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Development of computational methods for conjugate heat transfer analysis in complex industrial applications

Conjugate heat transfer is a crucial issue in a number of turbulent engineering fluidflow applications, particularly in nuclear engineering and heat exchanger equipment. Temperature fluctuations in the near-wall turbulent fluid lead to similar fluctuationsin the temperature of the solid wall, and these fluctuations in the solid cause thermalstress in the material which may lead to fatigue and finally damage. In the present study, the Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) modelling approachhas been adopted, with four equation k−ε−θ2−εθ eddy viscosity based modelsemployed to account for the turbulence in the fluid region. Transport equations forthe mean temperature, temperature variance, θ2, and its dissipation rate, εθ, have beensimultaneously solved across the solid region, with suitable matching conditions forthe thermal fields at the fluid/solid interface. The study has started by examining the case of fully developed channel flow withheat transfer through a thick wall, for which Tiselj et al. [2001b] provide DNS dataat a range of thermal activity ratios (essentially a ratio of the fluid and solid thermalmaterial properties). Initial simulations were performed with the existing Hanjali´cet al. [1996] four-equation model, extended across the solid region as described above. However, this model was found not to produce the correct sensitivity to thermal activityratio of the near wall θ2 values in the fluid, or the decay rate of θ2 across the solid wall. Therefore, a number of model refinements are proposed in order to improve predictionsin both fluid and solid regions over a range of thermal activity ratios. These refinementsare based on elements from a three-equation non-linear EVM designed to bring aboutbetter profiles of the variables k, ε, θ2 and εθ near the wall , and their inclusion is shownto produce a good matching with the DNS data of Tiselj et al. [2001b].Thereafter, a further, more complex test case has been investigated, namely an opposedwall jet flow, in which a hot wall jet flows vertically downward into an ascendingcold flow. As in the channel flow case, the thermal field is also solved across the solidwalls. The modified model results are compared with results from the Hanjali´c modeland LES and experimental data of Addad et al. [2004] and He et al. [2002] respectively. In this test case, the modified model presents generally good agreement with the LESand experimental data in the dynamic flow field, particularly the penetration point ofthe jet flow. In the thermal field, the modified model also shows improvements in the θ2predictions, particularly in the decay of the θ2 across the wall, which is consistent withthe behaviour found in the simple channel flow case. Although the modified model hasshown significant improvements in the conjugate heat transfer predictions, in some instancesit was difficult to obtain fully-converged steady state numerical results. Thusthe particular investigation with the inlet jet location shows non-convergence numericalresults in this steady state assumption. Thus, unsteady flow calculations have beenperformed for this case. These show large scale unsteadiness in the jet penetration area. In the dynamic field, the total rms values of the modelled and mean fluctuations showgood agreement with the LES data. In the thermal field calculation, a range of the flowconditions and solid material properties have been considered, and the predicted conjugateheat transfer predicted performance is broadly in line with the behaviour shownin the channel flow.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:558038
Date January 2012
CreatorsUapipatanakul, Sakchai
ContributorsIacovides, Hector
PublisherUniversity of Manchester
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttps://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/development-of-computational-methods-for-conjugate-heat-transfer-analysis-in-complex-industrial-applications(3910eec7-601d-4da1-8c08-854404bbba3a).html

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