A scalable compressible volume of fluid solver using a stratified flow model

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, a Volume of Fluid method which uses a Stratified Flow model for flux calculation is proposed to solve a compressible multiphase flow in a way that has high parallel efficiency. The solver is part of an open‐source computing tool to study fuel entrainment and combustion in the application of paraffin‐based hybrid rocket motors. This paper focuses on the compressible Volume of Fluid solver for the liquid and gaseous phases in this environment. This solver uses perfect gas and stiffened gas models for equation of state, with the ability to easily add other models as desired. Additionally a comparison of a Riemann solver versus an AUSM+up scheme is conducted, showing improvement with the later in the solution of multiphase flows. This solver successfully reproduces shock tube cases with the expected accuracy, as well as simulating two‐dimensional shear and gravity‐driven flows. Results also show that the code is able to utilize a Stratified Flow model to evaluate shear flow without the need for interface reconstruction or gradient calculations. Finally, it is shown that the solver has near‐ideal scaling under strong scaling tests as well as good performance in static scaling, giving improved performance over current options and implying future advancement of high‐performance computing efficiency for multiphase flow solvers.