DescriptionThis project uses ANSYS Fluent to simulate two-phase open channel flow, modeling the interaction between water and air inside a channel — a core problem in hydraulic and open-channel flow engineering. Open channels, whether natural (rivers) or artificial (canals, irrigation channels, water transmission systems), are widely used for water conveyance, transport, and irrigation. Water enters the channel at a mass flow rate of approximately 60 kg/s, and its interface behavior with the air phase above it is resolved using Fluent's open channel flow modeling capability.MethodologyThe geometry is built in DesignModeler and meshed in ANSYS Meshing using a structured grid of 214,560 elements. The simulation uses a pressure-based, steady-state solver, with gravity applied at -9.81 m/s² in the Y direction. Turbulence is modeled using the standard k-omega model with shear flow correction, while the VOF multiphase model with the open channel sub-model captures the water-air interface, with air as the primary phase and water as the secondary phase.Boundary conditions specify a mass flow inlet for water (60.071524 kg/s), with an open channel free surface level of 0.24 m and bottom level of 0 m, using density interpolation from neighboring cells. The outlet is set as a pressure outlet, and walls are treated as stationary. The solution uses the SIMPLE scheme for pressure-velocity coupling, PRESTO! for pressure discretization, second-order upwind for momentum, a compressive scheme for volume fraction, and first-order upwind for turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate. Standard initialization is applied with zero gauge pressure, zero velocity, and a water volume fraction of 0.ConclusionResults include 3D and 2D contours of velocity, pressure, and water volume fraction, characterizing the flow behavior and free-surface interaction within the open channel.

Open Channel with a Side Outlet — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project simulates free-surface flow through an open channel using ANSYS Fluent, with the open-channel flow model as its central theme. An open channel is a waterway — natural or artificial — used to convey water for purposes such as transport, service-water supply, and irrigation; in effect, an engineered version of a river. Canals of this kind are widely used in industry, from water-transmission systems to air ducts, and their shape and dimensions are dictated by their intended use. The defining feature of such flows, and the core of this study, is the presence of a free surface between water and the air above it, which must be tracked accurately as the flow develops. Within the Free Surface Flow: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project adds a branch to the open-channel progression, introducing flow diversion into a side outlet.MethodologyThe configuration studied here is an open channel with a 180° bend and a side outlet. Water enters the canal at a mass flow rate of 45 kg/s, and partway through the bent section a set of obstacles reduces the flow pressure and diverts a portion of the incoming water into the side outlet — representing water drawn off to irrigate an adjacent farm. The aim is to understand how the bend, the obstacles, and the side outlet together govern the flow distribution, pressure field, and water level within the channel. The geometry was created in Gambit and meshed in ANSYS Meshing with an unstructured grid of 178,093 cells. Because two phases — water and air — are present with a sharp, well-defined interface between them, the simulation uses a multiphase approach built on the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. VOF is the natural choice for open-channel flow precisely because the phase boundary is distinct: it tracks the fraction of each cell occupied by water versus air and so resolves the free surface directly. To set up the problem, the initial water level is specified, with water filling the channel to a depth of 0.15 m and air occupying the region above it.AnalysisAfter solving, the simulation yields contours of velocity, pressure, and the volume fraction of water and air. The pressure field shows elevated pressure in the lower part of the channel, where the water column stands to its defined level, consistent with the expected hydrostatic behavior. The volume-fraction contours correctly capture the stratified arrangement of the two phases — water occupying the lower portion of the channel and air flowing above it — confirming that the VOF model reproduces the free surface faithfully. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up an open-channel VOF simulation with a defined initial water level, model flow diversion into a side outlet, and interpret the velocity, pressure, and volume-fraction fields to analyze flow distribution and water levels in practical canal and irrigation applications.

DescriptionThis project simulates the three-phase flow of water, air, and sand over a circular weir using ANSYS Fluent, investigated through CFD analysis. When an obstacle is placed in the path of a flow, it causes the fluid level to rise behind it and the velocity to increase, eventually leading the fluid to spill over the obstacle; structures of this kind are known as weirs. Weirs take various forms depending on their intended use and are widely employed in civil and agricultural water management — for controlling and measuring flow in irrigation channels, canals, and other water-conveyance systems central to agriculture.The model was built in 2D using SpaceClaim. Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing, producing 4,770 elements.MethodologyIn this simulation, water enters the computational domain at a velocity of 1 m/s and flows over a sand bed situated behind the weir. As it passes over the weir, the flow lifts some of the sand and carries it downstream.The standard k-epsilon model is used to solve the turbulent flow equations, while the Eulerian multiphase model is employed to capture the motion of and interaction between the three phases — water, air, and sand.ConclusionOn completion of the solution, two-dimensional contours of the volume fraction of the air, water, and sand phases, along with pressure, streamlines, and velocity vectors, were obtained.As the sand volume fraction contour shows, the water flow lifts a portion of the sand from the bed and transports it as it spills over the weir. Over the long term, the sand bed behind the weir is washed away entirely, and the emptied region behind the circular obstacle becomes a tangential path for the water — illustrating the sediment-transport and scouring behavior that is important when designing weirs for irrigation and agricultural water systems.

Spillway CFD SimulationDescriptionIn this project, a three-dimensional spillway is simulated using ANSYS Fluent to study how excess water is managed and released from a dam structure. Spillways serve as the outlet mechanism for a dam, designed to safely carry surplus water and floodwater from the reservoir side down to the downstream side once the water level rises past a defined threshold. Because agricultural water management relies heavily on dams and reservoirs for irrigation supply, understanding spillway hydraulics is directly relevant to agricultural and food engineering applications, where controlled water release protects both the structure and the farmland downstream.Several spillway designs exist, including ogee-shaped, stepped, side-channel, lotus, tunnel, and siphon spillways. This project focuses on simulating the flow behavior over one such spillway geometry using a multiphase approach, treating air as the primary phase and water as the secondary phase. In the model setup, the water column at the inlet reaches a height of 0.155 m, while the full model height is 0.306 m, and the dam structure itself has a height of 0.156 m.The three-dimensional geometry was built in Design Modeler, and the mesh was generated in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured mesh strategy, resulting in a total of 698,691 elements.MethodologyThe two-phase air-water interaction is captured using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) multiphase model. Gravity is applied along the y-axis at a magnitude of -9.81 m/s² to correctly represent the driving force behind the water's downward flow over the spillway.ConclusionThe resulting flow contours confirm that the spillway performs as intended, allowing the water to pass over the structure smoothly. The highest flow velocities appear where the flow cross-section narrows, since the water accelerates as it's forced through the tighter geometry — a behavior consistent with what's expected in real spillway operation and useful for engineers designing water release systems for agricultural reservoirs.

Lifting Dam (Dam Break) — ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation TrainingThis project presents a numerical simulation of a lifting dam (dam break) using ANSYS Fluent. The VOF (Volume of Fluid) model is used to capture the two fluid phases, with the goal of studying how the free surface of the fluid evolves over time. Two cases are examined: in the first, the flow continues freely after the dam is lifted, while in the second, it encounters an obstacle in its path.Geometry & MeshThe two-dimensional geometry was created in SpaceClaim, with a computational domain measuring 70 mm in length and 40 mm in height.Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid throughout. Case 1 contains 86,611 elements, while Case 2 contains 132,614 elements.MethodologySeveral assumptions underpin the model. Because the flow is incompressible, a pressure-based solver is selected, and the simulation is run as transient. Gravity is applied at −9.81 m/s² along the Y-axis. The two phases — air (density 1.225 kg/m³, viscosity 1.7894e-05 kg/m·s) and liquid water (density 998.2 kg/m³, viscosity 0.001003 kg/m·s) — are modeled with the Volume of Fluid approach using an explicit, sharp-interface formulation and implicit body forces.The laminar viscous model is used to solve the flow-field equations, with the SIMPLE scheme for pressure–velocity coupling. Momentum is discretized using second-order upwind, while pressure uses the PRESTO! scheme. The solution is initialized with the standard method, after which the water phase is patched into the initial region (volume fraction = 1). The calculation runs with adaptive time advancement over 2000 time steps at a step size of 0.0005 s.ResultsThe simulation tracks the free surface of the fluid as the dam is lifted. Once the solution is complete, contours of velocity, pressure, and volume fraction are extracted. In the second case, after the flow strikes the barrier it rises to a relatively high level, driven by the high kinetic energy present in the initial moments of the flow.

DescriptionThis project simulates sludge flow settling in a pipe using ANSYS Fluent, investigated through CFD analysis. Sludge transport and sedimentation in process piping is a common concern in chemical engineering, where solid-laden fluids are routinely conveyed and where predicting whether the solids stay suspended or settle out governs pipe sizing, flow velocity, and the risk of line blockage. In this project, water enters the pipe at a velocity of 0.01 m/s, carrying sludge particles, with gravity included at −9.81 m/s² along the y-axis. The geometry was created in Design Modeler and consists of two sections: a lower section holding resident water, and an upper section containing the inlet and outlet. The model was meshed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid of 390,742 cells.MethodologySludge flow is treated as a multiphase flow, since the sludge particles are carried within the water, so a multiphase model is required. Fluent offers the VOF, mixture, and Eulerian models for this purpose; for sludge flows, the Eulerian model is the usual choice — it is the most complex of the three and treats each phase as a fully interpenetrating continuum with its own governing equations, making it well suited to capturing the settling behavior of the solid phase.ConclusionOn completion of the solution, two-dimensional contours of velocity and of the sludge and water volume fractions were obtained, along with an animation of the water and sludge volume fractions over time. The results show the two-phase flow entering the pipe in a mixed state. As time progresses, the sludge begins to settle out under gravity while the lighter water continues to move, and the U-shaped geometry of the tube promotes this sedimentation. Together, these results illustrate how the solid phase separates from the carrier fluid in a pipeline — the kind of solid-liquid settling behavior that is central to slurry handling and sedimentation processes in chemical engineering.

Water Infiltration into a Porous Concrete BlockDescriptionThis project simulates multiphase flow inside a porous cube using ANSYS Fluent. The main objective was to analyze the behavior of air and water within a porous medium using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. The simulation was carried out under transient, pressure-based conditions to observe how water interacts with air under a specified inlet pressure. The work proceeded through four main stages: geometry creation, meshing, solver setup, and post-processing to visualize the flow and pressure distributions.Geometry and MeshThe geometry was created in ANSYS Design Modeler as a cube measuring 0.15 m × 0.15 m × 0.15 m, with the inlet area defined as 0.0038472951 m². The geometry was then imported into ANSYS Meshing, where a structured hexahedral mesh of approximately 1 million elements was generated. This mesh type was chosen for its accuracy and numerical stability in capturing multiphase interactions, and it maintains adequate cell density near the boundaries, effectively representing the cube.MethodologyThe simulation was performed in ANSYS Fluent using a pressure-based, transient solver. The standard k–ε turbulence model was selected to account for turbulent effects. Multiphase flow was modeled with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach, with air defined as the primary phase and water as the secondary phase. A porous zone was included in the domain, with an assumed particle diameter (Dp) of 0.0005 m. The pressure inlet boundary condition was set to 500,000 Pa, driving water into the cube. The SIMPLE algorithm was applied for pressure-velocity coupling to ensure stability and convergence over the 15-second simulation period.ConclusionThe results reveal the formation and interaction of the air and water phases within the cube over time. The VOF contours show the distribution of the water volume fraction, with water gradually rising through the porous region while displacing the air, and the air volume fraction plots highlight the interface separating the two phases. The velocity contours indicate that the maximum velocity occurs near the inlet region, while the upper portion of the cube remains largely stationary. The pressure distribution decreases gradually from the inlet toward the outlet, confirming the expected flow behavior through the porous medium. Overall, the simulation successfully demonstrates transient multiphase fluid interaction within a porous cube domain.

Ram Pump — ANSYS Fluent CFD SimulationDescriptionThis project simulates a ram pump using ANSYS Fluent, with the mesh-motion technique driving the moving valves at the heart of the device. A ram pump is a clever, energy-free pump: it uses the pressure surge created when a moving column of water is suddenly stopped by a closing valve — the water-hammer effect — to lift a portion of that water to a higher level, without any external power source. Capturing this behavior means physically moving the valves within the simulation, which is exactly what the mesh-motion approach provides. Within the Rotary Equipment: Beginner CFD Training Package, this project opens the pump group, applying mesh motion to a valve-driven pumping device.MethodologyThe two-dimensional geometry is produced in SpaceClaim, with a computational domain 220 cm long and 153 cm high, meshed in ANSYS Meshing using unstructured elements for a total of 325,579 elements. Because the flow is incompressible, a pressure-based solver is selected and the simulation is transient, with gravity taken into account at −9.81 m/s² along the y-axis. Turbulence is modeled with the k-omega SST model. The mesh motion is applied to the left and right valves as a cell-zone condition with a rotational velocity of 1 rad/s. The inlet is defined as a velocity inlet at 1 m/s, the outlet as a pressure outlet at 0 Pa gauge, and the walls as stationary. Pressure–velocity coupling uses the Coupled scheme; spatial discretization is second-order for pressure, second-order upwind for momentum, and first-order upwind for both the turbulent kinetic energy and the turbulent dissipation rate. The solution is initialized with the hybrid method.AnalysisAt the end of the simulation, the velocity and pressure fields can be examined to reveal how the moving valves control the flow. When both valves are half-closed, the resulting restriction increases the pressure inside the pipe. When one valve is fully open and the other completely closed, all of the inlet fluid exits through the open side under the high pressure created there. By the end of this project, you'll be able to set up a transient mesh-motion simulation with moving valves defined as cell-zone conditions, apply the k-omega SST turbulence model to an incompressible internal flow, and interpret the velocity and pressure fields to understand how a ram pump develops and uses its pressure surge.

DescriptionThis project simulates the water flow through a Francis hydraulic turbine using ANSYS Fluent. As a cornerstone of hydroelectric power generation, a water turbine is a turbomachine that converts the kinetic energy of flowing water — or the potential energy stored in a head (height) difference — into mechanical rotational motion, which is subsequently transformed into electrical power by a coupled generator.The Francis turbine is one of the most widely deployed turbine types in power plants because the arrangement of its blades allows it to harness kinetic and potential energy simultaneously, making it highly effective across a broad range of head and flow conditions.In operation, water first enters the volute (spiral casing), whose circular geometry imparts a rotational (swirling) component to the incoming flow. This swirl ensures the fluid strikes the blades at the correct angle, maximizing operational efficiency. The flow is then delivered at a controlled rate to the runner blades, where the momentum of the water drives the runner and produces useful mechanical work. Finally, the water exits the runner in an axial direction.In the present case, water enters the turbine's inner chamber at a mass flow rate of 1.996 kg/s, with the runner blades rotating at 158 rpm.MethodologyThe rotation of the blades is modeled using the Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) approach, also known as frame motion. In this method, the fluid region surrounding the blades is assigned a rotational motion, while the blades themselves are held stationary relative to that rotating frame — effectively reproducing the rotational flow field around the runner without physically moving the mesh.The geometry was built in Design Modeler and consists of two main components: fixed walls carrying stationary vanes at fixed angles, and moving walls carrying the rotating vanes.Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid of 4,653,160 elements, with local refinement applied near the blades to better capture the flow behavior in these critical regions.ConclusionOn completion of the solution, two- and three-dimensional contours of pressure, velocity, path lines, and velocity vectors were extracted. As expected, the peak velocity occurs in the immediate vicinity of the rotating blades. A full set of performance results can be derived from the simulation, including a pressure drop of approximately 2.3 × 10³ Pa across the turbine.

DescriptionThis project simulates a Turgo turbine using ANSYS Fluent, with water flowing at a velocity of 4 m/s as it passes through the turbine. A Turgo turbine is a type of impulse water turbine — highly efficient and compact, which makes it well suited to many hydroelectric applications, particularly under high-head conditions.The Turgo turbine is distinguished by its unique design and operating principle. Unlike many other turbines, it uses the kinetic energy of a water jet directed onto its blades to generate rotational motion, which is then converted into electrical energy — a process central to the operation of hydroelectric power plants.The blades were drawn in SOLIDWORKS at a specific angle and distance from the central axis and then imported into Design Modeler for the integrated blade design. Around the turbine blades, a dedicated cylindrical region is created to represent the circulating water flow, while a rectangular cuboid domain is designed to serve as the space for the free water flow. Meshing was performed in ANSYS Meshing using an unstructured grid; to improve accuracy, the Tetrahedrons method was used, giving an element count of 4,344,106.MethodologyThe Mesh Motion (Sliding Mesh) technique is used to simulate the rotation of the turbine blades. Accordingly, the cylindrical region is assigned a mesh-motion condition with a rotational speed of 150 rpm about the central horizontal axis of the turbine. Because the sliding-mesh approach physically rotates the mesh in time, it captures the true transient interaction between the moving blades and the incoming water jet.The realizable k-epsilon model is selected to represent the turbulence of the flow, and the effect of gravity is included in the Z direction at −9.81 m/s².ConclusionOn completion of the solution, two- and three-dimensional results for pressure, velocity, and velocity vectors were obtained. As expected, the maximum velocity occurs in the immediate vicinity of the rotating blades. A full set of performance quantities can be extracted from the simulation, including a pressure drop of approximately 4.979 × 10⁴ Pa across the turbine.Overall, the study demonstrates how the water jet strikes the Turgo blades and drives their rotation, and how the Mesh Motion (Sliding Mesh) technique reproduces this moving-blade behavior to reveal the turbine's hydrodynamic performance.