COMSOL Multiphysics Instruction Manual

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT ME 433: HEAT TRANSFER PROFESSOR LATIF M. JIJI

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLEOFCONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

Table of Contents A Message to the Student Introduction to COMSOL Multiphysics File Naming and Saving Conventions

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II. CONDUCTION MODELING WITH CONSTANT HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT

Fin tip insulation: effect on Qf Heat loss from a rod Limits of the fin approximation Test chamber insulation (rectangular) Test chamber insulation (circular) Transient cooling of a rod

1 19 35 55 69 85

III. CONDUCTION AND CONVECTION MODELING

Laminar forced convection over an isothermal flat plate Laminar forced convection over a heated flat plate Laminar flow in a tube Temperature development in tubes (Uniform Surface Temperature) Temperature development in tubes (Uniform Surface Heat Flux) Free convection of air over a vertical plate (Isothermal) Free convection of air over a vertical plate (Heated) Free convection of air over a horizontal cylinder (Isothermal) Cross flow heat exchanger

101 127 155 169 185 201 225 249 --

IV. RADIATION MODELING

Radiation in a triangular cavity

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INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

A MESSAGE TO THE STUDENT Dear student, Half a century ago, a great American scientist said: The next great era of awakening of human intellect may well produce a method of understanding the qualitative content of [physical] equations. Today, we are privileged to live in time to see this prediction begin to come true. Todays expanding research and developing industry, scientists and engineers, experimentalists and theoreticians, and many other professional analysts who deal with complex mathematical analysis rely more and more on finite element method as a tool to solve insuperably difficult problems. With the ever increasing number crunching power of modern computing machines, it is possible today to solve and visualize complicated physical phenomena, such as wet water flow and temperature field in steam turbines, body fluid redistribution in human organs subject to unfamiliar gravitational environments, or investigate aerodynamic performance of an entire aircraft without having to setup up an overly expensive experimental lab. Some fifty years ago, an undertaking of the above examples was simply not possible. A theoretician of those days had to have boundless imagination in order to extract information such as vortex shedding in a fluid flow past an object from the well known Navier Stokes equations. That is what was meant by the qualitative content of the equations. Today, an undergraduate student with enough ingenuity can accurately simulate the complex vortices produced by the fluid flow on his or her notebook computer. Universities around the world have much advanced the development of different finite element techniques to attack a wide variety of technical issues. In recent times, many universities, technical institutes, and colleges have adopted programs that introduce students to this relatively new and powerful tool. Most of the institutions are doing so on the graduate level only. At City College, we would like to offer our modest attempts to introduce mechanical engineering students taking undergraduate level heat transfer course to have a first glimpse of how the finite element method may be useful.

Pavel Danilochkin COMSOL module developer and technical writer. Latif M. Jiji Project manager.

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INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

1. Manual Objective and Organization The major objective of this undertaking is not to simply show you and explain how to use COMSOL Multiphysics to solve certain heat transfer problems, but that in doing so you may improve your physical intuition regarding the phenomena under study. Our textbook (with its discussions and numerous diagrams) already does a great job in meeting this objective, however, with COMSOL Multiphysics we take it a step higher. With this manual and COMSOL Multiphysics, you will compute heat transfer rates in multilayered walls, analyze solutions of transient cooling in rods and fins, see the external flow of fluids over plates and internal flows inside pipes, calculate temperature distributions and property variations of fluids under various circumstances, solve free/forced convection and radiation problems. And that is not the end of the list! It is our hope that by analyzing these problems with a rather intuitive program, you will gain a better physical insight, which in turn should make you a better scientist and/or engineer! The written manual is organized by problems. There are 15 problems in total. Your Professor will decide which and how many problems you will do during the course. Previously, the number of problems that students solved in the course ranged from 2 to 4. Each problem has a separate written instruction manual and a corresponding video tutorial. Some problems include additional files, such as MATLAB scripts, that may be needed to complete the problem. These files can either be obtained from instruction manual itself or from the Blackboard. The rest of the files (including written manuals and video tutorials) are available from Blackboard or from victordanilochkin.org/comsol. By far, the simplest way to solve the problem is by watching the video tutorial. You should, however, read the manual at least once prior or during the time when you are solving the problem. Written instructions are far more specific and often include discussions that can be beneficial to you. You should also consult your textbook prior to doing these problems to make sure that your understanding of basic concepts is cold. Written instruction manual structure adapts your textbooks problem solving methodology. However, the form of the structure has several modifications. Written manuals for COMSOL Multiphysics are organized as follows: 1. Problem Statement in this section, a problem that involves certain physical phenomenon (or phenomena) is described. A general learning objective is often stated in this section. Material properties, geometric dimensions, temperature conditions and other relevant specifics are given here. 2. Observations typically, this section lists certain noticeable facts or assumptions about the problem statement from a physical standpoint. COMSOL modeling geometry is often determined and justified here. 3. Assignment this section raises questions to be answered throughout the study of the problem. The number of mandatory questions to be answered is usually 5.
INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

4.
INTRODUCTION

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Most problems also include extra credit questions, which are usually more difficult than the 5 mandatory questions and require more effort from the student. For your own educational good, we encourage you to attempt answering these questions. Modeling with COMSOL Multiphysics this section gives all the instructions on how to solve and post process the problem with COMSOL Multiphysics. This section constitutes the main bulk of the manual. Modeling with MATLAB certain problems that need to be analyzed with MATLAB will include this section. No prior knowledge of MATLAB is assumed nor is it necessary! MATLAB is primarily used to compute theoretical solutions and make comparative plots of the solutions. Note that you are free to use other software to achieve similar results. We do encourage you to get to know MATLAB, nevertheless, as it is another invaluable computational tool in hands of a knowledgeable engineer. Verification of Results certain problems will include a separate section for verifying COMSOL results against theoretical solutions. All problems, however, require such verification. Most of the manuals list instructions for verifications wherever sought most convenient. MATLAB Script problems that include MATLAB analysis will also fully reprint MATLAB script at the end of the manual. This is done in case MATLAB scripts cannot be obtained by other means.

When you are done solving a problem you are asked to prepare a small report of your findings. The report should include the answers to the questions assigned and supporting data that you obtained from COMSOL Multiphysics and other software. Based on the assignment questions, please use your own judgment to decide which data to include in your report. Be aware of this idea as you solve the problems with COMSOL Multiphysics, as this will be the only time when you can save the data you want to use for the report. These reports will have a due date and must be turned in in a hardcopy format.

2. What is COMSOL Multiphysics? Simply put, it is a computer program that allows us to model and simulate a wide variety of physical phenomena. The word Multiphysics is not in the name for the kicks ! The program can tackle technical problems in many fields of science and engineering. Here are some of them: acoustics, electromagnetism, fluid dynamics and heat transfer, structural mechanics, chemical engineering, earth science, and MEMs. For a complete list of application modes (or the type of phenomena COMSOL is capable of solving), visit http://www.comsol.com/. Naturally, in the interest of our course, we are only going to use the heat transfer and fluid dynamics modes of COMSOL Multiphysics.

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INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

3. Why COMSOL Multiphysics? Traditional finite element method software comes as a bound package of separate computer programs, each of which is responsible for only a part of the modeling procedure. Thus, traditionally, one program is used to create model geometry, another program is used to mesh the geometry, apply material properties and specify boundary conditions. A solver is another program that is responsible for the actual number crunching and saving of the solution. At the end, the results must be plotted in yet another program that deals with post processing. For our purposes, such disconnected way of analyzing a problem is rather inconvenient. COMSOL Multiphysics solves this issue by being an all in one geometry creator and mesher, solver and post processor. In the course of solving these problems, you will see how easy it is to switch from one traditionally separate step to another. In addition, COMSOL Multiphysics is much simpler to use than traditional finite element method software packages. (Although its geometry creating features still suffer from an underdeveloped environment) Moreover, it was designed to be a user intuitive software. The fact that COMSOL Multiphysics is capable of analyzing our problems and that it is relatively user friendly made it our choice.

4. Where in ME Department Can I find and use COMSOL Multiphysics? The software is installed in rooms ST 226 and ST 213. We advise you to use computers in room ST 213 when you solve the problems with COMSOL Multiphysics. Computers in this room are more powerful than computers in room ST 226. Some problems require MATLAB, which is installed in room ST 226. MATLAB is also installed on most of the computers throughout Steinman Hall.

5. Can I install and use COMSOL Multiphysics at home? Possibly. You must first obtain a copy of the software of the same version or higher used to create these instructions. The version of the software we used to create instruction manuals is 3.5. Earlier versions of the software will have differences in their appearance and certain menu options, and may thus be somewhat incompatible with these instructions. In the mechanical engineering department, Professor P. Ganatos has a copy of COMSOL Multiphysics. If you are the first one to ask him for the software, announce it to your fellow classmates and organize a way in which you will share the software with the students after you are done installing it on your personal computer. Do not return it to Professor Ganatos before making sure that there are no other students who are willing to install it on their computers.

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

When you install the software on your personal computer, setup will ask you for a license. It is possible (although we have not tested it) to request the license from the server in mechanical engineering department. You need to have an internet connection to do this from your home. Consult Professor Ganatos on how to do this step properly. He will most likely direct you to our IT specialist for further assistance. Again, try to organize yourself and your classmates so that only one or two people ask the same question to Professor Ganatos. Put yourself in his position! If 30 or so students ask the ! same question every semester

INTRODUCTION

6. There is Always Room for Improvement! In the course of solving the assigned problems, you may come up with certain suggestions to improve things a bit. These can be issues with the program, mistakes in the instructions of the manuals or even general remarks. If you find your cause beneficial to others, let your voice be heard so that proper improvements can be made. Remember that the next generation of students after you will use the same instructions and that you may be the one to have corrected certain errors. We have opened a Google based forum to handle this aspect of the course. Each semester, one of your fellow classmates must become a moderator of forum to keep things organized. All the details about the forum, its rules of use, and how to join it are located on the following website: http://groups.google.com/group/me433-outpost.

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INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

FILE NAMING AND SAVING CONVENTIONS In an effort to keep things organized when it comes to trouble shooting, we have created the following file naming conventions. Please follow these conventions when you save and/or backup your COMSOL Multiphysics (.mph) files and use them to share with other students or your Professor. This way, it is easy for us and your fellow classmates to identify your work performed on COMSOL Multiphysics. In this section, we also explain how to obtain and/or create MATLAB (.m) files from a variety of sources.

1. How to properly name and save COMSOL Multiphysics (.mph) files. Please use the following file naming convention when you save COMSOL Multiphysics (.mph) files: MN_FirstNameL_ZZZZ.mph Where, MN stands for Module Number. Replace MN by the actual module number. FirstNameL is to be replaced by your first name, followed by the last name initial (ex. John Smith = JohnS). ZZZZ is to be replaced by the last 4 digits of your social security number (ex. 123 45 6789 = 6789).

For instance, if John Smith is working on module #3 and the last 4 digits of his social security number are 6789, he would save the file as: 3_JohnS_6789.mph.

2. Obtaining MATLAB (.m) files. As you may already know, MATLAB (.m) files are usually text based scripts that contain certain commands, or code to be executed by MATLAB. Most of the problems in this manual use MATLAB as an auxiliary tool to re plot and check results from COMSOL Multiphysics. For this reasons, we have created sample scripts for you to use after solving a problem with COMSOL Multiphysics. These scripts are available from multiple sources: outpost 1. The Blackboard 2. The PDF version of this manual 3. The Google based group (http://groups.google.com/group/me433-outpost)

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

4. COMSOL video tutorial website (www.victordanilochkin.org/comsol) In case you still cannot obtain MATLAB scripts for some reason, there is a fifth (a most cumbersome, but also most reliable) source. Problems which use MATLAB include the sample script with them, fully reprinted in the appendix section. You will find this section at the end of each problem.

INTRODUCTION

At this point, we have covered most of the essential introductory remarks. We wish you good luck in simulating heat transfer problems that follow!

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