2D Transient Diffusion

The motion of any substance from a high concentration area to a low concentration area is commonly referred to as diffusion. The process of diffusion takes place completely because of concentration gradients. Many examples of diffusion can be found in everyday life — a drop of food coloring diffusing through a glass of water which eventually changes the water color, diffusion of carbon dioxide from an open soda, and the perfume from a burning incense stick spreading throughout the room. Diffusion is a transient process where the rate of diffusion changes with the temporal variation of concentration of the system. Sound knowledge of diffusion rates helps engineers design industrial equipment for higher efficiency, and engineering simulations play a significant role in predicting these diffusion rates.

This SimCafe course was developed by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran, Swanson Director of Engineering Simulation at Cornell University, and Keith Alexander Works, in partnership with Ansys. It serves as an e-learning resource to integrate industry-standard simulation tools into courses and provides a resource for supplementary learning outside the classroom. In this course, we learn how to model a two-dimensional transient diffusion problem in Ansys Fluent and compare the obtained numerical solution with the analytical result.

For more ways to learn, check out the Cornell edX course, A Hands-on Introduction to Engineering Simulations at ansys.com/cornell.

Cornell University also offers a Fluid Dynamics Simulations Using Ansys online certificate authored by Dr. Rajesh Bhaskaran. Learn more here: https://ecornell.cornell.edu/fluiddynamics

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