Simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in a plane channel using the lattice Boltzmann method

Forced convective flow and heat transfer between two parallel plates are studied using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in this paper. Three kinds of thermal boundary conditions at the top and bottom plates are studied. The velocity field is simulated using density distribution function while a separate internal energy distribution function is introduced to simulate the temperature field. The results agree well with data from traditional finite volume method (FVM) and analytical solutions. The present work indicates that LBM may be developed as a promising method for predicting convective heat transfer because of its many inherent advantages.