MEC-E2010 - Computational Fluid Modelling D, 11.09.2020-04.12.2020
This course space end date is set to 04.12.2020 Search Courses: MEC-E2010
Topic outline
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The main reading for the course is "Essential Computational Fluid Dynamics" by Oleg Zikanov. The book is freely available to all the students as an e-book through the Aalto University Library. In addition to this you will collect 3-5 journal or conference papers related to your project. You will read dedicated sections of the book as well as the collected papers and meet regularly (every week during period I) with your reading circle group to discuss the reading.
Personal notes
For each reading circle round you should write short (1-2 page) personal notes on the reading material according to the instructions provided for that reading circle round below. You should submit the notes in the submission boxes on this page by the deadline for that round.
Meetings and meeting reports
In the meetings you should- discuss the topics you consider important and why you consider these to be important,
- identify and try to resolve difficult topics,
- report the main ideas discussed in the meeting and report the topics that you would like to discuss further in the sessions on Friday (i.e. things you do not understand, things that require clarification, possible misunderstandings etc.)
Each meeting should have a nominated secretary, the name of which should be mentioned in the report and who is responsible for the meeting report. The report (1-2 pages) should cover the main ideas discussed in the meeting and the topics that you would like to discuss further in the theory session (i.e. things you do not understand, things that require clarification, possible misunderstandings etc.). The secretary of the group will return the report on behalf of the whole group using the appropriate return box at the end of this page (in addition to his/her personal notes). The report should be clearly named as a group report and should indicate the number of the reading circle group.
Schedule
The reading circles follow the schedule in the table below. You are free to agree on the exact dates of the meetings. The deadline refers to the date by which the report and the notes should be returned on MyCourses. It is important to submit the notes and meeting reports on time, as I will plan the Friday sessions on Thursdays based on your contributions.
No. Topic Chapters Deadline Session 1 Introduction and governing equations 1, 2, 3 Wed 16.9. Fri 18.9. 2 Discretization approaches 4, 5, 12 Wed 23.9. Fri 25.9. 3 Stability and general solution algorithms 6, 7, 8 Wed 30.9. Fri 2.10. 4 Solution of the flow equations 9, 10 Wed 7.10. Fri 9.10. 5 Turbulence and conducting CFD analysis 11, 13 Wed 14.10. Fri 16.10.
The reading circles are formed by groups of up to 5 students. We will discuss the selection of the groups during the intro session. Attendance to the reading circle meetings is mandatory. In exceptional cases this requirement can be relaxed, but in this case the person not attending should report his or her findings to the group before the reading circle meeting.-
Select your reading circle group Group choice
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The first reading circle focuses on the fundamental mathematical models behind CFD analysis. The tasks are as follows.
- Read chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the course book. The material in chapter 2 on the governing equations should be familiar to you from your previous studies on fluid mechanics, but it never hurts to have a brief recap of those.
- Collect and read 3-5 journal or high quality conference papers, in which CFD analysis that are similar to your planned project topic have been conducted.
- Write notes on the reading focusing on the following
- How would you summarise chapters 2 and 3?
- Which parts of chapters 1-3 were already familiar to you and from which context and which concepts and details were new?
- Which parts of chapters 1-3 did you find interesting and probably useful from the point of view of the project?
- Which parts of chapters 1-3 were you struggling with?
- Based on the material in chapter 3, how do you think that the type of the equations affects the choice of the boundary conditions?
- Based on the papers, what kind of data can be disclosed with CFD analysis, i.e. which are the flow quantities or derived quantities of interest and how does this compare with your project plan?
- Based on the papers, which are the relevant governing equations in your simulation project?
- What information can you find on the relevant boundary conditions in the papers that you could use in your project?
- Can you identify potential problems that you might encounter during your project?
- Discuss the material with your reading circle group
- Submit the notes and the group memo (memo should be submitted only by the secretary) as pdf by the deadline.
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The second reading circle focuses on the discretisation of the governing equations. The tasks are the following
- Read chapters 4, 5 and 12 of the course book.
- Go through the journal or conference papers that you collected for round 1 (feel free to update your collection) from the perspective of the general discretisation approach (FD, FVM, FEM), discretisation schemes used and grid details.
- Write notes on the reading focusing on the following
- How would you summarise the chapters?
- Which parts of the chapters were already familiar to you and from which context and which concepts and details were new?
- Which parts of the chapters did you find interesting and probably useful from the point of view of the project?
- Which parts of the chapters were you struggling with?
- Both StarCCM+ and OpenFOAM use the Finite Volume method on general unstructured grids. Considering the topic of your project and the geometry/geometries that you will use, is this the optimal choice? Justify your answer.
- Which discretisation approaches are used in the papers that you have collected?
- What information can you find from the chapters and the papers that can help you in your grid design? Cover both the general structure of the grid and the detailed features of the grid.
- What information can you find from the chapters and the papers that can help you in the choice of the discretisation schemes for the different terms of the governing equations? Check this against what is available in StarCCM+ or OpenFOAM.
- Discuss the material with your reading circle group
- Submit the notes and the group memo (memo should be submitted only by the secretary) as pdf by the deadline.
- Read chapters 4, 5 and 12 of the course book.
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The third reading circle focuses on the stability of solutions and the general solution of discretised equations. The tasks are the following
- Read chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the course book.
- Go through the journal or conference papers that you collected for previous rounds (feel free to update your collection) from the perspective of the solution schemes (explicit, implicit) and solution of the linear system of equations
- Write notes on the reading focusing on the following
- How would you summarise the chapters?
- Which parts of the chapters were already familiar to you and from which context and which concepts and details were new?
- Which parts of the chapters did you find interesting and probably useful from the point of view of the project?
- Which parts of the chapters were you struggling with?
- Did you find information that can help you in choosing sensible options for the solution schemes?
- How do your findings compare to what is available in StarCCM+ or OpenFOAM?
- Discuss the material with your reading circle group
- Submit the notes and the group memo (memo should be submitted only by the secretary) as pdf by the deadline.
- Read chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the course book.
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The fourth reading circle focuses on the solution techniques for the actual flow equations. The tasks are the following
- Read chapters 9 and 10 of the course book.
- Go through the journal or conference papers that you collected for the previous rounds (feel free to update your collection) from the perspective of the overall solution algorithm
- Go through the documentation of the program (StarCCM+ or OpenFOAM) from the perspective of the overall solution algorithm
- In case of StarCCM+ a good starting point is section Theory > Numerical Flow Solution > Finite Volume Discretization in the user manual
- In case of OpenFOAM a good starting point is https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/OpenFOAM_guide/The_PIMPLE_algorithm_in_OpenFOAM
- Write notes on the reading focusing on the following
- How would you summarise the chapters?
- Which parts of the chapters were already familiar to you and from which context and which concepts and details were new?
- Which parts of the chapters did you find interesting and probably useful from the point of view of the project?
- Which parts of the chapters were you struggling with?
- Based on the material try to figure out, how the program is solving the equations in your case paying particular attention on the coupling of the pressure to the rest of the equations.
- Discuss the material with your reading circle group
- Submit the notes and the group memo (memo should be submitted only by the secretary) as pdf by the deadline.
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The fifth reading circle focuses on turbulence modelling and on the analysis and control of error in CFD analysis. The tasks are the following
- Read chapters 11 and 13 of the course book.
- Go through the journal or conference papers that you collected for the previous rounds (feel free to update your collection) from the perspective of turbulence modelling and error analysis
- Write notes on the reading focusing on the following
- How would you summarise the chapters?
- Which parts of the chapters were already familiar to you and from which context and which concepts and details were new?
- Which parts of the chapters did you find interesting and probably useful from the point of view of the project?
- Which parts of the chapters were you struggling with?
- Which type of turbulence modelling (RANS, LES, DES) and turbulence models are used in the papers that you have collected and how does this compare with what you are using in your project?
- What kind of sources of modelling error can you identify in your project?
- How do you analyse and control discretisation and iteration error in your simulation project?
- Discuss the material with your reading circle group
- Submit the notes and the group memo (memo should be submitted only by the secretary) as pdf by the deadline