Heating water in open tank

[martinsinkolongo]

Hello. I have modeled a small cylindrical open water tank. The water in the tank will then be heated using induction heating. The purpose of the simulation is to study the air around the tank so as to determine the effect the hot tank will have on the surrounding components. To simulate the effect of induction heating, I modeled the tank so it consists of two parts; the base and the cylindrical wall. Since the magnetic waves of an induction heater will only penetrate as far as the base of the tank, I would then apply a heat generation to the base corresponding to the wattage of the induction heater system.

For the air, I created a volume around the tank big enough to allow me to capture the convention flow due to heat from the tank and water. However, I received an error message saying that fluid materials cannot intersect. So I sealed the tank at the top and run the simulation. But because the tank is now closed, I feel the pressure in the tank is raised too much hence raising the boiling point of the water and the overall temperature of the surrounding air. I feel this does not accurately depict my situation. Is there a better way of running this simulation?

[Jon.Wilde · Accepted solution]

Might a different approach be to simply assign a temperature to the water? Then you don't need to worry about it heating up too much? 🙂

You would need to suppress the volume from the mesh to do this and apply a temperature to this.

Useful?

[martinsinkolongo]

Why do I need to suppress the water volume from the mesh...? Is it because
am only interested in the effect the heat has on the surrounding air...?

[Jon.Wilde · Accepted solution]

Only if you use my approach of simply applying a temperature to the outside of the water.

You cannot have internal boundary conditions, so the water would need to be suppressed if you did this - which I assume is OK as you are only looking at the air?

It is an assumption though.

Another approach is what you have already, just make the 'seal' the same properties as water but as a solid? We can't model pressure increase in a sealed volume with temp so I would not expect that to be an issue 🙂

[martinsinkolongo]

I will apply a temperature of 100°C to the surfaces of the water and
supress it in the mesh. I think this closely depicts my scenario as boiling
water will maintain this temperature. Of course the base and walls of the
tank could be slightly hotter, but it seems reasonably enough an
approximation 🙂 ....Thanks alot...

[Jon.Wilde]

Should be pretty close, cool, enjoy!