Convected level set method for the numerical simulation of fluid buckling

‘Fluid buckling’ is a phenomenon characterized mainly by the existence of fluid toroidal oscillations during flow. It appears when a high viscosity fluid flows vertically against a flat surface and may occur in industrial applications, as in injection molding of a propergol in complex‐shaped cavities. These coiling or folding oscillations appear during the mold filling stage, leading to air entrapment. To understand and to model this free surface flow problem, a convected level set method is proposed. First, a sinus filter is applied to the distance function to get a smooth truncation far from the interface. Second, the reinitialization is embedded in the transport equation model, avoiding it as a separate step during calculation. In order to validate the method, numerical results are presented on classical interface capturing benchmarks. Finally, results are shown on two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional viscous jet buckling problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of primary break-up and atomization: DNS and modelling study

This work deals with numerical simulations of atomization with high Weber and Reynolds values. A special attention has been devoted to the modelling of primary break-up. Due to progress of direct numerical simulations (DNS) of two phase flows it is now possible to simulate the primary break-up of a Diesel spray [Menard, T., Tanguy, S., Berlemont, A., 2007. Coupling level set/VOF/ghost fluid methods: validation and application to 3D simulation of the primary break-up of a liquid jet. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 33 (5), 510–524]. The present formulation of the so-called ELSA (Eulerian–Lagrangian Spray Atomization model) [Vallet, A., Borghi, R., 1999. Modélisation Eulerienne de L’atomisation d’un Jet Liquide. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. II b 327, 1015–1020] for atomization is presented and evaluated in the dense zone of the spray by comparison to a DNS based on a coupled level set/VOF/ghost fluid method. Once constants and parameters of the model are fixed thanks to comparisons with DNS, the model is tested with experimental data. The liquid and vapour penetrations show a good agreement when they are compared to experiments of Diesel atomization. In particular the influence of the gas temperature is well recovered. For different temperatures, similarly to the experiments, vapour penetrations are unchanged, but the corresponding equivalent ratio fields are strongly modified. Finally, the combustion model ECFM-3Z [Colin, O., Benkenida, A., 2004. The 3-zones extended coherent flame model (ecfm-3z) for computing premixed/diffusion combustion. Oil Gas Sci. Technol. 59 (6) 593–609] is joined to the ELSA model and the effect of gas temperature changes on a Diesel spray flame is reproduced.     

Modeling and simulation of the viscoelastic fluid mold filling process by level set method

A model for unifying a viscoelastic fluid and a Newtonian fluid is established, in which the governing equations for the viscoelastic fluid and the Newtonian fluid are successfully united into a system of generalized Navier–Stokes equations. A level set method is set up to solve the model for capturing the moving interface in the mold filling process. The physical governing equations are solved by the finite volume method on a non-staggered grid and the interpolation technique on the collocated grid is used for the pressure-velocity and the stress-velocity decoupling problems. The level set and its reinitialization equation are solved by the finite difference method, in which the spatial derivatives are discretized by the 5th-order Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) scheme, and the temporal derivatives are discretized by the 3rd-order Total Variation Diminishing Runge–Kutta (TVD-R–K) scheme. The validity of the method is verified by some benchmark problems. Then a simulation of viscoelastic fluid mold filling process is pursued with the method. The moving interface and all the information of the physical quantities during the injection process are captured. The die swelling phenomenon is found in the simulation. The influences of elasticity and viscosity on the physical quantities such as stresses etc. in the mold filling process are analyzed. Numerical results show that elastic characteristics such as the stretch and die swelling etc. reinforce accordingly as Weissenberg number increases. Pressures increase continuously in the mold filling process and the pressure maintains the maximum value at the inlet. Injection velocity is proportional to injection pressure. A higher viscosity leads to a higher pressure distribution, that is, the pressure decreases as Reynolds number increases.     

基于Level Set方法对油水和气水两相界面的数值模拟

为研究两相界面迁移特性,基于LevelSet方法,建立了求解非定常不可压缩两相界面流动的数值方法。计算中使用结构化网格采用LevelSet函数捕捉两相界面。通过对经典算例的模拟,验证了数值方法对界面捕捉的有效性和精确性。模拟了油滴在水中上升、变形,与油层融合的过程,研究了气泡在产生、发展、脱离阶段的变形机理,和表面张力系数对气泡形状的影响。计算结果发现,表面张力系数越大,气泡在发展阶段持续的时间就越长,膨胀的程度也越大,并在脱离时刻,气泡的体积也越大,为进一步研究两相界面迁移特性提供了新的途径。     

Experimental characterization of the spreading and break-up of liquid flat-fan sheets discharging in a low-density atmosphere and application to BrLi solutions

This work presents and characterizes the existence of two different regimes in the spreading and break-up of liquid flat-fan sheets when discharging in low-density atmospheres. The motivation of the study is the improvement on the absorption phenomena of lithium bromide aqueous solution when discharging in a 600–1,500 Pa water vapor environment. This corresponds to the absorber conditions in current absorption closed-cycle cooling machines. Despite this, the dimensionless characterization obtained has universal validity. The conditions that define the change in the break-up regime, the dimensionless sheet break-up length and the break-up time are given as a function of the parameters involved. Digital particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) has been applied to measure the velocity field and additional visualization techniques have been used to further characterize the break-up process. The experiments verify the existence of critical gas-to-liquid density and viscosity ratios below which gas to liquid interaction becomes negligible. The article also offers expressions that define their values as a function of the other dimensionless parameters.     

Application of the VOF method to the sloshing of a fluid in a partially filled cylindrical container

In a previous work we solved numerically the steady-state motion of an ideal fluid that fills a moving cylindrical container with partitions, and were able to compute the equivalent moments of inertia. Here we extend this work in two steps. First we introduce time dependence and then free surfaces, and are able to compute the transient motion of the fluid not filling the container. The main body of the work has to do with the treatment of free surfaces. Our approach is an extention to three dimensions of the volume of fluid method of Hirt and Nichols. The solution algorithm is outlined, and two examples that demonstrate its capability are presented.     

The EHD-driven fluid flow and deformation of a liquid jet by a transverse electric field

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a uniform transverse electric field on the steady-state behavior of a liquid cylinder surrounded by another liquid of infinite extent. The governing electrohydrodynamic equations are solved for Newtonian and immiscible fluids in the framework of leaky-dielectric theory and in the limit of small electric field and fluid inertia. A detailed analysis of the electrical and hydrodynamic stresses acting on the interface separating the two fluids is presented, and an expression is found for the interface deformation for small distortions from a circular shape. The electrical stresses acting on the interface of two leaky-dielectric liquids are compared with those acting on an interface separating a perfect dielectric or infinitely conducting core fluid cylinder from a surrounding perfect dielectric fluid. A comparison is made between the results of this study and those of a similar study for fluids with permeable interfaces and the classical results for liquid drops.     

Simulation of liquid jet primary breakup: Dynamics of ligament and droplet formation

Primary atomization of liquid injected at high speed into still air is investigated to elucidate physical processes by direct numerical simulation. With sufficient grid resolution, ligament and droplet formation can be captured in a physically sound way. Ligament formation is triggered by the liquid jet tip roll-up, and later ligaments are also produced from the disturbed liquid core surface in the upstream. Ligament production direction is affected by gas vortices. Disturbances are fed from the liquid jet tip toward upstream through vortices and droplet re-collision. When the local gas Weber number is O(1), ligaments are created, thus the ligament or droplet scale becomes smaller as the bulk Weber number increases. Observation of droplet formation from a ligament provides insights into the relevance between the actual droplet formation and pinch-off from a slow liquid jet in laboratory experiments. In the spray, the dominant mode is the short-wave mode driven by propagative capillary wave from the ligament tip. An injection nozzle that is necessary for a slow jet is absent for a ligament, thus the long-wave (Rayleigh) mode is basically not seen without the effect of stretch. By the present simulation, a series of physical processes have been revealed. The present result will be extended to LES modeling in the future.     

Simulation of the primary breakup of a high-viscosity liquid jet by a coaxial annular gas flow

The conversion of low-grade fossil and biogenic energy resources (petcoke, biomass) to a synthesis gas in a high pressure entrained flow gasification process opens a wide spectrum for high efficient energy conversion processes. The synthesis gas can be used for production of methane (SNG), liquid fuels (BtL, CtL) or as fuel for operation of a gas turbine in a combined cycle power plant (IGCC). The production of a tar free high quality syngas is a challenging objective especially due to the fact that typical liquid or suspension fuels for entrained flow gasifiers feature viscosities up to 1000 mPas. Fuel droplet conversion at typical entrained flow gasification conditions is characterized by heat up, evaporation and subsequent degradation of the vapour phase. To guarantee a high fuel conversion rate in the gasifier an efficient atomization of the fuel is required. Mainly twin-fluid burner nozzles are used for atomization of those typically high viscous fuels. The present study is focused on the assessment of the accuracy of CFD computations for the primary breakup of high-viscosity liquids using an external mixing twin fluid nozzle. In a first step experiments were performed with a Newtonian glycerol-water-mixture featuring a liquid viscosity of 400 mPas. Jet breakup was investigated using a high speed camera as well as PIV and LDA-System for a detailed investigation of the flow field. In a second step the experimental results serve as reference data to assess the accuracy of CFD computations. Compressible large eddy simulations (LES) were performed to capture the morphology of the primary breakup as well as the important flow field characteristics. A Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach was used to track the unsteady evolution and breakup of the liquid jet. Comparison of experimental and numerical results showed good agreement with respect to breakup frequency, velocity fields and morphology.     

On the efficiency of linearization schemes and coupled multigrid methods in the simulation of a 3D flow around a cylinder

This paper studies the efficiency of two ways to treat the non‐linear convective term in the time‐dependent incompressible Navier–Stokes equations and of two multigrid approaches for solving the arising linear algebraic saddle point problems. The Navier–Stokes equations are discretized by a second‐order implicit time stepping scheme and by inf–sup stable, higher order finite elements in space. The numerical studies are performed at a 3D flow around a cylinder. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation on the similarity of a 3D rectangular turbulent jet

 The paper presents an experimental investigation of turbulent jets issuing from rectangular nozzles. Nozzles with aspect ratios between 3 and 10 were used. Eight different initial conditions were studied. The following jet parameters were measured and evaluated: mean velocity components, jet boundaries, jet momentum, jet entrainment, turbulence intensities and Reynolds stresses. A DISA 55M thermoanemometer and a data acquisition system BE256 were used. The influence of the initial conditions on the similarity of the flow was determined with respect to the mean axial velocity, turbulence intensity and the Reynolds stresses. A significant influence of the initial conditions on the flow structure was observed. The possibility for jet control is discussed and suggestions are given about the need to investigate different parameters. Received: 25 November 1996/Accepted: 30 October 1997     

From level set to volume of fluid and back again at second‐order accuracy

We present methods for computing either the level set function or volume fraction field from the other at second‐order accuracy. Both algorithms are optimal in that O(N) computations are needed for N total grid points and both algorithms are easily parallelized. This work includes a novel interface reconstruction algorithm in three dimensions that requires a smaller local block of volume fractions than existing algorithms. A compact local solver leads to better algorithm portability and efficiency: for example, fewer restrictions must be imposed on an adaptive mesh, and fewer grid cells must be communicated between processors in a parallel implementation. We also present a fast sweeping method for computing a unique approximation of the signed distance function to a piecewise linear interface. All of the numerical examples confirm second‐order accuracy on both uniform and tree‐based adaptive grids. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of a volumetrically charged dielectric fluid jet accelerated in an electric field collinear to the jet

In the approximation linear in the amplitude of capillary waves (generally nonaxisymmetric) on the surface of a volumetrically charged dielectric fluid jet accelerated in an external electrostatic field collinear to the jet axis, a dispersion equation is derived and analyzed. It is shown that for certain values of physical parameters the effect of the external electric field stabilizing the capillary waves and the destabilizing effect of the capillary forces and the electrostatic forces exerted by the jet charge may compensate one another for both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric, with a high degree of asymmetry, waves. The instability of flexural waves cannot be suppressed completely and can be realized for sufficiently small wave numbers.     

Level‐set based numerical simulation of a migrating and dissolving liquid drop in a cylindrical cavity

In the present paper the dissolution of a binary liquid drop having a miscibility gap and migrating due to thermo‐solutal capillary convection in a cylindrical cavity is studied numerically. The interest in studying this problem is twofold. From a side, in the absence of gravity, capillary migration is one of the main physical mechanisms to set into motion dispersed liquid phases and from the other side, phase equilibria of multi‐component liquid systems, ubiquitous in applications, often exhibit a miscibility gap. The drop capillary migration is due to an imposed temperature gradient between the cavity top and bottom walls. The drop dissolution is due to the fact that initial composition and volume values, and thermal boundary conditions are only compatible with a final single phase equilibrium state. In order to study the drop migration along the cavity and the coupling with dissolution, a previously developed planar two‐dimensional code is extended to treat axis‐symmetric geometries. The code is based on a finite volume formulation. A level‐set technique is used for describing the dynamics of the interface separating the different phases and for mollifying the interface discontinuities between them. The level‐set related tools of redistancing and off‐interface extension are used to enhance code resolution in the critical interface region. Migration speeds and volume variations are determined for different drop radii. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study on the extension of a VOF/PLIC based method to a curvilinear co-ordinate system

The conventional volume-of-fluid method has the potential to deal with large free surface deformation on a fixed Cartesian grid. However, when free-surface flows are within or over complex geometries of industrial relevance, such as free-surface flows over offshore oil platforms, it is advantageous to extend the method originally written in Cartesian forms into non-Cartesian forms. In the present study, an algorithm similar to the algorithm described by Rudman in 1997 is proposed for use with curvilinear co-ordinates. This extension results in the ability to model complex geometries which could not be modelled using the original algorithm. Excellent agreement between the solutions obtained on both orthogonal and non-orthogonal meshes is achieved, although in general the L ₁ error, based on the exact solution, on the non-orthogonal mesh is slightly higher than that on the orthogonal mesh. The extended fluid flow solving capacity of the present method is demonstrated through its application to a non-orthogonal Rayleigh–Taylor instability problem.     

Global modes in a confined impinging jet: application to heat transfer and control

We investigate the stability and control of a plane, laminar jet impinging on a flat plate in a channel, a geometry used to cool down a hot wall with a cold air jet in many industrial configurations. The global stability analysis indicates that, even for a strong confinement, the two-dimensional (2-D) steady flow is unstable to three-dimensional (3-D), steady perturbations. In the simplest limit case where dilatation effects are neglected, we show that the development of the instability induces a significant spanwise modulation of the heat flux at the impacted wall. To control the leading global mode, we propose adjoint-based 3-D harmonic and 2-D steady forcing in the bulk or at the wall. We show for instance that the unstable mode is controllable using a spanwise uniform blowing at the upper wall, in a specific domain corresponding to the footprint of the upper recirculating bubble. These techniques are applied to a novel open-loop control, in which we introduce into the flow a small airfoil, modelled by the lift force it exerts on the flow.     

The application of a 3D PTV algorithm to a mixed convection flow

A 3D particle-tracking velocimetry (PTV) algorithm is applied to the wake flow behind a heated cylinder. The method is tested in advance with respect to its accuracy and performance. In the accuracy tests, its capability to locate particles in 3D space is tested. It appears that the algorithm can determine the particle position with an accuracy of less than 0.5 camera pixels, equivalent to 0.3 mm in the present test situation. The performance tests show that for particles located in a 2D plane, the algorithm can track the particles with a vector yield reaching 100%, which means that a velocity vector can be determined for almost all particles detected. The calculated velocity vectors for this situation have a standard deviation of less than 1%. The performance is also tested on a mixed convection flow behind a heated cylinder in which the 2D flow transits into a 3D flow. As there is no exact solution of such a flow available, the 3D PTV results are compared with visualisation results. The results show that the 3D PTV method can capture the main features of the 3D transition of the 2D vortex street.     

Numerical simulation of bubble and droplet deformation by a level set approach with surface tension in three dimensions

In this paper we present a three‐dimensional Navier–Stokes solver for incompressible two‐phase flow problems with surface tension and apply the proposed scheme to the simulation of bubble and droplet deformation. One of the main concerns of this study is the impact of surface tension and its discretization on the overall convergence behavior and conservation properties. Our approach employs a standard finite difference/finite volume discretization on uniform Cartesian staggered grids and uses Chorin's projection approach. The free surface between the two fluid phases is tracked with a level set (LS) technique. Here, the interface conditions are implicitly incorporated into the momentum equations by the continuum surface force method. Surface tension is evaluated using a smoothed delta function and a third‐order interpolation. The problem of mass conservation for the two phases is treated by a reinitialization of the LS function employing a regularized signum function and a global fixed point iteration. All convective terms are discretized by a WENO scheme of fifth order. Altogether, our approach exhibits a second‐order convergence away from the free surface. The discretization of surface tension requires a smoothing scheme near the free surface, which leads to a first‐order convergence in the smoothing region. We discuss the details of the proposed numerical scheme and present the results of several numerical experiments concerning mass conservation, convergence of curvature, and the application of our solver to the simulation of two rising bubble problems, one with small and one with large jumps in material parameters, and the simulation of a droplet deformation due to a shear flow in three space dimensions. Furthermore, we compare our three‐dimensional results with those of quasi‐two‐dimensional and two‐dimensional simulations. This comparison clearly shows the need for full three‐dimensional simulations of droplet and bubble deformation to capture the correct physical behavior. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.