7.1.1 Available Cell Zone and Boundary Types

The boundary types available in ANSYS FLUENT are classified as follows:

• Flow inlet and exit boundaries: pressure inlet, velocity inlet, mass flow inlet, and inlet vent, intake fan, pressure outlet, pressure far-field, outflow, outlet vent, and exhaust fan.

• Wall, repeating, and pole boundaries: wall, symmetry, periodic, and axis.

• Internal face boundaries: fan, radiator, porous jump, wall, and interior.

Cell zones consist of fluids and solids, with porous media treated as a type of fluid zone.

(The internal face boundary conditions are defined on cell faces, which means that they do not have a finite thickness and they provide a means of introducing a step change in flow properties. These boundary conditions are used to implement physical models representing fans, thin porous membranes, and radiators. The "interior'' type of internal face zone does not require any input from you.)

In this chapter, the cell zones and boundary conditions listed above will be described in detail, and an explanation of how to set them and where they are most appropriately used will be provided. Note that while periodic boundaries are described in Section  7.3.16, additional information about modeling fully-developed periodic flows is provided in Section  9.2.