No abstract

In this paper, we propose an approach for studying conjugate heat transfer using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The approach is based on reformulating the lattice Boltzmann equation for solving the conservative form of the energy equation. This leads to the appearance of a source term, which introduces the jump conditions at the interface between two phases or components with different thermal properties. The proposed source term formulation conserves conductive and advective heat flux simultaneously, which makes it suitable for modeling conjugate heat transfer in general multiphase or multicomponent systems. The simple implementation of the source term approach avoids any correction of distribution functions neighboring the interface and provides an algorithm that is independent from the topology of the interface. Moreover, our approach is independent of the choice of lattice discretization and can be easily applied to different advection-diffusion LBM solvers. The model is tested against several benchmark problems including steady-state convection-diffusion within two fluid layers with parallel and normal interfaces with respect to the flow direction, unsteady conduction in a three-layer stratified domain, and steady conduction in a two-layer annulus. The LBM results are in excellent agreement with analytical solution. Error analysis shows that our model is first-order accurate in space, but an extension to a second-order scheme is straightforward. We apply our LBM model to heat transfer in a two-component heterogeneous medium with a random microstructure. This example highlights that the method we propose is independent of the topology of interfaces between the different phases and, as such, is ideally suited for complex natural heterogeneous media. We further validate the present LBM formulation with a study of natural convection in a porous enclosure. The results confirm the reliability of the model in simulating complex coupled fluid and thermal dynamics in complex geometries.

The Quincke effect is an electrohydrodynamic instability which gives rise to a torque on a dielectric particle in a uniform DC electric field. Previous studies reported that a sphere initially resting on the electrode rolls with steady velocity. We experimentally find that in strong fields the rolling becomes unsteady, with time-periodic velocity. Furthermore, we find another regime, where the rotating sphere levitates in the space between the electrodes. Our experimental results show that the onset of Quincke rotation strongly depends on particle confinement and the threshold for rolling is higher compared to rotation in the hovering state.