A discrete Immersed Boundary Method for the numerical simulation of heat transfer in compressible flows

Abstract

In the present study, a discrete forcing Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) is proposed for the numerical simulation of high-speed flow problems including heat exchange. This class of tools is relevant for several applications in engineering studies for aerospace applications, notably for atmospheric reentry. The flow field is governed by the compressible Navier–Stokes equations, which are resolved by using the open source library OpenFOAM. The numerical solver is modified to include source terms in the momentum equation and in the energy equation, which account for the presence of the immersed body. The method is validated on some benchmark test cases dealing with forced convection problems and moving immersed bodies. The results obtained are in very good agreement with data provided in the literature. The method is further assessed by investigating three-dimensional high Mach flows around a heated sphere with different wall temperature. Even for this more complex test case, the method provides an accurate representation of both thermal and velocity fields.