Development of a Radiative Heat Transfer Solver for Particle Based Flow Simulations

• Applicant: Dr. Cihan Ates, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Energy Process Engineering
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 452913958

There has been a growing interest in mesh-free particle methods as they offer unique advantages in complex multi-physics problems involving irregular/complex geometries, free surfaces, moving interfaces, deformable boundaries and/or large inhomogeneities. Examples include reactive multiphase flows, casting, laser welding even extreme geophysical events. Nevertheless, radiative transfer in this frame has been explored in a limited number of studies focusing on astrophysics related problems, which are tailored to the special needs of the unique large scales probed in the field hence not directly applicable for the engineering scale problems. On the flip side, all standard methods for solving radiative transfer suffer from limitations such as handling inhomogeneities or compatibility with flow solvers and there is still no “best practice” regarding to the solution strategies, particularly for multi-physics problems. With respect to particle-based methods, current options are even less limited and rather unexplored.The key idea of particle-based methods is to solve the governing equations by using a set of arbitrarily distributed “particles” without using a grid describing the connectivity among them. Considering their committed complex role, any attempt to smooth out highly resolved structures in the flow simulations by the radiation model conflicts with the raison d’être of using particle methods in the first place. Therefore, it seems advantageous to couple particle based flow solvers with particle based radiation solvers in order to eliminate the loss of information by the transfer between the sub-models. In this regard, there is a need for designing and developing a generic particle-based radiation solver, which can be coupled efficiently for predicting such complex problems. Our research hypothesis is developed around this need, for which a new radiation solution scheme is proposed.The main objective of the project is the development and validation of this new modeling approach. The aim here is to predict the radiative heat exchange without any loss of particle resolved information during the coupled solution. This will enable us to establish the scientific background to accurately model complex multi-physics phenomena such as conjugate heat transfer. The other main objective is to create a method, which can inherently overcome another challenge in radiation modeling: handling complex geometries or moving boundaries. By exploiting the meshless nature of the particle methods, we aspire to alleviate any additional complexities introduced by grid-based approaches. In order to fulfil these objectives, we will combine our strong background in the numerical simulation of multiphase flows with particle-based methods and modeling of radiative heat transfer in multiphase systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr.-Ing. Hans-Jörg Bauer; Dr.-Ing. Rainer Koch