Recent Advances in Numerical Methods for Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer

Computational fluid dynamics CFD tools are the key for modern understanding of many physical, electrochemical, and biological processes. They not only help explain complex events involving disparate temporal and spatial scales, but also allow us to peer at the heart of breakthrough science. This special section of the Journal of Fluids Engineering is a collection of select papers presented at the ASME 2004 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina in the symposium on “Algorithmic Developments in CFD” sponsored by the Fluids Engineering and Heat Transfer Divisions. They represent an excellent cross section of research and developments crucial to issues both in fundamental progress and industrial applications. The symposium on algorithmic developments started in the 1990s and is intended to provide means for presenting novel and enhanced numerical algorithms for computational fluid dynamics CFD applications, direct numerical simulation, Monte Carlo methods, iterative and segregated solvers, shearing interface algorithms, exploitation of parallel architecture, and adaptive techniques. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, laminar and turbulent flows, reacting flows, compressible and incompressible flows, and non-Newtonian flows. The symposium is led by Subrata Roy from Kettering University, along with co-organizers Dhanireddy R. Reddy from NASA Glenn Research Center and Miguel Visbal from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson. The ongoing concurrent series of these symposia epitomize excellent cutting edge numerical research from an international representation of applied mathematicians, numerical physicists, fluid dynamicists, as well as industrial practitioners. The diffusion of knowledge that sprouts from the syntheses of ideas of these leading scientists and engineers usher in new technological breakthroughs and developments. The seven papers selected for this collection are divided into two loosely formed groups. The first four papers present fundamental algorithm developments with underlying important practical applications. Three papers in the following group focus on novel implementations of developed numerical techniques for a wide range of flow simulations. In the first group, Issa from Texas A&M University and Yao from Carnegie Mellon University develop a new numerical recipe for modeling the dynamics of the droplet-wall interaction and heat transfer mechanisms at subatmospheric to elevated ambient pressures, and for surface temperatures ranging from nucleate to film boiling. This has applications in a wide range of problems, including mist cooling of thin-strip casting, gas turbine airfoils, glass tempering, and electronic chips where misting jets show a better cooling efficiency and control of the material temperature. Simulation results for their method compares well against available test data for single stream of droplets at nonatmospheric conditions. The next paper is on multilevel Boundary Element Methods