A consistent volume-of-fluid approach for direct numerical simulation of the aerodynamic breakup of a vaporizing drop

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new volume-of-fluid simulation framework for accurately modeling the aerodynamic breakup and vaporization of drops, validated against benchmarks and applied to complex 3D breakup scenarios.

Contribution

The study develops a consistent geometric volume-of-fluid method integrated into the Basilisk solver for detailed 3D simulations of vaporizing drops with phase change.

Findings

Simulation results match benchmark solutions and previous studies.

Drop vaporization rate is significantly increased during breakup.

3D simulations reveal nonlinear decrease in drop volume over time.

Abstract

A novel simulation framework has been developed in this study for the direct numerical simulation of the aerodynamic breakup of a vaporizing drop. The interfacial multiphase flow with phase change is resolved using a consistent geometric volume-of-fluid method. The bulk fluids are viscous and incompressible with surface tension at the interface. The newly-developed numerical methods have been implemented in the Basilisk solver, in which the adaptive octree/quadtree mesh is used for spatial discretization, allowing flexibility in dynamically refining the mesh in a user-defined region. The simulation framework is extensively validated by a series of benchmark cases, including the 1D Stefan and sucking problems, the growth of a 3D spherical bubble in a superheated liquid, and a 2D film boiling problem. The simulation results agree very well with the exact solution and previous numerical studies. 2D axisymmetric simulations were performed to resolve the vaporization of a moving drop with a low Weber number in a high-temperature free stream. The computed rate of volume loss agrees well with the empirical model of drop evaporation. Finally, the validated solver is used to simulate the aerodynamic breakup of an acetone drop at a high Weber number. A fully 3D simulation is performed and the morphological evolution of the drop is accurately resolved. The rate of vaporization is found to be significantly enhanced due to the drop deformation and breakup. The drop volume decreases nonlinearly in time and at a much higher rate than the empirical correlation for a spherical drop.