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A single-domain multi-phase model is developed for macrosegregation and shrinkage pipe formation in castings, as functions of buoyancy- and shrinkage-induced flow. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a volume of fluid (VOF) method, both the air/liquid and air/solid interfaces are tracked during shrinkage pipe formation. A set of mixture advection-diffusion equations are derived and solved for velocity, temperature, composition, and phase field evolution. The fluid mechanics of the model are verified using a transient ditch drainage problem.

Results showing the interaction of macrosegregation and pipe formation are presented for two alloys under faster and slower cooling conditions.

This model provides a comprehensive tool to investigate relationships between the developing composition distribution and shrinkage pipe formation.

The contact behaviors of droplets on confined surfaces influence significantly their dynamics and morphological transition induced by the electric field. This paper aims to delve into the electric stress, electric field distribution, flow field and evolution of droplet neck to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Electrohydrodynamics of droplets in confined environment is numerically analyzed based on finite volume method (FVM) combining with volume-of-fluid (VOF) method for two-phase interface capturing. Numerical solutions are obtained through solving electrohydrodynamics model coupling fluid dynamics with electrostatics.

It was found that the droplet neck with high interfacial curvature undergoes different transition depending on the contact angle. At large domain height, the droplets on the surfaces with the contact angle of θ < 90° tend to break up into smaller droplets adhered on top and bottom surfaces. The detachment of droplets is identified when the contact angle is much greater than 90°. Notably, the droplets at θ = 90° exhibit asymmetrical shape evolution, but for other cases there is symmetrical shape of droplets during transition process. With decreasing the domain height, no obvious deformation through driving the contraction of the droplet neck is observed.

It remains unclear how the electric field parallel to the surfaces affects the shape transition and electrohydrodynamics of confined droplets when changing the contact angle. In this paper, the authors study the electrohydrodynamics of droplets in confined space when the electric field is exerted parallel to contact surfaces. In particular, the authors consider the effect of the surface wettability on the droplet deformation. The problem is solved through FVM combining with the VOF method to implement the capturing of two-phase interfaces. The results indicate that the electrohydrodynamic behaviors of droplets are sensitive to the contact properties of droplets on the surfaces, which has not been reported in previous works.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate oil-gas slug formation in horizontal straight pipe and its associated pressure gradient, slug liquid holdup and slug frequency.

The abrupt change in gas/liquid velocities, which causes transition of flow patterns, was analyzed using incompressible volume of fluid method to capture the dynamic gas-liquid interface. The validity of present model and its methodology was validated using Baker’s flow regime chart for 3.15 inches diameter horizontal pipe and with existing experimental data to ensure its correctness.

The present paper proposes simplified correlations for liquid holdup and slug frequency by comparison with numerous existing models. The paper also identified correlations that can be used in operational oil and gas industry and several outlier models that may not be applicable.

The correlation may be limited to the range of material properties used in this paper.

Numerically derived liquid holdup and holdup frequency agreed reasonably with the experimentally derived correlations.

The models could be used to design pipeline and piping systems for oil and gas production.

The paper simulated all the seven flow regimes with superior results compared to existing methodology. New correlations derived numerically are compared to published experimental correlations to understand the difference between models.

Stir casting is a promising technique used for the manufacture of Al-SiC metal matrix composites. The clustering of reinforcement particles is a serious concern in this production method. In this work, mushy-state solidification characteristics in stir casting are numerically simulated using computational fluid dynamics techniques to study the clustering of reinforcement particles.

Effects of process parameters on the distribution of particles are examined by varying stirrer speed, volume fraction of reinforcement, number of blades on stirrer and diameter ratio (ratio of crucible diameter to stirrer diameter). Further, investigation of characteristics of cooling curves during solidification process is carried out. Volume of fluid method in conjunction with a solidification model is used to simulate the multi-phase fluid flow during the mushy-state solidification. Solidification patterns thus obtained clearly indicate a strong influence of process parameters on the distribution of reinforcement particles and solidification time.

From the simulation study, it is observed that increase in stirrer speed from 50 to 150 rad/s promotes faster solidification rate. But, beyond 100 rad/s, stirrer speed limit, clustering of reinforcement particles is observed. The clustering of reinforcement particles is seen when volume fraction of reinforcement is increased beyond 10 per cent. When number of blades on stirrer are increased from three to five, an increase in solidification rate is observed, and an uneven distribution of reinforcement particles are observed for five-blade geometry. It is also seen from the simulation study that a four-blade stirrer gives a better distribution of reinforcement in the molten metal. Decrease in diameter ratio from 2.5 to 1.5 promotes faster solidification rate.

There is 90 per cent closeness in results for simulation study and the published experimental results.

The purpose of this study is to perform a detailed review on the numerical modeling of multiphase and multicomponent flows in microfluidic system using phase-field method. The phase-field method is of emerging importance in numerical computation of transport phenomena involving multiple phases and/or components. This method is not only used to model interfacial phenomena typical to multiphase flows encountered in engineering and nature but also turns out to be a promising tool in modeling the dynamics of complex fluid-fluid interfaces encountered in physiological systems such as dynamics of vesicles and red blood cells). Intrinsically, a priori unknown topological evolution of interfaces offers to be the most concerning challenge toward accurate modeling of moving boundary problems. However, the numerical difficulties can be tackled simultaneously with numerical convenience and thermodynamic rigor in the paradigm of the phase field method.

The phase-field method replaces the macroscopically sharp interfaces separating the fluids by a diffuse transition layer where the interfacial forces are smoothly distributed. As against the moving mesh methods (Lagrangian) for the explicit tracking of interfaces, the phase-field method implicitly captures the same through the evolution of a phase-field function (Eulerian). In contrast to the deployment of an artificially smoothing function for the interface as used in the volume of a fluid or level set method, however, the phase-field method uses mixing free energy for describing the interface. This needs the consideration of an additional equation for an order parameter. The dynamic evolution of the system (equation for order parameter) can be described by Allen–Cahn or Cahn–Hilliard formulation, which couples with the Navier–Stokes equation with the aid of a forcing function that depends on the chemical potential and the gradient of the order parameter.

In this review, first, the authors discuss the broad motivation and the fundamental theoretical foundation associated with phase-field modeling from the perspective of computational microfluidics. They subsequently pinpoint the outstanding numerical challenges, including estimations of the model-free parameters. They outline some numerical examples, including electrohydrodynamic flows, to demonstrate the efficacy of the method. Finally, they pinpoint various emerging issues and futuristic perspectives connecting the phase-field method and computational microfluidics.

This paper gives unique perspectives to future directions of research on this topic.

Moving interface problems exist commonly in nature and industry, and the main difficulty is to represent the interface. The purpose of this paper is to capture the accurate interface, a novel three-dimensional one-layer particle level set (OPLS) method is presented by introducing Lagrangian particles to reconstruct the seriously distorted level set function.

First, the interface is captured by the level set method. Then, the interface is corrected with only one-layer particles advected with the flow to ensure that the level set function value of the particle is equal to 0. When interfaces are merged, all particles in merged regions are deleted, while the added particles near the generated interface are used to determine the interface as the interface is separated.

The OPLS method is validated with well-known benchmark examples, such as the long-term advection of a sphere, the rotation of a three-dimensional slotted disk and sphere, single vortex in a box, sphere merging and separation, deformation of a sphere. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method is found to be highly reliable and accurate.

This method exhibits excellent conservation of the area bounded by the interface. The extraordinary performance is also shown in dealing with complex interface topological changes.

The paper aims to use the finite volume method widely used in computational fluid dynamics to avoid the serious remeshing and mesh distortion during aluminium profile extrusion processes simulation when using the finite element method. Block-structured grids are used to fit the complex domain of the extrusion. A finite volume method (FVM) model for aluminium extrusion numerical simulation using non-orthogonal structured grids was established.

The influences of the elements ' nonorthogonality on the governing equations discretization of the metal flow in aluminium extrusion processes were fully considered to ensure the simulation accuracy. Volume-of-fluid (VOF) scheme was used to catch the free surface of the unsteady flow. Rigid slip boundary condition was applied on non-orthogonal grids.

This paper involved a simulation of a typical aluminium extrusion process by the FVM scheme. By comparing the simulation by the FVM model established in this paper with the ones simulated by the finite element method (FEM) software Deform-3D and the corresponding experiments, the correctness and efficiency of the FVM model for aluminium alloy profile extrusion processes in this paper was proved.

This paper uses the FVM widely used in CFD to calculate the aluminium profile extrusion processes avoiding the remeshing and mesh distortion during aluminium profile extrusion processes simulation when using the finite element method. Block-structured grids with the advantage of simple data structure, small storage and high numerical efficiency are used to fit the complex domain of the extrusion.

This paper aims to develop a numerical model of bead spreading architecture of a viscous polymer in fused filament fabrication (FFF) process with different nozzle geometry. This paper also focuses on the manufacturing feasibility of the nozzles and 3D printing of the molten beads using the developed nozzles.

The flow of a highly viscous polymer from a nozzle, the melt expansion in free space and the deposition of the melt on a moving platform are captured using the FLUENT volume of fluid (VOF) method based computational fluid dynamics code. The free surface motion of the material is captured in VOF, which is governed by the hydrodynamics of the two-phase flow. The phases involved in the numerical model are liquid polymer and air. A laminar, non-Newtonian and non-isothermal flow is assumed. Under such assumptions, the spreading characteristic of the polymer is simulated with different nozzle-exit geometries. The governing equations are solved on a regular stationary grid following a transient algorithm, where the boundary between the polymer and the air is tracked by piecewise linear interface construction (PLIC) to reconstruct the free surface. The prototype nozzles were also manufactured, and the deposition of the molten beads on a flatbed was performed using a commercial 3D printer. The deposited bead cross-sections were examined through optical microscopic examination, and the cross-sectional profiles were compared with those obtained in the numerical simulations.

The numerical model successfully predicted the spreading characteristics and the cross-sectional shape of the extruded bead. The cross-sectional shape of the bead varied from elliptical (with circular nozzle) to trapezoidal (with square and star nozzles) where the top and bottom surfaces are significantly flattened (which is desirable to reduce the void spaces in the cross-section). The numerical model yielded a good approximation of the bead cross-section, capturing most of the geometric features of the bead with a reasonable qualitative agreement compared to the experiment. The quantitative comparison of the cross-sectional profiles against experimental observation also indicated a favorable agreement. The significant improvement observed in the bead cross-section with the square and star nozzles is the flattening of the surfaces.

The developed numerical algorithm attempts to address the fundamental challenge of voids and bonding in the FFF process. It presents a new approach to increase the inter-bead bonding and reduce the inter-bead voids in 3D printing of polymers by modifying the bead cross-sectional shape through the modification of nozzle exit-geometry. The change in bead cross-sectional shape from elliptical (circular) to trapezoidal (square and star) cross-section is supposed to increase the contact surface area and inter-bead bonding while in contact with adjacent beads.

Water jet propulsion is widely used in various military and civilian fields due to its advantages of simple structure and high propulsion efficiency. The process of mooring involves utilizing specially designed equipment to secure a ship at a designated berth. During the process of water jet propulsion, the single propeller operates within a complex and turbulent three-dimensional flow. Hence, studying the coupling between the water jet propeller and the hull is critical to comprehending the characteristics of the device and the distribution of the flow field in detail.

Firstly, we conducted computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based self-propulsion calculations to evaluate the interaction between the hull and the propeller. We subsequently analyzed the propeller's performance and the forces acting on the hull to understand how the presence or absence of the hull influenced the water jet propeller. Finally, we performed calculations and analysis of the cavitation characteristics of the coupling between the hull and the water jet propeller, considering different rotational speeds and water depths at the bottom of the pool.

The study demonstrated that the presence of the hull boundary layer under the hull-propeller coupling condition led to reduced uniformity of propeller inlet flow and lower efficiency of the propulsion pump. However, it also increased the bias toward low-flow conditions. Additionally, increasing the impeller speed led to a gradual increase in the cavitation volume within the water jet propeller, resulting in a gradual decrease in the propeller's performance.

This research provides the technical support required for effective design and operation of water jet propulsion systems. This paper involves studying and analyzing the performance and flow field of the coupling between the hull and propeller under mooring conditions with a specified hull model.

This paper aims to develop a numerical method for analysing the time‐dependent conjugate heat and fluid flows inside and around single bubbles rising in a hot liquid.

The procedure combines the moving mesh method for flows in time‐dependent geometries and the zoned calculation algorithm for conjugate viscous flows. A moving axisymmetric boundary‐fitted mesh is used to track the deformable gas‐liquid interface, while conjugate flows in both gas and liquid sides are calculated by a two‐block zoned method. The interfacial stresses are employed to calculate the velocity value and to decide the time‐dependent bubble shape simultaneously. Governing equations for the rising velocity and acceleration of the bubble are derived according to the forces acting on the bubble.

A calculating procedure for time‐dependent conjugate heat and fluid flows inside and around a rising single bubble has been developed. The algorithm has been verified, and can be employed for further analysing heat, mass and momentum transfer phenomena and their relevant mechanisms.

The paper developed a method to obtain high fidelity results for the heat and fluid flow details in the vicinity of a time‐dependent moderately deformable rising bubble; the physically zero‐thickness of a gas‐liquid interface is guaranteed. The governing equations for the time‐dependent rising velocity and acceleration are derived.