Lecture 10: Heat Transfer

ANSYS Fluent Getting Started

Release 2019 R1

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Introduction

Lecture Theme:
Heat transfer has broad applications across all industries. All modes of heat transfer
(conduction, convection – forced and natural, radiation) can be modeled in Fluent
Learning Aims:
You will learn:
• How to treat conduction, convection (forced and natural) and radiation heat
transfer in Fluent
• How to set wall thermal boundary conditions
Learning Objectives:
You will be familiar with Fluent’s heat transfer modeling capabilities and be able to set
up and solve problems involving all modes of heat transfer

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Heat Transfer Modeling in Fluent
• All modes of heat transfer can be taken into account with CFD simulation:
– Conduction
– Convection (forced and natural)
– Radiation
• Numerous processes can be included as appropriate
– Interphase energy source (phase change)
– Fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer
– Viscous dissipation
– Species diffusion
• To model heat transfer, activate the energy equation
– Select Energy in the Models group of the Physics tab

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Convection Heat Transfer

• As a fluid moves, it carries heat with it  this is called convection

– Thus, heat transfer is coupled to the fluid flow solution
– Energy + Fluid flow equations activated  means Convection is computed
• Conduction also solved in fluid when Energy activated
• Additionally:
T
– The rate of heat transfer depends q
strongly on the fluid velocity Tbody
– Fluid properties may vary significantly
with temperature (e.g., air)
– At walls, the heat transfer coefficient is
computed by the turbulent thermal q = h (Tbody − T ) = h T
wall functions
h = average heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K)
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Conduction Heat Transfer

• Conduction heat transfer is governed by Fourier’s Law

– Fluent computes conduction in all fluid and solid zones when the energy
equation is activated
• Fourier’s law states that the heat transfer rate is directly
proportional to the gradient of temperature

• Mathematically, qconduction = −k T

• The constant of proportionality is the thermal

conductivity (k)
– k may be a function of temperature, space, etc.
– for isotropic materials, k is a constant value
– for anisotropic materials, k is a matrix

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Review: Thermal Wall Boundary Conditions

• Thermal conditions at Walls:

– Constant Heat Flux or Temperature
– Convection, Radiation, Mixed – Simulates an external
environment that is not modeled using user-prescribed heat
transfer coefficient and/or external emissivity and radiation
temperature
qconv = hext (Text − Tw )

qrad =  ext  (T4 − Tw4 )

qmixed = hext (Text − Tw ) +  ext  (T4 − Tw4 )

– Via System Coupling – Can be used when Fluent is coupled
with another system in Workbench using System Couplings
– Via Mapped Interface – Used with certain kinds of
non-conformal interfaces
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Modeling Heat Transfer in Walls

• It is often important to model the thermal effects of the wall bounding the fluid
but it may not be necessary to mesh it.
– Option 1 Fluid
▪ Mesh the wall in the pre-processor
Solid
▪ Assign it as a solid cell zone
Heat can flow in all directions
▪ This is the most thorough approach

– Option 2: Fluid
▪ Just mesh the fluid region
Solid
▪ Specify a wall thickness Heat transfer normal to wall
▪ Wall conduction will be accounted for
Fluid
– Option 3:
▪ As option 2, but enable ‘Shell Conduction’ Solid
▪ 1 or more layers of ‘virtual cells’ will be created Heat can flow in all directions
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Managing Shell Conduction Walls

• From Shell Conduction Manager, all

shell conduction boundaries can be
managed in one panel
– It is still possible to define shell conduction in the
boundary conditions panel for individual walls
• Select more than one zone in Shell
Conduction Zones to efficiently apply
identical settings to different walls
– Also possible to read and write shell conduction
settings in .csv format
▪ Especially useful for models with a large
number of shell conduction walls
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Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT)
• At a wall between a fluid and a solid zone or a wall with fluid on both sides, a wall /
wall_shadow is created automatically by Fluent while reading the mesh file
– By default, the Coupled boundary condition automatically balances energy on the two sides of the walls
– Possible, but uncommon, to uncouple and to specify different thermal conditions on each side

Coolant Flow Past Heated Rods

Grid

Velocity Vectors

Temperature Contours
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Natural Convection

• Natural convection occurs when fluid density is

temperature dependent and heat is added to fluid
• Flow is induced by gravitational force acting on density
differences
• When gravity is activated in Fluent, the pressure gradient
and body force terms in the momentum equation are
rewritten as

with

• The transformation avoids roundoff error when gravity is enabled

• Important for Fluent because p' is used for boundary conditions and results
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User Inputs for Natural Convection

• Define Gravity in the Operating Conditions panel

• Choose a temperature dependent density model in the
Materials panel
– Most common are Boussinesq (valid for small T) and incompressible
ideal gas (any T)
▪ For liquids with large T, use piecewise linear or polynomial
• If using Boussinesq, set the operating temperature
– Operating density is ignored
• If using any other density model, set the operating
density
– Operating temperature is ignored
– Strongly recommended to explicitly specify the density at ambient
temperature

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Radiation
• Radiative heat transfer is a mode of energy transfer where the energy is transported via
electromagnetic waves
− Thermal radiation covers the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum from 0.1 to 100 mm

Visible

Ultraviolet Infrared

X rays Thermal Radiation

 rays Microwaves

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
log10 (Wavelength), mm

Solar load (HVAC) Headlight Glass furnace

− For semi-transparent bodies (e.g., glass, combustion product gases), radiation is a volumetric phenomenon
since emissions can escape from within bodies
− For opaque bodies, radiation is essentially a surface phenomenon since nearly all internal emissions are
absorbed within the body
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When to Include Radiation?

• Radiation should be included in a simulation if

qrad =   (Tm4ax − Tm4in )

Stefan-Boltzmann constant
5.6704×10-8 W/(m2·K4)
is of the same order of magnitude than the convective and
conductive heat transfer rates. This is usually true at high
temperatures but can also be true at lower temperatures, depending
on the application
• Estimate the magnitude of conduction or convection heat transfer in
qconv = h (Twall − Tbulk )
the system as

• Compare qrad with qconv

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Optical Thickness and Radiation Modeling
• The optical thickness should be determined
before choosing a radiation model
Optical Thickness  (a+s)L
a= absorption coefficient
s=scattering coefficient (often=0)
L= mean beam length
– a: absorption coefficient (m-1)
(Note: ≠Absorptivity of a Surface)
– L: mean beam length (m)
(a typical distance between 2 opposing walls)
• Optically thin means that the fluid is transparent to the
radiation at wavelengths where the heat transfer occurs
– The radiation only interacts with the boundaries of the domain
• Optically thick/dense means that the fluid absorbs and re-emits the radiation
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Choosing a Radiation Model
• The radiation model selected must be appropriate for the optical thickness of the
system being simulated
Model
Surface to surface model (S2S)
Solar load model
Rosseland
P-1
Discrete ordinates model (DO)
Discrete transfer method (DTRM)
Monte Carlo model (MC)
Optical Thickness Computational Expense
0 When optical thickness = 0, S2S has comparable accuracy with DO and
MC at less computational expense
0 (except window panes) Very low computational expense for solar radiation problems
compared to the DO model
>5 Very inexpensive but limited in applicability
>1 Reasonable accuracy for moderate cost
All Very comprehensive and accurate model but more computationally
expensive than S2S for optically thin systems and more expensive than
P1 and Rosseland for optically thick systems
All Cheaper then DO but not available in parallel so rarely used
All The most accurate model but also the most computationally expensive

• In terms of accuracy, DO and MC are most accurate (S2S is accurate for optical thickness = 0)
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Post-Processing Heat Transfer

• Heat flux reporting:

– « Total Heat Transfer Rate »: both convective and radiative flux are computed
▪ Net heat balance should be 0 once converged
• User sources, dpm sources reported in panel and included in Net Results
– « Radiation Heat Transfer Rate », only radiative net flux is computed
▪ The sum of this flux is generally not 0. It can represent the amount of energy that is absorbed by the media

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Summary

• After activating heat transfer, you must provide :

– Thermal conditions at walls and flow boundaries
– Fluid properties for energy equation

• Available heat transfer modeling options include :

– Convection
– Conduction
– Conjugate heat transfer
– Natural convection
– Radiation
– Phase Change
• Double precision solver usually needed to achieve a good energy balance
over the entire domain

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