Cyclic Heat Transfer Solver for OpenFOAM

Abstract

Channels with periodically repeating geometries are often simulated using periodic or cyclic boundary conditions. By calculating the temperature and flow field in one periodic module, the resulting distributions can be generalized to multiple modules. This reduces the computational load by simulating a single module versus the whole structure. This is a particularly useful approach when performing large optimisation studies of periodic geometries, such as compact heat exchangers. Currently, OpenFOAM only supports cyclic boundary conditions for pressure and momentum, but not heat transfer. The present work introduces a steady and an unsteady solver for cyclic heat transfer with constant wall temperature boundary conditions. The solver is validated against analytical Hagen-Poiseuille flow and two configurations of periodic wavy channels. In the latter case, the results are compared to existing literature.