I’m currently trying to simulate airflow around an airfoil, but want to eliminate 3D effects such as tip vortices. To do this, I’ve set the boundary condition of symmetry on both sides of the flow region, and this has worked for my other cases. However for this one, the particle trace shows a twisted streamline indicating 3D effects, and I cannot pinpoint the reason why this approach is not working for this specific case.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Hello,
The symmetry boundary condition enforces zero gradients on the symmetry plane. If you think about velocity, this means that the velocity normal to the plane will be zero.
At such, the symmetry plane boundary condition is not related to volumetric effects in other regions of the flow region.
In general, you would only be able to consistently obtain what you are looking for by using empty2D boundary conditions, and these require meshes with a single cell over the thickness (see this project for an example).
In your case, it’s likely that differences in mesh density are causing this behavior.
You might be able to improve the situation (while still using symmetry BCs) with a hex parametric mesh instead.
Cheers
Thank you!
The sample project seems to be importing a mesh, but how can I replicate this in my project as well? Is it to do with the parametric mesh settings?
