Grid Considerations (1)

• Cases where the highly resolved Low-Re meshes can be

afforded or are absolutely necessary
The viscous sublayer is resolved
Can use
• k-e family or RSM with EWT
• S-A, k-w, SST
• transition models

1st cell centroid at y+ ~ 1

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 Grid Considerations (2)
• Cases where the resolving the viscous sublayer is
unaffordable – Majority of industrial 3D flows.
WF’s bridge the gap between the wall
and the fully turbulent region where
the first cell centroid is placed
Can use
• k-e family or RSM with WF’s

1st cell centroid at 30 < y+ < 300

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 Example in Predicting Near-wall Cell Size
• During the pre-processing stage, you will need to know a suitable size for the first layer of grid
cells (inflation layer) so that Y+ is in the desired range.
• The actual flow-field will not be known until you have computed the solution (and indeed it is
sometimes unavoidable to have to go back and remesh your model on account of the computed
Y+ values).
• To reduce the risk of needing to remesh, you may want to try and predict the cell size by
performing a hand calculation at the start. For example:
The question is what height (y)
Air at 20 m/s should the first row of grid cells be.
y
r = 1.225 kg/m3 We will use SWF, and are aiming for
m = 1.8x10-5 kg/ms
Flat plate, 1m long Y+  50
rVL
• For a flat plate, Reynolds number ( Re l 
m
) gives Rel = 1.4x106
Recall from earlier slide, flow over a surface is turbulent when ReL > 5x105

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 Calculating Wall Distance for a Given y+
• Begin with the definition of y+ and rearrange: • Re is known, so use the definitions to
ym
r Ut y calculate the first cell height

y  y C f  0.058 Re l0.2  .0034
m Ut r
• The target y+ value and fluid properties are known, t w  12 C f rU 2  0.83 kg/ m  s 2 
so we need Ut, which is defined as:
t tw
Ut  w Ut   0.82 m/s
r r

• The wall shear stress ,tw ,can be found from the skin • We know we are aiming for y+ of 50, hence:
friction coefficient, Cf:
ym
t w  1 C f rU 
2 y  9x10 -4 m
2 Ut r
• A literature search1 suggests a formula for the skin
friction on a plate thus: our first cell height y should be
approximately 1 mm.
C f  0.058 Re l0.2
1 An equivalent formula for internal flows, with Reynolds number based on the pipe diameter is C = 0.079 Re -0.25
f d

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