An integrative SPH method for heat transfer problems involving fluid-structure interaction

Thermal-fluid-structure interaction (TFSI) problems usually pose numerical complications in grid-based methods because of the coexistence of fluid dynamics, solid kinematics and heat transfer. In this paper, an integrated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) solver with strong coupling scheme at the material interface is introduced to investigate the TFSI problem. Some efficient techniques inclusive of kernel modification in the total Lagrangian formulation for solid dynamics and multi-time stepping for fluid structure interaction (FSI) are integrated to increase the computational accuracy and efficiency. Also the position-based Verlet scheme is applied to achieve the strict conservation of momentum. A two-stage Runge-Kutta integrator scheme is used to solve the heat diffusion equation. Two simulation cases are performed to test the present method including the numerical examples of heat transfer in a micro-channel and a FSI case. The heat transfer performance is investigated and quantified with different vortex generators in a heated channel flow. The detailed heat and vortex information obtained by the present SPH TFSI solver indicates that the FSI reinforces the heat transfer via vortexes interaction with fluid within the boundary layer. This study demonstrates the versatility and potential of the mesh-free SPH approach for industrial heat transfer applications involving vortex generators with large structure deformation.