A

QUESTION BANK
ON
COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS
(AE-2402)






Prepared for Anna University syllabus (2012)
By
Surendra Bogadi
Asst. Professor
Department of Aeronautical Engineering
Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Thandalam, Chennai - 602105

PART-A QUESTIONS
(2 MARKS)

1. What are the important applications of CFD in engineering?
2. Is CFD superior than experiments? Comment briefly.
3. Distinguish between conservation and non-conservation forms of fluid flow.
4. Write down the conservative form of the continuity equation and explain the terms
involved.
5. What is the physical significance/meaning of the various terms in conservation form
of momentum equation?
6. Write down an expression for substantial derivative in Cartesian coordinates.
7. What is the physical meaning of V

. V ?
8. Compare the significance of mathematical form of governing equations in
aerodynamic theory and CFD.
9. Why the non-conservative equations are so called?
10. Why the Conservation form of equations is sometimes called the divergence from?
11. What are strong and weak conservation forms of equations?
12. What are the convective terms in N-S equations?
13. Write proper boundary conditions for on the wall for viscous and inviscid flows.
14. What are potential flows? Write the equation representing potential flows.
15. Write expressions for any two elementary theoretical flows.
16. List out advantaged of panel method.
17. Explain the difficulties of evaluating the influences of a panel at its own control point.
18. What are limitations of panel methods?
19. What is the classification of partial differential equations based on their mathematical
behavior?
20. What are well posed problems in Computational Fluid Dynamics?
21. Define the term discretization in the terminology of CFD?
22. Define (a) Convergence and (b) Lax equivalence theorem
23. Elaborate the basic aspects of the finite difference equations.
24. Write down the significance of Taylor series expansion.
25. Write any two difference quotients for a first order partial derivative.
26. Write central second difference quotient for a second order partial derivative.
27. When the finite difference representation of a partial differential equation is said to be
consistent?
28. Write down the second order central mixed finite difference expression for
y x
u
c c
c
2

29. Write the Crank-Nicolson form for the equation
2
2
x
u
t
u
c
c
=
c
c

30. Explain cell-centered method.
31. Define stability in numerical solution of fluid flow governing equations.
32. Define convergence in numerical solution of fluid flow governing equations.
33. Write down the second order central mixed finite difference expression for 1D heat
conduction equation.
34. Discuss the need of upwind type discretization.
35. Name the important errors that commonly occur in numerical solution.
36. Transform the steady, incompressible continuity equation from x, y physical plane to
the , computational plane.
37. Write the stability requirement for parabolic equations.
38. Compare implicit and explicit methods.
39. What are the different categories of boundary conditions? Give example for each
category.
40. Write the Courant Friedrichs - Lewy condition. For what equations this condition
states stability criteria?
41. What is the importance of CFL condition?
42. Compare physical and computational planes.
43. What is the need of transformation of physical plane in to computational plane?
44. What are called as metrics in transformations?
45. What are called as Jacobians in transformations?
46. Differentiate between structured and unstructured grids.
47. Write a short note on co-ordinate stretching in grid generation.
48. What is the significance of body fitted coordinate systems?
49. Write a short note on adaptive grids.
50. Differentiate between surface fitted and body fitted coordinate systems.
51. What are the methods available for grid generation?
52. What is the necessity for staggered grid in control volume method?
53. List out differences between finite volume and finite difference methods.
54. Define peclet number and state its importance?
55. What is the necessity of strong and weak formulations in boundary value problems?
56. What types of grids are generally used in Finite Volume Method?




PART-B QUESTIONS
(16 MARKS)

1. (i) What is the need for classification of PDE and how do you classify second order
PDE? [8]
(ii) What are the discretization techniques and how do you discretize the equations for
subsonic and supersonic flows? [8]
2. Write down the elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations as
applicable to computational fluid dynamics.
3. (a) Derive the continuity equation in differential form for in compressible flow. [10]
(b) Define & develop expression for substantial derivative. [6]
4. Derive the continuity equation for a inviscid flow in partial differential non-
conservation form.
5. Derive the Navier-Stokes equations for a viscous flow in partial differential non-
conservation form.
6. Derive the energy equation for a viscous flow in partial differential non-conservation
form.
7. Discuss the source panel method for the flow past an oscillating cylinder.
8. Write down the procedure for the calculation of pressure coefficient distribution
around a circular cylinder using the source panel technique.
9. Discuss the vortex panel method applied to lifting flows over a flat plate.
10. (i) Write a method to recognize the mathematical behavior of any given partial
differential equation.
(ii) Discuss on the general behavior of different classes of partial differential
equations with suitable fluid dynamic examples.
11. Obtain the 2D compressible continuity equation in transformed coordinates for
transformation ) 1 ln( , + = = y x q .
12. (i) How is conformal mapping of a polygon carried out by Schwarz-Christoffel
transformation? [8]
(ii) Illustrate the basic ideas of algebraic transformations of two dimensional, steady,
boundary layer flow over flat plate with suitable transformation relations. [8]
13. Explain the grid generation techniques based on PDE and summarize the advantages
of the elliptic grid generation method.
14. (i) What is the need for grid generation? Mention the different grid generation
technique and list down their relative merits and demerits. [6]
(ii) Explain how grid generation is achieved by numerical solution of elliptic Poisons
equations. [10]
15. (i) What is meant by wiggles in the numerical solution? Describe with an example.
[6]
(ii) Consider steady 1-D convection diffusion equation of a property
d/dx (u ) = d/dx { d /dx}
using control volume approach discretize the above equation and obtain the
neighboring coefficients by
(1) Central difference scheme
(2) Upwind difference scheme [10]
16. What is meant by hierarchy of boundary layer equations? Derive Zeroth, first and
second order boundary layer equations?
17. Explain the description of Prandtl boundary layer equation and its solution
methodology.
18. Write short notes on the following :
(i) Strong formulation
(ii) Weighted Residual formulation
(iii) Galerkin Formulation
(iv) Weak formulation [4 X 4 = 16]
19. Consider a cylindrical fin with uniform cross-sectional area A. the base is at a
temperature of 100
0
C (T
B
) and the end is insulated. The fin is exposed to an ambient
temperature of 20
0
C. One-dimensional heat transfer in this situation is governed by
d/dx {kA (dT/dx)}-hP(T-T

) = 0
where h is the convective heat transfer coefficient, P the perimeter, k the thermal
conductivity of the material and T

the ambient temperature. Calculate the
temperature distribution along the fin using five equally placed control volumes. Take
hp / (kA)=25m
2
(note: kA is constant)
20. State and explain the difference between explicit and implicit methods with suitable
examples.
21. How do you determine the accuracy of the discretization process? What are the uses
and difficulties of approximating the derivatives with higher order finite difference
schemes? How do you overcome these difficulties?
22. Study the stability behaviour of second order wave equation by CFL stability method.
23. (i) Explain explicit Lax-Wendroff scheme of time dependent methods. [8]
(ii) Discuss cell centered formulation in Finite Volume Techniques. [8]
24. What are quadrilateral Lagrange elements and isoparametric elements in FEM?
25. Draw a flow chart and describe SIMPLE algorithm for two-dimensional laminar
steady flow equations in Cartesian co-ordinates.
26. Solve the simplified Sturn-Lioville equation:

F y
x
y
= +
c
c
2
2
With boundary conditions y(0) = 0 and
( ) 0 1 =
c
c
x
y
; using Galerkin finite
element method.
27. What is strong formulation? Explain with the help of one dimensional boundary value
problem.
28. Explain Runge-Kutta and multi-stage time stepping.
29. Discuss the properties of discretization schemes and explain upwind discretization
applied to FVM.
30. What is cell centered formulation? Explain with the help of using control volume,
semi discretization equation, . 0 . / = } + c c O nds F t U
ij

31. State and explain the spurious modes for Runge-Kutta cell vertex formulation in
FVM.
32. What is cell centered formulation? Explain with the use of control volume and semi
discretization equation.
33. Derive an expression for energy equation for infinitesimally small, moving fluid
element.
34. List the full procedure for the solution of Blasius equation using shooting method.
35. How characteristics lines are related to Courant number from stability view? Explain.
36. (a) Derive
) (
2 5 4
2
2
, , 1 , 2 , 3
,
2
2
x O
x
u u u u
x
u
j i j i j i j i
j i
A +
A
+ +
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
+ + +
[8]
(b) Write short notes on
(i) Consistency (ii) Convergence (iii) Stability [8]
35. (a) Derive the forward and central difference, approximations to the first derivative,
along with the leading error term. [8]
(b) Derive the stability criterion (CFL conditions) for the I
st
order wave equation. [8]


37. For the following equation:

2
2
x
T
t
T
c
c
=
c
c
o

(a) Obtain discretized form of finite difference quotient.
(b) Using explicit method, write algebraic equations for 4 4 grid.
(c) Explain any numerical method to obtain solution for temperatures. [16]
36. Explain the following with merits and demerits.
a) Explicit method
b) Implicit method
c) Semi-implicit method [16]
37. Describe the MacCormaks technique for evaluating the density at time step (t + t).