CFD Analysis of a Cross-Flow Turbine

A cross flow turbine is a simple to build water turbine which doesnt cost much to build & also
needs only a little maintenance is a good alternative for small hydro power stations. With CFD
being the ultimate tool for flow analysis & related machinery, it is possible to check, how good a
cross-flow turbine is performing.

Aim:
1. To optimize the number of blades for which maximum torque is generated.
2. The peak rpm of the turbine rotor assembly

CFD Methodology
Pre-Processing:
1. The computational domain consisting of the turbine assembly & the runner part through
which the water enters is built.
2. An unstructured mesh is generated for the entire domain using the Robust Octree approach.

Processing & Post-Processing:

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A pressure-based & steady state solver is chosen

K- turbulence model with standard wall functions is used
Velocity inlet & pressure outlet conditions are adopted at inlet & outlet
No-slip wall boundary conditions are used for the turbine blades
MRF(Moving Reference Plane) approach has been used to find the peak rpm of the
turbine assembly
6. A pre-defined angular velocity is given to the turbine rotor blades for which torque
induced by water impact is checked.
7. The pressure & velocity contours are plotted to find the location of the peak values of
pressure & velocity.

Conclusion:
The dynamic forces acting on the blades are checked for calculating the overall
torque generated & the peak rpm is decided based upon that value of angular velocity for
which the imparted torque becomes zero.

CFD Analysis of a 2-wheeler IC Engine

Proper cooling of an IC engine is a must to ensure continual operation of the engine. CFD has
been employed to check the heat dissipation rate from the fins to the external surroundings.
Conjugate modeling of heat transfer has been adopted where in, the fluid structure interaction
has been studied for two cases- one for forced convection & one for natural convection.

Aim:
1. To find out the heat dissipation rate from the engine fins which are rectangular in shape.
2. To compare the cooling effectiveness of rectangular fins against elliptical fins.

Methodology:

1.
2.
3.

Pre-Processing:
A Computational domain has been built around the IC engine & checked for its topology
Two separate materials- one for solid IC engine & one for surrounding fluid is created.
An unstructured mesh is generated capturing both solid & fluid regions of the domain.

Processing & Post-Processing:

Forced Convection Case- When the vehicle is moving
A pressure based steady state solver is adopted.
Aluminium is assigned for the engine & air for the fluid part.
An inlet velocity of 60 kmph & 0 gauge pressure is given at the velocity inlet & pressure
outlet boundaries of the domain respectively.
7. No-slip wall BC is used for the walls of the IC engine.
8. SIMPLE algorithm is used for pressure velocity coupling.
Free Convection- When the vehicle is at rest.
9. Bousinessq model for density is activated to account for buoyancy effects.
10. Body Force weighted algorithm for pressure is chosen.
11. Surface monitor for the static temperature on IC-engine fins is set-up
12. The Nusselt number & surface heat transfer co-efficient variation along the fin span is
recored.

4.
5.
6.

Conclusion:
Based on the values of heat transfer co-efficient values obtained, the fin dimensions are
altered to achieve a higher heat dissipation rate. Different fin configurations are changed the
process is repeated to finalize the fin configuration which gives the best heat dissipation rate.

CFD Analysis of a slurry flow pipe-line

Transportation of fluids is a lot harder when solids are suspended in the flow. Presence of the
solids lead to erosion of the pipe-lines & clogging/settling down in the pipe lead to flow
blockage. Using CFD, a slurry flow (which is multiphase in nature) is simulated using the
Eulerian granular model to observe the movement of solid particles suspended in the liquid
inside a horizontal pipe.

Aim:
1. To check for the pressure loss at the end of the pipe owing to the presence of solid
particles in the flow
2. To check the for the sedimentation locations of the solid particles in the pipe.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. A horizontal pipe with even ends is created & the pipe serves as the domain.
2. A structured mesh with an O-grid mesh topology is generated at the pipe ends.
Processing & Post-Processing:
3. A pressure based steady state solver is adopted
4. Eulerian granular multiphase model is selected.
5. Water & sand are taken as the primary & secondary phases respectively
6. K- turbulence model with dispersed phase is employed
7. Constant volume fraction for the sand phase is given at inlets & outlets.
8. Velocity inlet & pressure outlet are the two inflow & outflow conditions considered.
9. No-slip wall boundary conditions are used for the walls of the pipe.
10. Phase Coupled SIMPLE Solver is used for pressure-velocity coupling.
11. The volume fraction of solid phase is plotted to check the movement of the sand particles.
12. The static pressure contours is plotted to observe the pressure drop distribution.
13. The mass flow rate at the pipe outlet is plotted to see the variation from the inlet
conditions.

Conclusion:
For a given combination of solid & liquid phase for a slurry flow, a range of issues like
settling down of solid phase at the pipe bottom, pipe erosion by colliding solid particles can
be found by pin-pointing the location of occurrence which can then be addressed by a
solution.

Aerodynamic Study of F-1 Car using CFD

F-1 Cars are high speed race cars which depend a lot on the external aerodynamics, drag &
down-force acting on the car is of prime importance. CFD can be very effectively employed to

check for the drag & lift forces acting on a F-1 car. A High down-force & a low drag is the key
to an effective F-1 car design.

Aim:
1. To calculate co-efficient of drag to be used in predicting the drag force acting on the
car.
2. To calculate the down-force (negative lift ) produced.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. A computational domain which models only one half of the car is built by leveraging
the symmetry of the geometry.
2. An unstructured mesh is generated for the entire domain with only one material point
for surrounding air.
3. A prism layer is generated to account for the boundary zone changes encountered.
Processing & Post-Processing:
4. A pressure based steady state solver is used
5. K- turbulence model is employed (for its ability to resolve boundary layer changes)
6. Velocity inlet & pressure outlet are the chosen inflow & boundary conditions.
7. The ground is considered as a moving wall with the velocity same as the inlet velocity
of air.
8. Two monitors are created each for drag & lift to observe the forces acting on the car
body
9. Pressure & velocity contours are generated to observe the low-pressure & high velocity
regions created beneath the car surface.
10. The flow separation & re-circulation zones at the rear of the car are plotted using
velocity vectors.

Conclusion:
For a given set of front-nose wing & rear wing, the overall drag should be minimum
& down-force should be maximum. Down-force is critical as it gives better traction for the
car to stay grounded in spite of the high speed at which the car is travelling. This is the
replication of conventional wind-tunnel experiment carried out on formula-1 cars.

HVAC analysis of a sever room/data center

The temperature inside a server room is always on the rise owing to the servers which are heat
generating sources. For effective running of the servers, the heat generated must be dissipated
away from the room & the domain of HVAC aims to develop ducts inside the server room

which carry fresh cool air into the room & the carries away the heated air. CFD is employed to
analyze the air-circulation inside the server room & proper placing of the ducts can be
achieved.

Aim:
1. To optimize the inlet & outlet location of the duct.
2. The blowing speed of the incoming fresh air is also optimized
3. To achieve proper air quality and thermal comfort inside server room.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. Since this is a case of internal flow, the sever room serves as the domain.
2. An unstructured mesh is generated for the domain volume.
3. A prism mesh is also generated as the heat transfer from the server machines to the
surrounding air happens through the boundary layer.
Processing & Post-Processing:
4. A pressure based steady state solver is used.
5. K--SST turbulence model is employed.
6. Gravity is turned on along with Bousinessq model for air density.
7. No-slip stationary wall boundary conditions are used for servers with a constant heat
generation rate as input is given.
8. Coupled Solver is used for Pressure velocity coupling along with Body Force weighted
algorithm for pressure under discretization schemes.
9. Velocity inlet & pressure outlet are the inflow & outflow BCs
10. Streamlines are plotted to visualize the air-circulation.
11. Velocity & turbulence vector plots are plotted similarly to observe the re-circulation
zones created inside the room.

Conclusion:
Simulation of air-circulation inside the room renders an opportunity to look at various
zones where problem may occur like re-circulation of the hot air inside the room. Thus changing
the position of the inlet & outlet for letting the air to easily carry away the hot air is possible with
the help of CFD simulation. By controlling the quantity of flow entering and leaving the server
room, the thermal comfort and suitable air quality can be provided.

CFD Analysis of a Globe-Valve

Flow control valves are the devices used across all the industries to regulate the flow of fluids.
Development of new designs are approved by checking the flow co-efficient obtained by physical

testing of these valves. CFD is utilized in this case to check the flow-co-efficient value & the same
is used to validate a given valve design which is a globe valve.

Aim:
1. To determine the flow co-efficient for the given globe valve geometry.
2. To study the flow pattern through the valve.
3. Stresses and the deformation induced on the components of valve (stem components and
walls) as a result of fluid flow.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. Fluid flow volume is extracted for the given geometry with valve being fully opened.
2. An unstructured volume mesh is generated for the extracted volume.
3. Prism layers are added at the inner walls of the flow-volume to complete the preprocessing.
Processing & Post-Processing:
4. A pressure based steady state solver is adopted.
5. K- turbulence model is employed.
6. Water is assigned as the flow volume in the cell zone condition.
7. Pressure inlet & pressure outlet is taken as the inflow & outflow boundary conditions
8. No-slip stationary wall conditions are assigned to the inner flow volume walls.
9. SIMPLE solver for pressure-velocity coupling is used
10. Volumetric flow rate monitor is set up at the outlet surface.
11. Residual monitors are set up for the convergence criteria
12. Iso-surface is set-up to visualize the pressure contours along the flow path.
13. Flow-co-efficient value is determined by the volumetric flow rate obtained at the outlet
surface.
14. By coupling results obtained by fluid analysis with structural solver, stresses induced on the
mechanical components (stem and wall) can be determined.

Conclusion:
The computationally obtained value of flow co-efficient is now compared with the
experimental value for the same flow conditions & hence validate the given valve design. The
process can be repeated for different stem positions to check the mass-flow variation at the outlet
& a different fluid other than water can also be checked for.

External aerodynamic analysis of Aircraft Wing

A wing is an aerodynamic surface which produces upward lift to the aircraft and helps aircraft to
fly in air. At the same time the wings are affected by Drag as well. Drag forces hinder the upward
and forward motion of aircraft. So the external aerodynamic analysis of the aircraft is very
important to study the shape of the wing behavior with respect to varying speed of the aircraft.
CFD analysis is cost effective and easy to analyze external aerodynamics. Lift and Drag forces are
studied in terms of its coefficients.

Aim:
1. To calculate the Lift-force (positive-lift) produced.
2. To calculate co-efficient of drag to be used in predicting the drag force acting on the
wing.
3. To find out variation of pressure on the wing with the help of pressure coefficients.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. A computational domain which models only one half of the wing is built by leveraging
the symmetry of the geometry.
2. An unstructured mesh is generated for the entire domain with only one material point
for surrounding air.
3. A prism layer is generated to account for the boundary zone changes encountered.
Processing & Post-Processing:
4. A pressure based steady state solver is used
5. K-SST turbulence model is employed (for its ability to resolve boundary layer
changes)
6. Velocity inlet & pressure outlet are the chosen inflow & boundary conditions.
7. Two monitors are created each for drag & lift to observe the forces acting on the wing
structure
8. Pressure & velocity contours are generated to observe the low-pressure & high velocity
regions created on the upper surface of the wing.
9. The flow separation & re-circulation zones at the rear of the wing are plotted using
velocity vectors.
10. Pressure coefficients values on the wing surface can be plotted to compare the variation
of pressure above and below the wing surface.

Conclusion:

For a given wing, the overall drag should be minimum & lift force should be maximum.
For various speeds and angles of attack, the lift and drag characteristics vary. So the ratio of lift
coefficient to drag coefficient will help us to determine the efficiency of the wing for various
angles of attack and speeds. By comparing these results it can be concluded that for a particular
speed, one angle of attack with highest coefficient of lift to drag ratio performs best.

CFD analysis of Electronic Chip Cooling

The reliability of electronic components is affected critically by the temperature at which the
junction operates. As operating powers and speed increase, and as designers are forced to reduce
overall system dimensions, the problems of extracting heat and controlling temperature can
become crucial. The continuing increase of power densities in electronics packages and the
simultaneous drive to reduce the size and weight of electronic products have led to an increased
importance on thermal management issues in this industry. So an efficient way of cooling
electronic chips is necessary.

Aim:
1. Heat dissipation rate from the electronic chip.
2. The blowing speed of the fresh air for optimum cooling is determined.

Methodology:
Pre-Processing:
1. Since this is a case of internal flow, the dimension of container carrying the electronic
chip serves as the domain.
2. An unstructured mesh is generated for the container carrying air flow (flow domain)
and chip components (solid domain).
3. A prism mesh is also generated as the heat transfer from the chip components to the
surrounding air happens through the boundary layer.
Processing & Post-Processing:
4. A pressure based steady state solver is used.
5. K--SST turbulence model is employed.
6. Gravity is turned on along with Bousinessq model for air density.
7. No-slip stationary wall boundary conditions are used for chip components with a
constant heat generation rate as input is given.
8. Coupled Solver is used for Pressure velocity coupling along with Body Force weighted
algorithm for pressure under discretization schemes.
9. Velocity inlet & pressure outlet are the inflow & outflow BCs
10. Streamlines are plotted to visualize the air-circulation.
11. Velocity & turbulence vector plots are plotted similarly to observe the re-circulation
zones created inside the room.

12. Heat dissipation from the surface of chips can be observed with the help of contour
plots.

Conclusion:
Blowing ratio of the fresh air needed to constantly cool the chip components can be
determined. And the amount of heat dissipated from the surface of the chips give the efficiency of
cooling process, which can be implemented for real scenarios.