Large eddy simulation of compressible turbulent pipe flow with heat transfer

Abstract

A compressible finite volume formulation for large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent channel flows was extended to solve the turbulent flows in pipes and annular passages. A general finite volume scheme was developed based on conservation equations in Cartesian coordinates with non-Cartesian control volumes. A dual-time stepping approach with time derivative preconditioning was employed and time marching was done with an implicit lowerupper-symmetric-Gauss-Seidel (LU-SGS) scheme. The small scale motions were modeled by a dynamic subgrid-scale (SGS) model. The code was developed in a multiblock framework and parallelized using the message passing interface (MPI). The finite volume LES formulation was validated by simulating the isothermal fully devel­ oped turbulent pipe and annular flows. The results were compared to experimental data and direct numerical simulation (DNS) results. The LES formulation was further validated by the simulation of turbulent pipe flows with low heat transfer and comparisons with passive scalar DNS results. Finally, buoyancy forces were added into the LES formulation to simulate mixed convection in a vertical pipe with constant high wall heat fluxes leading to significant property variations. Step-periodic boundary conditions were studied and implemented. The results were validated by comparing with experimental results. Heating effects and flow laminarization were studied. Excellent agreement with DNS and experimental results were obtained for isothermal tur­ bulent pipe and annular flows. The mean temperature profile for the turbulent pipe flow with low heat transfer matched very well with the DNS passive scalar results. Good matches to constant property correlations were also achieved for friction coefficients and Nusselt numbers. For the mixed convection in a vertical pipe, good agreement with the experimental mean