Wall
The Wall node includes a set of boundary conditions describing fluid-flow conditions at stationary, moving, and leaking walls. For turbulent flow, the description may involve wall functions and asymptotic expressions for certain turbulence variables.
Boundary Condition
Select a Boundary condition for the wall.
No Slip
No slip is the default boundary condition to model solid walls. A no-slip wall is a wall where the fluid velocity relative to the wall velocity is zero. For a stationary wall that means that u = 0.
The option for Porous treatment of no slip condition is available when Enable porous media domains is activated in the Physical Model section in the settings for the main physics interface node. It specifies how Wall boundaries and Interior Wall boundaries adjacent to porous domains are treated. When Standard no slip formulation is chosen, a common no slip condition is applied on all solid walls. When the default Porous slip is chosen, a blending analytic expression is instead applied on the corresponding wall boundaries adjacent to the porous medium domain. It results in a no slip condition in case the porous length scale is fully resolved by the mesh and a slip condition in the opposite limit when the mesh is much coarser than the porous scale. A smooth transition between these limits is ensured. Note that the interpretation and usage of nonzero slip at the wall is the same as in the Navier slip boundary condition. By default, Velocity formulation is on and the treatment is based on an approximate reconstruction of the far field pressure gradient using the slip velocity at the wall. If the Pressure-gradient formulation is chosen, the local pressure gradient at the wall is employed.
Slip
The Slip option prescribes a no-penetration condition, u·n = 0. It is implicitly assumed that there are no viscous effects at the slip wall and hence, no boundary layer develops. From a modeling point of view, this can be a reasonable approximation if the main effect of the wall is to prevent fluid from leaving the domain.
Leaking Wall
This boundary condition may be used to simulate a wall where fluid is leaking into or leaving the domain with the velocity u = ul through a perforated wall. The components of the Fluid velocity ul on the leaking wall should be specified.
Navier Slip
This boundary condition enforces no-penetration at the wall, u nwall = 0, and adds a tangential stress
where Knt = Kn − (Kn ⋅ nwall)nwall, Kn = Knwall, and K is the viscous stress tensor. β is a slip length, and uslip = u − (u ⋅ nwall)nwall is the velocity tangential to the wall.
The Slip length setting is per default set to Factor of minimum element length. The slip length β is then defined as β = fhhmin, where hmin is the smallest element side and fh is a user input. Select User defined from the Slip length selection list in order to manually prescribe β (SI unit: m).
In cases where the wall movement is nonzero, check Account for the translational wall velocity in the friction force to use u − ubnd − ((u− ubnd) ⋅ nwall)nwall instead of uslip in the friction force.
For the Viscoelastic Flow interface, Kn is the sum of the viscous and the elastic contributions.
Nonlinear Navier Slip
This boundary condition enforces no-penetration at the wall, u ⋅ nwall = 0, and adds a tangential stress
where Knt = Kn − (Kn ⋅ nwall)nwall, Kn = Knwall, and K is the viscous stress tensor. τref is a reference value used for scaling and dimensionalization and uslip = u − (u ⋅ nwall)nwall is the velocity tangential to the wall. For further settings, see the Navier Slip condition.
For Viscoelastic Flow interface, Kn, is the sum of the viscous and the elastic contributions.
Hatzikiriakos Slip
When Hatzikiriakos slip is selected, a slip velocity is applied when the tangential stress is larger than the specified yield stress, τy,
where Knt = Kn − (Kn ⋅ nwall)nwall, Kn = Knwall, and K is the viscous stress tensor. k1 (SI unit: m/s) and k2 (SI unit: 1/Pa) are the slip-velocity and compliance coefficients.
In cases where the wall movement is nonzero, check Account for the translational wall velocity in the friction force to set the slip velocity relative to the boundary velocity ubnd. Note that the Velocity of sliding wall uw is always accounted for in the boundary velocity.
The Hatzikiriakos Slip option is not available for the Viscoelastic Flow interface.
Asymptotic Slip
This boundary condition enforces no-penetration at the wall, u ⋅ nwall = 0, and adds a tangential stress
where Knt = Kn − (Kn ⋅ nwall)nwall, Kn = Knwall, and K is the viscous stress tensor. k1 (SI unit: m/s) and k2 (SI unit: 1/Pa) are the slip-velocity and compliance coefficients, while uslip = u − (u ⋅ nwall)nwall is the velocity tangential to the wall.
In cases where the wall movement is nonzero, check Account for the translational wall velocity in the friction force to use u − ubnd − ((u− ubnd) ⋅ nwall)nwall instead of uslip in the friction force.
The Asymptotic Slip option is not available for the Viscoelastic Flow interface.
Wall Movement
This section contains controls to describe the wall movement relative to the lab (or spatial) frame.
The Translational velocity setting controls the translational wall velocity, utr. The list is per default set to Automatic from frame. The physics automatically detects if the spatial frame moves. This can for example happen if an ALE interface is present in the model component. If there is no movement utr = 0. If the frame moves, utr becomes equal to the frame movement. utr is accounted for in the actual boundary condition prescribed in the Boundary condition section.
Select Zero (Fixed wall) from Translational velocity selection list to prescribe utr = 0.
Select Manual from Translational velocity selection list in order to manually prescribe Velocity of moving wall, utr. This can for example be used to model an oscillating wall where the magnitude of the oscillations are very small compared to the rest of the model. Specifying translational velocity manually does not automatically cause the associated wall to move. An additional Moving Mesh node needs to be added from Definitions to physically track the wall movement in the spatial reference frame.
The Sliding wall option is appropriate if the wall behaves like a conveyor belt with the surface sliding in a tangential direction. A velocity is prescribed at the wall and the boundary itself does not have to actually move relative to the reference frame.
For 3D components, values or expressions for the Velocity of sliding wall uw should be specified. If the velocity vector entered is not in the plane of the wall, COMSOL Multiphysics projects it onto the tangential direction. Its magnitude is adjusted to be the same as the magnitude of the vector entered.
For 2D axisymmetric components when Swirl flow is selected in the physics interface properties, the Velocity of moving wall, φ-component vw can also be specified.
Constraint Settings
This section is displayed by clicking the Show More Options button () and selecting Advanced Physics Options in the Show More Options dialog box. The Constraints settings can be set to Automatic, Pointwise constraints, Nitsche constraints, or Weak constraints. Mixed constraints can be selected when imposing a no slip condition exactly.
Depending on the constraint method selected, the following settings are available:
Apply reaction terms on can be set to Individual dependent variables (default) or All physics (symmetric). This setting is not available when Nitsche constraints is selected.
Select Elemental (default) or Nodal under Constraint method. This setting is not available for Nitsche constraints or Weak constraints.
In the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual: