Workshop: Set Up

Rotational Periodic
Boundaries Task
ANSYS Fluent Watertight Geometry
Workflow
Release 2019 R1
Introduction

Workshop Description
This workshop demonstrates use of the Insert Rotational
Periodic Boundaries task in the Watertight Geometry
Workflow. There are two parts. In the first part, you will
mesh a 60° sector of a centrifugal pump, and in the
second, you will mesh a turbine stage consisting of a
blade row and a stator row. The turbine model uses an
Apply Shared Topology task to produce a conformal
boundary between the rotating and non-rotating regions
and also a Run Custom Journal task to produce a model
that will simplify case definition after the mesh is
transferred to solution mode.

2
Launch Fluent in Meshing Mode

• Open the Fluent Launcher by clicking the

Windows Start menu and selecting
Fluent 2019 R1 in the Fluid Dynamics sub-menu
of the ANSYS 2019 R1 program group
• Enable Meshing Mode under Options
• Set the Processing Option to serial
• Set Working Directory to the area where files
are
• Click OK to start Fluent
in meshing mode

3
Part 1: Meshing a Centrifugal Pump

4
Initialize Workflow And Import Geometry

• From the Workflow tab select

Watertight Geometry from the
Select Workflow Type drop down • Select Import Geometry in the workflow
menu • Set your units to mm
• Browse and select the file pump-2b.scdoc

5
Add Local Sizing
• Select Curvature for Size Control Type and Select By = label
• Select wall_blade from the label list
• Set Local Min Size to 0.2 and Max Size to 2
• Set Curvature Normal Angle to 12°
• Click Add Local Sizing

The local min size of 0.2 is selected to prevent over-refinement in the vicinity
of the sliver angle at the base of the fillet. The max size value of 2 is about
10% of the distance across trailing edge of the blade and 12° is used to
achieve good resolution of curved surfaces.
6
Surface Mesh
• Under Create Surface Mesh leave the default
entries and click Create Surface Mesh
In this model the role of the minimum size is to prevent overrefinement of
the mesh in case there are any unnecessarily fine geometric details in the
CAD. The width of the annulus at the inlet is around 50 mm, so 5 mm would
be around 10% of that and the default is close enough to 5 that there is no
benefit to such a small change.

… next slide

7
Improve Surface Mesh
• Right click Create Surface Mesh and insert an
Improve Surface Mesh Task
• Keep the default Face Quality Limit of 0.7 and click
Improve Surface Mesh
• The surface mesh quality is successfully improved

8
Describe Geometry and Update Boundaries

• The geometry consists of only • Change the boundary type of

fluid regions with no voids inlet to mass-flow-inlet
9
Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries

per-1 per-2

• Right click on Update Boundaries and insert a Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries task
• In the new task, select the Manual method and enter a periodicity angle of 60°
• Manual is the preferred choice here because some of the periodic surfaces are non-
planar
• Leave the origin as (0,0,0) and set the rotational vector in the Z direction
• The rotation vector is displayed in the graphics window
• Select per-1 as the reference side
• Either per-1 or per-2 can be selected, you just have to choose one or the other
• After periodicity has been defined, click Update Regions (not shown) and proceed to
volume meshing
10
Create and Inspect Volume Mesh

More boundary layers generally results in better

resolution of boundary layer flow phenomena (skin
friction, heat transfer, flow separation, …), but at the
cost of increased mesh generation time and 8
represents a good compromise for this workshop.

• Under the Create Volume Mesh task, increase the number of boundary layers to 8
• Choose poly-hexcore under Fill With
• If Fluent was started with more than 1 meshing process, disable the option to enable parallel
meshing
• In 2019R1, parallel meshing is not supported for rotational periodic boundaries although it
may be supported in future releases
• If Fluent was started in serial or with 1 meshing process, this option will not appear (it only
makes sense if there are 2 or more processes)
• Click Create Volume Mesh
• A mesh of around 330,000 cells with minimum orthogonal quality of 0.12 is created in less
than a minute
11
Write Mesh and Switch to Solution Mode
• Go to File > Write > Mesh and save the mesh as
“pump-2b.msh.gz”
‐ Workflow inputs are stored in the mesh, so in case it is
desired to make changes in the future, it is easy to do
so after reading the mesh into a new Fluent Meshing
session
• Click on Switch to Solution
• Do a mesh check
‐ Always advised when using periodic boundaries

The important thing is that no error

messages are reported by the check.

12
Part 2: Meshing a Two Stage Turbine Blade Passage

13
Turbine Stage Introduction

The instructions for the turbine stage in Part 2 of this workshop will
create a mesh that is too coarse for a real turbine application. The
reason for this is that a mesh with acceptable resolution for this
problem takes as long as 15 to 20 minutes to generate, so the
workshop instead focuses on the main steps in the mesh generation
process, especially setting up the rotational periodic boundary. As an
optional exercise, after the workshop summary, a set of instructions
is provided for generating a mesh with improved resolution.

14
Initialize Workflow And Import Geometry

• From the Workflow tab select

Watertight Geometry from the
Select Workflow Type drop down
menu
• Select Import Geometry in the workflow
• Set your units to mm
• Browse and select the file turbine.scdoc

15
Create Size Controls and Surface Mesh
• Leave default values for the min and
max settings
• Under Size Functions set Curvature
Normal Angle to 12° and set Scope
Proximity To to faces
• Although the goal is to create a
coarse mesh, without refining
these settings in this model there
would be a risk of mesh
degradation due to insufficient
resolution of the tip curvature and
• Under Add Local Sizing the blade-shroud clearance
• Leave no under Would you like to
add local sizing? and click Update

16
Completed Surface Mesh

• After completion of the surface mesh, a message is displayed in the contour saying that a
Share Topology task should be added in order to proceed
• Helpfully, an Apply Share Topology task is added to the tree and the option to apply shared
topology is set to Yes
• This model consists only of fluid regions with no voids and it is desired to change all fluid-
fluid boundary types to internal
• Click Describe Geometry before proceeding to the next step
17
Apply Share Topology
An Improve Surface Mesh task could
be used next, but even with 0.8, the
resulting volume mesh quality will
probably be good enough after
creating the volume mesh, and if not,
it is possible to go back and insert one.
18
Before – note non-matching mesh lines After – shared surfaces with multi faces
• Click Apply Share Topology in the Workflow list and then click Mark Gaps to
inspect the topology to be shared (this is highlighted in red and yellow - use
different clipping planes and the slider bar to check interior regions)
• The Max. Gap Distance can be increased or decreased as needed
• When sharing topology between closely matching surfaces, the default value,
which is 50% of the minimum size field usually works well
• Inspection shows that shared topology regions have been correctly identified (see
next slide for more description), so click Apply Share Topology
• The maximum skewness is reported to be around 0.8
Shared Topology Inspection

• The Explode button in the Display options can be used to help visualize the areas of intersection
between the different parts in the model
• Click Explode again to return to normal view
• Surfaces will have regular coloring if exploded view is performed before gaps are marked
• These areas are where the topology needs to be shared
• After shared topology, there is only a single part and exploded view has no effect
• The views shown on this slide are only possible before Apply Share Topology is clicked … they
are shown here to provide additional explanation for what this task does
19
Update Boundaries

• The correct boundary types have been identified so click

Update Boundaries to proceed to the next step

20
Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries

per1 per2

• Right click on Update Boundaries and insert a Set Up Rotational Periodic

Boundaries task
• In the new task, select the Manual method and enter a periodicity angle
of 5.294° (360° ÷ 68 blades)
• In general, use Manual when rotational periodic boundaries include
curved surfaces (required here for successful task completion)
• Leave the origin as (0,0,0) and set the rotational vector in the Z direction
• Select per2 as the reference side
• See next slide for explanation
• Click Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries
• Rotation vector is displayed in the graphics upon task completion
21
Manual Reference Zone Selection for Rotational Periodics

per2 – original surface mesh per1 – original surface mesh

• Either per1 or per2 could have been selected on the previous slide per2 – surface mesh after
• Whatever periodic side is selected, the mesh from the selected side is mapped onto the surface completion of Set Up Rotational
of the non-selected side, replacing the mesh originally created in the surface meshing task Periodic Boundaries task
• In this model, per2 (upper left) has some non-uniformities in the original surface mesh, while
per1 has a more uniform mesh
• Therefore, per1 was selected in the panel, purely for aesthetic reasons
• Often the meshes on either side will be similar and then it makes little difference which is
selected
22
Rotational Periodic Boundaries Complete

per1 per2

• After completion of task, meshes match on the

periodic faces
• The mesh from per1 was remeshed to match that
of per2, which was selected as the reference zone

23
Update Regions

Regions have been correctly identified, so simply click Update Regions to proceed to the next task
24
Run Custom Journal Task

• Right click on Update Regions and insert a Run Custom Journal task
• In the Run Custom Journal field, enter the commands shown to the left
• These are text user interface (TUI) commands that tell Fluent to
merge the volumes (identical to the regions shown in the Update
Regions task) from the non-rotating region (e.g. those from the
stator, st_pas and st_sh) into a single volume (st_new) and then
The next slide will explain what merge the volumes from the rotating region (those from the rotor
these commands do. passage, rt_pas, rt_sh and rt_bl_sh) into another single volume
(rt_new).
• This is not required, but it will simplify setting up the model and
defining the rotational motion in solution mode

25
Custom Journal Task Equivalent TUI Command Explained
1. The volumetric-regions sub menu includes
1. commands to operate on regions. “volume” is
understood as shorthand for “volumetric-regions”
2. It is desired to merge the rotor regions into a
single region and merge the stator regions into a
2.
single region (stator regions shown here).
3. 3. When using the watertight geometry workflow,
the name of the mesh object is the same as the
CAD file from the Import Geometry task
4.
4. The two stator regions are st_pas and st_sh. The
comma “,” indicates the selection is finished. New
Name and New Type are self-explanatory self-
5. explanatory.
5. “y” to proceed and execute the command

Equivalently, the entire command could be typed in a single line, as in the snippet entered in the previous slide.
When using the Watertight Geometry workflow, use the Run Custom Journal task, not the Console, for any TUI commands.

26
Create and Inspect Volume Mesh

• Keep default settings and click Create Volume Mesh

• 3 boundary layers is far too few for a practical turbomachinery simulation and
this value was used only to minimize meshing time
• After mesh completion inspect the mesh
• A mesh of around 0.6 million cells with minimum orthogonal quality of 0.18 is
created in around 1.5 minutes
• Good quality even without improving the surface mesh skewness from 0.8
27
Write Mesh and Switch to Solution Mode
• Go to File > Write > Mesh and save the mesh as
“turbine-coarse.msh.gz”
‐ Workflow inputs are stored in the mesh, so in case it is desired
to make changes in the future, it is easy to do so after reading
the mesh into a new Fluent Meshing session
• Click on Switch to Solution
‐ Type “yes” in the console when prompted
• Do a mesh check
‐ Always advised when using periodic boundaries

Note cell zones

The important thing is that no error created by the custom
messages are reported by the check. journal task.
28
Summary
• This workshop demonstrated the use of the Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries task in the
Watertight Geometry Workflow
‐ Two models were meshed: a centrifugal pump and a turbine stage with one blade row and one stator row
‐ The manual option for periodic definition was used in both cases because it is preferred when the periodic
boundaries are non-planar
‐ Periodic boundaries created with this task are transferred to solution mode as conformal periodic
boundaries
▪ Always perform a mesh check in solution mode to verify the correct periodic definition (axis and rotation
angle) has been transferred
• The use of the Apply Share Topology was demonstrated in the turbine model
‐ The Watertight Geometry workflow does not support models with non-shared topology, but this has an
additional advantage of creating a conformal mesh at the boundary between the rotating and non-rotating
zones
• The use of a Run Custom Journal task was also demonstrated
‐ In the turbine case, this task made use of TUI commands to merge volumetric regions so that in solution
mode there would be only one single cell zone for the rotating blade passage and one single cell zone for the
stator passage, which simplifies case set up

29
Optional: Turbine Stage with Improved Mesh Resolution

This workshop used a very coarse mesh in order to minimize the

amount of time required for surface meshing, topology sharing and
volume meshing. In this optional exercise the mesh will be repeated
using inputs which will improve the resolution such that it is more
realistic in terms of what would be used for a real turbine
calculation.

Begin by starting a new Fluent session (w/Meshing Mode) and

import turbine.scdoc in the Watertight Geometry Workflow

30
Create Size Controls
• Under Add Local Sizing
• Select yes under Would you like to add local
sizing?
• Enter a name for your local sizing
• Select Face Size and Select By label
• Select f_bl_sh from the label list
• Set Target Mesh Size = 0.3 and click Add
Local Sizing

The local sizing of 0.3 mm is applied to ensure good resolution of the

clearance between the rotating blade tip and the shroud. The clearance gap
is 3 mm, so a value equal to 10% of the clearance is selected. The picture
above shows the location of the face sizing.

31
Surface Mesh
• Under Create Surface Mesh
• Add the global size controls as shown
in the screenshot on the left
• Click Create Surface Mesh
• It should take 5 to 6 minutes to
complete the surface mesh

The maximum width of the periodic sector is around 100 mm, so 10 mm for
the Maximum Size represents 10% of that value. The minimum size is left as
the default as there is no chance the other settings here will cause the size
field to be smaller. Curvature Normal Angle of 12° is used for good resolution
of the curved leading and trailing edges and proximity is scoped to faces
rather than edges in order to achieve high mesh resolution in the thin regions
adjacent to the shroud.

32
Completed Surface Mesh

• After completion of the surface mesh, a message is displayed in the contour saying that a
Share Topology task should be added in order to proceed
• Helpfully, an Apply Share Topology task is added to the tree and the option to apply shared
topology is set to Yes
• This model consists only of fluid regions with no voids and it is desired to change all fluid-
fluid boundary types to internal
• Click Describe Geometry before proceeding to the next step
33
Apply Share Topology

Before After
• Click Apply Share Topology in the Workflow list and then click Mark Gaps to
inspect the topology to be shared (this is highlighted in red and yellow - use
cutplanes to check interior regions)
• The Max. Gap Distance can be increased or decreased as needed
• When sharing topology between closely matching surfaces, the default value,
which is 50% of the minimum size field (here this comes from the s1 local
sizing) usually works well
• Inspection shows that shared topology regions have been correctly identified, so
click Apply Share Topology (this will take 2 to 3 minutes)
• The maximum skewness is reported to be around 0.6, which is good
34
Update Boundaries

• The correct boundary types have been identified so click

Update Boundaries to proceed to the next step

35
Set Up Rotational Periodic Boundaries

per1 per2

• Right click on Update Boundaries and insert a Set Up Rotational Periodic

Boundaries task
• In the new task, select the Manual method and enter a periodicity angle
of 5.294°
• Leave the origin as (0,0,0) and set the rotational vector in the Z direction
• The rotation vector is displayed in the graphics window
• Select per2 as the reference side
• Either per1 or per2 could be selected. The mesh from the reference
side is applied to the other side and in this case per1 is less
attractive due to some areas of mesh overrefinement
36
Rotational Periodic Boundaries Complete

per1 per2

• After completion of task, meshes match on the

periodic faces
• The mesh from per1 was remeshed to match that
of per2, which was selected as the reference zone

37
Update Regions

Regions have been correctly identified, so simply click Update Regions to proceed to the next task
38
Create and Inspect Volume Mesh

More boundary layers generally results in better

resolution of boundary layer flow phenomena (skin
friction, heat transfer, flow separation, …), but at
the cost of increased mesh generation time and 8
represents a good compromise for this workshop.
Due to the thin blade clearance in this model,
successful boundary layer generation could become
more difficult as the number of layers is increased.
• Under Create Volume Mesh
• Increase the number of boundary layers to 8
• Choose polyhedra under Fill With
• Click Create Volume Mesh
• After mesh completion inspect the mesh
• A mesh of around 2.7 million cells with minimum orthogonal quality of
0.2 is created in just over 5 minutes
39
Write Mesh and Switch to Solution Mode
• Go to File > Write > Mesh and save the mesh as
“turbine.msh.gz”
‐ Workflow inputs are stored in the mesh, so in case it is desired
to make changes in the future, it is easy to do so after reading
the mesh into a new Fluent Meshing session
• Click on Switch to Solution
‐ Type “yes” in the console when prompted
• Do a mesh check
‐ Always advised when using periodic boundaries

Note cell zones

created by the custom
journal task.
The important thing is that no error
messages are reported by the check.
40