A REVIEW OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) APPROACHES FOR THERMAL ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

Numerous scientific and technological applications, including differential equations, combustion, aircraft, autos,
refrigeration, propulsion, heat exchangers, & nuclear engineering, depend heavily on the coupling of heat transfer with fluid flow.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been effectively applied over the years to address a variety of conjugate heat transfer
and fluid flow issues using computers. The article provides an in-depth discussion of thermal and cooling methods based on
advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technologies in engineering. The analysis of key CFD techniques—i.e., conjugate
heat transfer, radiation-convection modeling, and multiphase phase-change processes—aims to achieve precise simulation of
coupled thermal phenomena. Various methods, including Design of Experiments (DOE), Response Surface Methodology (RSM),
domain decomposition, and AI-enabled approaches, are applied to CFD to enhance computational efficiency. Practical applications
in biomedical, mechanical, and missile engineering demonstrate the role of CFD in predicting performance, reducing costs, and
improving designs. A thorough literature review also helps identify the current trends and challenges in CFD-based thermal
analysis. The study presents an intelligent and efficient integrated framework for the CFD-driven thermal system design.