Thermal and flow field validation of lattice Boltzmann method solver

Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics, abbreviated CFD, is a valuable tool for several engineering applications. Applications such as heating, cooling or drying are some examples of areas where CFD is used. The Lattice Boltzmann method, abbreviated LBM, is a popular method for CFD simulations due to its fast simulation time in comparison to traditional methods like the finite volume method. ESS is a company that has supplied LBM simulation software aimed at perfecting the baking process of car carrosserie. The aim of this thesis is to verify and validate their software against earlier works, to ensure that the solver can capture the physical reality of an impinging jet. The verification and validation are conducted over three different cases: experimental free jet, direct numerical simulation and a large eddy simulation of an impinging jet. Identical digital models were created for each case and then simulated with similar conditions for comparison. All three cases were tested with Richardson extrapolation to ensure grid convergence. The Richardson method showed that the highest error among the cases was 2.02 %. The results shows that the LBM solver can accurately predict the flow and thermal field compared to the three cases. The LBM solver is considered verified and validated for flowfield and thermal simulations.