Numerical study of wave propagation in compressible two‐phase flow

We propose a new model and a solution method for two‐phase two‐fluid compressible flows. The model involves six equations obtained from conservation principles applied to a one‐dimensional flow of gas and liquid mixture completed by additional closure governing equations. The model is valid for pure fluids as well as for fluid mixtures. The system of partial differential equations with source terms is hyperbolic and has conservative form. Hyperbolicity is obtained using the principles of extended thermodynamics. Features of the model include the existence of real eigenvalues and a complete set of independent eigenvectors. Its numerical solution poses several difficulties. The model possesses a large number of acoustic and convective waves and it is not easy to upwind all of these accurately and simply. In this paper we use relatively modern shock‐capturing methods of a centred‐type such as the total variation diminishing (TVD) slope limiter centre (SLIC) scheme which solve these problems in a simple way and with good accuracy. Several numerical test problems are displayed in order to highlight the efficiency of the study we propose. The scheme provides reliable results, is able to compute strong shock waves and deals with complex equations of state. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A further work on multi‐phase two‐fluid approach for compressible multi‐phase flows

This paper is to continue our previous work Niu (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2001; 36 :351–371) on solving a two‐fluid model for compressible liquid–gas flows using the AUSMDV scheme. We first propose a pressure–velocity‐based diffusion term originally derived from AUSMDV scheme Wada and Liou (SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 1997; 18 (3):633—657) to enhance its robustness. The scheme can be applied to gas and liquid fluids universally. We then employ the stratified flow model Chang and Liou (J. Comput. Physics 2007; 225 :240–873) for spatial discretization. By defining the fluids in different regions and introducing inter‐phasic force on cell boundary, the stratified flow model allows the conservation laws to be applied on each phase, and therefore, it is able to capture fluid discontinuities, such as the fluid interfaces and shock waves, accurately. Several benchmark tests are studied, including the Ransom's Faucet problem, 1D air–water shock tube problems, 2D shock‐water column and 2D shock‐bubble interaction problems. The results indicate that the incorporation of the new dissipation into AUSM⁺‐up scheme and the stratified flow model is simple, accurate and robust enough for the compressible multi‐phase flows. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The numerical solution of the transient two‐phase flow in rigid pipelines

Consideration is given in this paper to the numerical solution of the transient two‐phase flow in rigid pipelines. The governing equations for such flows are two coupled, non‐linear, hyperbolic, partial differential equations with pressure dependent coefficients. The fluid pressure and velocity are considered as two principle dependent variables. The fluid is a homogeneous gas–liquid mixture for which the density is defined by an expression averaging the two‐component densities where a polytropic process of the gaseous phase is admitted. Instead of the void fraction, which varies with the pressure, the gas–fluid mass ratio (or the quality) is assumed to be constant, and is used in the mathematical formulation. The problem has been solved by the method of non‐linear characteristics and the finite difference conservative scheme. To verify their validity, the computed results of the two numerical techniques are compared for different values of the quality, in the case where the liquid compressibility and the pipe wall elasticity are neglected. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discretizing two‐dimensional complex fractured fields for incompressible two‐phase flow

A method is introduced to discretize irregular and complex two‐dimensional fractured media. The geometry of the fractured media is first analysed by searching and treating the complex configurations. Based on that, the method generated a good mesh quality and allows for including finer grids. An incompressible two‐phase flow problem is solved to compare the developed method and a public method based on the approximation of a 1D fracture by the edges of a 2D finite element grid of the porous media. The comparison showed that the developed method (i) represents better the fractured domain by maintaining the geometric integrity of input surfaces and geologic data, (ii) provides, for sample and complex fractured domains, excellent and more accurate results, and (iii) is much less sensitive to the grid sizes. Furthermore, the method has to be more efficient than the other methods for transport problems and has to provide better predictable results; this is mainly based on point (ii) and because the method produces optimal triangular grids. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of temporal and spatial high‐order schemes for two‐fluid seven‐equation two‐pressure model and its applications in two‐phase flow benchmark problems

Current existing main nuclear thermal‐hydraulics (T‐H) system analysis codes, such as RALAP5, TRACE, and CATHARE, play a crucial role in the nuclear engineering field for the design and safety analysis of nuclear reactor systems. However, two‐fluid model used in these T‐H system analysis codes is ill posed, easily leading to numerical oscillations, and the classical first‐order methods for temporal and special discretization are widely employed for numerical simulations, yielding excessive numerical diffusion. Two‐fluid seven‐equation two‐pressure model is of particular interest due to the inherent well‐posed advantage. Moreover, high‐order accuracy schemes have also attracted great attention to overcome the challenge of serious numerical diffusion induced by low‐order time and space schemes for accurately simulating nuclear T‐H problems. In this paper, the semi‐implicit solution algorithm with high‐order accuracy in space and time is developed for this well‐posed two‐fluid model and the robustness and accuracy are verified and assessed against several important two‐phase flow benchmark tests in the nuclear engineering T‐H field, which include two linear advection problems, the oscillation problem of the liquid column, the Ransom water faucet problem, the reversed water faucet problem, and the two‐phase shock tube problem. The following conclusions are achieved. (1) The proposed semi‐implicit solution algorithm is robust in solving two‐phase flows, even for fast transients and discontinuous solutions. (2) High‐order schemes in both time and space could prevent excessive numerical diffusion effectively and the numerical simulation results are more accurate than those of first‐order time and space schemes, which demonstrates the advantage of using high‐order schemes.     

A Roe scheme for a compressible six‐equation two‐fluid model

We derive a partially analytical Roe scheme with wave limiters for the compressible six‐equation two‐fluid model. Specifically, we derive the Roe averages for the relevant variables. First, the fluxes are split into convective and pressure parts. Then, independent Roe conditions are stated for these two parts. These conditions are successively reduced while defining acceptable Roe averages. For the convective part, all the averages are analytical. For the pressure part, most of the averages are analytical, whereas the remaining averages are dependent on the thermodynamic equation of state. This gives a large flexibility to the scheme with respect to the choice of equation of state. Furthermore, this model contains nonconservative terms. They are a challenge to handle right, and it is not the object of this paper to discuss this issue. However, the Roe averages presented in this paper are fully independent from how those terms are handled, which makes this framework compatible with any treatment of nonconservative terms. Finally, we point out that the eigenspace of this model may collapse, making the Roe scheme inapplicable. This is called resonance. We propose a fix to handle this particular case. Numerical tests show that the scheme performs well. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A gas‐kinetic scheme for the modified Baer–Nunziato model of compressible two‐phase flow

Numerical methods for the Baer–Nunziato model of compressible two‐phase flow have attracted much attention in recent years. In this paper, a two‐phase Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) model is constructed in which the non‐conservative terms in the Baer–Nunziato model are considered as the external forces and the collisions both with particles of their phases and other phases are taken into consideration. On the basis of this BGK model, the so‐called modified Baer–Nunziato model is derived and a gas‐kinetic scheme for this modified model is presented. The distribution functions are constructed at the cell interface based on the integral solutions of the BGK equations for both phases. Then, numerical fluxes can be obtained by taking moments of the distribution functions, and non‐conservative terms are explicitly introduced into the construction of numerical fluxes. In this method, not only the iterative processes in the exact Riemann solvers are eliminated but also the collisions with the particles of other phases are taken into account. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advection upwinding splitting method to solve a compressible two‐fluid model

In this study, the advection upwinding splitting method (AUSM) is modified for the resolution of two‐phase mixtures with interfaces. The compressible two‐fluid model proposed by Saurel and Abgrall is chosen as the model equations. Dense and dilute phases are described in terms of the volume fraction and equations of state to represent multi‐phase mixtures. Test cases involving an air–water shock tube, water faucet, and dilute particulate turbulent flows through a 90° bend are used to verify the current work. It is shown that the AUSM based on flux differences (AUSMD) contains the mechanism to correctly capture the contact discontinuity and interfaces between phases. In addition, a successful application to dilute particulate turbulence flows by the AUSMD is demonstrated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preconditioned Krylov subspace methods used in solving two‐dimensional transient two‐phase flows

This paper investigates the performance of preconditioned Krylov subspace methods used in a previously presented two‐fluid model developed for the simulation of separated and intermittent gas–liquid flows. The two‐fluid model has momentum and mass balances for each phase. The equations comprising this model are solved numerically by applying a two‐step semi‐implicit time integration procedure. A finite difference numerical scheme with a staggered mesh is used. Previously, the resulting linear algebraic equations were solved by a Gaussian band solver. In this study, these algebraic equations are also solved using the generalized minimum residual (GMRES) and the biconjugate gradient stabilized (Bi‐CGSTAB) Krylov subspace iterative methods preconditioned with incomplete LU factorization using the ILUT(p, τ) algorithm. The decrease in the computational time using the iterative solvers instead of the Gaussian band solver is shown to be considerable. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional modeling for stability analysis of two‐phase stratified flow

The effect of wavelength and relative velocity on the disturbed interface of two‐phase stratified regime is modeled and discussed. To analyze the stability, a small perturbation is imposed on the interface. Growth or decline of the disturbed wave, relative velocity, and surface tension with respect to time will be discussed numerically. Newly developed scheme applied to a two‐dimensional flow field and the governing Navier–Stokes equations in laminar regime are solved. Finite volume method together with non‐staggered curvilinear grid is a very effective approach to capture interface shape with time. Because of the interface shape, for any time advancement, a new grid is performed separately on each stratified field, liquid, and gas regime. The results are compared with the analytical characteristics method and one‐dimensional modeling. This comparison shows that solving the momentum equation including viscosity term leads to physically more realistic results. In addition, the newly developed method is capable of predicting two‐phase stratified flow behavior more precisely than one‐dimensional modeling. It was perceived that the surface tension has an inevitable role in dissipation of interface instability and convergence of the two‐phase flow model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of a thermodynamically compatible two‐phase flow model to the high‐resolution simulations of compressible gas–magma flow

This paper reports on the application and development of a fully hyperbolic and fully conservative two‐phase flow model for the simulation of gas and magma flow within volcanic processes. The model solves a set of mixture conservation equations for the gas and magma two‐phase flow with velocity non‐equilibrium. In this model, the effect of the relative velocity is introduced by a kinetic constitutive equation with other equations for volume and mass fractions of the gas phase. The model is examined numerically by the widely used finite volume Godunov methods of centered‐type. Using the Riemann problem, we numerically simulate wave propagation and the development of shocks and rarefactions in volcanic eruptions. These simulations are of magma fragmentation type where the relative velocity continues to dominate. A series of test cases whose solution contains features relevant to gas–magma mixtures are conducted. In particular, numerical results indicate that the model implementation predicts key features of the relative velocity within volcanic processes without any mathematical or physical simplifications. Simulation results are sharply and accurately provided without any spurious oscillations in all of the flow variables. The numerical methods and results are also compared with other numerical methods available in the literature. It is found that the provided resolutions are more accurate for the considered test cases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study of breaking waves by a two‐phase flow model

A two‐phase flow model, which solves the flow in the air and water simultaneously, is presented for modelling breaking waves in deep and shallow water, including wave pre‐breaking, overturning and post‐breaking processes. The model is based on the Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the k ?ε turbulence model. The governing equations are solved by the finite volume method in a Cartesian staggered grid and the partial cell treatment is implemented to deal with complex geometries. The SIMPLE algorithm is utilised for the pressure‐velocity coupling and the air‐water interface is modelled by the interface capturing method via a high resolution volume of fluid scheme. The numerical model is validated by simulating overturning waves on a sloping beach and over a reef, and deep‐water breaking waves in a periodic domain, in which good agreement between numerical results and available experimental measurements for the water surface profiles during wave overturning is obtained. The overturning jet, air entrainment and splash‐up during wave breaking have been captured by the two‐phase flow model, which demonstrates the capability of the model to simulate free surface flow and wave breaking problems.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interface transport scheme of a two‐phase flow by the method of characteristics

In this paper, we study an interface transport scheme of a two‐phase flow of an incompressible viscous immiscible fluid. The problem is discretized by the characteristics method in time and finite elements method in space. The interface is captured by the level set function. Appropriate boundary conditions for the problem of mold filling are investigated, a new natural boundary condition under pressure effect for the transport equation is proposed, and an algorithm for computing the solution is presented. Finally, numerical experiments show and validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Riemann solver and upwind methods for a two‐phase flow model in non‐conservative form

We present a theoretical solution for the Riemann problem for the five‐equation two‐phase non‐conservative model of Saurel and Abgrall. This solution is then utilized in the construction of upwind non‐conservative methods to solve the general initial‐boundary value problem for the two‐phase flow model in non‐conservative form. The basic upwind scheme constructed is the non‐conservative analogue of the Godunov first‐order upwind method. Second‐order methods in space and time are then constructed via the MUSCL and ADER approaches. The methods are systematically assessed via a series of test problems with theoretical solutions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A compressible single‐temperature conservative two‐phase model with phase transitions

A model for multidimensional compressible two‐phase flow with pressure and velocity relaxations based on the theory of thermodynamically compatible system is extended to study liquid–gas flows with cavitation. The model assumes for each phase its own pressure and velocity, while a common temperature is considered. The governing equations form a hyperbolic system in conservative form and are derived through the theory of a thermodynamically compatible system. The phase pressure‐equalizing process and the interfacial friction are taken into account in the balance laws for the volume fractions of one phase and for the relative velocity by adding two relaxation source terms, while the phase transition is introduced into the model considering in the balance equation for the mass of one phase the relaxation of the Gibbs free energies of the two phases. A modification of the central finite‐volume Kurganov–Noelle–Petrova method is adopted in this work to solve the homogeneous hyperbolic part, while the relaxation source terms are treated implicitly. In order to investigate the effect of the mass transfer in the solution, a 1D cavitation tube problem is presented. In addition, two 2D numerical simulations regarding cavitation problem are also studied: a cavitating Richtmyer–Meshkov instability and a laser‐induced cavitation problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mathematical modelling of two‐phase non‐Newtonian flow in a helical pipe

Governing equations for a two‐phase 3D helical pipe flow of a non‐Newtonian fluid with large particles are derived in an orthogonal helical coordinate system. The Lagrangian approach is utilized to model solid particle trajectories. The interaction between solid particles and the fluid that carries them is accounted for by a source term in the momentum equation for the fluid. The force‐coupling method (FCM), developed by M.R. Maxey and his group, is adopted; in this method the momentum source term is no longer a Dirac delta function but is spread on a numerical mesh by using a finite‐sized envelop with a spherical Gaussian distribution. The influence of inter‐particle and particle–wall collisions is also taken into account. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The basic character of five two‐phase flow model equation sets

Three test problems were simulated using five different two‐phase flow model equation sets from the open literature. The test problems chosen were a fluidized bed, a batch settling, and a horizontal jet impingement on a vertical wall. These three problems demonstrate an important cross‐section of physical phenomena, such as fluidized bed voidage oscillations, phase separation, countercurrent flow, and jet formation. The dispersed flow regime is selected for all three problems. The study was performed to assess the basic character of the five‐field equation sets responding to the same initial and boundary conditions and using the same finite difference numerical scheme. The general performance of the five equation sets was found to be similar, even though one of them was ill posed as an initial‐value problem. Broad trends are the same and quantitative differences could be assessed by examining the fine structure of the results. None of the equation sets could be entirely rejected on the basis of producing physically impossible or unacceptable results. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monotone nonlinear finite‐volume method for nonisothermal two‐phase two‐component flow in porous media

This article presents a new nonlinear finite‐volume scheme for the nonisothermal two‐phase two‐component flow equations in porous media. The face fluxes are approximated by a nonlinear two‐point flux approximation, where transmissibilities nonlinearly depend on primary variables. Thereby, we mainly follow the ideas proposed by Le Potier combined with a harmonic averaging point interpolation strategy for the approximation of arbitrary heterogeneous permeability fields on polygonal grids. The behavior of this interpolation strategy is analyzed, and its limitation for highly anisotropic permeability tensors is demonstrated. Moreover, the condition numbers of occurring matrices are compared with linear finite‐volume schemes. Additionally, the convergence behavior of iterative solvers is investigated. Finally, it is shown that the nonlinear scheme is more efficient than its linear counterpart. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extension of a high‐resolution scheme to 1D liquid–gas flow

This paper presents the extension of a high‐resolution conservative scheme to the one‐dimensional one‐pressure six‐equation two‐fluid flow model. Only mixtures of water and air have been considered in this study, both fluids have been characterized using simple equations of state, namely stiffened gas for the liquid phase and perfect gas for the gas phase. The resulting scheme is explicit and first‐order accurate in space and time. A second‐order version of the scheme has also been derived using the MUSCL strategy and slope limiters. Some numerical results show the good capabilities of this type of schemes in the solution of discontinuities in two‐fluid flow problems, all of them are based on water/air numerical benchmarks widely used in the two‐phase flow literature. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical solution of the two‐phase expansion of a metastable flashing liquid jet using the dispersion‐controlled dissipative scheme

This paper presents a study of the stationary phenomenon of superheated or metastable liquid jets, flashing into a two‐dimensional axisymmetric domain, while in the two‐phase region. In general, the phenomenon starts off when a high‐pressure, high‐temperature liquid jet emerges from a small nozzle or orifice expanding into a low‐pressure chamber, below its saturation pressure taken at the injection temperature. As the process evolves, crossing the saturation curve, one observes that the fluid remains in the liquid phase reaching a superheated condition. Then, the liquid undergoes an abrupt phase change by means of an oblique evaporation wave. Across this phase change the superheated liquid becomes a two‐phase high‐speed mixture in various directions, expanding to supersonic velocities. In order to reach the downstream pressure, the supersonic fluid continues to expand, crossing a complex bow shock wave. The balance equations that govern the phenomenon are mass conservation, momentum conservation, and energy conservation, plus an equation‐of‐state for the substance. A false‐transient model is implemented using the shock capturing scheme: dispersion‐controlled dissipative (DCD), which was used to calculate the flow conditions as the steady‐state condition is reached. Numerical results with computational code DCD‐2D v1 have been analyzed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.