Conjugate Heat Transfer and Thermal Stress: Exhaust Manifold

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ allows you to combine the advantages of the finite volume (FV) and the finite element (FE) methods together in the same simulation.

In this tutorial, you study the thermal expansion of an exhaust manifold in response to hot gas entering the inlets. The simulation incorporates both conjugate heat transfer (CHT) between the solid and the fluid, and thermal expansion in the solid due to the temperature changes. For the gas, you solve for fluid flow and energy using the FV method; for the manifold, you solve for the solid temperature and corresponding thermal stress using the FE method.

Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT)	Solid Thermal Expansion and Stress
Solid Temperature	Solid Stress
Fluid Temperature	Solid Thermal Expansion

In the simulation, you first solve for conjugate heat transfer in order to compute the steady-state temperature distribution throughout the manifold. You then run the solid stress solver in order to compute the thermal strain on the manifold. The simulation strategy, including the model geometry and assumptions, is summarized below.