Workshop 7

Tank Flushing

Introductory
FLUENT Training

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-1 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Introduction Workshop Supplement

• In this workshop, you will model the filling and emptying of a water
tank. The transient problem is solved as a multiphase (air/water)
simulation using the volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase model.
• An initial water level is set in the tank. The water supply is turned on
for the first second of the simulation and then shut off for the rest of
the simulation. The water level rises until water flows out the U-tube
generating a siphoning effect which effectively empties the tank.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-2 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Mesh Import Workshop Supplement

• Start a new 3D FLUENT session

• Read or import the mesh file
[Link]
• Click General in the outline tree.
– Scale the mesh to units of
centimeters.
– Set View Length Unit In to cm to
have FLUENT display lengths in
centimeters.
– Verify the domain extents:
–11.1 < x < 20 cm
–19.8 < y < 27.9 cm
0 < z < 1 cm
– Set the working units
of length to centimeters.
– Check the mesh.
– Display the mesh.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-3 Inventory #002601
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Define Simulation Type Workshop Supplement

• In the General panel, under

Solver, set Time to Transient.

• Enable Gravity and set

Gravitational Acceleration to
–9.81 m/s2 in the y direction.

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Enable Turbulence Model Workshop Supplement

4. Activate Models in the outline

tree.
– Double-click Viscous-Laminar in
the central pane under Models.
– In the Viscous Model panel,
select k-epsilon (2 eqn).
– Under k-epsilon model, select
Realizable.
– Retain defaults for all other
settings.
– Click OK.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-5 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

VOF Multiphase Model Setup Workshop Supplement

• Enable the VOF multiphase model.

– Activate Models in the outline tree.
– Double-click on Multiphase.
– In the panel that opens, enable Volume of
Fluid.
– Set Number of Eulerian Phases to 2.
– Ensure that Scheme is set to Explicit.
– Enable Implicit Body Force
– Click OK.
• Define the materials.
– Activate Materials in the outline tree.
– Click Create/Edit…
– In the Materials panel, click FLUENT
Database…
– Select water-liquid from the FLUENT Fluid
Materials list, click Copy and then click
Close.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-6 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Phases Workshop Supplement

• Define the phases.

– Activate Phases in the outline tree.
– Double-click phase1-Primary Phase.
– In the Primary Phase panel, change
the Name to water.
– Ensure that air is selected under
Phase Material.
– Click OK.
– Double-click phase2-Secondary
Phase.
– In the Secondary Phase panel, change
the Name to air.
– Select water-liquid under Phase
Material.
– Click OK.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

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WS7 – Tank Flushing

Multiphase Model Setup Workshop Supplement

• Define phase interactions

– Click the Interaction button.
– In the Phase Interaction panel that
opens, activate the Surface Tension
tab.
– Select constant in the pull-down list
and enter 0.072 N/m for the Surface
Tension Coefficient. Click OK.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-8 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Set Operating Conditions Workshop Supplement

5. Set the operating conditions.

– Activate Cell Zone Conditions in
the outline tree.
– Click Operating Conditions… in the
center pane.
– Verify that Gravity is enabled and
the Gravitational Acceleration is
set correctly (–9.81 m/s2 in the y
direction).
– Under Variable Density Parameters,
activate Specified Operating
Density.
– Accept the default entry of 1.225
kg/m3 for the Operating Density.
The operating density should be set to
the density of the lightest fluid in the
domain when using the VOF model;
otherwise, an erroneous hydrostatic
pressure distribution will occur.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-9 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Boundary Conditions Workshop Supplement

• Define inlet boundary conditions.

– Activate Boundary Conditions
in the outline tree.
– Double click the inlet boundary.
– Under Velocity Specification Direction,
select Normal to Boundary.
– Under Turbulence Specification
Method, select Intensity and Hydraulic
Diameter. Set the Turbulent Intensity
to 5% and Hydraulic Diameter to 2.1
cm.
– Click OK.
– In the center pane, select air under
Phase and double-click again on inlet.
– Set the Mass Flow Rate of air to 0.
– In the center pane, select water under
Phase and double click on inlet.
Set the inlet water mass flow rate to
0.2 kg/s.
– Click OK.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-10 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Boundary Conditions Workshop Supplement

7. Define boundary conditions

for the ambient boundary.
– Select mixture under Phase
(in the center pane).
– Double-click the ambient
boundary.
– Under Turbulence, set the
Specification Method to
Intensity and Hydraulic
Diameter.
– Set the Backflow Turbulence
Intensity to 5% and Backflow
Hydraulic Diameter to 12.5
cm.
– Click OK.
– In the center pane, select air
under Phase and double-click
again on ambient.
– Activate the Multiphase tab
and enter 0 for Backflow
Volume Fraction.
– Click OK.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

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Define Boundary Conditions Workshop Supplement

8. Copy Boundary conditions from ambient

to outlet.
– In the center pane, click Copy…
– Under From Boundary Conditions, select
ambient.
– Under To Boundary Conditions, select
outlet.
– Select mixture under Phase and click Copy.
– Click OK when asked if you want to copy
the boundary conditions.
– Select water under Phase and click Copy.
– Click OK when asked if you want to copy
the boundary conditions.
– Close the Copy Conditions panel.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-12 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Solution Methods and Controls Workshop Supplement

• In the outline tree, select Solution

Methods.
– Under Pressure-Velocity Coupling, set
Scheme to PISO.
– Under Spatial Discretization, set the
following discretization schemes:
• Pressure – PRESTO!
• Momentum, Turbulent Kinetic Energy and
Turbulent Dissipation Rate – Second Order
Upwind
• Volume Fraction – Geo Reconstruct
– Ensure that Geo-Reconstruct is selected
under Volume Fraction.

• In the outline tree, select Solution

Controls.
– Set the Under-Relaxation factor for
momentum to 0.5.
– Set the under-relaxation factors for k and
epsilon to 0.6.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
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Define Solution Controls Workshop Supplement

• In the outline tree, select Solution

Controls.
– Under Pressure-Velocity Coupling,
set Scheme to PISO.
– Under Spatial Discretization, set the
following discretization schemes:
• Pressure – PRESTO!
• Momentum, Turbulent Kinetic Energy
and Turbulent Dissipation Rate –
Second Order Upwind
• Volume Fraction – Geo Reconstruct
– Ensure that Geo-Reconstruct is
selected under Volume Fraction.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-14 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Initialize and Patch the Initial Solution Workshop Supplement

Initially, the tank is filled to a liquid

level of 6 cm. Here you will first
initialize the flow solution, then
create an adaption register and use
the register to define the initial
location of the liquid surface.

[Link] the flow field.

– Select Solution Initialization in the
outline tree.
– Set air volume fraction to 1.
– Click Initialize.

This will instruct the solver to fill the

tank with air. The next step is to
partially fill the tank with water,
resulting in the proper initial
condition.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-15 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Adaption Register for Patching Workshop Supplement

• Next, define the region of the domain to be

filled with liquid.
– In the top menu, select Adapt → Region.
– Enter the values shown in the panel to the right.
– Click Mark. DO NOT CLICK ADAPT!

A message appears in the FLUENT console

informing you that 3716 cells have been marked.

– To view the marked cells, click Manage.

– Select the register hexahedron-r0 under
Registers and click Display.
– Close the Manage Adaption Registers panel
and the Region Adaption panel.

The marked cells will be displayed in the

graphics window (see next page).
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
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WS7 – Tank Flushing

Cells Marked for Patching Workshop Supplement

Outline of region
adaption register

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

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WS7 – Tank Flushing

Initialize the Flow Solution Workshop Supplement

11. Patch the initial solution into the

adaption register.
– Click Patch…
– In the panel that opens, under
Phase, select air.
– Select Volume Fraction under
Variable.
– Set Value to 0.
– Under Registers
to Patch, select
the adaption
register you
created.
– Click Patch.
– Close the Patch
panel.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-18 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Initialize Display Settings Workshop Supplement

• Create a contour plot of air volume fraction on plane sym1 after

patching. The variable to plot is under Phases…Volume Fraction.
– Note that the color scheme can optionally be changed from the default
BGR to the gray scheme. This can be done using the GUI menu:
Display → Colormap. Also, for clarity, the Colormap Size has been
reduced to 10 which will use 10 colors instead of the default 20.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

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WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Calculation Activities Workshop Supplement

• In this step you will define activities that FLUENT will perform during
the calculation. These activities are as follows:
– Autosave case and data files.
– Generate a contour plot of air volume fraction.
– Write the contour plot to a PNG image file. These files can be assembled
into an animation later.
– Set the inlet flow to be zero when t = 1 second.

• Set autosave options.

– Select Calculation Activities in
the outline tree.
– Set Autosave Every (time steps)
to 25.
– Click Edit… next to Autosave.
– In the panel that opens, enter
the file name [Link].
– Retain the defaults for all
other settings and click OK.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-20 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Calculation Activities Workshop Supplement

• Instruct FLUENT to execute commands for contour plot generation

and saving as well as changing inlet boundary conditions.
– In the center pane, under Execute Commands, click Create/Edit.
– In the panel that opens, set Defined Commands to 3.
– Check Active next to each command line.
– Enter the following commands to be executed:
command-1: display set-window 2 contour air vof 0 1
command-2: display hard-copy airvof%[Link]
command-3: define bc mass-flow-inlet inlet water y n 0
– Set Every to 2 for command-1 and command-2.
– Set Every to 100 for command-3.
– Set When to Time Step for the three commands.
– Click OK.
Check the next page to ensure that your settings are correct before
clicking OK.
You can optionally set up animations in the Solution Animation portion
of the Calculation Activities item of the outline tree.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-21 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Define Calculation Activities Workshop Supplement

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-22 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Set Hard Copy Output Options Workshop Supplement

• To set the file size, resolution and color scheme for the output
images, click the camera icon on the FLUENT toolbar. In the
panel that opens, set the following:
– Format – PNG
– Coloring – Color
– Options – Select Landscape Orientation and deselect White Background.
– Resolution – Set Width to 640 and Height to 480.
– Click Save…
• Save the initial image
as [Link].
– Click Apply and close
the Save Picture panel.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-23 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Run the Calculation Workshop Supplement

• Before running the calculation, you

should save the case and data files.
Use the Save toolbar button to write
case and data files as [Link].
– If running FLUENT from within ANSYS
Workbench, Select Export under the File
menu. Export case and data files as
[Link].

• Select Run Calculation from the outline

tree.
– Enter 0.01 s for Time Step Size
– Enter 350 under Number of Time Steps.
– Click Calculate.

The solution will require around one hour to

complete on most Windows machines.
You can choose to run all of the
calculations or stop the iterations and
open a later data file to view the results.
ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009
© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-24 Inventory #002601
WS7 – Tank Flushing

Post-Process Results Workshop Supplement

• The results can be postprocessed by viewing the PNG files generated

during the calculation. A few of these are shown below.
• These images can be assembled into an animation using a number of
both commercially available and free utilities.

ANSYS, Inc. Proprietary April 28, 2009

© 2009 ANSYS, Inc. All rights reserved. WS7-25 Inventory #002601