On the Simulations of Thermal Liquid Foams Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

Liquid foams exist in a wide variety of chemical and industrial processes, and they can contaminate the end-product and cause time and economical losses. Understanding and simulating foam is not a straightforward task, due to the highly dispersed time and length scales where the physical phenomena occur. Surfactants’ or proteins’ length scales are far beyond the capability of macroscopic and even mesoscopic numerical fluid solvers, yet the macroscales are still required to be resolved. Meanwhile, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has gained much attention and success as a mesoscopic approach which can deal with complex multiphase multicomponent systems. The aim of this study is to implement LBM to simulate liquid foams while considering the accompanying thermal effects. A coupled multiphase multicomponent thermal flow model and its selected add-ons from the literature are tuned and explained, limitations and future suggestions are fairly discussed. Validations and a final study case are shown as an example for the proposed model and its applicability in thermal liquid foams. Finally, a delicate treatment to back couple the effect of temperature on the surface tension is proposed, hence considering one aspect of the Marangoni effect. Initial results show promising behavior, which can be material for future investigations.

Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow: New Advances

“…Understanding the foam behaviour and simulating its movement is a difficult task because of the highly dispersed time and length scales where multiphase and multicomponent systems occur. Mobarak et al [21] proposed an approach to simulate some of the chosen phenomena using the Boltzmann lattice method and discussed the limitations. The authors presented simulations of bubble rise in a partially filled flask-like container that included convectivediffusive heat transfer.…”

“…The authors presented simulations of bubble rise in a partially filled flask-like container that included convectivediffusive heat transfer. The authors stated that they made progress in the direction of the modelling and parameterisation of full-scale industrial rectification columns, where foaming is a critical and often occurring problem [21].…”