Modeling conjugate heat transfer to a protrusion exposed to bulk air flow by OpenFOAM®

In the last few years open source codes have attracted growing interest because of their favorable impact in modeling costs. The heat transfer and flow solvers implemented in the open-source OpenFOAM code are exploited in this paper, to solve a model used to describe the heating of discrete substrate samples. The aim is to determine the effect of process configuration and geometry on the heating performance due to a bulk air flow, and to report on computational characteristics of the code at stake. The model allows to disregard one of the most limiting parameters in such modeling, i.e. the average heat transfer coefficient at the auxiliary air/heated substrate interface. Such assumption is limiting as it refers to average conditions and unspecified geometry variations. The presented model then relies upon a finite-volume solution of time–dependent differential equations, for simultaneous and conjugate heat transfer in a two–dimensional domain, without any inference in such empiricism. After proper validation with literature data and previous work, the solution is discussed by presenting velocity and temperature fields, emphasizing on the conjugate nature of the process. Due to its flexibility and generality, the model can be used in common industrial optimization, even in the assumption of a laminar flow field.