Spring 2009 Mid-Semester Contributions
During the first half of the Spring 2009 semester, my effort was focused on depicting an plausible energy dissipation map. Specifically, I was trying to validate I explored several different research topics of CFD team. Specifically, the discrepancy between 2D model and 3D model with periodic boundary conditions was resolved with consistent results with the initial hypothesis; I validated the 2D results by comparing with more turbulence models and investigating 3D effects on the energy dissipation map; other efforts included Reynolds stress model and ran 3D simulations with finer mesh in the third dimension; some efforts were put into running simulations on SGI server as the magnitude of our problems scaled up significantly in 3D settings. Besides, a large amount of time was spent on trouble shooting with FLUENT software about the discrepancy between 2D model and 3D model with periodic boundary conditions, from which I learned a good lesson about FLUENT software and the importance of data organization.
In addition, I also created some brief documentations about FLUENT set up in order to facilitate the training of new members who will continuing this project next semester.
I completed/started the following simulation experiments:
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To address more imminent issues in design, I continued performance parameter analysis which was started in Fall 2008. I checked and corrected the FLUENT set-up, and modified the UDF scritpt and carried out preliminary simulations, simulation experiments and sensitivity analysis. The results were encouraging and consistent wiht our hypothesis, and implied further interesting issues worth probing into.
In addition, I has been continuously reorganize the old data files to make it easier to navigate for the next team. And started some documentations that may help with training of new members.
The links to relevant pages can be found from the team main page under Research/Spring 2009.
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Fall 2008 Contributions
During the second half of Fall 2008 semester I changed the project from modeling sedimentation tank to 3D simulation of the flocculation tank. A series of preliminary simulation were carried out in order to have an idea of the scope of the problem and how to approach it. The preliminary simulations could be categorized into two topics: investigation of convergence in 3D systems, and comparing 3D results with 2D results to understand the distinction of the key underlying assumptions behind these models and the validity in terms of closeness to the real flow.
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