COMSOL Multiphysics offers physics interfaces for heat transfer and fluid flow computations. These interfaces have model inputs that make it possible to couple the physics. In addition, COMSOL Multiphysics and the Heat Transfer Module contain multiphysics coupling interfaces that facilitate the coupling between heat transfer and fluid flow interfaces: Temperature Coupling, Flow Coupling, and Nonisothermal Flow can be used to couple fluid flow and heat transfer interfaces.

All these options make it possible to build a coupling in different ways. Even if the use of the predefined multiphysics coupling interfaces — Nonisothermal Flow and Conjugate Heat Transfer — is the preferred choice, other alternatives can be of interest in particular cases. This section describes the possibility for coupling heat transfer and fluid flow interface and lists the advantages and limitations of each approach.

See The Laminar Flow Interface, The Turbulent Flow, Algebraic yPlus Interface, The Turbulent Flow, L-VEL Interface, The Turbulent Flow, k-ε Interface, and The Turbulent Flow, Low Re k-ε Interface in the CFD Module User’s Guide for a description of the laminar and turbulent single-phase flow interfaces.

See Domain, Boundary, Pair, and Point Nodes for Single-Phase Flow in the CFD Module User’s Guide for a description of the nodes associated to these interfaces.