Open-Source CFD analysis of multi-domain unsteady heating with natural convection

The paper presents the capabilities of open-source programs used for numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena. These tools are applied for unsteady problems with natural convection and, in particular, the heating of an automotive headlight. To perform these studies, a solver was created using an open-source C++ library OpenFOAM. The implementation problems encountered were, inter alia, dealing with multi-domain computation and coupling of sub-domains. The presented simulation results clearly show that open-source software can readily be applied also to engineering problems and can compete with commercial packages.