Partial elimination has been implemented for the multiphase Euler-Euler
solver. This does a linear solution of the drag system when calculating
flux and velocity corrections after the solution of the pressure
equation. This can improve the behaviour of the solution in the event
that the drag coupling is high. It is controlled by means of a
"partialElimination" switch within the PIMPLE control dictionary in
fvSolution.
A re-organisation has also been done in order to remove the exposure of
the sub-modelling from the top-level solver. Rather than looping the
drag, virtual mass, lift, etc..., models directly, the solver now calls
a set of phase-system methods which group the different force terms.
These new methods are documented in MomentumTransferPhaseSystem.H. Many
other accessors have been removed as a consequence of this grouping.
A bug was also fixed whereby the face-based algorithm was not
transferring the momentum associated with a given interfacial mass
transfer.
Removed possibility for the user to specify a driftRate in the constantDrift
model which is independent of a fvOptions mass source. The driftRate must be
calculated from/be consistent with the mass source in order to yield a particle
number conserving result.
Made calculation of the over-all Sauter mean diameter of an entire population
balance conditional on more than one velocityGroup being present. This diameter
field is for post-processing purposes only and would be redundant in case of one
velocityGroup being used.
Solution control is extended to allow for solution of the population balance
equation at the last PIMPLE loop only, using an optional switch. This can be
beneficial in terms of simulation time as well as coupling between the
population balance based diameter calculation and the rest of the equation
system.
Patch contributed by Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf
(HZDR) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.
This patch enables the reactingEulerFoam solvers to simulate polydisperse flow
situations, i.e. flows where the disperse phase is subject to a size
distribution.
The newly added populationBalanceModel class solves the integro-partial
differential population balance equation (PBE) by means of a class method, also
called discrete or sectional method. This approach is based on discretizing the
PBE over its internal coordinate, the particle volume. This yields a set of
transport equations for the number concentration of particles in classes with a
different representative size. These are coupled through their source-terms and
solved in a segregated manner. The implementation is done in a way, that the
total particle number and mass is preserved for coalescence, breakup and drift
(i.e. isothermal growth or phase change) processes, irrespective of the chosen
discretization over the internal coordinate.
A population balance can be split over multiple velocity (temperature) fields,
using the capability of reactingMultiphaseEulerFoam to solve for n momentum
(energy) equations. To a certain degree, this takes into account the dependency
of heat- and momentum transfer on the disperse phase diameter. It is also possible
to define multiple population balances, e.g. bubbles and droplets simultaneously.
The functionality can be switched on by choosing the appropriate phaseSystem
type, e.g. populationBalanceMultiphaseSystem and the newly added diameterModel
class called velocityGroup. To illustrate the use of the functionality, a
bubbleColumnPolydisperse tutorial was added for reactingTwoPhaseEulerFoam and
reactingMultiphaseEulerFoam.
Furthermore, a reactingEulerFoam-specific functionObject called sizeDistribution
was added to allow post-Processing of the size distribution, e.g. to obtain the
number density function in a specific region.
Patch contributed by Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf
(HZDR) and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.