Numerical simulation of vapor explosion bubbles in the presence of a non-condensable gas and a phase change

Abstract

The complex dynamics of two flow problems of vapor explosion bubbles near a free surface and between two parallel plates are simulated by a compressible three-phase flow code. Firstly, a coupled high-order monotonicity-preserving (MP) interface capturing scheme is developed for the numerical computation of compressible three-phase flows, which is followed by validation with previous numerical and experimental data. Phase changes are taken into consideration and the empirical condensation coefficient is calibrated with the experimental data. For both two flow problems, good agreement between the numerical results and reference data is obtained. Most physical phenomena, including the free surface spike, the liquid jet before the impact and the complex interface deformations during multiple expanding and collapsing oscillations, are reasonably well reproduced. Afterwards, the effects of the initial vapor pressure and the non-condensable gas volume fraction in the surrounding water on the behavior of vapor bubbles are analyzed and discussed. It is found that both the initial vapor pressure and the non-condensable gas volume fraction have a substantial influence on the behavior of the bubble. Higher initial vapor pressure does indeed tend to result in larger bubbles. The presence of non-condensable gases tends to hinder the transfer of heat, slowing down condensation and potentially resulting in larger bubbles. When the initial vapor pressure is in the range of 10 to 20 atmospheres and the gas volume fraction is in the range of 0 to 0.2, the maximum vapor bubble volume is found to increase linearly with an increase of the amount of non-condensable gas.