A parallel finite-volume finite-element method for transient compressible turbulent flows with heat transfer

Abstract

In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical scheme is presented for the simulation of turbulent, viscous, transient compressible flows in the simultaneously developing hydraulic and thermal boundary layer region. The numerical procedure is a finite-volume-based finite-element method applied to unstructured grids. This combination together with a new method applied for the boundary conditions allows for accurate computation of the variables in the entrance region and for a wide range of flow fields from subsonic to transonic. The Roe-Riemann solver is used for the convective terms, whereas the standard Galerkin technique is applied for the viscous terms. A modified κ-ε model with a two-layer equation for the near-wall region combined with a compressibility correction is used to predict the turbulent viscosity. Parallel processing is also employed to divide the computational domain among the different processors to reduce the computational time. The method is applied to some test cases in order to verify the numerical accuracy. The results show significant differences between incompressible and compressible flows in the friction coefficient, Nusselt number, shear stress and the ratio of the compressible turbulent viscosity to the molecular viscosity along the developing region. A transient flow generated after an accidental rupture in a pipeline was also studied as a test case. The results show that the present numerical scheme is stable, accurate and efficient enough to solve the problem of transient wall-bounded flow. © 2010 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.