Computational Heat Transfer Using the Method of Second Moments

The Method of Second Moments is a unique numerical scheme developed in the early 1970s for species transport simulations. The ability of the quasi-Lagrangian method to exactly advect a quantity without numerical dispersion is one of its attractive features. The zeroth, first, and second moments correspond to the value of the quantity, the centroid, and the distribution spread within an elemental volume. Application of this method is particularly attractive for general heat transfer calculations, and provides subgrid scale accuracy even when using coarse grids. The method is simple to employ, fast, accurate, and serves as an alternative to more robust and complex methods utilizing mesh refinement techniques.