← Back to project catalogue
GP-ME-1IGSL27MechanicalOpen for request

OpenFOAM heat-exchanger simulation

An OpenFOAM-only conjugate heat-transfer study comparing temperature, pressure loss, heat duty, and effectiveness in compact heat-exchanger designs.

  • OpenFOAM v2606
  • ParaView
  • Gmsh
  • Python
  • Docker

Software compatibility

OpenFOAM v2606 only

Cases are prepared for the OpenCFD OpenFOAM v2606 distribution. No ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL, STAR-CCM+, or OpenFOAM Foundation v14 files are included.

Project definition

Problem statement

Heat-exchanger performance couples convection, conduction, flow distribution, pressure loss, and thermal properties. Comparing designs requires both energy balance and numerical-convergence evidence.

Project objectives

  • Model selected hot-fluid, cold-fluid, and separating-solid regions.
  • Calculate temperature fields, heat duty, pressure loss, effectiveness, and flow distribution.
  • Compare geometry or flow-rate cases under fixed thermal boundaries.
  • Check mesh sensitivity and hot-side to cold-side energy balance.
  • Compare appropriate measures with analytical or empirical references.

System design

System modules

01

Multi-region geometry

Defines fluid passages, solid walls, interfaces, materials, and boundary patches.

02

CHT cases

Configures conjugate heat transfer, turbulence where required, thermophysical data, and coupling.

03

Design runner

Automates flow-rate, geometry, and material cases from controlled templates.

04

Thermal analysis

Extracts heat rates, effectiveness, pressure drops, uniformity, and energy residuals.

05

Verification

Runs mesh studies and compares with energy balances and selected reference correlations.

Methodology

System workflow

  1. 01
    Build baseline

    Geometry, materials, inlet states, flow rates, and thermal boundaries are fixed.

  2. 02
    Solve coupled regions

    Fluid and solid temperatures converge with monitored interface heat transfer.

  3. 03
    Check balance

    Hot loss, cold gain, wall storage, and numerical residuals are compared.

  4. 04
    Run alternatives

    Selected passage, fin, material, or flow cases use the same evaluation rules.

  5. 05
    Select tradeoff

    Heat duty and effectiveness are considered alongside pressure loss and uncertainty.

Demonstration scenario

A baseline compact exchanger and one modified passage design run at identical inlet conditions. The student verifies the energy balance and compares duty, effectiveness, wall temperature, flow distribution, and pressure loss before choosing the better tradeoff.

Engineering

Technical architecture

Case format
Native OpenCFD OpenFOAM v2606 multi-region dictionaries, meshes, properties, and results.
Physics
Conjugate conduction and convection with documented steady or transient and turbulence assumptions.
Mesh
Region-conformal or mapped interfaces with boundary-layer refinement and three-level convergence checks.
Analysis
Python scripts for balances, effectiveness, pressure loss, convergence, and design comparison.

Testing

Evaluation

Evaluation measures

  • Hot-side and cold-side energy-balance closure
  • Heat duty and effectiveness against a reference calculation
  • Pressure-drop comparison and flow-distribution quality
  • Mesh and interface-coupling sensitivity
  • Temperature-limit and material-assumption sensitivity
  • Runtime and convergence across design cases

System boundaries

  • Only OpenCFD OpenFOAM v2606 cases are delivered.
  • Fouling, phase change, vibration, corrosion, manufacturing tolerances, and full header design are excluded unless explicitly scoped.
  • Material and fluid properties use documented ranges.
  • The simulation does not replace pressure-vessel, thermal, or manufacturing certification.

Included

  1. 01Parametrised heat-exchanger geometry and materials
  2. 02OpenFOAM conjugate heat-transfer case files
  3. 03Energy-balance, pressure-loss, and effectiveness scripts
  4. 04Prepared meshes, operating points, and simulation results
  5. 05Complete source code in a private GitHub repository
  6. 06Complete project documentation with synopsis, abstract, methodology, thermal-fluid diagrams, mesh study, results, screenshots, and conclusion
  7. 07Setup and usage guide

Project record

No buyer information is collected on this page.

Permanent project ID
GP-ME-1IGSL27
Catalogued
22 Aug 2026
Completed
Pending
Verified
Pending
Demonstration
Added when ready

Handover

After purchase

  1. 01
    Payment is confirmed

    The project is marked unavailable and cannot be purchased again.

  2. 02
    Repository access is granted

    The buyer's submitted GitHub account receives access to the private repository.

  3. 03
    The purchase record is delivered

    The certification sheet is prepared from the reviewed buyer details and sent privately by email.