Introduction
This example simulates the cooling of cylindrical batteries using air in a multi-region setup. The air flows around the heat-generating batteries and lowers their temperature
Start BaramFlow and load mesh
Run the program and select ‘New Case’ from the launcher. In the launcher, select [Pressure-based] for [Solver Type].
Use the given constant folder. In the top tab, click [File]-[Load Mesh]-[OpenFOAM] in that order and select the constant folder.
Mesh is generated by BaramMesh.
General
Set the simulation to Steady and graivty to (0 0 -9.81). Use Operation Pressure as 101325 (Pa).
Models
Use the default standard $k-\epsilon$. In multi-region problems, Energy is automatically included.
Materials
Click the (+) icon in the upper right to add “Aluminum”, then click [Add Materials]. Change the name to Battery and set Density is 2500, Speicific heat is 800 and Thermal conductivity is 2.5
For air, set the Density to Perfect Gas
Cell Zone Conditions
There are 6 regions total : 5 Batteries and 1 fluid. Click battery1 and change Material to battery. Then, activate Source Terms and set the heat source (Value for Entire Cell Zone) to 100W. Repeat for all other batteries.
Boundary Conditions
Each region displays its respective boundary faces.
The interface between two regions -Battery_*_surface in the battery regions and Battery_*_surface_slave in the fluid region- form matching boundary pairs.
- For battery regions : Battery_*_surface
- For fluid region : Battery_*_surface_slave
Once one side of the pair is set, the counterpart is automatically configured.
For Inlet, use [Flow Rate Inlet]
- tube_in : 0.0277 for Volume Flow Rate, 293 for temperature, 1 for turbulent intensity, 10for turbulent viscosity ratio
For the Outlet, set as [Pressure Outlet] and configure default value.
All Other boundaries are used the default [Wall]-[No slip] and [Adiabatic]
Numerical Conditions
Use the default settings.
Monitor
Monitor the maximum temperature for each Battery.
Select [Add]-[Volume], [Report Tye] is Maximum, [Field Variable] is Temperature, [Volumes] is battery1. And repeat for the other 4 batteries.
Initialization
fluid region
- Velocity : (0.92 0 0)
- Pressure : 0
- Temperature : 293
- Scale of Velocity : 0.92
- Turbulent Intensity : 1
- Turbulent Viscosity Ratio : 10
batttery region
- Temperature : 293
Run
Select [Parallel]-[Environment] in menu. Set Number of Cores as users want and select for [Local Machine] for [Parallel Type].
Set Run Conditions like below, and click Start Calculation to start simulation
- Number of Iterations : 2000
- Save Interval : 200
This is the residuals graph.
Post-processing
Click [Scaffolds]-[Add]-[Plane] in Results tab.
Configure as : Origin (0 0 0.05), Normal (0 0 1).
Select [Add] button in Graphics tab.
Color by is Temperature and select the scaffolds face which was generated before.
See the results like the below picture, and check the temperature around the battery.
