(6)
(7)
In fluid mechanics problems, the unknown field variables are the three components of velocity (e.g. u, v, and w) and fluid pressure, requiring four independent equations, which are the three momentum component Eqs. (5)–(7) and the continuity Eq. (1).
The equation for energy conservation is derived in a similar fashion. A common form of the energy equation is
(8)
where Cp and T are the specific heat and temperature, respectively, and kt the thermal conductivity. In Eq. (8), the transient and advective transport terms are on the left side, whereas the right side has the conduction term and all other energy transfers accounted for as “sources.” An example of a “source” is Joule dissipation; that is, electrical energy converted to thermal energy by an electrical current passing through a resistive material (with an associated drop in electric potential).
In CFD, various transport phenomena are cast in the following general form known as the advection–diffusion equation [7],
(9)
where ϕ represents a generic field variable related to the property of interest, and Γ a generic diffusion coefficient. For example, temperature is the relevant field variable in the energy Eq. (8). (Likewise, ρcp is substituted for ρ in the energy equation as it represents its “thermal inertia” per unit volume.) The first member on the left side of Eq. (9) is a transient term, which can be ignored for steady‐state problems. The second is the advection term, representing transport by fluid motion. The first member on the right side of Eq. (9) is the diffusion term, representing transport by atomic‐scale interactions, and all others are treated as “sources,” often because the model contains mathematical expressions which do not admit to the form of the one of the three standard terms.
Several commonly used mathematical expressions for the advective–diffusive transport of various field variables are listed in Table 2. Some are expressions of a fundamental principle, while others are consequences of further abstraction (e.g. turbulent kinetic energy), although still derived from first principles.
Table 2 List of commonly used transport equations in advection–diffusion form.
| ϕ | Transient | + | Advection | = | Diffusion | + | Source | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Continuity | 1 |
|
+ |
|
= | + | 0 | |
| B | Momentum (x‐direction) | u |
|
+ |
|
= | ∇ ⋅ (μ ∇ u) | + |
|
| Momentum (y‐direction) | v |
|
+ |
|
= | ∇ ⋅ (μ ∇ v) | + |
|
|
| Momentum (z‐direction) | w |
|
+ |
|
= | ∇ ⋅ (μ ∇ w) | + |
|
|
| C | Energy | T |
|
+ |
|
= | ∇ ⋅ (k ∇ T) | + |
S
|