Smoothed particle hydrodynamics modeling of industrial processes involving heat transfer

Abstract

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a mesh-free particle method that has been widely used over the past decade to model complex flows. The method has mainly been used to investigate problems related to hydrodynamics and maritime engineering, in which heat transfer does not play a key role. In this article, the heat-conduction equation is implemented in the open-source code DualSPHysics, based on the SPH technique, and applied to different study cases, including conduction in still water in a cavity, laminar water flow between two infinite parallel plates and tube bank heat exchanger. The thermal solutions obtained from SPH are benchmarked with the solutions from Finite Volume Method (FVM) and validated using available analytical solutions. DualSPHysics results are in good agreement with FVM and analytical models, and demonstrate the potential of the meshless approach for industrial applications involving heat transfer.