A diffuse interface method for simulation‐based screening of heat transfer processes with complex geometries

Monte, Elizabeth J.; Lowman, James; Abukhdeir, Nasser Mohieddin

doi:10.1002/cjce.24320

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…Instead of using a conformal mesh, the physical boundaries may be “embedded” in the problem, which has been a topic of research in the area of single-phase fluid mechanics for several decades, especially for fluid-structure interaction problems. Examples of past relevant work includes the use of the fictitious domain, immersed boundary, − and diffuse domain/interface − methods. Physical boundaries are defined in the embedded domain method through the use of a level-set function, a phase-field, or similar continuous indicator field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffuse-Interface Blended Method for Imposing Physical Boundaries in Two-Fluid Flows

Treeratanaphitak

Abukhdeir

2023

ACS Omega

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Multiphase flows are commonly found in chemical engineering processes such as distillation columns, bubble columns, fluidized beds and heat exchangers. The physical boundaries of domains in numerical simulations of multiphase flows are generally defined by a conformal unstructured mesh which, depending on the complexity of the physical system, results in time-consuming mesh generation which frequently requires user-intervention. Furthermore, the resulting conformal unstructured mesh could potentially contain a large number of skewed elements, which is undesirable for numerical stability and accuracy. The diffuse-interface approach allows for the use of a simple structured meshes to be used while still capturing the desired physical (e.g., solid−fluid) boundaries. In this work, a novel diffuse-interface method for the imposition of physical boundaries is developed for the incompressible two-fluid multiphase flow model. This model is appropriate for dispersed multiphase flows which are pervasive in chemical engineering processes, in that this flow regime results in high levels of mass and energy transfer between phases. A diffuse interface is used to define the physical boundaries and boundary conditions are imposed by blending the conservation equations from the two-fluid model with that of the nondeformable solid. The results from the diffuse-interface method are compared with results from a conformal unstructured mesh for different interface functions and widths. For small interface widths, the accuracy of the flow profile is unaffected by the choice of interface function and the phase fraction distribution and flow behavior are within 3% compared to those from a conformal mesh. As the interface width increases, the diffuse-interface solution deviates from the conformal mesh solution in both the localized gas fraction and the overall gas hold-up, resulting in a difference up to 30%. In the case of flow past a cylinder, where the solid interacts with the flow, the presence of the diffuse interface extends the thickness of the solid boundary and results in a deviation from the conformal mesh solution as time increases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffuse-Interface Blended Method for Imposing Physical Boundaries in Two-Fluid Flows

Treeratanaphitak

Abukhdeir

2023

ACS Omega

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OpenCMP: An Open-Source Computational Multiphysics Package

Monte¹,

Vasile²,

Lowman³

et al. 2022

JOSS

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OpenCMP is a computational multiphysics software package based on the finite element method (Ferziger & Perić, 2002). It is primarily intended for physicochemical processes in which fluid convection plays a significant role. OpenCMP uses the NGSolve finite element library (Schöberl, n.d.) for spatial discretization and provides a configuration file-based interface for pre-implemented models and time discretization schemes. It also integrates with Netgen (Schöberl, n.d.) and Gmsh (Geuzaine & Remacle, 2009) for geometry construction and meshing. Additionally, it provides users with built-in functionality for post-processing, error analysis, and data export for visualisation using Netgen (Schöberl, n.d.) or ParaView (Ahrens et al., 2005).OpenCMP development follows the principles of ease of use, performance, and extensibility. The configuration file-based user interface is intended to be concise, readable, and intuitive. Furthermore, the code base is structured and documented (Monte, Elizabeth J, 2021) such that experienced users with appropriate background can add their own models with minimal modifications to existing code. The finite element method enables the use of high-order polynomial interpolants for increased simulation accuracy, however, continuous finite element methods suffer from stability and accuracy (conservation) for fluid convection-dominated problems. OpenCMP addresses this by providing discontinuous Galerkin method (Cockburn et al., 2000) solvers, which are locally conservative and improve simulation stability for convectiondominated problems. Finally, OpenCMP implements the diffuse interface or diffuse domain method (Monte et al., 2021;Nguyen et al., 2018), which a type of continuous immersed boundary method (Mittal & Iaccarino, 2005). This method enables complex domains to be meshed by non-conforming structured meshes for improved simulation stability and reduced computational complexity, under certain conditions (Monte et al., 2021).

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A diffuse interface method for simulation‐based screening of heat transfer processes with complex geometries

Cited by 2 publications

References 30 publications

Diffuse-Interface Blended Method for Imposing Physical Boundaries in Two-Fluid Flows

Diffuse-Interface Blended Method for Imposing Physical Boundaries in Two-Fluid Flows

OpenCMP: An Open-Source Computational Multiphysics Package

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