A Benchmark Evaluation of the isoAdvection Interface Description Method for Thermally-Driven Phase Change Simulation.

Area of Science:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Heat Transfer
• Nanofluids

Background:

• Volume of Fluid (VOF) is standard for simulating thermal phase change but suffers from interface smearing and spurious flows.
• Nanofluid simulations require accurate interface tracking for phase change phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To benchmark the isoAdvection method against VOF with MULES for nanofluid thermal phase change.
• To evaluate isoAdvection's impact on simulation accuracy, speed, and convergence.

Main Methods:

• Utilized isoAdvection, a geometric interface reconstruction method.
• Conducted simulations for 1D and 2D boiling and condensation benchmark cases.
• Compared results against VOF with Multidimensional Universal Limiter for Explicit Solution (MULES), analytical data, and experimental correlations.

Main Results:

• IsoAdvection, using the isoAlpha scheme, demonstrated faster computation than MULES.
• Accuracy and convergence rates of isoAdvection were comparable to MULES in most thermal phase change scenarios.
• Evaluated the influence of nanoparticles on base fluid properties using empirical correlations.

Conclusions:

• IsoAdvection presents a viable, efficient alternative to traditional VOF methods for simulating thermal phase change in nanofluids.
• The method effectively mitigates interface smearing issues, enhancing simulation reliability.