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Step 1: Pre-Analysis & Start-Up
Since the pipe cross-section is circular and heat is applied in an axisymmetric manner, we'll assume that the flow is axisymmetric. In cylindrical polar coordinates, this means that the flow variables depend only on the axial coordinate x and radial coordinate r, and are independent of the azimuthal coordinate θ. Hence we can model the pipe problem with a rectangular domain.
Here R = radius of the pipe, and L = length of the pipe. Rotating the above rectangle 360 degrees about the axis will recover the full pipe geometry.
Start ANSYS FLUENT
We'll run FLUENT within the ANSYS Workbench interface. Start ANSYS workbench:
Start > All Programs > ANSYS 12.1 > Workbench
The following figure shows the workbench window.
On the left hand side of the workbench window, you will see a toolbox full of various analysis systems. To the right, you see an empty work space. This is the place where you will organize your project. At the bottom of the window, you see messages from ANSYS.
Note to Cornell students enrolled in MAE 4272: You can skip the geometry and mesh steps. Download the mesh by right clicking here and saving the zip file to a convenient location. Unzip the downloaded file (you cannot read in the zip file directly). After unzipping, you should see a file called pipe_flow.wbpj and a folder called pipe_flow_files. Read the mesh into Workbench using File > Open. Browse to the pipe_flow.wbpj file and select it. Then skip to Step 4: Setup (Physics).