Closely coupled fluid-solid interface method with moving-average for LES based conjugate heat transfer solution

Abstract

Fluid–solid coupled Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT) simulations are relevant to many practical problems. Most existing interfacing methods have been developed for Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes solvers. For high fidelity turbulence scale-resolved flow solvers however, the CHT interface methods face significant challenges arisen from a wide frequency spectrum of unsteady disturbances to be dealt with, compounded by the huge time scale disparity between fluid and solid domains.In this paper, a closely coupled non-partitioned (monolithic) CHT method is presented. The main issues of interest are the prohibitive time costs of direct time domain CHT methods and an extra mesh dependency in the solid domain when resolving high frequency turbulence disturbances. Based on a temporal Fourier spectral framework, the present CHT interface method entails a moving-average for the time-mean flow and a discrete Fourier transform on-the-fly at each time step. Taking advantage of a semi-analytical transfer function and harmonic balancing for the CHT interface, we can achieve solving the solid domain completely in its own time step (3–5 orders of magnitude larger than that of the fluid domain). The present interface method can effectively circumvent aliasing errors and extra solid domain mesh-dependence encountered by other time-domain coupling methods when applied to turbulence scale-resolved CHT solutions. Illustrative stability analyses also show that the numerical stability of the present CHT interface should require no more stringent conditions than that in either fluid or solid domain. The computational results and analyses highlight the advantages of the present methodology in terms of both the computational efficiency and accuracy, in comparison with a conventional directly coupled interface method. Furthermore, a case study aided by a simple interface response analysis highlights much augmented wall temperature fluctuations and higher sensitivity to the interface treatment when a low conductivity protection layer (Thermal Barrier Coating, TBC) is added. The present study underlines the relevance of accounting for fluid disturbances over a range of frequencies in an effective and accurate CHT interface treatment.