Enhanced numerical modeling of natural heat convective phase change for generalized non-Newtonian fluids at high Rayleigh number

Abstract

Numerical modeling of convective heat transfer employing non-Newtonian fluids is a key issue and represent an interesting challenge in many engineering applications. For this reason, this work develops an enhanced numerical model to predict fast and accurately the convective phase change for generalized non-Newtonian fluids. The strongly thermally coupled model is solved by an improved pressure-correction algorithm (SIMPLERnP) and the Finite Volume Method with accuracy of the third order for the transient terms and second order for the convective boundary conditions and the velocity gradients that allows to calculate the apparent viscosity. The study examines the natural heat convective solidification of the ternary Al-27 %Cu-5.25 %Si alloy with the Herschel-Bulkley rheology at a high Rayleigh number (>107). In addressing the main problem, four crucial aspects are discussed: the validation of the numerical scheme with numerical and experimental results; the modeling of the non-linear temperature variation of the liquid phase change fraction; the non-Newtonian effects of the power index (0.1 ≤ n ≤ 1.9) and yield stress (0≤τ0≤5 Pa) on the heat transfer mechanisms; and finally, the time of computation with the high-order numerical scheme and the enhanced pressure-correction algorithm. The main finding is that FVM/SIMPLERnP provides a significant reduction in the time of computation compared to reliable pressure-correction schemes (SIMPLER and IDEAL), being a robust, accurate and efficient scheme to solve complex natural heat convective phase change problems involve generalized non-Newtonian fluids at high-Rayleigh numbers.