|
When heat is added to a fluid and the fluid density varies with temperature, a flow can be induced due to the force of gravity acting on the density variations. Such buoyancy-driven flows are termed natural-convection (or mixed-convection ) flows and can be modeled by ANSYS FLUENT.
For more information about the theory behind natural convection and buoyancy-driven flows, see this section in the separate Theory Guide.
Modeling Natural Convection in a Closed Domain
When you model natural convection inside a closed domain, the solution will depend on the mass inside the domain. Since this mass will not be known unless the density is known, you must model the flow in one of the following ways:
|
For a closed domain, you can use the
incompressible ideal gas law only with a
fixed operating pressure. It
cannot be used with a floating operating pressure. You can use the
compressible ideal gas law with either
floating or
fixed operating pressure.
|
See Section 9.4.4 for more information about the floating operating pressure option.
The Boussinesq Model
For many natural-convection flows, you can get faster convergence with the Boussinesq model than you can get by setting up the problem with fluid density as a function of temperature. This model treats density as a constant value in all solved equations, except for the buoyancy term in the momentum equation:
where is the (constant) density of the flow, is the operating temperature, and is the thermal expansion coefficient. Equation 13.2-2 is obtained by using the Boussinesq approximation to eliminate from the buoyancy term. This approximation is accurate as long as changes in actual density are small; specifically, the Boussinesq approximation is valid when .
Limitations of the Boussinesq Model
The Boussinesq model should not be used if the temperature differences in the domain are large. In addition, it cannot be used with species calculations, combustion, or reacting flows.
Steps in Solving Buoyancy-Driven Flow Problems
The procedure for including buoyancy forces in the simulation of mixed or natural convection flows is described below.
Models Energy Edit...
Cell Zone Conditions Operating Conditions...
Materials
Note that if your model involves multiple fluid materials you can choose whether or not to use the Boussinesq model for each material. As a result, you may have some materials using the Boussinesq model and others not. In such cases, you will need to set all the parameters described above in this step.
Boundary Conditions
The boundary pressures that you input at pressure inlet and outlet boundaries are the redefined pressures as given by Equation 13.2-3. In general you should enter equal pressures, , at the inlet and exit boundaries of your ANSYS FLUENT model if there are no externally-imposed pressure gradients.
Solution Methods
See also Section 13.2.1 for information on setting up heat transfer calculations.
Operating Density
When the Boussinesq approximation is not used, the operating density appears in the body-force term in the momentum equations as .
This form of the body-force term follows from the redefinition of pressure in ANSYS FLUENT as
The hydrostatic pressure in a fluid at rest is then
Setting the Operating Density
By default, ANSYS FLUENT will compute the operating density by averaging over all cells. In some cases, you may obtain better results if you explicitly specify the operating density instead of having the solver compute it for you. For example, if you are solving a natural-convection problem with a pressure boundary, it is important to understand that the pressure you are specifying is in Equation 13.2-3. Although you will know the actual pressure , you will need to know the operating density in order to determine from . Therefore, you should explicitly specify the operating density rather than use the computed average. The specified value should, however, be representative of the average value.
In some cases the specification of an operating density will improve convergence behavior, rather than the actual results. For such cases use the approximate bulk density value as the operating density and be sure that the value you choose is appropriate for the characteristic temperature in the domain.
Note that if you are using the Boussinesq approximation for all fluid materials, the operating density does not appear in the body-force term of the momentum equation. Consequently, you need not specify it.
Solution Strategies for Buoyancy-Driven Flows
For high-Rayleigh-number flows you may want to consider the solution guidelines below. In addition, the guidelines presented in Section 13.2.2 for solving other heat transfer problems can also be applied to buoyancy-driven flows. Note, however that no steady-state solution exists for some laminar, high-Rayleigh-number flows.
Guidelines for Solving High-Rayleigh-Number Flows
When you are solving a high-Rayleigh-number flow ( ) you should follow one of the procedures outlined below for best results.
The first procedure uses a steady-state approach:
The second procedure uses a time-dependent approach to obtain a steady-state solution [ 30]:
where and are the length and velocity scales, respectively. Use a time step such that
(13.2-6) |
Using a larger time step may lead to divergence.
Postprocessing Buoyancy-Driven Flows
The postprocessing reports of interest for buoyancy-driven flows are the same as for other heat transfer calculations. See Section 13.2.3 for details.