Numerical simulation of droplet deposition onto a liquid film by VOF–MPS hybrid method

Abstract

Droplet entrainment and deposition are a couple of significant mechanisms for the heat transfer in annular two-phase flows existing in some heat exchange systems. The basic physics include the peeling of droplets from the liquid film due to high friction with the gas phase and the collision of droplets with the liquid film or deposition into the liquid film. Droplet deposition particularly plays a crucial role in the course of film dryout events which might have a vital importance for particular systems. In this study, a new numerical method (named as VOF–MPS hybrid method) based on the moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method was developed to analyze the droplet deposition onto a stagnant thin liquid film. That proposed method combines the volume of fluid (VOF) solver of the open-source CFD code OpenFOAM with the MPS method. VOF–MPS technique introduces the surface tension force calculation of VOF model into the MPS method. MPS method formerly employed the continuum surface force (CSF) approach based on the particles. Three-dimensional (3D) VOF–MPS simulation with the novel surface tension modeling addition to the MPS-based modeling provides a smoother liquid–gas interface on the crown formed after the impact. Droplet deposition experiments were also carried out for the validation and comparison of two models. VOF–MPS method could predict the crown parameters such as crown thickness relatively better than the MPS method employing the CSF. However, the instabilities formed at the tip of the crown, observed in the experiments, could not be resolved with both methods.