Extensible Volume-of-Fluid Solver

for Phase-Change Heat Transfer

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Basuraj Shyam, Sumit Zanje

BITS Pilani
 Need for Phase Change Simulation Tools
Steam generation: 41% of primary energy,72% rejected to
ambient through condensation
Phase change is often efficiency bottleneck,analytic solutions
only for simplest configurations
Need robust simulation tools for diverse phase change
processes in emerging enhanced geometries

Enhanced Condenser Enhanced Boiling

(Wieland Group, 2013) (Cooke and Kandlikar,2011)

2
 Interface Capturing
Standard approach: couple energy equation and phase
change Formulations
source terms with adiabatic flow formulation
 Interface Capturing
Standard approach: couple energy equation and
Formulations
phase
Empirical Paramet Adapted SaturateInterfac

= 1 = sat
change
PC
Rate
source
1 V terms

er sat
sat withPC adiabatic
Correlation
flow
d
=
e
PC

formulation
sat
p

Film
Bubble
condensation
 Need for Extensible Phase Change

Prior formulations fit in framework:

Solver
common source terms

energy equation & phase

whole new
Repeated development and validation
solver
change
efforts
Limited
but, code
nearly allavailability
studies and
maintenance
implement
Project goal: Implement flexible VOF-based for

solver

diverse phase-change heat transfer processes

Common framework for phase change
5
 VOF Phase Change Overvie

VOF Phase solver on interFoa

Solver
u

i
v PC
ui u ui w

p

2
i
f
u
Continuit Momentu
j eff i

change xi
based t xj
m xi x i x j

y m h T

q P C
xi u i
PC
Phas t Energ t xi u i
h xi k e f f xi

e y

Selectable f (Brackbill et al., 1992; Raeini et al.,

Selectable
2012) fluid property calculation (Marschall et 2012

al., )
Multistep method implemented for energy
equation
6
Phase Change Solver

Algorithm

qPC

T
 thermalPhaseChangeModel

Phase change models extend

Class
thermalPhaseChangeModel

(Similar
Q_pc()to turbulence
(heat source) models)

Must implement:
PCV() (dilatation, default
available) source, default
alpha1Gen() (liquid volume
fraction available)

Implementations

Interface equilibrium (Rattner and Garimella,

for:
2014)
Empirical rate parameter (Yang et al., 2008)
8
 Example Phase Change Model

Empirica rateparamete model (Yanget al., 2008

Implementation
//Evaluates phase change heat source term field
void Foam::thermalPhaseChangeModels::Yang::calcQ_pc() {
l dimensionedScalar&
const r )
rhol = twoPhaseProperties_.rho1();
const dimensionedScalar& rhov = twoPhaseProperties_.rho2();
Q_pc_ = pos(T_-T_sat_)*h_lv_*rl*alpha1_*rhol
*((T_-T_sat_)/T_sat_)
+ neg(T_-T_sat_)*h_lv_*rv*(1.0-alpha1_)*rhov
*((T_-T_sat_) / T_sat_); }
//Updates model parameters from user specified input file
bool Foam::thermalPhaseChangeModels::Yang::read(
const dictionary& thermalPhaseChangeProperties) {
thermalPhaseChangeModel::read(thermalPhaseChangeProperties);
thermalPhaseChangeProperties_.lookup("rl") >> rl;
thermalPhaseChangeProperties_.lookup("rv") >> rv;
return true; }

9
 Validatio Cases
Horizontal Smooth Falling Film
n (1)
Film Evaporation /
Linear Error < 1.2% large
= 0.361.05
(
condensatio rang of grids
Condensation
convergence
) over
Heat Flux Relative Error
0.

n e 0.
0.
0.
0.
0.
20 5 10 15 020
Cell Size (m)
Heat Flux (kw m-2)
16 016

12 012

8 008

4 004

0 000
0

10
 Validatio Cases
Rising Bubble Single droplet
n
h agreement:
bub
(2)

Interfacial resistance
Condensation condensation
5.6% model
needed for contact-line

PC 11

3% radius change error

during growth
 Scaling

Model problem: Falling film absorption

Performance
MPI-based domain decomposition
parallelization

12
 Application: Wavy Film Phase

2D simulations of wavy falling film heat

Change
First studie to measur effectof on heat transfe
transfer
s e r

13
 Applications: Dropwise
High heat flux condensation mode on
non-wetting
Condensation
surfaces (10 filmwise): promising for

power plant model drops as rigidparticle (no

Previous
applications
studies s

dynamics)

14
 Applications: Nucleate

In boiling, phase change primarily occurs in

Boiling
bubbles
growing from imperfections in surface
Analytical theory limited to individual 15

bubbles
In practice: strongly interacting
nucleation sites
 Applications: Taylor Flow

Simulation of coupling-fluid-heated
Evaporation
evaporating Taylor flow
Informed new wake-region heat
transfer model
 Summar

interThermalPhaseChangeFoam: Extensible
y
solver
for liquid-vapor phase change processes

Runtime selectable phase-change

models: Yang et al.,
2008; Kunkelmann & Stephan, 2009; Rattner & Garimella, 2014

Validation cases for: Stefan problem, Nusselt

problem, wavy film heat transfer, rising bubble condensation,
droplet condensation on surface
Solver, libraries, tutorials, validation test
Applications in: wavy film HT, dropwise condensation,
nucleate boiling,
scripts @ 17
 ThankYou

Sponsors

Solver and tutorials @

code https://github.com/MahdiNabil/CFD-
available
PC
(OpenFOAM libraries V2.4.0)
Alexander S 18