Numerical Simulation of Flow Around Melting Object by Lattice Gas Automata Method

From the view point of effective use of energy resources and reduction of greenhouse gases, methane hydrate has received considerable attention as a promising alternative energy resource. It is important to study effective recovery system of the methane hydrate, since it exists on the seabed at a depth of more than 1000m. The hot water injection method has been proposed as a promising methane hydrate recovery system. In this method, hot water is injected into methane hydrate layer through a pipe, and then molten methane is recovered. In this study, as the first step of the numerical analysis of the multiphase flow through complex boundary changing geometry, a new technique to generate a deformable solid boundary is proposed based on the lattice gas automata method. By using this technique, fundamental numerical simulations are demonstrated for the immiscible two-component flow in two-dimensional systems. Comparisons between simulation and experimental results clarified that the present technique is applicable to the flow of hot water and liquid methane and the disassociation of methane hydrate wall.