NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TURBULENT THERMAL MIXING IN A RECTANGULAR T-JUNCTION

Abstract

This work reports three-dimensional simulation results of thermal mixing in a rectangular T-junction configuration at high Reynolds number. The validation data are provided by an experimental study done at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Mie University, Japan. The T-junction was selected as a benchmark for thermal mixing in the ERCOFTAC Workshop held in EDF Chatou, France, 2011. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS), and scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) were performed with CFD code using the finite-volume method. Velocity and thermal field as well as the turbulent stresses are reported and compared to experimental data in several longitudinal stations. It was found from the comparison that URANS methodology cannot reproduce the striping phenomenon, and secondly, that the SAS model fit better than the shear stress transport model with experimental data. Additional contours of averaged longitudinal velocity end thermal field as well as the flow structures developing in the channels are presented and discussed.