Pizza Oven CFD Analysis
SolidWorks Render of Pizza Oven
The final lab for my Fall 2020 Thermal Fluid Systems II class was to explore fluid flow and heat transfer of a chosen system through designing, completing, and analyzing a Comsol study. My partner and I chose to model and explore airflow/heat transfer in a traditional wood-fired pizza oven, more technically known as a masonry oven. We used SolidWorks to create an STL file of the model, and then ran a Comsol conjugate turbulent flow and heat transfer study. The purpose of this study was to explore airflow, subsequent ventilation effects, and heat transfer of the main baking dome.
Above are images of the simplified baking dome geometry (including the semicylinder representing firewood/heat source) used in the Comsol study. There are also two graphs representing the airflow and heat transfer analyses and results from our study.
This lab was a great exercise in not only analyzing simulation data of a real-life system but also in choosing the appropriate geometry, boundary conditions, etc. best suited for the system. Our results varied from realistic to somewhat unrealistic (which was expected due to oversimplifications), and we were able to gain a lot of technical CFD analysis skills as well as practice in comparing experimental and simulated data. Below is also a copy of our report!
