Numerical simulation of subcooled and superheated jets under thermodynamic non-equilibrium

Abstract Modelling and simulating the rapid pressure drop inside nozzles is a significant challenge because of the complexity of the multiple associated phenomena. In the present study, FlashFOAM a compressible solver for calculating the phase change within various nozzle geometries undergoing rapid pressure drops has been developed in the frame of the open source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code OpenFOAM. FlashFOAM accounts for the inter-phase heat transfer with the Homogeneous Relaxation Model (HRM). The work describes the development of a pressure equation within a different formulation than in other studies. The surface forces due to liquid-gas interfacial instabilities are modelled here in a novel coupling of HRM with the volume of fluid method giving rise to a conservative method for modelling primary atomisation. This new pressure equation is validated with published experimental measurements. A validation series dedicated to long nozzles is included for the first time. Novel additional tests for the flow characteristics and vapour generation in cryogenic liquid cases are included showing that the solver can be employed to gain some new insights into the physics of the flow regimes of sudden depressurising cryogenic liquids. The dependency of the geometry of the nozzles, pressure and subcooled degree on the vapour generation has been analysed including the effect of turbulence on the nozzle flow avoiding the laminar flow scenarios of previous validation studies. The validation study has demonstrated that FlashFOAM can be used to simulate flash boiling scenarios accurately and predict the properties of flash atomisation.