Numerical Simulation of Gas–liquid Swirling Flow Based on OpenFOAM
摘要
Gas–liquid swirling flow is used in the nuclear industry for better heat transfer, gas–liquid separation and so on. The lighter phase moves to the center, and the heavier phase moves to the pipe wall due to centrifugal force, which is caused by differences in density. This creates a unique distribution of gas and liquid phases with a continuous interface and small dispersed bubble particles. The flow patterns also have many changes, like from annular flow to slug flow. The Eulerian two-fluid model is good at capturing the dispersed phase dynamics in continuous gas–liquid flows due to its treatment of each phase as a continuous medium with distinct conservation equations, however, it is less effective in capturing the free surface of flow in the gas–liquid swirling flow. Combining with the VOF method, which stands out for its ability to track the intricate variations in interface scales by monitoring the volume fraction of each phase within computational cells, the Multi-Fluid VOF approach is suitable for simulating multiphase flow systems where two or more immiscible fluids interact and their interfaces need to be tracked accurately. The simulation method is tested using dambreak experiments, which show that the interfacial compression factor is important for simulating complex flows. Selecting a kind of swirl vane as a physical model, research focuses on analyzing its effects on pressure distribution, velocity distribution. When the interfacial compression factor is set to 1, the simulation results best match the physical process of gas–liquid swirling flow.