select Mesh > Convert to 2D... In the Convert Regions to 2D dialog that appears, make sure the checkbox of the Delete 3D regions after conversion option is ticked, and click OK.
Once this is done, the mesh conversion will take place and the new two-dimensional mesh will be created. Note that the mouse rotation option is suppressed for two-dimensional scenes. Right-click the Physics 1 continuum node and select Delete. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog.
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The dialog will guide you through the model selection process by showing only options that are appropriate to the initial choices made. Using the same technique as in the previous step: Select Implicit Unsteady in the Time group box. Select Multiphase Mixture in the Material group box. Select Volume of Fluid (VOF) in the Multiphase Model box. Select Laminar in the Viscous Regime group box. Select Gravity in the Optional Physics Models group box. Select Surface Tension in the Optional Physics Models group box. The Physics Model Selection dialog should look like this when you are done.
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The phase model objects should appear as shown in the following screenshot.
The default densities and viscosities for air and glycerine are suitable but the value of the surface tension coefficient needs to be changed. Select the Air > Material Properties > Surface Tension > Constant node. In the Properties window, change the Value property to 0.059688 N/m.
Open the C3H8O3 node and change the surface tension coefficient for glycerine to 0.059688 N/m also. The surface tension coefficients of the two fluids should always be given the same value to ensure that their treatment at the free surface is consistent. Save the simulation.
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Return to the C3H8O3 node, open it and select the Field Function node beneath it Select Initial Distribution as the Scalar Function property.
It is not necessary to specify a similar distribution for the Air node because any user-specified initial condition for the volume fraction of the last-defined phase in multi-phase flows is always ignored. Instead, this condition is obtained by subtracting the sum of the volume fraction distributions of the other phases from 1.0. Save the simulation.
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This in effect enforces the condition that only air may enter the solution domain through that boundary. This completes the boundary condition specification. Save the simulation.
To set the run time: Select the Stopping Criteria > Maximum Steps node.
Set the Maximum Steps property to 2000 A maximum physical time is also defined. To remove this stopping criterion:
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The progress of the run can be observed by selecting the Scalar Scene 1 tab at the top of the Graphics window. It is possible to stop the process during the run by clicking on the (Stop) button in the toolbar. If you do halt the simulation, it can be continued again by clicking on the (Run) button. If left alone, the simulation will continue until all 2,000 time-steps are complete. Note that the numbers displayed in the Output window represent the solvers inner iterations, not time-steps. As there are 5 inner iterations per time-step, you may expect the run to perform 10,000 inner iterations. Save the simulation when the run is complete.
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The velocity vector plot shows high air velocities close to the free surface. This is a numerical inaccuracy known as parasitic currents. These currents arise because the surface tension and pressure forces are much larger than all other terms in the momentum equations, and their balance on an irregular grid is difficult to achieve numerically due to the discontinuous variation of pressure across the free surface and a large discretization error associated with it. Parasitic currents become appreciable when the problem size is small and fluid velocity and viscosity are low. For flows where diffusion and convection forces are of a similar magnitude to surface tension forces, these problems are not so pronounced. Since artificial velocities are generated only within the air, their effect on the liquid flow (which is usually what we are trying to predict) is small. Save the simulation.
Summary
This STAR-CCM+ tutorial introduced the following features:
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