Numerical experiment of turbulent transfer of thermal energy using the immersed boundary method and adaptive mesh refinement

Abstract

This paper presents the mathematical modeling and numerical simulations of turbulent flows with thermal convection. Cartesian numerical meshes are used for non-Cartesian problems thanks to the dynamic and thermal immersed boundary methods. Turbulence modeling was performed using the LES (Large Eddy Simulation) methodology with dynamic Smagorinsky subgrid-scale modeling. All of the simulations were carried out using a computational code that was developed at home (MFSim - Multiphysic Simulator). Two kinds of thermal immersed boundary conditions were proposed, implemented, and validated. To exemplify the functionalities of this computational tool, simulations of turbulent natural convection were performed on a horizontal cylinder. Consistent qualitative results were obtained, which reveal the dynamic structures characterizing the transition to turbulence. The corresponding statistical results compare well with the reference results that have been published by other authors.