Fluent tutorials

Gabriel Wȩcel

30th March 2009

Contents

0.1 Air heater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

0.1.1 Building geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
0.1.2 Setting boundary condition types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
0.1.3 Setting Fluent parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
0.1.4 Performing calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
0.1.5 Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
0.2 Cyclone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
0.2.1 Building geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
0.2.2 Setting boundary condition types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
0.2.3 Meshing geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
0.2.4 Setting Fluent parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
0.2.5 Performing calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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0.1 Air heater
This example shows how to simplify 3D geometry of the real object and perform
calculation in 2D space. Air heater geometry is given in Figure 1. The air stream
flows from left to the right. There are only two opening in the heater, inlet (left)
and outlet (right). The other sides (front, back, top, bottom) are insulated walls.
Inside the heater 3 cylindrical pipes are positioned perpendicular to the flow.
Data of the operation of the heater are given in Table 1.
The flow patern in such configuration of the heater in any cross section (aligned
with flow direction) is almost the same. The width of the heater is high enough
to neglect influence of the side walls (front and back) on the flow in the middle
part of the heater. Hence we can simulate flow in the heater with good accuracy
assuming 2D geometry (see the heater cross section in the Figure 2, we do not
utilize symmetry of the cross section geometry since we want later to analyze
different cylinder alignments). Even for simplified geometry flow over cylinders
emerge to be complex, with stagnation zones and revers flow close to the cylin-
ders. That feature require proper treatment of the mesh. First of all it needs
to be symmetric as the flow is symmetric. The best is to try generate fully
structured mesh and if possible with cells edges aligned with the direction of
the flow. This is not possible in all area of the flow, but at least at the cylinder
boundaries cells alignment should follow flow direction.

heaters

inlet outflow

Figure 1: Air heater.

air flow 5 m/s

air inlet temperature 300 K
thermal input at each heater 1.6 kW
walls thermal condition 0 kW (isolation)

Table 1: Air heater set up parameter

2
 m
04
0.
heaters

0.2 m
insulated walls

0.2 m 0.1 m 0.1 m

1m

inlet outflow

Figure 2: Air heater cross section - dimensions.

0.1.1 Building geometry

As already mentioned we require structured mesh made of Quad type elements.
In order to use Quad elements we need earlier to plan how to divide geometry
in topological faces which later are easy to mesh. Figure 3 shows proposition of
topological division of the air heater geometry. One can recognize that all faces
posses 4 edges what allows to mesh them easily with Quad elements.

Figure 3: Air heater topological division of the geometry.

See below listing of the geometry creation procedure.

Geometry → Edge → Create Edge → Arc

Select method: Radius, Start Angle, End Angle
Enter Radius = 0.02, Start Angle = -45, End Angle = 45
Press Apply

Enter Radius = 0.02, Start Angle = 45, End Angle = 135

Press Apply

Enter Radius = 0.02, Start Angle = 135, End Angle = 225

Press Apply

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Enter Radius = 0.02, Start Angle = 225, End Angle = 315
Press Apply

Geometry → Vertex → Create Vertex

Enter X = 0.05, Y = -0.05, Z = 0
Press Apply

Enter X = 0.05, Y = 0.05, Z = 0

Press Apply

Enter X = -0.05, Y = 0.05, Z = 0

Press Apply

Enter X = -0.05, Y = -0.05, Z = 0

Press Apply

create edges around tube

Geometry → Edge → Create Edge → Straight
Select with mouse (holding Shift button) created Vertices (only 2 at the same
time)
Press Apply

Repeat operation (8 times) in order to get effect shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Edges around the tube.

create faces around tube

Geometry → Face → Form Face → Wireframe
Select with mouse (holding Shift button) created Edges (only 4 at the same
time)
Press Apply

Repeat operation (4 times) in order to get effect shown in Figure 5.

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 Face 1

Face 4

Face 2
Face 3

Figure 5: Faces around the tube.

mesh faces around tube, first set distribution of the nodes on the edges
Mesh → Edge → Mesh Edges
Select with mouse (holding Shift button) edges creating tube
Deselect Grading
Select Spacing and enter Interval size = 0.001
Select Option Mesh
Press Apply

set distribution of the nodes on the edges radially connected with tube
Select with mouse (holding Shift button) radial edges
Select Grading
Select Type First Length and enter Length = 0.001
Select Spacing and enter Interval count = 20
Select Option Mesh
Press Apply

mesh faces around tube

Mesh → Face → Mesh Faces
Select with mouse (holding Shift button) all 4 faces
Select Scheme
Select Elements → Quad
Select Type → Map
Press Apply

The mesh generated should have similar form of that shown in Figure 6, however
number of elements is different.
make 2 copies of mesh around the tubes
Geometry → Face → Move/Copy/Align
Select with mouse all faces
Select Copy and enter 2 (this is number of copies)
Select Operation → Translate
Enter X = 0.1, Y = 0, Z = 0

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 Figure 6: Mesh around the tube.

Press Apply

The effect of operation is shown in Figure 7, (number of elements is different).

Figure 7: Copied mesh around the tubes.

Coping of the faces in the way presented above result in double Edges lying at
the same position between copied meshes. If we did not set them as interfaces
Fluent will treat them as walls (no flow between these part of mesh). Simple
solution to this problem is connecting this edges.

Geometry → Edge → Connect Edges

Select with mouse all double faces (lying at the same position)
Select Real
Press Apply

As the result the double edges will be connected and one of them be deleted.
Remaining part of the mesh is generated by simply creating rectangular faces.
Since procedure is very simple only picture showing consequent steps is given
in Figure 8.

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 Figure 8: Steps of creating air heater geometry.

0.1.2 Setting boundary condition types

The last step in Gambit is setting boundary condition types.
Zones → Specify Boundary Types
Check (Add)
Enter, Name: inlet
Select Type → VELOCITY INLET
Pick Entity : Edges, edge representing inlet to the cyclone, see Figure 2
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: outlet
Select Type → OUTFLOW
Pick Entity : Edges, edge representing outlet from the cyclone, see Figure 2
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: sides
Select Type → WALL
Pick Entity : Edges, edges creating top and bottom wall of the heater
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)

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Enter, Name: heater 01
Select Type → WALL
Pick Entity : Edges, edge creating first pipe of the heater
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: heater 02
Select Type → WALL
Pick Entity : Edges, edge creating second pipe of the heater
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: heater 03
Select Type → WALL
Pick Entity : Edges, edge creating third pipe of the heater
press Apply

export generated mesh into the file

File → Export → Mesh...

Enter File Name: heater.msh
Check (Export 2d Mesh)
press Apply

0.1.3 Setting Fluent parameters

After reading mesh generated with Gambit we have to define all the models,
material properties, boundary conditions and solver parameters required to
simulate operation of heater. Most of the parameter in Fluent can be left as
default. The procedure listed below shows mainly these settings which needs to
be changed.

Read mesh file (mesh files have extension ṁsh) created in previous section.
File → Read → Case...
Define solver settings as default.
Define → Models → Solver...
Set turbulence modell
Define → Models → Viscous...
Select k − ² Standard turbulence model with option Standard Wall Function
Define material properties Define → Materials...
Check material properties for air
Enter Density (kg/m3) equal to 1.225
Enter Cp (j/kgK) equal to 1006.43

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Enter Thermal Conductivity (W/mK) equal to 0.0242
Enter Viscosity (kg/ms) equal to 1.7894e-5
Confirm changes pressing Change Create
Close Material panel pressing Close
Define boundary condition Define → Boundary Conditions...
Select Zone → inlet, press Set
Enter Velocity Magnitude (m/s) equal to 5
Enter Temperature (K) equal to 300
Select Turbulence Specification Method → Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter
Enter Turbulence Intensity (%) equal to 10
Enter Hydraulic Diameter (m) equal to 0.4
Accept settings pressing OK
Select Zone → heater 01, press Set
From Thermal tab for Thermal Conditions select Heat Flux
Enter Heat Flux (W/m2) equal to 16000
Accept settings pressing OK
Press Copy from Boundary Condition panel
Under From Zone select heater 01
Under To Zone select heater 02, heater 03
Press Copy
Accept selection pressing OK
Close Copy BCs panel pressing Close
Close Boundary Conditions panel pressing Close
set up solver parameters
Solve → Controls → Solution...
assume all default settings
Initialize solution Solve → Initialize → Initialize...
Press Init and close Solution Initialization panel
Set solution monitoring option Solve → Monitors → Residual...
Under Option select Plot
For Residual → continuity → Convergence Criterion enter value equal to 10e-9
Accept settings pressing OK
save Fluent settings parameter in case file (case files have extension .cas) File
→ Write → Case..., enter file name and accept settings pressing OK

0.1.4 Performing calculations

Herewith we assume that Fluent is open and case file with heater is read.

Type in Fluent command window it 100, (this command executes 100 iterations)
Observe in Fluent result window residuals of the solved equations

9
Post processing
All calculated variable can be displayed in the Fluent result window in the form
of colored field. Additionally profiles of these variables can be created at arbi-
tral position inside computational domain. The result window can be zoomed
in and out in order to observe particular regions of the flow. Displayed variable
scale can be adjusted to arbitral ranges.

Solution variables can be displayed as follow,

Select Display → Contours...
From Option select Filled
static pressure will be displayed
From Contours of, select Pressure... → Static Pressure
Press Display

Repeating procedure above one can display all solution variables.

Creating profile line for extracting data

Herewith we will create line cutting the cross section of the domain at the po-
sition 0.5 m from the inlet to the heater. Line will be aligned vertically and
perpendicular to the flow direction.

Surface → Line/Rake...
From Type select Rake, advantage of using Rake instead of Line is that we prede-
fine number of points at which values are plotted or printed, in case of using Line
number of points for dense meshes can be large, additionally Line extract values
from the closes volume cell center, when Rake interpolate values from closes vol-
ume cells and calculate it for position at which point of a rake is placed.

For Number of Point enter required value, we suggest at least 20, but that strongly
depend on the problem solved, variable printed and position of the Rake
From Points enter,
x0(m) = 0.1, x1(m) = 0.5
y0(m) = 0, y1(m) = 0.2
For New Surface Name enter desired name of the rake and press Create
Close Line/Rake Surface panel pressing Close

Created Rake can be used from Plot → XY Plot... panel in order to plot, print
or write to a file solution variables placed on the defined by rake positions.

0.1.5 Final remarks

Experienced user can realize that presented here case is not trivial one. First
of all turbulence model used here is not always suitable for such a flows since
Reynolds number is at the very low level of 11 000. There is completely neglected

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discussion of the near wall treatment and simply standard wall approach is
utilized. However main purpose of this tutorial is to show how to relatively easy
create structured mesh for the geometry which automatic mesh generator are
not able to handle such meshes.
One can try to build geometry with different heater alignments and observe how
that influence, the flow, pressure drop, and temperature profile at the outlet of
the heater.

0.2 Cyclone.
In many industrial processes emerge a need of cleaning gases from dispersed
inert particles suspended within gas (eg. removal of flying ash from flue gases
in industrial coal fired boilers). Easiest and most commonly used method of
separation takes advantage of gravitation forces. Device which work on this
basis is a cyclone. With this tutorial we build simple cyclone geometry, mesh it,
and run Fluent simulations. Instead of flue gases we will use air stream polluted
with ash. Data for boundary conditions are given in Table 2.

air flow 0.27 m3n /s

0
air flow temperature 50 C
ash mass flux 0.001 kg/s
min. particle diameter 1 µm
max. particle diameter 300 µm
mean particle diameter 150 µm
spread parameter 2.8
ash density 2100 kg/m3

Table 2: Cyclone running parameter

Figure 9 shows cyclone dimensions. Geometry of the cyclone is build in Gambit

using volume primitives. Figure 10 shows all volumes used to build the cyclone
which are connected using boolean operations.

0.2.1 Building geometry

Procedure of building the cyclone geometry is very simple. First we create
and move in the right position volume primitives presented in Figure 10. Next
boolean summation and subtraction is used to unite all primitives in order to
create one volume representing a cyclone. See below listing of the geometry cre-
ation procedure. Listing shows order of operations to be carried out in Gambit.

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Cylinder

Enter Height = 0.5, Radius 1 = 0.3, Radius 2 = 0.3
press Apply

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 0.6 m

0.2 m
0.2 m

0.5 m
0.8 m

0.2 m
m
0.7

0.2 m

1.0 m
0.2 m

0.05 m
0.2 m

0.4 m

Figure 9: Cyclone dimensions.

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Frustum

Enter Height = 1.0, Radius 1 = 0.3, Radius 2 = 0.3, Radius 3 = 0.1
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Move/Copy/Align

Select with the mouse created frustum: Pick Volume 2
Check Move, Translate
Enter X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 0.5
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Cylinder

Enter Height = 0.05, Radius 1 = 0.1, Radius 2 = 0.1

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 0.6 m

0.2 m
0.5 m
m
0.2 m 0.7

0.6 m
0.2 m

0.8 m

1.0 m
0.2 m
0.05 m

0.2 m
0.2 m

0.4 m

Figure 10: Volume primitives for Cyclone.

press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Move/Copy/Align

Select with the mouse created cylinder: Pick Volume 3
Check Move, Translate
Enter X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 1.5
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Cylinder

Enter Height = 0.15, Radius 1 = 0.2, Radius 2 = 0.2
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Move/Copy/Align

Select with the mouse created cylinder: Pick Volume 4

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Check Move, Translate
Enter X = 0, Y = 0, Z = 1.55
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Cylinder

Enter: Height = 0.8, Radius 1 = 0.1, Radius 2 = 0.1
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Move/Copy/Align

Select with the mouse created cylinder: Pick Volume 5
Check Move, Translate
Enter X = 0, Y = 0, Z = -0.2
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Create Volume → Brick

Enter Width = 0.2, Depth = 0.7, Height = 0.2
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Move/Copy/Align

Select with the mouse created cylinder: Pick Volume 6
Check Move, Translate
Enter X = 0.2, Y = 0.35, Z = 0.1
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Boolean Operations → Unite

Select with the mouse all the volumes except last created (Volume 6): Pick Vol-
ume 1,Volume 2,Volume 3,Volume 4,Volume 5
press Apply

Geometry → Volume → Boolean Operations → Subtract

Select with the mouse the volumes which is result of last operation: Volume
Volume 1
Select with the mouse remaining volume: Subtract Volume Volume 5
Check Retain under Subtract Volume
press Apply

Geometry → Face → Connect/Disconnect Faces → Connect

Select with the mouse faces aligned between volumes, only this which are at
the cover of small cylinder, see figure 11. This operation is needed to force
continuum between volumes. It results in deleting one of the face which are
aligned at the same position. After operation two volumes are linked by one
face forcing later the same mesh to be generated for both volumes at that face.
Not connected faces will be by default treated as wall. In our case, side cylinder
face of the Volume 5 will be a wall.
press Apply after making selection

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 Figure 11: Faces to be selected for Face Connect oparation.

0.2.2 Setting boundary condition types

In order to indicate inlet and outlet of the cyclone we need to specify boundary
condition types in Gambit. Additionally ash hopper has to be marked as sepa-
rate wall, this is required for dispersed phase modelling. See listing of boundary
types setting below.

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: in
Select Type VELOCITY INLET
Pick Entity : Faces, face representing inlet to the cyclone, see Figure 12
press Apply

Zones → Specify Boundary Types

Check (Add)
Enter, Name: out
Select Type OUTFLOW
Pick Entity : Faces, face representing outlet from the cyclone, see Figure 12
press Apply

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Zones → Specify Boundary Types
Check (Add)
Enter, Name: ash
Select Type WALL
Pick Entity : Faces, faces creating ash hopper, see Figure 12
press Apply

outlet

velocity inlet

ash hopper

Figure 12: Boundary condition types.

0.2.3 Meshing geometry

Generation of appropriate mesh for cyclone geometry is not a trivial task. The
flow inside a cyclone is fully 3 dimensional and complex. Proper simulation of
such flow require careful treatment of the mesh. Since this exercise is only to
show possibilities of Fluent and we rather would like to show general procedure
of simulating cyclone operation automatic mesh generator will be used. It is
advised never to use shown here mesh for simulations of real object. See below

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procedure for meshing cyclone geometry.

Mesh → Face
Pick Faces, select all the faces
Select Elements: Tri
Select Type: Pave
Check Spacing: Apply
Enter Interval size 0.05
Press Apply

Mesh → Volume
Pick Volumes, select all the volumes
Select Elements: Tet/Hybrid
Select Type: Tgrid
Uncheck Spacing: Apply
Press Apply

Final mesh should contain around 20 000 cells. The last task to perform in
Gambit is to export generated mesh to the file.
File → Export → Mesh
Press Browse to select destination folder.
Enter name of the file, extension will be given by default.
Press Accept

0.2.4 Setting Fluent parameters

Herewith procedure of setting up cyclone simulations in Fluent.

Read mesh file (mesh files have extension ṁsh) created in previous section.
File → Read → Case...
Define solver settings as default.
Define → Models → Solver...
Set turbulence modell
Define → Models → Viscous...
Select k − ² RNG turbulence model with option Swirl Dominated Flow
In the Discrete Phase Model panel change Maximum Number of Steps to 10000
Set Injections
Select Injection Type → surface
Select Release From Surfaces → in (inis an inlet face)
Select Material → ash
Select Diameter Distribution → rosin-rammler-logarithmic
Select tab Point Properties
Enter Total Flow Rate (kg/s) equal to 0.001
Enter Min. Diameter (m) equal to 1e-6
Enter Max. Diameter (m) equal to 300e-6

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Enter Mean Diameter (m) equal to 150e-6
Enter Spread Parameter equal to 2.8
Enter Number of Diameters equal to 15
Select tab Turbulent Dispersion
From Stochastic Tracking select Discrete Random Walk Model
Enter Number of Tries equal to 5
Accept settings pressing OK
Define material properties Define → Materials...
Change density for air
Enter Density (kg/m3) equal to 1.094
Confirm changes pressing Change Create
Change density for inert-particle ash
Enter Density (kg/m3) equal to 2100
Confirm changes pressing Change Create
Define operating condition Define → Operating Conditions...
Select Gravity
Enter gravitation acceleration Z (m/s2) equal to 9.81
Accept settings pressing OK
Define boundary condition Define → Boundary Conditions...
Select Zone → in, press Set
Enter Velocity Magnitude (m/s) equal to 7.98
Select Turbulence Specification Method → Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter
Enter Hydraulic Diameter (m) equal to 0.2
Accept settings pressing OK
Select Zone → ash, press Set
Select tab DPM
Under Discrete Phase Model Condition select Boundary Cond. Type → trap
Accept settings pressing OK
Select Zone → wall, press Set
Select tab DPM
Under Discrete Phase Reflection Condition select Normal → constant
Enter value equal to 0.8
Under Discrete Phase Reflection Condition select Tangent → constant
Enter value equal to 0.8
Accept settings pressing OK
Close Boundary Condition panel
set up solver parameters Solve → Controls → Solution...
From Discretization select Momentum → Second Order Upwind
From Discretization select Turbulent Kinetic Energy → Second Order Upwind
From Discretization select Turbulent Dissipation Rate → Second Order Upwind
Accept settings pressing OK
Initialize solution Solve → Initialize→ Initialize...
Press Init and close Solution Initialization panel
Set solution monitoring option Solve → Monitors → Residual...
Under Option select Plot
For Residual → continuity → Convergence Criterion enter value equal to 10e-9

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Accept settings pressing OK
save Fluent settings parameter in case file (case files have extension .cas) File
→ Write → Case..., enter file name and accept settings pressing OK

0.2.5 Performing calculations

Herewith we assume that Fluent is open and case file with cyclone is read.

Type in Fluent command window it 100, (this command executes 100 iterations)
Observe in Fluent result window residuals of the solved equations

Creating planes for extracting calculated variables

Running simulations on 3D domain we do not have direct access to solved vari-
able inside the domain. Using Fluent post processing tools we can display only
variables on the external boundary of the domain. In order to access variable
inside the domain internal lines or planes needs to be created. The best of the
flow visualization is to look at variables (velocity, pressure field) on the plane
inside the domain. Planes can be placed at arbitral position selected by the
user. From the number of methods of defining planes position available in Flu-
ent we suggest to use 3 points method described below. Just in case we do
not remember size of the domain geometry and its placement in the cartesian
system we can display cartesian coordinates on the external boundaries of the
domain geometry (see listing below).

Select Display → Contours...

From Option select Filled
From Contours of select Grid → X-coordinate
From Surfaces select wall
Press Display
Observe in Fluent result window boundary of the domain colored by X cartesian
coordinate
Repeat operation for Contours of → Y-coordinate and Z-coordinate

The cyclone axis is aligned with Z axis and crossing X = 0 and Y = 0 cartesian
coordinates. Now we create plane crossing cyclone for Y = 0.

Select Surface → Plane...

From Points enter,
x0(m) = 1, x1(m) = 0, x2(m) = 0
y0(m) = 0, y1(m) = 0, y2(m) = 0
z0(m) = 0, z1(m) = 0, z2(m) = 1
(exact coordinates are not important, points can not be aligned, and in our case
all y variables must be equal to 0)

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For New Surface Name enter desired name of the surface and press Create
Close Plane Surface panel pressing Close

You can repeat procedure above to create more planes in the arbitral positions
inside analyzed domain. You can see created planes by displaying them in the
Fluent result window.

Select Display → Grid...

Select All from Edge Type
From Surface select name of the creates palne
Press Display

Displaying Fluent variables on created planes

Fluent provide extremely powerful post processing tool. It allows to display on
the screen all calculated variables and number of predefined derivatives of these
variables. Here we show general procedure of displaying variables on created
planes.

Select Display → Contours...

From Option select Filled
From Contours of, select Pressure... → Static Pressure
From Surfaces select plane created in previous step
Press Display
Observe in Fluent result window plane colored by static pressure field, one can
see that the boundary of the domain are not visible,
From Option select Draw Grid panel Grid Display pop ups
From Edge Type select Feature, and from Surfaces select domain boundary you
want to display
Press Display, now, when displaying contours of variables simultaneously domain
boundary wireframe will be displayed
From Contours of, select Velocity... → Velocity Magnitude
Press Display
Observe in Fluent result window plane colored by velocity magnitude field, and
the boundary of the domain

Simulating ash flying inside a cyclone - particle tracking

In most of the cases mass load of the inert particles is small comparing to trans-
port gas. If heat transfer between phases in not involved particle can be, without
considerable error, traced within a gas phase in the frame of postprocessing. It
means that first we simulate fluid flow of a gas phase. When convergence for
continues phase is reached inert particle representing ash are traced employing

20
Lagrangian model. See below for executing tracing procedure.

Select Display → Particle Tracks...

From Option activate Draw Grid in order to see boundary of the domain (see
section above for explanation)
From Release from Injections select injection-0, (name can be different)
Select Track Single Particle Stream, (number of particle traced usually exceed
thousands and tracking procedure in lengthly even on fast computers, in order
to make this faster and be able to see particle paths on the screen we select this
option → particle will be send only from one face at the inlet)
Press Display, (Fluent starts tracing procedure, after finishing displays particle
paths in results window.
In the main Fluent window report of the tracing procedure is printed. Report
shows how many particles have been traced, trapped, escaped, aborted and in-
complete, evaporated for inert particle is meaningless. Trapped are particle col-
lected in the ash hopper. Escaped are these which left the cyclone through the
outlet. Aborted are not traced by the solver due to numerical error.Incomplete
are these for which Max. Number of Steps was not enough to complete tracing.
See section 0.2.4 for changing Max. Number of Steps for particle tracking.)

Useful option in particle tracking procedure is summary report. It can help

in assessing efficiency of cyclone which is calculated as ratio of the ash mass
flux collected inside ash hopper to the ash mass flux entering a cyclone. It also
informs of the mass flux of incomplete traces. The regular report provide only
the number of trapped, escaped and incomplete streams which is meaningless in
assessing cyclone operation. See procedure below for activating summary report.

Within Particle Trucks panel, select Summary from Report Type

Deselect Track Single Particle Stream
Press Track, (particle steams will not be displayed in results window)

See below example of summary report:

number tracked = 3300, escaped = 419, aborted = 0, trapped = 2362, evaporated = 0, incomplete = 519

Fate Number Elapsed Time (s) Injection, Index

Min Max Avg Std Dev Min Max
---- ------ ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -------------------- --------------------
Incomplete 519 5.646e-001 4.080e+000 1.130e+000 3.826e-001 injection-0 0 injection-0 515
Trapped - Zone 4 2362 7.418e-001 3.770e+000 1.509e+000 3.425e-001 injection-0 424 injection-0 203
Escaped - Zone 5 419 3.792e-001 3.530e+000 1.003e+000 5.647e-001 injection-0 48 injection-0 275

(*)- Mass Transfer Summary -(*)

Fate Mass Flow (kg/s)

Initial Final Change
---- ---------- ---------- ----------
Incomplete 2.897e-008 2.897e-008 0.000e+000
Trapped - Zone 4 9.996e-004 9.996e-004 0.000e+000
Escaped - Zone 5 3.562e-007 3.562e-007 0.000e+000

The most interesting is Mass Transfer Summary which shows mass fluxes of
Incomplete, Trapped and Escaped particle streams. General report shows only
number of incomplete, trapped and escaped particle stream. Sometimes even

21
large number of escaped particle streams not impose low cyclone efficiency,
because these streams could be low diameter particle streams. Hence in order
to asses cyclone efficiency mass fluxes of trapped and escaped particle streams
needs to be compared. Escaped particle stream number indicate how many trace
of the particle streams has not been completed. There are neither trapped nor
escaped and traced has been finished inside domain. If number and mass flux
of incomplete stream is large we need to increase Max. Number of Steps under
Discrete Phase Model panel opened from Define menu.

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