PREDICTING NATURAL-CONVECTION-DOMINATED PHASE CHANGE PROBLEMS BY CONTROL VOLUME UNSTRUCTURED TRIANGULAR GRID: APPLICATIONS TO THE MELTING OF PURE METAL

Abstract

Control volume methods have recertify been developed for fluid flow and heat transfer on unstructured meshes. In this study, we extend these methods to implement the solution of natural-convection-dominated milting of gallium by a fixed-grid method. A simple, robust, and reliable explicit numerical method ( MAC method) is applied for an unstructured triangular grid. This investigation also applies the implicit SIMPLER method for an unstructured triangular grid. Results obtained from the unstructured triangular grid correlate well with the structured mesh computations and experimental data. Also, the feasibility of applying the triangular grid to complex geometric problems is demonstrated by calculating two different triangular domains.

Notes

Address correspondence to Professor Zuu-Chang Hong, CFD Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan 32054, Republic of China. E-mail: [email protected]