CFD

CFD in brief
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the science of predicting fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer,
chemical reactions, and related phenomena by solving the mathematical equations which govern these
processes using a numerical process. The technique is very powerful and spans a wide range of industrial and
academic interests. Some notable examples of applications include

Aerodynamics of aircrafts: lift and drag

Hydrodynamic aspects of ship: flow field
around ship
Turbomachinery
Offshore industry

Thermodynamics: HVAC analysis,

combustion

Why CFD is important?

Fluid
Mechanics
Mathemati
cs

Computer
Science

CF
D

CFD has become an integral preliminary design tool to analysis and predict a particular
concept, which otherwise would not be possible by means of manual calculations or experimental
test. Companies and academic institutions are progressively -deploying CFD in R&D to either predict
the performance of new designs or to optimize the existing ones.

How does CFD works?

CFD involves, in general, three elements:(i) a pre-processor, (ii)a solver, (iii)a postprocessor. While open-source solver such as OpenFoam are free for all use, commercial CFD solvers
such as Fluent, CFX are expensive but they are well developed and applicable to a wide range of
problems.

Developer

Software

Web Address

ANSYS

ANSYS Fluent

www.ansys.com

ANSYS

ANSYS CFX

www.ansys.com

Propri
etary
Propri
etary

CD-adapco

STAR-CCM+

CFD Direct

OpenFoam

Stanford
University

SU2

www.cdadapco.com
www.openfoam.
org

www.su2.stanfor
d.edu

Propri
etary
Opensourc
e
Opensourc
e

Table 1: a non-exhaustive list of some CFD software

Pre-processor

It consists of the input of a flow problem to a CFD program by means of an operator-friendly

interface and the subsequent transformation of this into a form suitable for use by the solver.
Generally, it involves

Understanding the problem and how to approach to solution

Creating the computational domain
Grid(mesh) generation
Defining the material properties and boundary conditions

Geometry is usually created by either an additional software (e.g. Solidworks, Inventor, Rhinoceros)
or modeler that comes together with CFD software. The same goes for the mesh generation. Over
50% of the time spent in a CFD analysis is devoted to the pre-processing.

Solver

A solver usually deployed one of the three numerical techniques: finite difference,
finite element and spectral methods. In general, a solver

(i)Integrate the governing equations of the fluid flow over the control volumes of the

domain

equations

(ii)Discretization: conversion of the integral equations into a system of algebraic

(ii)Solution of these equations by an iterative method

CFD codes contains discretization techniques suitable for the treatment of the key
transport phenomena, convection (transport due to fluid flow ) and diffusion(transport due to
variations of from point to point) as well as source terms(associated with the creation or
destruction of ) and the rate of change with respect to time.

Post-processor

Post-processor is important to analyze and visualize the result of the solver. Many of the
leading CFD packages are now equipped with versatile data visualization tools. The post-processing
can also be done standalone software like Tecplot. Generally, results are presented in

Contours
Vectors
Streamlines, pathlines

2D or 3D surface plot
Animation for the dynamic result

Pre-processor

It consists of the input of a flow problem to a CFD program by means of an operator-friendly

interface and the subsequent transformation of this into a form suitable for use by the solver.
Generally, it involves

Understanding the problem and how to approach to solution

Creating the computational domain
Grid(mesh) generation
Defining the material properties and boundary conditions

Geometry is usually created by either an additional software (e.g. Solidworks, Inventor, Rhinoceros)
or modeler that comes together with CFD software. The same goes for the mesh generation. Over
50% of the time spent in a CFD analysis is devoted to the pre-processing.

Solver

A solver usually deployed one of the three numerical techniques: finite difference, finite
element and spectral methods. In general, a solver

(i)Integrate the governing equations of the fluid flow over the control volumes of the domain

(ii)Discretization: conversion of the integral equations into a system of algebraic equations

(ii)Solution of these equations by an iterative method

CFD codes contains discretization techniques suitable for the treatment of the key transport
phenomena, convection (transport due to fluid flow ) and diffusion(transport due to variations of from
point to point) as well as source terms(associated with the creation or destruction of ) and the rate of
change with respect to time.

Post-processor

Post-processor is important to analyze and visualize the result of the solver. Many of the
leading CFD packages are now equipped with versatile data visualization tools. The post-processing
can also be done standalone software like Tecplot. Generally, results are presented in

Contours
Vectors
Streamlines, pathlines

2D or 3D surface plot
Animation for the dynamic result

CFD - how it works (2)

CFD applies numerical methods (called

discretization) to develop approximations of
the governing equations of fluid mechanics in
the fluid region of interest.

Governing differential equations: algebraic.

The collection of cells is called the grid.
The set of algebraic equations are solved
numerically (on a computer) for the flow field
variables at each node or cell.
System of equations are solved
simultaneously to provide solution.

The solution is post-processed to extract

quantities of interest (e.g. lift, drag, torque,
heat transfer, separation, pressure loss, etc.).

Design and create the grid

Should you use a quad/hex grid, a tri/tet grid, a
hybrid grid, or a
non-conformal grid?
What degree of grid resolution is required in
each region of the
domain?

 How many cells are required for the problem?

Will you use adaption to add resolution?
Do you have sufficient computer memory?

triangle
quadrilateral
tetrahedron pyramid
hexahedron prism or wedge
arbitrary polyhedron

Compute the solution

The discretized conservation equations are
solved iteratively. A
number of iterations are usually required to
reach a converged
solution.
Convergence is reached when:
Changes in solution variables from one iteration to
the next are
negligible.
Residuals provide a mechanism to help monitor this
trend.
Overall property conservation is achieved.

The accuracy of a converged solution is

dependent upon:
Appropriateness and accuracy of the physical
models.
Grid resolution and independence.
Problem setup.

 Applications of CFD
Applications of CFD are numerous!

Flow and heat transfer in industrial processes

(boilers, heat
exchangers, combustion equipment, pumps, blowers,
piping, etc.).
Aerodynamics of ground vehicles, aircraft, missiles.
Film coating, thermoforming in material processing
applications.
Flow and heat transfer in propulsion and power
generation systems.
Ventilation, heating, and cooling flows in buildings.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for integrated
circuit
manufacturing.
Heat transfer for electronics packaging
applications.
And many, many more!