Benjamin Lalanne

Benchmarks and numerical methods for the simulation of boiling flows

Comparisons of different numerical methods suited to the simulations of phase changes are presented in the framework of interface capturing computations on structured fixed computational grids. Due to analytical solutions, we define some reference test-cases that every numerical technique devoted to phase change should succeed. Realistic physical properties imply some drastic interface jump conditions on the normal velocity or on the thermal flux. The efficiencies of Ghost Fluid and Delta Function Methods are compared to compute the normal velocity jump condition. Next, we demonstrate that high order extrapolation methods on the thermal field allow performing accurate and robust simulations for a thermally controlled bubble growth. Finally, some simulations of the growth of a rising bubble are presented, both for a spherical bubble and a deformed bubble.

On the computation of viscous terms for incompressible two-phase flows with Level Set/Ghost Fluid Method

In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the computation of the viscous terms for the simulation of incompressible two-phase flows in the framework of Level Set/Ghost Fluid Method when viscosity is discontinuous across the interface. Two pioneering papers on the topic, Kang et al. 10 and Sussman et al. 26, proposed two different approaches to deal with viscous terms. However, a definitive assessment of their respective efficiency is currently not available. In this paper, we demonstrate from theoretical arguments and confirm from numerical simulations that these two approaches are equivalent from a continuous point of view and we compare their accuracies in relevant test-cases. We also propose a new intermediate method which uses the properties of the two previous methods. This new method enables a simple implementation for an implicit temporal discretization of the viscous terms. In addition, the efficiency of the Delta Function method 24 is also assessed and compared to the three previous ones, which allow us to propose a general overview of the accuracy of all available methods. The selected test-cases involve configurations wherein viscosity plays a major role and for which either theoretical results or experimental data are available as reference solutions: simulations of spherical rising bubbles, shape-oscillating bubbles and deformed rising bubbles at low Reynolds numbers.

Effect of rising motion on the damped shape oscillations of drops and bubbles

The objective of this work is to determine the effect of the rising motion on the dynamics of inertial shape oscillations of drops and bubbles. We have carried out axisymmetric direct numerical simulations of an ascending drop (or bubble) using a level-set method. The drop is initially elongated in the vertical direction and therefore performs shape oscillations. The analysis is based on the decomposition of the interface into spherical harmonics, the time evolutions of which are processed to obtain the frequency and the damping rate of the oscillations. As the drop accelerates, its shape flattens and oscillations no longer take place around a spherical equilibrium shape. This causes the eigenmode of oscillations to change, which results in the appearance of spherical harmonics of high order that all oscillate at the same frequency. For both drops and bubbles, the frequency, which remains controlled by the potential flow, slightly decreases with the rising velocity. The damping rate of drops, which is controlled by the dissipation within boundary layers at the interface, strongly increases with the rising velocity. At terminal velocity, the damping rate of bubbles, which results from the dissipation by the potential flow associated with the oscillating motion, remains close to that of a non-rising bubble. During the transient, the rate of deformation of the equilibrium shape of bubbles can be comparable to the oscillation frequency, which causes complex evolutions of the shape. These results extend the description of shape oscillations to common situations where gravity plays a role. In particular, the present conclusions are useful to interpret experimental results where the effect of the rising motion is often combined with that of surfactant.

Non-linear shape oscillations of rising drops and bubbles: Experiments and simulations

This paper focuses on shape-oscillations of a gas bubble or a liquid drop rising in another liquid. The bubble/drop is initially attached to a capillary and is released by a sudden motion of that capillary, resulting in the rise of the bubble/drop along with the oscillations of its shape. Such experimental conditions make difficult the interpretation of the oscillation dynamics with regard to the standard linear theory of oscillation because (i) amplitude of deformation is large enough to induce nonlinearities, (ii) the rising motion may be coupled with the oscillation dynamics, and (iii) clean conditions without residual surfactants may not be achieved. These differences with the theory are addressed by comparing experimental observation with numerical simulation. Simulations are carried out using Level-Set and Ghost-Fluid methods with clean interfaces. The effect of the rising motion is investigated by performing simulations under different gravity conditions. Using a decomposition of the bubble/drop shape into a series of spherical harmonics, experimental and numerical time evolutions of their amplitudes are compared. Due to large oscillation amplitude, non-linear couplings between the modes are evidenced from both experimental and numerical signals; modes of lower frequency influence modes of higher frequency, whereas the reverse is not observed. Nevertheless, the dominant frequency and overall damping rate of the first five modes are in good agreement with the linear theory. Effect of the rising motion on the oscillations is globally negligible, provided the mean shape of the oscillation remains close to a sphere. In the drop case, despite the residual interface contamination evidenced by a reduction in the terminal velocity, the oscillation dynamics is shown to be unaltered compared to that of a clean drop.

Unsteady rising of clean bubble in low viscosity liquid

When a submerged bubble is initially at rest in a stagnant low viscosity liquid such as water, buoyancy forces accelerate the bubble upwards. The increasing relative velocity of the bubble with the surrounding liquid provokes deformations on the bubble shape that affect its vertical acceleration and also induce surface tension driven oscillations. Our theoretical model, which is compared with full Navier–Stokes simulations predicts, with a reasonable accuracy, both the position of the bubble centre of mass, as well as the time varying bubble shape under those conditions for which the Reynolds number is large, the amplitude of the deformation is small, the bubble interface is free of surfactants and the bubble rises following a straight vertical path. The model can be used as a first approximation to describe the initial instants of the unsteady buoyancy driven rising of millimetre sized bubbles typically generated in water aerators.