LearnCAx Tutorial

CFD Simulation of Backward Facing Step Problem

By
Trushna Dhote

LearnCAx
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LearnCAx,
1 Akshay Residency, 50, Anand Park, Aundh, Pune, 411007, India
 ANSYS FLUENT Beginner

No Specific Industry. Academic Validation Problem

Academic Problem Series

Trushna Dhote & Sanket Dange

CFD, ANSYS FLUENT, Backward Facing Step, Flow Separation and Reattachment
Length

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

1 Instruction to Download PDF Instruction, Input and Solution Files .................... 4

2 File and Project Directory Structure ........................................................................ 4
3 Tutorial Introduction ................................................................................................. 4
4 Objective of Tutorial .................................................................................................. 5
5 Prerequisite ................................................................................................................. 5
6 Benefits of Tutorial .................................................................................................... 5
7 What is Backward Facing Step Problem?................................................................. 6
8 Importance of Backward Facing Step Problem ...................................................... 6
9 CFD Problem Description ........................................................................................... 6
10 Geometry ................................................................................................................. 7
11 Mesh ......................................................................................................................... 7
12 Simulation Setup ..................................................................................................... 8
12.1 Start ANSYS FLUENT .......................................................................................................... 8
12.2 Read Mesh File ................................................................................................................... 9
12.3 Scale the CFD Domain ....................................................................................................... 9
12.4 Perform Mesh Check ....................................................................................................... 10
12.5 Check Mesh Quality ......................................................................................................... 10
12.6 Solver Selection ................................................................................................................ 10
12.7 Physics Model Setup........................................................................................................ 11
13 Material Selection ................................................................................................. 11
14 Cell Zone Conditions Setup .................................................................................. 12
14.1 Boundary Conditions Setup ........................................................................................... 13
14.2 Numerical Solution Setup ............................................................................................... 15
14.3 Residual and Monitor Plots ............................................................................................ 16
14.3.1 Residual Plot .......................................................................................................................... 16
14.3.2 Inlet Surface Monitor ........................................................................................................... 17
14.3.3 Outlet Surface Monitor ........................................................................................................ 17
14.4 Solution Initialization ....................................................................................................... 18
14.5 Solution Calculation ......................................................................................................... 19
14.6 Solution Convergence ..................................................................................................... 20
14.7 Solution Calculation with Higher Order Schemes ....................................................... 20
15 Result Extraction ................................................................................................... 22
15.1 Velocity Vector .................................................................................................................. 22
15.2 Velocity Contour ............................................................................................................... 23
16 Plots ........................................................................................................................ 24
16.1 Creating Custom Field Function .................................................................................... 25
16.2 Generating XY Plot ........................................................................................................... 25
17 Summary ................................................................................................................ 27

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 TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : Folder and File Structure............................................................................................. 4

Figure 2 : Flow Features of Backward Facing Step Flow .......................................................... 6
Figure 3 : Geometry Details ......................................................................................................... 7
Figure 4: Mesh along with its Zoomed View at the Step.......................................................... 7
Figure 5 : ANSYS FLUENT Startup ................................................................................................ 8
Figure 6 : Activating Left Navigation Panel ................................................................................ 9
Figure 7: Reading Mesh ................................................................................................................ 9
Figure 8: Check Mesh and Report Quality ............................................................................... 10
Figure 9: Solver Selection ........................................................................................................... 11
Figure 10: Physics Setup ............................................................................................................. 11
Figure 11: Material Selection ..................................................................................................... 12
Figure 12: Cell Zone Conditions ................................................................................................ 12
Figure 13: Boundary Conditions ............................................................................................... 13
Figure 14: Inlet Boundary Condition ........................................................................................ 13
Figure 15: Outlet Boundary Condition ..................................................................................... 14
Figure 16: Wall Boundary Condition ......................................................................................... 14
Figure 17: Interior Boundary Condition ................................................................................... 15
Figure 18 : Solution Methods ..................................................................................................... 15
Figure 19: Solution Controls ...................................................................................................... 16
Figure 20: Residual Plot Settings ............................................................................................... 16
Figure 21: Create Surface Monitor at Inlet .............................................................................. 17
Figure 22: Create Surface Monitor at Outlet ........................................................................... 18
Figure 23: Solution Initialization ................................................................................................ 19
Figure 24: Run Calculations........................................................................................................ 20
Figure 25: Residual at the end of 700th Iteration .................................................................... 20
Figure 26: Residual at the end of 1100th Iteration .................................................................. 21
Figure 27: Average Velocity Plot at the Outlet Surface .......................................................... 22
Figure 28: Create Velocity Vector Plot ...................................................................................... 22
Figure 29: Velocity Vector Plot ................................................................................................... 23
Figure 30: Create Velocity Contour Plot ................................................................................... 23
Figure 31: Contour Plot of Velocity along with its Zoomed View at the Step ..................... 24
Figure 32: Create Custom Field Function ................................................................................. 25
Figure 33: Zone for XY plot ......................................................................................................... 26
Figure 34: XY Plot Setup.............................................................................................................. 26
Figure 35: X-Wall Shear Stress vs. normalized-length-x-direction ....................................... 27

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 1 Instruction to Download PDF Instruction, Input and Solution Files
A PDF copy of this tutorial guide is provided for download. This tutorial guide includes step
by step instructions to repeat and try this tutorial on your own. A necessary input mesh file
is available for download. ANSYS FLUENT solution files (case and data file) is also available
for download and check the simulation setup details and verify your results.

All these files are available in the download section of this tutorial. You need LearnCAx
account to download all the files. If you do not have an account, create your FREE LearnCAx
account here.

2 File and Project Directory Structure

Before you start working on this tutorial, you need to download input mesh file. Download
the file from here!!

Following zip file contains the input mesh file.

LearnCAx-CFD-Tut-Backward-Facing-Step-Input-Mesh.zip

The final ANSYS FLUENT solution files are also provided for your reference. Following zip file
contains ANSYS FLUENT case and data for final converged solution.

LearnCAx-CFD-Tut-Backward-Facing-Step-Solution-Files.zip

Download both the files in one directory. Unzip each file. This would create following
directory structure and files as shown in Figure 1

Figure 1 : Folder and File Structure

To keep the copy of original input files, its always a good practice to copy the content in
your working directory. Create your own working directory and copy entire content from
unzipped directory to your working directory. You need to select this as working directory
when you start ANSYS FLUENT.

3 Tutorial Introduction
Many industrial application involves flow separation and reattachment. To illustrate the
above phenomenon, flow simulation over backward facing step is considered. This tutorial is

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 based on CFD modeling software ANSYS FLUENT. A mesh file is provided as input for this
tutorial (This tutorial will not cover mesh generation steps). The tutorial will cover
simulation steps and post processing required to solve steady state, turbulent flow over
backward facing step problem using ANSYS FLUENT software.

This tutorial is a well-known academic problem that one should solve while learning CFD.
One of the objective is to learn the process of solving backward step problem, but the
important objective is to understand standards of getting solution for such physics. There is
large literature available for analytical and experimental methods for this problem. One
should validate the CFD results with such available data to get confidence on CFD
simulation.

Following are few of the resources from where you can obtain the data for validation:

1. http://turbmodels.larc.nasa.gov/backstep_val.html
2. http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/wind/valid/backstep/backstep01/backstep01.html
3. T. Lee and D. Mateescu. Experimental and Numerical Investigation of 2-D Backward-
Facing Step Flow, Journal of Fluids and Structures (1998) 12, Page No: 703 716
4. B. F. Armaly, F. Dursts, J. C. F. Pereira and B. Schonung. Experimental and Theoretical
Investigation of Backward-Facing Step Flow, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 01/1983; Page
No: 473 - 496.

4 Objective of Tutorial
The main objective of this tutorial is to provide step by step guide to solve backward facing
step problem using ANSYS FLUENT software. All the steps right from providing inputs for
flow simulation to post-processing and result interpretation are covered in this tutorial. The
flow device used for this tutorial is a simple duct with backward facing step but the same
steps and physics also applies to much more complicated shapes and devices.

5 Prerequisite
Following are the prerequisites for using this tutorial:

You should have basic understanding of fluid mechanics

You should be familiar with ANSYS FLUENT software interface
You should have access to ANSYS FLUENT software
We tried to provide detailed explanation about each step. Some of the steps might
not include very minor details about doing setup in ANSYS FLUENT. It is assumed that
you are familiar with ANSYS FLUENT and solved coupled of simple CFD problems
It is recommended that you have a computer system with 2 GB to 4 GB RAM in order
to setup and run this tutorial simulation
You should have access to PDF file reader to read this PDF file

6 Benefits of Tutorial
After this tutorial, you should be able to:

Able to solve simple flow problems using ANSYS FLUENT

Use K- Realizable model (Turbulent Model) to analyse this problem
Set-up the case with appropriate material, boundary conditions and solver settings

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 Post process the results to determine the reattachment length of a separated flow and
visualize the phenomenon of flow separation using vector and contour plots
Create Custom Field Functions in ANSYS FLUENT
Crete XY plots

7 What is Backward Facing Step Problem?

Figure 2 : Flow Features of Backward Facing Step Flow

Fully developed flow enters the domain from left. When the flow reaches the step, because
of expansion of flow channel, pressure gradient exists, it detaches and a recirculation zone is
formed as shown in Figure 2. A turbulent boundary layer encounters a sudden back step,
causing flow separation. Later the flow eventually reattaches to the bottom wall.

8 Importance of Backward Facing Step Problem

Separation and reattachment of turbulent flows occur in many practical engineering
applications. It is seen both in internal flow systems such as diffusers, combustors and
channels with sudden expansions, and in external flows like flow around airfoil and building.
In these situations, the flow experiences an adverse pressure gradient (to know more visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_pressure_gradient), which causes the boundary layer
to separate from the solid surface. The flow subsequently reattaches downstream forming a
recirculation bubble. The presence of a separated flow, together with a reattaching flow,
gives rise to increased unsteadiness, pressure fluctuations which may lead to structure
vibrations and noise.

The flow over a backward facing step provides an example of above said flow field. The flow
separation and reattachment phenomenon are studied using velocity vector and XY plots.
The plots of shear stress vs recirculation length (normalized by step height) is generated.

9 CFD Problem Description

The CFD domain consists of inlet, backward facing step and an outlet. A developed steady
turbulent flow enters through the inlet, passes over the step where it detaches from the
boundary and further reattaches at a particular length.

Air enters inlet at velocity of 0.3781 m/s, travels through a distance of 0.4 m (inlet channel
length) and passes through step of height 0.04 m (step height H). Outlet channel length is

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 1.6 m whereas inlet channel height and outlet channel height are 0.2 m and 0.24 m
respectively.

Density of air is 1.23 kg/m3 while dynamic viscosity is 1.86 * 10-5 Ns/m2. From this given data
the calculated Reynolds number at inlet is 5000.

2D flow domain is considered for this analysis.

10 Geometry
The geometry details are given in Figure 3.

Figure 3 : Geometry Details

11 Mesh
Structured multiblock meshing method is used to create all quadrilateral mesh in the
domain. Total mesh count is 0.099 million. This mesh is generate using ANSYS ICEM CFD
software and the mesh file has been provided to you as an input for this tutorial. To capture
flow physics properly, the mesh has been refined at the walls and step. It is advised that you
examine the mesh and see the mesh feature. The important areas you should look are near
all wall boundaries and backward step. Mesh plays a critical role in accuracy of the solution.
Although mesh is provided as input for this tutorial, its very important that you understand
design of the mesh for this problem.

The entire mesh along with the close view of mesh near the step is also shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Mesh along with its Zoomed View at the Step

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 12 Simulation Setup

12.1 Start ANSYS FLUENT

Start 2D mode of ANSYS FLUENT. Use the settings as shown in Figure 5

Figure 5 : ANSYS FLUENT Startup

Working Directory path can be given using Working Directory option. Select the
working directory you have created before

The instructions in this tutorial assumes that you have left navigation pan activated. If not,
change your layout settings and make sure that you have left navigation is activated, as
shown in Figure 6. To change the layout:

Select View from toolbar

Check Navigation Pane and Task Page under View menu

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 Figure 6 : Activating Left Navigation Panel

12.2 Read Mesh File

Go to File Read Mesh(Refer Figure 7)

Select the file LearnCAx_Tutorial_Backward_Facing_Step.msh

Figure 7: Reading Mesh

12.3 Scale the CFD Domain

Scaling the mesh is necessary in case if you have created a geometry (or CFD domain) in
other than m scale. This is a general step that you need to follow once the mesh is imported
in ANSYS FLUENT. In this tutorial, the original CFD domain and mesh is created in m scale. So
you need not do any further scaling of the mesh.

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 12.4 Perform Mesh Check

You need not to perform this step for this tutorial. The mesh is provided as an input and
does not contain any bad quality or negative elements. In case if you have generated mesh,
this step is necessary to check if mesh is of acceptable quality or not. As shown in Figure 8,
following are the steps to check the mesh:

In Problem Setup navigation tab on left, select General tab

In Mesh Section, click on Check in order to check the mesh. See if there are any
warnings or error
Ensure that there are no negative volumes.
If you want to see the size of mesh you can go to Mesh Info Size

12.5 Check Mesh Quality

Go to General tab Mesh Section Report Quality

Check the quality parameters like aspect ratio, etc
Refer Figure 8 to check mesh quality.

Figure 8: Check Mesh and Report Quality

12.6 Solver Selection

Under Solver section, select Pressure Based solver

Select the Velocity Formulation as Absolute
Select Time as Steady
Refer Figure 9 for further details.

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 Figure 9: Solver Selection

12.7 Physics Model Setup

Go to Models Viscous-Laminar Edit

Select K-epsilon (2 eqn) Model
Select Realizable option in k-epsilon model
Select Near-Wall Treatment as Enhanced Wall Function

Figure 10: Physics Setup

13 Material Selection
Go to Materials Air Create/Edit

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 Edit the properties of air as shown in Figure 11: Material Selection. Give density of
air as 1.23 kg/m3 and Viscosity as 1.865 e-05 kg/m-s

Figure 11: Material Selection

14 Cell Zone Conditions Setup

As shown in Figure 12, go to Cell Zone Conditions. Select v_fluid. Check if type is fluid
(default setting)
If the type is solid, select fluid from drop down list and then click on Edit
Select material as air
Click OK

Figure 12: Cell Zone Conditions

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 14.1 Boundary Conditions Setup

Figure 13 shows different zones, their zone labels in the mesh and required type of
boundary condition. You can display the mesh and see what kind of zones are available in
the mesh. Use following instructions to provide appropriate boundary conditions.

Figure 13: Boundary Conditions

Inlet Boundary Condition:

Go to Boundary Conditions. Select inlet zone in the zone list

Select Type as velocity-inlet and click Edit
In the Velocity Inlet panel, set the velocity specification methods as Magnitude,
Normal to Boundary
Set the Reference Frame as Absolute
Set Velocity Magnitude as 0.3781 m/s
In Turbulence section, select Specification Methods as Intensity and Hydraulic
Diameter.
Set the Turbulence Intensity as 5 % and Hydraulic Diameter as 0.2 m
Refer Figure 14 for further details

Figure 14: Inlet Boundary Condition

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 Outlet Boundary Condition:

Go to Boundary Conditions. Select outlet zone in the zone list. Select Type as
pressure-outlet and click Edit
In the Pressure Outlet panel, set the Backflow Direction Specification Method as
Normal to Boundary
Select the Turbulence specification methods as Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter.
Set the Turbulence intensity as 3 % and hydraulic diameter as 0.24 m
Click OK
Refer Figure 15 for further details

Figure 15: Outlet Boundary Condition

Wall Boundary Condition:

Confirm that the boundary condition type for inlet_channel, outlet_channel, step,
top_wall is wall. As shown in Figure 16, by default it should be wall, if not, change
the conditions to wall
Keep all the default settings in the Wall boundary condition panel

Figure 16: Wall Boundary Condition

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 Interior Boundary Condition:

Confirm that the boundary condition for int_v_fluid is interior. If not, change that to
interior. This zone contains all the interior boundaries in the volume mesh

Figure 17: Interior Boundary Condition

14.2 Numerical Solution Setup

In the Solution Methods panel keep all Solution methods as shown in Figure 18.
They are the default settings given by ANSYS FLUENT. If you have some different
settings, change them to what is shown in Figure 18

Figure 18 : Solution Methods

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 In the Solution Control panel keep all Solution Control values as default

Figure 19: Solution Controls

14.3 Residual and Monitor Plots

14.3.1 Residual Plot

As shown in Figure 20, go to Monitors

Select Residuals Print, Plot and click Edit
Retain the selection of Print to Console and Plot
Change the Iterations to Plot to 1500, Iterations to Store to 1500
Change the Convergence Criteria to None (This will make sure that the simulation
will run for number of iterations provided during solution)
Click OK to close

Figure 20: Residual Plot Settings

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 This is the residual plot, which will plot solution history of all selected equations. In order to
check the convergence of solution, it is also necessary to check few critical parameters. We
will now set two such monitors, average static pressure at inlet and average velocity at inlet.
As this is the steady state solution, it is expected that both these values should become
constant when the solution is converged.

14.3.2 Inlet Surface Monitor

Go to Monitors
Click on Create under the Surface Monitors section
In the Surface Monitor panel
Enter name as average-pressure-inlet
Select Report Type as Area-Weighted Average
Select Field Variable as Pressure and sub field as Static Pressure
Under Surfaces, select Inlet
Click on Print to Console, Plot and Write.
Enter File name as average-pressure-inlet
Click OK to close the panel

Figure 21: Create Surface Monitor at Inlet

By providing a file name average_pressure_inlet, the monitor history will be stored

in this file. This is a simple text file, which you can use later for plotting etc.

14.3.3 Outlet Surface Monitor

To create surface monitor for velocity at outlet, click on Create in Surface Monitors
Panel
In the Surface Monitor panel enter name as average-velocity-outlet
Select Report Type as Area-Weighted Average
Select Field Variable as Velocity and sub field as Velocity Magnitude
Under Surfaces select outlet
Click on Print to Console, Plot and Write
Enter File name as average-velocity-outlet
Click OK to close the panel

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 Figure 22: Create Surface Monitor at Outlet

14.4 Solution Initialization

Every CFD problem needs an initial solution to start with. The accuracy of your initial guess
will determine how much time it would take to get converged solution (and sometime you
are not going get the converged solution at all). We can provide uniform initialization or
provide a non-uniform initial guess using Patching. ANSYS FLUENT has given some methods
to calculate the initial solution. If we have set the boundary conditions correctly, you can
use that information to calculate the values of required field variable. In this case, we are
going to use values provided on inlet boundary for calculation.

Note: Its not compulsory to use Compute from while doing solution initialization. This is
just a method of calculating the initial solution using the boundary condition values. You can
manually enter whatever values you want for initialization.

To calculate initial values from inlet zone and to initialize the solution, do following:

Go to Solution Initialization
Select Standard Initialization
In the Compute from section, select inlet
Click on Initialize
Refer Figure 23 for further details.

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 Figure 23: Solution Initialization

Now, we have everything needed to start the equation solution. To summarize, so far we
have done following:

Imported and checked the mesh

Selected appropriate equations and models to be solved
Selected appropriate material and set required properties
Give required boundary and cell zone conditions
Selected appropriate discretization scheme
Provided required monitors for observation
Given good initial guess

Now the next steps are to calculate the solution and get expected converged solution.

14.5 Solution Calculation

Before we start calculations, lets have a final check on the setup.

Go to Run Calculation
Click on Check Case

This function provides you with guidance and best practices when choosing case parameters
and models. Your case will be checked for compliance in the mesh, models, boundary and
cell zone conditions, material properties, and solver categories. Established rules are
available for each category, with recommended changes to your current settings.

Just review the output, you need not to do any changes in the setup.

To begin with simulation Calculation, enter 700 under Number of Iteration. (Since the
convergence criteria is set to none, simulation will stop after 700th iteration)

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 Click on Calculate

Figure 24: Run Calculations

14.6 Solution Convergence

Figure 25: Residual at the end of 700th Iteration

From Figure 25, we can observe that the residuals have met the criteria of 10-3. This is a
general acceptance criteria for residuals. Some cases might need convergence below 10-3,
but for this case, this is an acceptable convergence criteria. To get more accurate solution,
we will continue the iteration with higher order discretization schemes.

14.7 Solution Calculation with Higher Order Schemes

Once Calculation is completed, a window pops up informing you the same, click OK

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 Click Solution Method, change the discretization scheme for Momentum from First
Order Upwind to Second Order Upwind
Click Run Calculation, change number of iterations to 400 and then click on Calculate
This will continue the simulation by using second order discretion for 400 more
iterations.

Note: Sometimes starting the simulation directly by higher order discretization scheme may
lead to convergence/instability issues for this problem. For better initialization, we did the
first order solution for certain number of iterations and then continued with higher order
discretization scheme to get more accuracy.

Note: The case and data files provided to you includes end result simulated using first order
discretization for 700 iteration and higher order discretization with 400 iteration. The case
file may reflect only higher order discretization with 400 iteration.

Figure 26: Residual at the end of 1100th Iteration

You will notice a jump in residual at 700 iteration. This is due to change in discretization
scheme. After 1100 iterations, the residuals are well below acceptable limit. Before we
conclude that the solution is converged, lets have a look at other monitors.

Figure 27 below shows the average velocity plotted at the outlet. As we are solving steady
state case, the velocity at outlet should not change with iteration. It should remain constant.
The monitor plot at outlet also confirms the same and we can conclude that the solution is
well converged and can be taken for post-processing.

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 Figure 27: Average Velocity Plot at the Outlet Surface

15 Result Extraction
Now that the simulation calculation is complete, we need to extract and analyze the results.
Let us see the results one by one.

15.1 Velocity Vector

In order to understand the flow pattern, we will first analyse the flow using vector plot. As
shown in Figure 28, to generate velocity vector plot,

Click Graphics and Animations Vectors Setup

Select Vectors of Velocity
Color By Velocity, sub-field Velocity Magnitude
Keep other settings unchanged and Click Display

Figure 28: Create Velocity Vector Plot

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 The velocity vector plot will be displayed. To analyze the flow behavior near step, zoom in to
the area near step. You may observe from vector plot that there is flow separation at the
step. The flow reattaches after certain distance. Also eddy formation
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_%28fluid_dynamics%29) can be observed below the
flow separation zone (One large and one small eddy formation takes place. Eddy formation
can be understood by change in direction of velocity vector. Figure 29 shows the complete
vector plot and zoom in area near step.

Figure 29: Velocity Vector Plot

15.2 Velocity Contour

Lets see the overall velocity magnitude variation using velocity contour plots. To generate
the contour plot,

Click Graphics and Animations Contours Setup

Contours of Velocity, sub-field Velocity Magnitude
Keep other settings unchanged and Click Display

Figure 30: Create Velocity Contour Plot

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 Figure 31 shows the velocity contour plots. You will notice that there is velocity variation
near top and bottom wall. This is due to boundary layer near wall. Also notice the velocity
variation behind the step. This show a low velocity and recirculation region behind the step.

Figure 31: Contour Plot of Velocity along with its Zoomed View at the Step

The exact location of flow reattachment is unclear from both velocity vector and contour
plots. To understand more quantitative data about recirculation and reattachment behind
the step, lets generate a XY (2D) plot.

16 Plots
Reattachment length of fluid flow can be determined using XY plot of X-wall shear stress
versus a dimensionless number Normalized length in X-direction.

X-wall shear stress is given by:

= ( )
=0
Where is dynamic viscosity, u is the flow velocity parallel to wall and y is distance to the
wall. The dynamics viscosity is considered constant in this case. As you can see from the
formula, if there is more velocity gradient near wall, there would be more shear stress. The
negative value of shear stress will indicate the velocity in negative X direction.

Normalized length in X-direction is given by:

X coordinate
=
Step height
X-wall shear stress is available as a standard value in ANSYS FLUENT for post-processing. We
need to generate a custom field function to get Normalized length in X-direction.

Note: In addition to the basic field variables provided by ANSYS FLUENT, you can also define
your own field functions to be used in conjunction with any of the commands that use these
variables (contour and vector display, XY plots, etc.). Refer to ANSYS FLUENT user guide to
know more about custom field function, how to create them and their usage examples.

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 16.1 Creating Custom Field Function

Follow below steps to generate custom filed function normalized length in X-direction
(Refer Figure 32).

In Define menu item, click Custom Field Functions

Under Select Operand Field Function from,
Select Field Function Mesh
Select subfield as X-Coordinate
Click Select

You will see that x is selected in Definition box at top

Then click on divide by symbol ('/')

Enter 0.04 (step height)

You will see x/0.04 in Definition box at top

In New Function Name, give normalized-length-x-direction and click Define

Figure 32: Create Custom Field Function

This will create a Custom Field Function as

X coordinate
=
0.04
Where X coordinate will be x coordinate of grid.

16.2 Generating XY Plot

To analyze the flow behavior behind backward facing step, we will plot X-wall shear stress vs
normalized-length-x-direction on the outlet_channel (a wall boundary behind backward
facing step as shown in Figure 33)

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 Figure 33: Zone for XY plot

To generate this XY plot:

Click Plots XY Plot Setup
Uncheck Position on X-axis check box
Select Wall Fluxes under Y-Axis Function and sub-field X-Wall Shear Stress
Under X Axis Function, select Custom Field Function and subfield normalized-length-x-
direction
Under Surfaces, select outlet_channel
Click Plot

Figure 34: XY Plot Setup

You will see that the plot of X-Wall Shear Stress (pascal) vs. normalized-length-x-direction is
created.

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 Figure 35: X-Wall Shear Stress vs. normalized-length-x-direction

In Figure 35, Y axis represents the X-Wall Shear Stress and in X axis represent the normalized
length in X direction. 0 on X axis is bottom corner of the backward step and 40 represents
the extreme end of outlet_channel.

Lets see in-detail the flow behavior behind the step. The major feature of plot shows two
picks. The first pick very near to X=0 and this represents the small recirculation zone near
bottom corner of the step. The second pick represents a large recirculation zone.

It is also seen that in some region, the X-Wall Shear Stress value is negative. This indicated
that there is a flow in negative X direction in that region. This also confirms two recirculation
zones. The maximum negative X-Wall Shear Stress value is -0.0016 Pa. This is caused by
maximum negative X direction velocity.

Maximum X-Wall Shear Stress value is about 0.0006 Pa and occurs at normalized-length-x-
direction of 5.5. We can calculated the actual location where the flow reattachment occurs
using step height as 0.04 m.

normalized-length-x-direction = X Coordinate / Step height

5.5 = X Coordinate / 0.04
0.22 = X Coordinate
Based on above calculations, the flow reattachment happens at X = 0.22 m starting from the
bottom corner of the step.

17 Summary
From the above simulation, the recirculation length normalized by step height is found to be
5.5 and the flow reattachment occurs at 0.22 m for the chosen dimensions of backward
facing step and flow conditions.

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 The above tutorial illustrates the simulation of fluid flow involving flow separation followed
by reattachment. It also illustrates to understand the above phenomenon along with vortex
formation with the help of velocity vector plot, velocity contours and skin friction co-
efficient plot.

The analysis can further be extended by changing Reynolds number, expansion ratio
(Height of channel downstream of step/height of inflow channel), step angle, etc. and
understanding the effect of change in these parameters on separation length and size of
recirculation zone.

Also slightly coarser mesh could be used and its effect on simulation results could be
observed.

Though the motive of this tutorial was to introduce user to simulate backward facing step
problem by using ANSYS FLUENT but it has got great importance in industry for validating of
turbulence models for the chosen solver of interest.

Following literature could be referred for further analysis:

1. Ajay Pratap Singh, Akshoy Ranjan Paul, Pritanshu Ranjan. Investigation of

Reattachment Length for a Turbulent Flow over a Backward Facing Step for Different
Step Angle, International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, Vol. 3, No.
2, 2011, Page No: 84-88
2. B. Ruck, B. Makiola. Flow Separation over the Inclined Step, Physics of Separated
Flows Numerical, Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects, Notes on Numerical Fluid
Mechanics (NNFM), Volume 40, 1993, Page No: 47-55
3. Anwar-ul-Haque, Fareed Ahmad, Shunsuke Yamada and Sajid Raza Chaudhry.
Assessment of Turbulence Models for Turbulent Flow over Backward Facing Step
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2007 Vol II, WCE 2007, July 2 - 4,
2007, London, U.K

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