A Coupled Pressure-Based Co-Located Element-Based Finite Volume Method for the Solution of Convection Heat Transfer Problems

In this paper, a new coupled pressure-based method, called the method of proper closure equations (MPCE), is introduced to solve convection heat transfer problems. In the proposed algorithm, governing equations are discretized on non—orthogonal computational grids using the element—based finite volume method (EBFVM). This approach is physical based in the sense that proper couplings between velocity, pressure and temperature are achieved using the semi-discrete forms of governing equations at integration points. The set of discretized equations are solved in a fully-coupled manner; not via the commonly used segregated methods. To show the capability of the method, two test cases containing forced and natural convection heat transfer are solved. The results indicate that the method is second order accurate. Also, excellent match between the computational results and reliable published results is observed.