Numerical Simulation of Convective-radiative Coupled Heat Transfer Performance for High Altitude Airships

Abstract

In order to understand thermal characteristics of high altitude airships, the numerical simulation of convective-radiative coupled heat transfer performance at a certain time in a day is carried out using Ansys Fluent software. The governing equations of flow are using the compressible Reynolds averaged N-S equations and standard κ-ɛ turbulence model. A non-uniform temperature distribution boundary condition in the complex thermal environment and heat transfer mechanism is applied on the surface of high altitude airships based on user definition function (UDF) programming. The paper then simulates the external convection heat transfer characteristics at various flow conditions at 40 degrees north latitude at the altitude about 20km at noon in the summer solstice. Finally, the corresponding calculation results of the surface temperature distribution, the flow field distribution and the convective heat flux distribution of airship envelope are presented, which are also analyzed in this paper.