Radial Compressor Simulation Using Ansys Fluent Software

This tutorial focuses on simulating a radial compressor impeller using Ansys Fluent® fluid simulation software. It starts with a ready numerical mesh, provided within an Ansys Workbench archive. The mesh is passed to an Ansys Fluent Component System in Ansys Workbench™ simulation integration platform. The rotational motion of the impeller is modeled by using Frame Motion in a steady-state analysis. The problem size is reduced by modelling a single blade passage with periodic boundaries. Turbomachinery Best Practices for flow initialization, convergence monitoring and solver settings are applied. Named Expressions are leveraged to compute and monitor critical flow parameters such as pressure ratio and mass flow rate. The Exit Corrected Mass Flow Rate is adopted at the outlet boundary, and the compressor speedline is calculated and plotted in a parametric run in Ansys Workbench platform.

Learning Outcomes:

Following completion of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Model the rotational motion of the impeller cell zone using Frame Motion and apply rotational periodicity simulating one impeller passage only.
• Specify appropriate turbomachinery optimized solver settings and solution flow field initialization.
• Use Named Expressions for computing and monitoring important flow parameters.
• Use Exit Corrected Mass Flow Rate at the outlet boundary.
• Calculate the compressor speedline in a parametric run in Ansys Workbench platform.

Prerequisites:

This tutorial is written with the assumption that you are familiar with:

• Ansys Fluent software. Some steps in the setup and solution procedure will not be shown explicitly.
• Ansys Workbench™ simulation integration platform.