REACTION ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A14-074

Description

Rapid prediction of convection heat transfer requires the solution to a problem that is too complicated to model analytically and too time consuming to model using traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) capabilities. These limitations have a significant affect on vehicle survivability assessments, which require accurate convective thermal modeling in order to reach goals associated to thermal infrared (IR) signatures. The proposed Phase I work effort would address these shortcomings by implementing a Fast Fluid Dynamics (FFD) algorithm on more technologically advanced Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). The FFD methods run in a fraction of the time of traditional CFD frameworks and when combined with advances in current GPUs will allow for the rapid prediction of convection heat transfer around complex geometry. The algorithms, selected for accuracy, efficiency, and operator ease-of-use, will be utilized to develop a convective heat transfer framework that will be verified against experimental data. The proposed advances in convective modeling would allow real-time or near real-time predictions of gas phase heat transfer. These results from the proposed efforts will greatly increase the accuracy in thermal management modeling and IR signatures thereby allowing for better military vehicle survivability assessments.