Coupled FE-CFD analysis of transient conjugate heat transfer

Abstract

Steady and transient conjugate heat transfer is examined using an efficient approach to couple a finite element code with a computational fluid dynamics solver. A combination of Dirichlet and Robin conditions was used to exchange data at the interface between adjacent solid and fluid domains. Among the computational aspects considered are appropriate coupling coefficients for the Robin condition, the coupling's convergence behavior and stability limits as well as the accuracy of the solution. Starting from a steady state coupling, transient solid calculations were coupled with a sequence of steady fluid solutions. Of particular interest was the extension of findings from a validation case with two-dimensional flow to a more complex one with flow around a three-dimensional vortex generator. The results obtained with the coupling method show good agreement with conjugate reference calculations and transient experiments that examined the spatio-temporal surface temperature using infrared thermography.