To train future engineers and to equip them with necessary tools and skills for real-world problem solving, it is important to provide exposure to real-world problem solving by incorporating a software lab module while teaching engineering courses such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and/or related Fluids courses. High cost of commercial software packages and limited number of licenses available for course instruction creates several challenges in incorporating commercial software packages in the instructional workflow. To circumvent such limitations, open-source software packages could be a good alternative as open-source software packages can be downloaded and used free of cost and thus provides a wider accessibility to students and practitioners. With the same motivation, in this contribution, an outline for implementing a two-week course module by incorporating open-source software in the instructional workflow is proposed and demonstrated by considering an example of wind flow around a building. The course module outlined in this work can also be extended to formulate a full-fledged CFD course for instructional purposes. Besides the information provided in this paper, authors have also shared an extended report based on current work and the relevant case files via Github repository (https://github.com/rpsuark/ASEE21-OpenFOAM-Introduction) for a hands on learning experience. With the help of information contained in this paper along with the extended report and uploaded case files, readers can install the open-source software packages - ‘OpenFOAM’ and ‘ParaView’, make their own simple case files, run simulations, and visualize the simulated results.
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Teaching Modeling Turbulent Flow Around Building Using LES Turbulence Method and Open-source Software OpenFOAM
In our earlier work (https://github.com/rpsuark/ASEE21-OpenFOAM-Introduction), it was reasoned that open-source software OpenFOAM would be a cost-effective and more accessible alternative for teaching Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) than commercial software. Commercial software like Ansys Fluent costs more than $10k per year for one user. The above-mentioned work models wind flow around a building for smooth flow, whereas extreme winds, which tend to be irregular, can cause various structural failures of buildings. These kinds of irregular wind flows are called turbulent flows. Thus, in this contribution, an additional three-week class module is provided for the ‘CFD for Wind Engineering’ class which includes hands-on material on modeling turbulent wind flow around a building using open-source software OpenFOAM and ParaView. To model the turbulence, Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is considered with a logarithmic inlet profile. To connect the log profile in a coarse grid, the law of the wall condition is also introduced in the OpenFOAM environment. To illustrate the application, the wind flow around a cubic building is considered. The current study’s case files and the extended report are provided at https://github.com/rpsuark/ASEE21-OpenFOAM-LES.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1762999
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10335528
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2021 ASEE Midwest Section Conference
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2-1125.1128.1153-38326
