Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Introduction
In this tutorial, the air-blast atomizer model in ANSYS FLUENT is used to predict the
behavior of an evaporating methanol spray. Initially, the air flow is modeled without
droplets. To predict the behavior of the spray, several other discrete-phase models,
including collision and breakup, are used.
This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following:
Prerequisites
This tutorial is written with the assumption that you have completed Tutorial 1, and
that you are familiar with the ANSYS FLUENT navigation pane and menu structure.
Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not be shown explicitly.
Problem Description
The geometry to be considered in this tutorial is shown in Figure 17.1. Methanol is cooled
to 10 C before being introduced into an air-blast atomizer. The atomizer contains an
inner air stream surrounded by a swirling annular stream. To make use of the periodicity
of the problem, only a 30 section of the atomizer will be modeled.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-1
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Y
Z
X
2. Unzip evaporate_liquid.zip.
The mesh file sector.msh can be found in the evaporate liquid folder created
after unzipping the file.
Note: The Display Options are enabled by default. Therefore, after you read in the mesh,
it will be displayed in the embedded graphics window.
Step 1: Mesh
1. Read in the mesh file sector.msh.
File Read Mesh...
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-3
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
The graphics display will be updated to show the mesh. Zoom in with the mouse to
obtain the view shown in Figure 17.2.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-5
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Step 3: Models
Models
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-7
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Step 4: Materials
Materials
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-9
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
1. Remove water vapor and carbon dioxide from the Mixture Species list.
Materials Mixture Create/Edit...
(a) Click the Edit button next to the Mixture Species drop-down list to open the
Species dialog box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-11
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
1. Set the boundary conditions for the inner air stream (central air).
Boundary Conditions central air Edit...
2. Set the boundary conditions for the air stream surrounding the atomizer
(co-flow-air).
Boundary Conditions co-flow-air Edit...
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-13
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
(a) Select From Neighboring Cell from the Backflow Direction Specification Method
drop-down list.
(b) Select Intensity and Viscosity Ratio from the Specification Method drop-down
list.
(c) Enter 5 for both Backflow Turbulent Intensity and Backflow Turbulent Viscosity
Ratio.
(d) Click the Thermal tab and enter 293 K for Backflow Total Temperature.
(e) Click the Species tab and enter 0.23 for o2 in the Species Mass Fractions group
box.
(f) Click OK to close the Pressure Outlet dialog box.
4. Set the boundary conditions for the swirling annular stream (swirling air).
Boundary Conditions swirling air Edit...
(a) Select Magnitude and Direction from the Velocity Specification Method drop-
down list.
(b) Enter 19 m/s for Velocity Magnitude.
(c) Select Cylindrical (Radial, Tangential, Axial) from the Coordinate System drop-
down list.
(d) Enter 0 for Radial-Component of Flow Direction.
(e) Enter 0.7071 for both Tangential-Component of Flow Direction and Axial-
Component of Flow Direction.
(f) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specification Method drop-
down list.
(g) Enter 5 for Turbulent Intensity.
(h) Enter 0.0043 m for Hydraulic Diameter.
(i) Click the Thermal tab and enter 293 K for Temperature.
(j) Click the Species tab and enter 0.23 for o2 in the Species Mass Fractions group
box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-15
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
5. Set the boundary conditions for the outer wall of the atomizer (outer-wall).
Boundary Conditions outer-wall Edit...
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-17
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
7. Create a clip plane to examine the flow field at the midpoint of the atomizer section.
Surface Iso-Surface...
(a) Select Mesh... and Angular Coordinate from the Surface of Constant drop-down
lists.
(b) Click Compute to update the minimum and maximum values.
(c) Enter 15 for Iso-Values.
(d) Enter angle=15 for New Surface Name.
(e) Click Create to create the isosurface.
(f) Close the Iso-Surface dialog box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-19
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
8. Review the current state of the solution by examining contours of velocity magni-
tude (Figure 17.3).
Graphics and Animations Contours Set Up...
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-21
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
(a) Click the Define... button to open the Graphics Periodicity dialog box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-23
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
(a) Enable Interaction with Continuous Phase in the Interaction group box.
This will include the effects of the discrete phase trajectories on the continuous
phase.
(b) Retain the value of 10 for Number of Continuous Phase Iterations per DPM
Iteration.
(c) Click the Physical Models tab to enable the physical models.
i. Enable Droplet Collision and Droplet Breakup in the Spray Model group
box.
ii. Ensure that TAB is enabled in the Breakup Model list.
iii. Retain the default value of 0 for y0 and 2 for Breakup Parcels in the
Breakup Constants group box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-25
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
(a) Click the Create button to open the Set Injection Properties dialog box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-27
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
The lower half of the dialog box will change to show options for the tur-
bulent dispersion model.
ii. Enable Discrete Random Walk Model and Random Eddy Lifetime in the
Stochastic Tracking group box.
These models will account for the turbulent dispersion of the droplets.
(p) Click OK to close the Set Injection Properties dialog box.
(q) Click OK in the Information dialog box to enable droplet coalescence.
(r) Close the Injections dialog box.
Note: In the case that the spray injection would be striking a wall, you should
specify the wall boundary conditions for the droplets. Though this tutorial
does have wall zones, they are a part of the atomizer apparatus. You need not
change the wall boundary conditions any further because these walls are not
in the path of the spray droplets.
(a) Retain the default selection of droplet-particle from the Material Type drop-
down list.
(b) Enter 0.0056 kg/m-s for Viscosity in the Properties group box.
(c) Select piecewise-linear from the Saturation Vapor Pressure drop-down list.
Scroll down to find the Saturation Vapor Pressure drop-down list.
The Piecewise-Linear Profile dialog box will open.
i. Click OK to retain the default values and close the Piecewise-Linear Profile
dialog box.
(d) Scroll down and enter 0.0222 N/m for Droplet Surface Tension.
(e) Click Change/Create to accept the change in properties for the methanol
droplet material and close the Create/Edit Materials dialog box.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-29
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Step 8: Solution
1. Decrease the Under-Relaxation Factor for Discrete Phase Sources to 0.1.
Solution Controls
2. Disable Check Convergence for all the residuals.
Monitors Residuals Edit...
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-31
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-33
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
7. Display the trajectories of the droplets in the spray injection (Figure 17.7).
This will allow you to review the location of the droplets.
Graphics and Animations Particle Tracks Set Up...
Figure 17.7: Particle Tracks for the Spray Injection After 200 Iterations
The air-blast atomizer model assumes that a cylindrical liquid sheet exits the atom-
izer, which then disintegrates into ligaments and droplets. Appropriately, the model
determines that the droplets should be input into the domain in a ring. The radius
of this disk is determined from the inner and outer radii of the injector.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-35
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Note: The maximum diameter of the droplets is about 104 m or 0.1 mm. This is
slightly smaller than the film height. The inner diameter and outer diameter
of the injector are 3.5 mm and 4.5 mm, respectively. Hence the film height
is 0.5 mm. The range in the droplet sizes is due to the fact that the air-blast
atomizer automatically uses a distribution of droplet sizes.
Also note that the droplets are placed a slight distance away from the injector.
Once the droplets are injected into the domain, they can collide/coalesce with
other droplets as determined by the secondary models (breakup and collision).
However, once a droplet has been introduced into the domain, the air-blast
atomizer model no longer affects the droplet.
Step 9: Postprocessing
1. Create an isosurface of the methanol mass fraction.
Surface Iso-Surface...
(a) Select Species... and Mass fraction of ch3oh from the Surface of Constant drop-
down lists.
(b) Click Compute to update the minimum and maximum values.
(c) Enter 0.002 for Iso-Values.
(d) Enter methanol-mf=0.002 for the New Surface Name.
(e) Click Create and the close the Iso-Surface dialog box.
i. Select surface in the Types list and green in the Colors list.
Scroll down the Types list to locate surface. The isosurface will now be
displayed in green, which contrasts better with the rest of the mesh.
ii. Close the Mesh Colors dialog box.
(c) Click Display in the Mesh Display dialog box.
The graphics display will be updated to show the isosurface.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-37
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray
Figure 17.8: Full Atomizer Display with Surface of Constant Methanol Mass Fraction
Summary
In this tutorial, a spray injection was defined for an air-blast atomizer and the solution
was calculated using discrete-phase model in ANSYS FLUENT. The location of methanol
droplet particles after exiting the atomizer and an isosurface of the methanol mass frac-
tion were examined.
Further Improvements
This tutorial guides you through the steps to reach an initial solution. You may be able
to obtain a more accurate solution by using an appropriate higher-order discretization
scheme and by adapting the mesh. Mesh adaption can also ensure that the solution is
independent of the mesh. These steps are demonstrated in Tutorial 1.
Release 12.0
c ANSYS, Inc. March 12, 2009 17-39
Modeling Evaporating Liquid Spray