Annals of the Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conference 13

ISBN 1-56700-225-0 / CD 1-56700-226-9

Year 2006

Jat Du Toit
www.nwu.ac.za

P. G. Rousseau
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Potchefstroom University for CHE, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa

G. P. Greyvenstein
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Potchefstroom University for CHE, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa

Engineers are faced with two major challenges when carrying out the thermal-fluid design of complex systems consisting of many interacting components such as pipes, valves, heat exchangers, compressors, turbines, pumps and reactors. The first challenge is to predict the performance of all the individual thermal-fluid components. The second challenge is to predict the performance of the integrated plant consisting of all its sub-systems. The complexity associated with the thermal-fluid design of complex systems requires the use of a variety of analysis techniques and simulation tools. These range from simple one-dimensional models that, do not capture all the significant physical phenomena, to large-scale three-dimensional CFD codes that, for practical reasons, can not simulate the entire plant as a single integrated model. Various approaches have been developed to model complete thermal-fluid systems. One approach is to build a custom computer model for a specific system layout or to use commercially available modelling tools. Another approach that is widely used is the network approach consisting of standard lumped and one-dimensional models interconnected in any arbitrary way. Three-dimensional CFD codes and network codes have been linked in essence to provide more accurate boundary conditions for the 3D code.
However, an alternative philosophy, namely the systems CFD approach can be employed. In this case the network code serves as the framework to link the models of the various components together and to control the solution. The models of the components can be of varying degrees of complexity. These can range from simple lumped models to complex full three-dimensional CFD models. This paper gives an overview of the systems CFD approach. It is illustrated at the hand of two examples.

MTH-08 pages DOI: 10.1615/IHTC13.p9.80 Download article

Article price - $35.00

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