A One-Way Coupled Volume of Fluid and Eulerian-Lagrangian Method for Simulating Sprays

Abstract

Volume of Fluid (VOF) and Eulerian-Lagrangian (EL)/Discrete Droplet Methods (DDM) are two of the most widely used methods in spray simulations. It is well known that these two methods have their pros and cons. VOF is good at capturing the transient detailed flow physics, while it is usually very expensive. EL is very efficient; however, to inject spray parcels, some experimental/pre-computed information is needed, such as rate of injection, and/or the parcel radius distributions, etc. It is often the case, the detailed fluid flow information at the nozzle exit, which is essential for downstream droplet breakup and coalescence, cannot be accounted in the EL method. In this paper, we developed a one-way coupled approach, in which VOF is employed to compute the detailed fluid field in the injector and this fluid information is then utilized by EL for the injection of parcels at the nozzle exit. The one-way coupled approach is used to calculate some ECN (Engine Combustion Network) spray cases, such as Spray A and Spray H. The simulated results are compared to the experimental data, and satisfactory agreement is obtained.