A Characteristic-Based Finite-Volume Solution of Incompressible Flows with Heat Transfer

In this study, a characteristic-based finite-volume solution has been developed to obtain accurate results, improve the convergence rate, and provide the stability for the numerical solution of incompressible, steady, laminar, and two-dimensional flows with heat transfer. The artificial compressibility in order to couple the continuity and momentum equations and the fifth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm in order to marching the solution in time have been used. The convective terms have been calculated by a scheme based on the virtual characteristics and the viscous and thermal conduction terms have been calculated by a second-order scheme. In order to assess the capability of aforementioned developed finite-volume solution, the laminar, incompressible, steady, and two-dimensional cross flow of air on a NACA0012 airfoil without heat transfer and on a long horizontal circular cylinder with the forced convective heat transfer have been numerically simulated. The results obtained in these simulations have been compared with the data available in the literature. This comparison showed a good agreement between them.