Comparative assessment and possible applications of three models of Taylor slug flows

Abstract

In this work, a versatile modeling platform, employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to simulate liquid-liquid and liquid-gas Taylor slug flow, is presented. This platform consists of three two-dimensional, axisymmetric models, whose output can be used in various applications for which examples are provided. Modeling guidelines to decrease the simulation time and to mitigate numerical artifacts occurring at low values of the Capillary number, called spurious currents, are discussed. Moreover, to test capabilities outside the Taylor slug flow regime, other flow regimes occurring in a coflow arrangement were investigated and a sensitivity analysis on the resulting droplet characteristics was performed.