Validation of Experimental Results of a Realistic Natural Laminar Swept Wing through Advanced Stability Methods

Abstract

In a study by Ma et al. (2010), an innovative honeycomb heatsink design for an LED lighting system was analysed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimentation. The previous simulation results were replicated using an immersed boundary approach, validating the code against that used in the earlier study. When we looked critically at the images of the experiment in Ma et al. (2010), we noted some discrepancies between the simulation model and the experimental setup. Although the experimental setup was not fully described, we were able to identify a number of issues and make near-exact estimates of the dimensions and other values needed to include their effects in the simulation. The resulting simulation matched the test data very well. In this paper, we present the rationale for applying a different approach that is commonly used in electronics thermal design. We also describe the different aspects of the alternative CFD technology used, as these will not be familiar to most readers, to describe how it can handle fluid flow and heat transfer within complex geometries without simplification. These benefits are illustrated using the honeycomb heatsink example.