Heat Transfer on a Flat Plate: Laminar — Simulation Example

Overview

Some heat transfer applications involve a fluid flowing externally over the object of interest to heat or cool it. In certain applications, such as electronics cooling and textile drying, there could be scenarios where the fluid flow is nearly parallel to the surface of interest. From a heat transfer standpoint, it might be beneficial to simplify and conceive of these complex applications as the canonical problem of flow over a flat plate to obtain an approximate understanding of the heat transfer.

Objectives

In this simulation example, we will learn to simulate a laminar air flow over a heated flat plate using Ansys Fluent. In addition to understanding how to setup this problem, we will learn about both velocity and temperature boundary layers. Finally, we will compare these simulation results with analytical solutions from the literature.

Setup

Download the Mesh file required for setting up the simulation and associated Case & Data files here. Follow the instructions below to set up this simulation in Ansys Fluent starting with the Mesh file. In case you face any issues setting up or running the simulation, refer to the corresponding initial and final Case and Data files.

Alternate video link.

Results and Discussion

Let’s now look at the results to understand the heat transfer for a laminar flow on a flat plate.