Lattice Boltzmann methods for multiphase flow and phase-change heat transfer

Abstract

Over the past few decades, tremendous progress has been made in the development of particle-based discrete simulation methods versus the conventional continuum-based methods. In particular, the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method has evolved from a theoretical novelty to a ubiquitous, versatile and powerful computational methodology for both fundamental research and engineering applications. It is a kinetic-based mesoscopic approach that bridges the microscales and macroscales, which offers distinctive advantages in simulation fidelity and computational efficiency. Applications of the LB method are now found in a wide range of disciplines including physics, chemistry, materials, biomedicine and various branches of engineering. The present work provides a comprehensive review of the LB method for thermofluids and energy applications, focusing on multiphase flows, thermal flows and thermal multiphase flows with phase change. The review first covers the theoretical framework of the LB method, revealing certain inconsistencies and defects as well as common features of multiphase and thermal LB models. Recent developments in improving the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic consistency, reducing spurious currents, enhancing the numerical stability, etc., are highlighted. These efforts have put the LB method on a firmer theoretical foundation with enhanced LB models that can achieve larger liquid-gas density ratio, higher Reynolds number and flexible surface tension. Examples of applications are provided in fuel cells and batteries, droplet collision, boiling heat transfer and evaporation, and energy storage. Finally, further developments and future prospect of the LB method are outlined for thermofluids and energy applications.3

Computing interface curvature from volume fractions: A hybrid approach

“…A holistic overview of these methods is presented by Scardovelli and Zaleski (1999). Examples include the Volume of Fluid (Hirt and Nichols, 1981), Level Set (Sussman et al, 1994), Front-Tracking (Tryggvason et al, 2001), multiphase Lattice-Boltzmann (Li et al, 2016) and moving-grids (Takagi et al, 1997) methods.…”

Chemical-potential-based lattice Boltzmann method for nonideal fluids

“…Numerical simulation of multiphase flow is one of the most successful applications of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) [1][2][3][4]. Originating from the cellular automaton concept and kinetic theory, the intrinsic mesoscopic properties make LBM outstanding in modeling complex fluid systems involving interfacial dynamics [5][6][7] and phase transitions [3,4].…”

“…Originating from the cellular automaton concept and kinetic theory, the intrinsic mesoscopic properties make LBM outstanding in modeling complex fluid systems involving interfacial dynamics [5][6][7] and phase transitions [3,4]. Shan and Chen proposed the widely-used pseudopotential LBM, in which the intermolecular force is mimicked by a density-dependent interparticle potential [8].…”

“…Recently, Li et al [12] proposed a forcing term scheme and Khajepor et al [14] proposed a multipseudopotential interaction to achieve thermodynamic consistency. However, a fitting procedure is necessary in both schemes to adapt to a specific equation of state (EOS) [3]. The Shan-Chen model was also improved for simulations with large density ratio and high stability [15,16].…”

Modeling for Collapsing Cavitation Bubble near Rough Solid Wall by Mulit-Relaxation-Time Pseudopotential Lattice Boltzmann Model

“…For pseudopotential multiphase model, the stability is closely related to the thermodynamic consistency [22], and great efforts have been made for this issue [23] [24] [25]. Recently, Li et al [24] [25] [26] founded that there exists a suitable forcing scheme, which can meet the thermodynamic consistency requirement in an efficient way. In order to investigate the interaction mechanism between the collapsing bubble and complex geometry boundary, in the present work, the improved forcing scheme for the pseudopotential MRT LB model developed by Li et al [25] is adopted to achieve the sufficient density ratio and stability of the numerical model.…”