A Conjugate Heat Transfer RANS/DES Simulation Procedure

*† Heat transfer between fluid and solid media is prevalent in typical thermodynamic systems. Common cycles, such as the Brayton cycle, rely on air, which is compressed and expanded through metal vanes and blades. Due to high temperatures developed during the cycle, thermal stresses along with metal liquefaction can occur. Because of the possibility for material failure, many engineering applications are limited in thermodynamic efficiency. For example, today’s jet engines are able to achieve higher inlet temperatures than raw materials can withstand. Ceramic coatings and other blade cooling schemes have been developed in an effort to increase system efficiency by increasing the gas temperature of the combustor and thus the inlet temperature to the turbine. However, the ability to accurately model the heat interaction between fluid and solid bodies remains critical in achieving higher levels of efficiency and performance in modern engineering systems. Using an existing and proven flow solution procedure capable of both Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) solutions as well as detached-eddy simulations (DES), a heat flow solver has been developed and integrated into the procedure to study the heat interaction between solid and fluid bodies. This paper describes the integration, data structure and numerical techniques of the conjugate heat flow solver. Conjugate test cases performed on a two dimensional cylinder are presented for unsteady, time-averaged flows using both RANS and DES flow solvers.