Setting up openfoam to model gas flow through a nozzle into vacuum using snappyhexmesh
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Nur Khaleda Binti Roslan
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Abstract
Nowadays, in the field of computational fluid dynamics simulation, the accuracy
of the obtained results is a questionable factor with respect to its validation from the
experimental data. In terms of CFD simulation, numerous parameters are to be adjusted
for the geometry which should be in line with the experimental parameters. However, for
CFD, one of the important aspects is the analysis of results at different segment of the
geometry and in order to get the precise visualization for such segments, high degree of
meshing is required. There is commercially available software which is used to perform
meshing but in all of them the meshing is performed manually and is not automated.
Moreover, it becomes quite tedious to attain high degree of mesh quality using manual
meshing.
For proposed study, in order to determine the accuracy of the CFD results, a three
dimensional chamber model is to be analysed for a compressible gas flow from
converging-diverging nozzle using OpenFOAM blockMesh and snappyHexMesh utility.
blockmesh and snappyHexMesh are the meshing tools that are used in OpenFOAM
software and the mesh in OpenFOAM is generated from the specified dictionary file of
these meshing utility tools. In order to enhance the accuracy of the results, different
stages of blockMesh and stereolithography (STL) file are created with different size of
grid to study and compare the flow behaviour inside the nozzle. It was also observed that
the obtained results were in agreement with the experimental results.
In summary, OpenFOAM may be suitable for running CFD simulations in
place of the commercial code like Fluent due to its advanced meshing utility.
Nonetheless, the OpenFOAM also does not require any license if compared to other
software like an ANSYS. Additionally, the simulations in OpenFOAM are typically
configured by using text files which allows to readily link the simulation set up to third
party applications.