Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

A morphology adaptive modeling framework is derived that is able to handle computationally efficiently dispersed as well as resolved interfacial structures coexisting in the computational domain with the same set of equations. The Eulerian multi-field two-fluid model is combined with the compact momentum interpolation method for multiple phases, which has been proposed in the literature as an extension to the Rhie-Chow pressure-velocity coupling. Additionally to the interfacial drag force, the virtual mass force is consistently accounted for in the model. Utilizing a specialized interfacial drag formulation, large interfacial structures can be described with the presented method in a volume-of-fluid-like manner, additionally to the disperse description. The strong phase coupling due to the drag closure model in interfacial regions is resolved with a partial elimination algorithm, which is adapted to work in an approximate manner for more than two phases via a sum formulation. The presented model is implemented in the C++ library OpenFOAM and solver performance is compared to results obtained with the homogeneous model approach in two cases of a single rising gas bubble for two- and three-dimensional space, respectively. Additionally, for both three-dimensional cases, the results are compared to experimental data. Finally, the presented method’s capability of representing dispersed and resolved interfacial structures at the same time is demonstrated with two test cases: a two-dimensional gas bubble, rising in a liquid, which is laden with micro gas bubbles, and a two-dimensional stagnant stratification of water and oil, sharing a large-scale interface, which is penetrated by micro gas bubbles.