Modelling of influence of turbulent transition on heat transfer conditions

This article deals with the turbulent transition phenomenon modelling and its influence on heat transfer. The purpose of the analyses was to verify the transition modelling implemented in the ANSYS CFX 11 commercial code for popular test cases (low flow speed) described in literature, and then use it for verification of the in-house CFD code (created for compressible flows). The inhouse CFD code has been extended lately for the Conjugate Heat Transfer modelling (CHT) as well, taking into account important flow effects, especially the turbulent transition. A Wilcox k-omega turbulence model with the Low-Reynolds modification was used in the in-house code. The calculations in ANSYS CFX were made using an SST turbulence model and a gamma-theta transition model. A fully turbulent flow was modelled by means of both codes, and the results were compared with the available experimental data. Then, the turbulent transition for several test cases was analysed with ANSYS CFX. Afterwards, the in-house CFD code was verified by means of ANSYS CFX for a higher flow speed (Mach numbers). The CHT modelling was analysed by means of both codes and the results were compared and discussed. The conducted analyses show that the results obtained by means of both codes are comparable, but the turbulence model used in the in-house CFD code is simpler and requires less computation time. A modification of two equations turbulence models can be an alternative for design problems in more developed laminar/turbulent flows.