Pseudo-Transient Simulation of Turbulent Mixing in a Rectangular Channel

Fast and robust numerical approach for turbulent heat transfer in case of high gradients of physical properties and unsteady heat transfer in case of strong temperature fluctuations is developed. This pseudo transient Large Eddy Simulation approach is applied to perform transient calculations of turbulent mixing between helium and air in a rectangular mixing channel for Atwood numbers of 0.04 and 0.6. Comparisons of these numerical results with the experimental results by Banerjee, Kraft, Andrews (2010) show a good agreement. The results confirmed applicability of the pseudo transient approach also for higher Atwood numbers while wider time stepping and higher Courant numbers are used. Also reported are simulation results using Reynolds averaged (RANS) method where standard k–ε and k–ω SST models are applied.