Abstract
This paper reports the progress made in developing a state-of-the-art, unstructured-mesh code for simulating reacting two-phase flows for general-purpose industrial applications. The code has been created by combining a finite-volume solver for computing flow, heat-transfer, and chemical reaction in the gas phase with a new object-oriented module specifically designed and developed to provide a framework for solving the system of equations governing the motion of spray droplets and their interactions with the gas phase. The gas phase equations are solved in an Eulerian frame while the droplet equations are solved in a Lagrangian frame. The paper presents the equations for droplet transport and behavior, describes the coupling models between the gas and liquid phases, and outlines the overall solution technique. Much of the paper is devoted to verification and validation of the computational models. The verification studies include comparison of computational results for particle motion under the influence of gravity and for solutions. The validation studies include comparison of predictions with published experimental data on behavior of evaporating and non-evaporating sprays. All comparisons show good qualitative and quantitative agreement. A 2-D axisymmetric simulation of methanol combustion in the N1ST reference spray combustor is also presented, and the results are compared with the NIST flow visualization data. Relevant ongoing work and future plans for incorporation of advanced spray models are briefly described.
