Atomizing industrial gas-liquid flows - development of an efficient hybrid VOF-LPT numerical framework

Journal article, 2016

Atomizing gas-liquid flows are used in industrial applications where high interphase heat and mass transfer rates and good mixing are of primary importance. Today, there is no single mathematical framework available to predict the entire liquid breakup process at an acceptable computational cost for a typical problem of industrial size. In this work, we develop a volume-of-fluid (VOF) framework that is combined with Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT) to take advantage of the respective strengths of these two approaches. The two frameworks are coupled via a statistical model that enables a transition from the VOF to the LPT formulation using input data about the primary breakup process obtained from detailed VOF simulations in dedicated switching zones. LPT-to-VOF transitions are handled directly by analyzing the proximity of LPT parcels to larger VOF structures. The combined framework is specifically designed to accommodate situations where atomization occurs in several locations simultaneously and when separated and dispersed turbulent gas-liquid flows co-exist in the same industrial unit. The procedure in which the statistical model is derived is presented and discussed, its performance is verified and the computational efficiency of the combined VOF-LPT model is assessed.Finally, the application of the coupled framework to the simulation of an industrial gas-liquid mixer with four separate atomization regions is presented.