Simulations are becoming increasingly popular in science and engineering. One type of simulation is Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that is used when closed forms solutions are impractical. The field of Verification & Validation emerged from the need to assess simulation accuracy as they often contain approximations and calibrations.
Validation involves the comparison of experimental data with simulation outputs and is the focus of this work. Errors in simulation predictions may be assessed in this way. Validation requires highly-detailed data and description to accompany these data, and uncertainties are very important.
The purpose of this work is to provide highly complete validation data to assess the accuracy of CFD simulations. This aim is fundamentally different from the typical discovery experiments common in research. The measurement of these physics was not necessarily original but performed with modern, high fidelity methods. Data were tabulated through an online database for direct use in Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes simulations. Detailed instrumentation and documentation were used to make the data more useful for validation. This work fills the validation data gap for steady and transient mixed convection.
The physics in this study included mixed convection on a vertical flat plate. Mixed convection is a condition where both forced and natural convection influence fluid momentum and heat transfer phenomena. Flow was forced over a vertical flat plate in a facility built for validation experiments. Thermal and velocity data were acquired for steady and transient flow conditions. The steady case included both buoyancy-aided and buoyancy-opposed mixed convection while the transient case was for buoyancy-opposed flow. The transient was a ramp-down flow transient, and results were ensemble-averaged for improved statistics. Uncertainty quantification was performed on all results with bias and random sources.
An independent method of measuring heat flux was devised to assess the accuracy of commercial heat flux sensors used in the heated wall. It measured the convective heat flux by the temperature gradient in air very near the plate surface. Its accuracy was assessed by error estimations and uncertainty quantification.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-5576 |
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| Creators | Lance, Blake |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). |
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