Calculation of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Complex Geometries Using a Finite Volume Method in Body-Fitted Coordinates

Abstract

Heat transfer and fluid flows in various complicated geometries are numerically investigated using a finite volume method. The computation is based on a body-fitted coordinate system on a staggered grid with Cartesian velocity components as the dependent variables. The transfinite interpolation (TFI) is used to generate the initial grid and the elliptic grid generation technique is employed to adjust the grid smoothness. The SIMPLE algorithm is utilized for the pressure-velocity coupling. The flows of interest are laminar, steady and incompressible. A case of heat diffusion and two cases of internal flows are considered here; heat conduction in a square plate with a circular hole, flows through a gradual-expansion channel, and a channel with wavy wall. The results are compared with analytical or numerical data available in the literature. It can be seen that the present method can accurately solve heat transfer and fluid flow problems in complex geometries.