490 Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 9, No.

8, 2009

Lattice Boltzmann method for heat diffusion

in axis-symmetric geometries

A.A. Mohamad
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Schulich School of Engineering,
University of Calgary,
Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada
E-mail: mohamad@ucalgary.ca

Abstract: Lattice Boltzmann Methods (LBM) have been used to solve momentum, heat and
mass transport equations mainly in Cartesian coordinate system. In the present work, the LBM is
extended to solve transports in axis-symmetric geometries, such as pipes and spheres.
Heat diffusion and conduction in solids without and with heat generation were tested. The heat
diffusion equation for axis-symmetric problem is reduced to diffusion equation as in Cartesian
coordinate with an extra term due to the surface area variation along the radial direction.
The extra term is treated as a source term (forcing term) in LBM. The extra term can be
approximated by using finite difference or more accurately as a flux term. The results predicted
by LBM are well compared with analytical solutions and finite volume method.

Keywords: LBM; lattice Boltzmann method; heat and mass diffusion; diffusion in
axis-symmetric geometries.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mohamad, A.A. (2009) ‘Lattice Boltzmann
Method for heat diffusion in axis-symmetric geometries’, Progress in Computational Fluid
Dynamics, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp.490–494.

Biographical notes: A.A. Mohamad is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical

Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada. He graduated with a PhD from Purdue University,
W. Lafayette, USA and MSc and BSc from Baghdad University, Iraq. He is the author and
co-author of more than 180 technical papers. He wrote the book Applied Lattice Boltzmann
Method for Transport Phenomena, Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer. He has organised and
chaired a few conferences on Computational Methods and Transports in Porous Media. He has
been invited as a keynote speaker by a few institutes around the world. He is a ASME Fellow
member.

1 Introduction Peng et al. (2003) analysed Czochralski crystal growth

in a cylinder by using LBM. They modelled the governing
LBM is introduced in late 1980 as a valid tool for fluid flow
equations in Cartesian coordinate system with extra
simulations, especially for multi-phase and complex
source terms. Hence, they avoid using 3-D LBM for
geometries (Gunstensen et al., 1991; Chen and Doolen,
axis-symmetric problem. In this paper a similar approached
1998). The method extended to solve heat transfer problems
is used by approximating the extra term arises due to
without and with phase change (Ho et al., 2002; Jiaung
variation of the surface area along the radial direction
et al., 2001), with radiation effect (Mishra and Lankadasu,
by finite difference. The results of the simulations are well
2005). The beauty of LBM lays on it is simplicity for coding
compared with analytical solutions. To insure that the
and using one equation to extract needed information.
results are general, heat conduction in cylindrical as well as
For instance, in conventional CFD methods, we need to
spherical geometries are examined for steady and unsteady
solve pressure, pressure correction, momentum equations
cases.
to extract velocity and pressure fields for incompressible
flows, which is not the case for LBM. Also, LBM is linear
equation, where nonlinearity is implicitly imbedded in the 1.1 Heat diffusion equation
collision operator. However, no method is perfect and free One-dimensional heat diffusion equation for a constant
of drawbacks. Interested reader, references on the topic is thermal diffusivity coefficient with heat source can be
suggested, such as (Succi, 2001; Mohamad, 2007). written as,
Wolf-Gladrow (1995, 2000) applied LBM to solve heat
diffusion problem. Van der Sman (2004) solved diffusion ∂T α ∂  n ∂T  αQ
= r + . (1)
equation on unstructured grids. All mentioned references ∂t r n ∂r  ∂r  k
use Cartesian coordinate system.

Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Lattice Boltzmann Method for heat diffusion in axis-symmetric geometries 491

The exponent n takes 0–2 for Cartesian, cylindrical and
spherical coordinate systems, respectively. In the above
equation, α, k, Q and T are stands for thermal diffusivity,
thermal conductivity, rate of heat generation per unit
volume and temperature, respectively.
Analytical solution for heat conduction (steady state) in
cylindrical shell without heat generation can be written as,
1 The notations are the same as for Equation (2).
θ= ln( R p )
ln( Rr )
where θ = (T – Ti)/(To – Ti), Rr = ro/ri and Rp = r/ri.
Figure 1(a) shows the cylindrical geometry as well
as spherical geometry with coordinate system. The
temperatures at the inner (r = ri) and outer (r = ro) surfaces
of the cylinder are donated as Ti and To, respectively.
Steady state temperature distribution in a solid cylinder
or solid sphere (Fig. 1(b)) with outer surface of To and with
uniform heat generation can be obtained by solving
Equation (1) and yields,
θ g = 1 − ( Rg ) 2
where θ g = m k (T − Ts ) /(Qr ) and Rg = r / ro .
2 written as
o
For solid cylinder m = 4 and for solid sphere m = 6.
Figure 1 Show geometrical notations for cylindrical as well as
spherical shells and solids, respectively: (a) top
and (b) bottom
(a)
For spherical shell geometry with same notations as in
Figure 1(a), the temperature distribution due to heat
conduction without heat generation can be expressed as,
Rr  1 
θ=  1 −  (4)
Rr − 1  R p 
where Rp = r/ri.
(2)
For a solid sphere with heat generation (as in
Fig. 1(b)), the analytical solution yields,
θ g , s = 1 − ( Rg ) 2 (5)
where Rg = r/ro.
Which same as Equation (3), except that the
dimensionless temperature is scaled as,
θ g ,s = 6k (T − Ts ) /(Qro2 ).
1.2 Lattice Boltzmann
(3)
BGK Lattice Boltzmann equation with source term can be
 ∆t 
f i ( x + ei ∆t , t + ∆t ) = fi ( x, t ) 1 − 
 τ 
∆t
+ f i eq ( x, t ) + wi ∆t S . (6)
τ
In the above equation, fi is a set of discrete populations of
the probability of finding a fatuous particle at position x at
time t moving with discrete speed ei along links at each grid
point. The equilibrium distribution function is denoted
by f i eq . Time step of streaming along the links is
represented by ∆t. The relaxation time of the distribution
function is denoted by τ. S and wi are stand for source term
and weighting factors, respectively.
For one dimensional equation, two distribution
functions, f1 (forward) and f2 (backward) are used, moving
to the right with speed of e1 and to the left with speed of e2
from the central node, Figure 2. This scheme is called
D1Q2. The weighing factors, w1 and w2 are equal to 1/2.
Figure 2 Streaming notation on a representative lattice site

For simplicity ∆x is set equal to ∆t and equal to unity.

Then e1 = 1 and e2 = –1.
The temperature is sum of all distribution functions, i.e.,
T = f1 + f2. (7)
For ∆t equal to unity and ei = 1, the thermal diffusivity is
related to relaxation time (Wolf-Gladrow, 1995, 2000) as,
(b) τ = α + 0.5. (8)
492 A.A. Mohamad

The equilibrium distribution function is, diffusion in axi-symmetric without heat generation can be
expressed as,
f i eq = wi ( f1 + f 2 ). (9)
∂T ∂  ∂T  α∂  ∂T  α ∂T
where w1 = w2 = 0.5. =α  +  + . (14)
∂t ∂r  ∂r  ∂z  ∂z  r ∂r

1.3 Lattice Boltzmann for axis-symmetric geometries The above equation is solved by finite difference and
by LBM method as explained above. D2Q4 is used
Equation (1) can be expand as, (Mohamad, 2007). The last term in Equation (14) is treated
∂T ∂ 2T α n ∂T α Q as a source term similar to 1-D problem. Heat conduction
=α 2 + + . (10) through a cylindrical shell with outer radius three times
∂t ∂r r ∂r k of inner radius is tested. The inner surface of the shell is
Equation (10) is similar to diffusion equation in Cartesian kept at constant temperature of unity will the outer surface
coordinate system except with extra term and lateral surfaces are kept at zero temperature. The results
of prediction of finite difference and LBM are compared.
 α n ∂T 
 
 r ∂r 
4 Unsteady heat diffusion in a cylindrical shell
due to variation of surface area along the r-direction.
In LBM, this extra term can be treated as an extra source Furthermore, axial heat diffusion in a cylindrical shell is
term with central finite difference approximations, i.e., examined for a hollow cylinder, where the inner surface is
subjected to sinusoidal temperature variation,
α n ∂T α n (T j +1 − T j −1 )
= (11a) θI = sin(τ) (15)
r ∂r r 2∆r
where qi is dimensionless temperature and τ is
∂T
Or can be expressed as, dimensionless time defined as (tα / ri 2 ).
∂r The outer surface temperature is kept constant at zero
∂T −1 (dimensionless temperature, θ = 0). The dimensionless heat
= ( f1 − f 2 ). (11b) diffusion equation can be written as,
∂r τ
The above Equation (either 11(a) or (b)) can be used as ∂θ 1 ∂  ∂θ 
=  Rp  . (16)
source term in Equation (6), i.e., Equation (11) is set to S ∂τ R p ∂R p  ∂R p 
in Equation (6). At r = 0, the source term is set to zero,
because the temperature gradient due to symmetry The above equation is solved using finite volume and results
condition. Equation 11(b) is more accurate than are compared with LBM prediction for a cylinder of r/ri = 2.
Equation 11(a). Hence, Equation 11(b) is adopted in all Hence, α is absorbed in definition of time, therefore, for
calculations. LBM α is set to unity. Four distribution functions are used,
two in axial direction and two in redial direction.

2 Boundary conditions
5 Results and discussion
In the examples given either the temperature is given
at the boundary or the symmetry condition is given. Few cases were tested and results are compared with
At the wall outward distribution function is known analytical solutions. Steady state solution for heat
from streaming process. The inward distribution conduction in a cylindrical shell is given by Equation (2).
function can be found by evaluating the wall temperature LBM is used for many time steps, until steady state reached.
(Tw) as, The predicted result for temperature distribution in the
shell is well compared with analytical solution, Figure 3.
f inward = Tw − f outward . (12) Also, temperature distribution in a solid cylinder with
For symmetry condition, heat generations is well compared with analytical solution
(Eq. 3), Figure 4.
finward = f outward (13) Heat conduction in a spherical geometry with and
without heat generations as in the cases of cylindrical
i.e., at r = 0, f1 = f2. geometry is studied. Again, the results are well compared
with analytical solutions (Eq. 4), Figure 5. The results of
LBM prediction are compared with analytical solution for
3 Two-dimensional heat diffusion in
heat conduction in a solid sphere. It is found that there no
a cylindrical shell
noticeable difference between them as in the case of solid
The above method is extended to 2-D, axi-symmetric cylinder. Therefore, there is no need to add an extra figure
heat diffusion in a cylindrical shell. The equation for heat to the paper.
 Lattice Boltzmann Method for heat diffusion in axis-symmetric geometries
Figure 3 Temperature profile comparison between LBM
predictions and analytical solution for heat
conduction through a cylindrical shell
Figure 4 Temperature distribution comparison between LBM
prediction and analytical solution for heat conduction
in a solid cylinder with heat generation
Figure 5 Temperature profile comparison between LBM
predictions and analytical solution for heat conduction
through a spherical shell
Figure 5 shows isotherm comparison for 2-D case.
The predicted results of using FD and LBM are exactly
matching each other and it is difficult to see any difference
between two results.
For unsteady state case, time series for temperature
at different locations in the cylindrical shell were compared
between LBM and finite volume predictions, Figure 6.
493
The difference is not noticeable. As thermal wave attenuates
in the cylindrical shell as it penetrates towards the outer
surface, which reflects the physics of the problem.
Figure 6 Comparison between LBM (solid lines) and finite
volume (dashed lines) predictions for heat diffusion in
a cylindrical shell, subjected to sinusoidal variation of
inner surface temperature with time
6 Conclusions
Lattice Boltzmann method is extended to handle
axis-symmetric geometries and results are well compared
with analytical solutions. The method is illustrated for 1-D
and 2-D problems. Also, LBM solution for unsteady heat
diffusion in a cylindrical shell subjected to oscillatory
boundary conditions at the inner surface is tested and
compared with finite volume method. The paper introduced
a simple method to extend BGK-LBM for axis-symmetric
heat diffusion problems.
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494 A.A. Mohamad
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