Consistent scalar transport with front capturing methods: application to two-phase heat transfer

Accurate numerical simulations of heat transfers in 3D liquid-gas flows are of first importance in multiple industrial applications such as droplet evaporation in combustion chambers, spray cooling or propellant behavior in cryogenic tanks. Liquid-gas flows are characterized by the discontinuity of properties (e.g. viscosity, thermal diffusivities, ...) and flow variables (e.g. pressure, energy, chemical composition) across the interface. Robust and accurate algorithms are then necessary to transport the flow variables consistently with the interface. This work presents an algebraic interface capturing method which enables a consistent transport of scalars with the interface. This two-fluid approach ensures conservation of the transported scalars while controlling accurately the flux at the interface. The interface represented by a hyperbolic tangent profile is transported and reinitialized without geometric reconstruction. The scalars are transported separately in each phase and a reinitialization step is performed in order to impose the correct flux at the interface. The method is implemented in the YALES2 low-Mach number flow solver and takes advantage of adaptive unstructured grids to handle complex geometries. It has been assessed on various test cases and compared to analytical solutions.