COMPUTATIONAL THERMO-FLUID DYNAMICS LAB (CTFDL)


Welcome to the website of the CTFDL in the Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies at the University of Tehran. The Lab is committed to advanced modeling and computational thermo-fluid dynamics of multidisciplinary fluids engineering problems, with emphasis on:
 

  • Coupling methodologies for discretized fluid flow and heat transfer equations
  • Steady and unsteady-wavy falling film instabilities
  • Condensation and absorption in two-phase flows
  • Unsteady flows around bio-inspired pitching and flapping wing
  • Hydrogen combustion and clean energy


In the Lab, we develop computational tools using FORTRAN/C++ object-oriented programming that are algorithmically efficient, robust, parallelized, and scalable to thermo-fluid flows of practical interest.

Research Projects


ALE-IT Algorithm

Interfacial Heat and Mass Transfer

Interfacial Instabilities 

Flow Seperation

Simulation of two-phase gas-liquid flows is a challenging problem in terms of predicting the interface position and appropriately coupling the phases. Stability restrictions induced by surface tension of the liquid phase may increase the level of difficulty of the simulation.

The Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method along with an interface tracking technique is an approach for a precise prediction of the interface position. The restrictions in the simulation due to surface tension necessitate an implicitly coupled solution algorithm.

Interfacial heat and mass transfer refers to the processes where heat and mass are exchanged across the boundary, or interface, between two phases, such as liquid and gas, solid and liquid, or solid and gas.These processes are critical in a wide range of natural and industrial systems, including evaporation, condensation, and chemical reactions.

Heat transfer at the interface typically involves conduction, convection, and sometimes radiation, while mass transfer often involves diffusion and convection mechanisms. The efficiency and rate of interfacial transfer processes are influenced by factors such as temperature gradients, concentration differences, surface tension, and the physical properties of the interacting phases.

Interface instabilities occur when the boundary between two different phases, such as liquids or gases, becomes unstable due to perturbations or differences in properties like density, viscosity, or velocity. These instabilities can lead to complex and often chaotic behavior, such as the formation of waves, droplets, or other patterns at the interface.

Interface instabilities are significant in various fields, including fluid dynamics, astrophysics, and engineering, as they can influence the efficiency of mixing processes, the formation of patterns in natural systems, and the behavior of multiphase flows in industrial applications.

 

Flow separation and heat transfer are among the most studied fluid flow problems that have received much attention both in academic and applied engineering. One of the main factors to cause flow separation is the existence of an adverse pressure gradient.


Adverse pressure and comparatively separation can be observed in some engineering equipment. In some of them, heat transfer also plays an important role, such as Turbine blades, turbines, compressors, diffusers, heat exchangers, and combustion chambers are some of the devices including heat transfer where the flow separation is possible.