Custom CFD Simulation For Convective Heat Transfer

Numerical simulation of low-Reynolds number two-dimensional convective flow heat transfer around a cylindrical body.

Simulation of low-Reynolds number (Re=200) two-dimensional convective flow heat transfer around a cylindrical body
Coded for two geometries, a lone cylinder and two cylinders located along the centerline with varying distances between the two

Coded in MATLAB
Determined grid spacing and boundary conditions for a given Reynolds number and inflow velocity
Used Poission's equation to numerically solve for initial stream function array using a finite-differene approximation method
Computed vorticity, temperature, stream function, and heat flux after initializing vorticity and cylinder temperature
Calculated final outflow boundary conditions and total heat flux out of cylinder bodies
Verified results using the shape of initialized streamfunction and similar simulations

Accuracy of results was consistent with expected behavior based on calculations and similar simulations
~2.5 hour runtime on an average personal computer using 3995 timesteps
Of the two spacings tested, cylinders spaced further apart had a greater rate of heat exchange suggesting there is a sweet spot distance for optimal heat exchanger design
Simulation Videos

Single cylinder simulation at t=1s

Simulation for two cylinders 75 gridspaces apart at t=3s

Simulation for two cylinders 125 gridspaces apart at t=3s