Numerical simulations: FLUENT

Nelson Rodrigues^ab, Senhorinha Teixeira^b
aMETRICS, University of Minho
^bALGORITMI, University of Minho 

Following the presentation of a case study to assess thermal comfort using computer simulation techniques, a practical demonstration of ANSYS Fluent was carried out. The objective was to provide the students with the basics of this software to perform fluid flow simulations. The presentation started with the essential concepts of the software, namely, that the definition of a geometry and mesh are essential to define the geometrical space for simulation. Since the solution is dependent on the mesh quality, basics concepts of mesh quality and mesh dependence tests were also shown.

In a second part was introduced the solver, Fluent, that performs the simulations of fluid flow. The students were introduced to the concepts of models as the mathematical definition of the physical phenomena. Depending on the objective of the simulation, different models must be included or excluded. The term boundary conditions was also defined, showing that they are necessary to impose conditions to the simulation environment and define the flow. After computing the simulation and achieving convergence, the post-processing program and representation techniques were presented, providing the students with the basic building blocks on how to use ANSYS Fluent.