Boundary type for solid-liquid interface
 

Hi,

I am modelling conjugate heat transfer for fluid flowing through rectangular channel with a certain wall thickness and heat flux on the outer wall. What boundary type should I specify (in Gambit) for the solid-fluid interface that will allow me to extract the internal wall temperatures easily in Fluent?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Boundary type for solid-liquid interface
 

Hi. This is a wild guess, so I do not know whether it will work, but you could try. When you generate your model in gambit, you can create a face with the edges that form the your solid wall. Then, in the boudary conditions panel you can also find something called "continuum types". Go in there and selct "solid" form the type list and select "faces" in the drop down list at the bottom of the panel and then select the face containing your solid wall. This should export that face as a solid into FLUENT, and then you should be able to choose the material you wall is made of and the characteristics. I am not sure whether you would need to mesh the solid part as well as the liquid, that you will have to investigate, because I have never come across this type of problem. As I said this is only a guess, and I hope it does not make you waste any time. Cheers. Fernando

Re: Boundary type for solid-liquid interface
 

Just a note to save you a bit of time - YES you will need to mesh the solid wall if you want internal temperature information.

Best of luck

Re: Boundary type for solid-liquid interface
 

Thanks guys for your help :)

Re: Boundary type for solid-liquid interface
 

just add a few words. When you calculate coupled heat transfer problem, you don't need to define boundary type between fluid and solid at all. It will be automatically handled by fluent as double-sided wall.

Hi all,

I think I am replying quite late to this post.
Well I have a Q. I have a solid aluminium block which is heated from above and below. Inside the Al block, I have water flowing in rectangular ducts (a typical of plate-type heat-exchanger). I understand this is not a Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problem. I need to model this in FLUENT. The main problem Im facing is the region where solid and fluid interface.

1) How exactly should the BC be defined while pre-processing?
2) Things to be understood in FLUENT.

Thanks,
Raghu