Session: K20-05: APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTATIONAL HEAT TRANSFER III

Paper Number: 138880

138880 - Three Dimensional Simulation of Nucleate Boiling With Adaptive Mesh in Ansys 

Abstract: 

The present work demonstrates the use of customized Ansys-Fluent in performing 3D numerical simulations of nucleate boiling with a sharp interface and adaptive mesh refinement. The developed simulation approach is a reliable and effective tool to investigate 3D boiling phenomena by accurately capturing thermal and fluid dynamic interfacial vapor-liquid interaction and reducing computational time. These methods account for 3D sharp interface and thermal conditions of saturation temperature refining the mesh around the bubble edge. User-Defined-Functions (UDFs) were developed to customize the software Ansys-Fluent to preserve the interface sharpness, maintain saturation temperature conditions, and perform effective adaptive mesh refinement in a localized region around the interface. Adaptive mesh refinement is accomplished by a UDF that identifies the cells near the contact line and the liquid-vapor interface and applies the adaptive mesh refinement algorithms only at the identified cells. Validating the approach considered spherical bubble growth with an observed acceptable difference between theoretical and simulation bubble growth rates of 10%. Bubble growth simulations with water reveal an influence region of 2.7 times the departure bubble diameter, and average heat transfer coefficient of 15000 W/m²-K. In addition, the results indicate a reduced computational time of 75 hours using adaptive mesh compared to uniform mesh.

Presenting Author: Isaac Bernabe Perez Raya Rochester Institute of Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Isaac Perez-Raya is an Assistant Professor at the mechanical engineering department of Rochester Institute of Technology. He earned my Ph.D. in microsystems engineering from RIT and my master's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Guanajuato. His research focuses on improving medical and thermal systems modeling such as brain tumors, breast cancer, and boiling heat transfer. His ultimate goal is to make computer models more accurate and reliable so clinicians and researchers can use them to identify relevant information efficiently. He has conducted uncertainty analyses and multiphase flow simulations with heat and mass transfer. Also, he explores various data analysis techniques and machine learning models, especially the applications of physics-informed deep neural networks in heat transfer and biomedical applications. He is a problem solver, equipped with strong analytical and quantitative skills. He is enthusiast about developing advanced modeling techniques that agree with experimental observations. Moreover, he has proven experience in complex physical systems modeling and simulation, optimization, and numerical methods.

Authors:

Winston James Rochester Institute of Technology
Isaac Bernabe Perez Raya Rochester Institute of Technology