SPECTRAL ELEMENT-FOURIER METHOD FOR UNSTEADY CONJUGATE HEAT-TRANSFER IN COMPLEX-GEOMETRY FLOWS

A spectral-element Fourier method (SEFM) is presented for the direct numerical simulation of forced convective heat transfer and conjugate conduction/convection in transitional internal flows in complex geometries. The SEFM is employed for the spatial discretization of the unsteady, incompressible, three-dimensional Navier- Stokes and energy equations, The resulting discrete equations are solved by a semi-implicit method in time treating explicitly the convection operator and implicitly the remaining pressure and viscous contributions. This methodology is illustrated by performing direct numerical simulations to investigate forced convective heat transfer in supercritical self-sustained oscillatory flows and conjugate effects in multimaterial domains. Highly unsteady flows in complex geometries are considered, including modified channels with periodic inhomogeneities such as spanwise rectangular and triangular grooves encountered in electronic equipment and compact heat exchangers.