Nucleate Boiling Simulation using Interface Tracking Method

TL;DR

This paper presents a 3D interface tracking method-based model for simulating nucleate boiling, providing high-resolution data to improve understanding and validation of multiphase flow models.

Contribution

The paper develops a novel ITM-based boiling model in PHASTA capable of simulating nucleate boiling on unstructured meshes with multiple nucleation sites.

Findings

Interaction between bubbles at adjacent sites is characterized.

Influence of site distance, bubble size, and contact angle is analyzed.

High-resolution simulation data enhances understanding of nucleate boiling mechanisms.

Abstract

The development and validation of 3D multiphase computational fluid dynamics (M-CFD) models and physics-informed data-driven modeling require data of high-quality and high-resolution. Considering the difficulties in acquiring the corresponding experimental data in prototypical conditions, two-phase boiling simulations by Interface Tracking Method (ITM) based models can be used to generate high-resolution numerical data in a consistent and relatively economical manner. A boiling model is developed in one of the ITM-based multiphase-flow solvers, named PHASTA, to investigate the nucleate boiling phenomenon. The interaction between bubbles forming at adjacent nucleation sites is investigated with this ITM boiling model. Nucleate pool boiling simulations with multiple nucleation sites are presented in this paper and influences of site distance, neighboring bubble size and contact angle effect are investigated. The presented boiling model can conduct boiling simulation on 3D unstructured computational meshes. These simulation results improve our understanding of the physical mechanisms of the nucleate boiling phenomenon and provide high-resolution numerical data for M-CFD validation and advanced boiling model development.