3D ALE Finite Element Method for Two-Phase Flows with Phase Change
Congress: ECI
ABSTRACT:
We seek to study numerically two-phase flow phenomena with phase change through the Finite Element Method (FEM) and the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework. This method is based on the so-called ‘one-fluid’ formulation, thus only one set of equations is used to describe the flow field at the vapour and liquid phases. The equations are discretized on an unstructured tetrahedron mesh and the interface between the phases is defined by a triangular surface, which is a sub-set of the 3-dimensional mesh. The Navier-Stokes equation is used to model the fluid flow and an additional energy equation is used to model the heat transport between the phases. Such a methodology can be employed to study accurately many problems such as oil extraction and refinement in the petroleum area, design of refrigeration systems, modelling of biological systems and efficient cooling of electronics for computational purposes, which is the aim of this research. A comparison of the obtained numerical results to the analytical solutions is performed, thus proving the capability of the proposed new methodology.