Paper detail

TwoPhaseFlow: An OpenFOAM based framework for development of two phase flow solvers

One of the prevailing challenges in Computational Fluid Dynamics is accurate simulation of two-phase flows involving heat and mass transfer across the fluid interface. This is currently an active field of research, which is to some extend impaired by a lack of a common programming framework for implementing and testing new models. Here we present a new OpenFOAM based open-source framework allowing fast implementation and test of new phase change and surface tension force models. Capitalizing on the runtime-selection mechanism in OpenFOAM, the new models can easily be selected and compared to analytical solutions and existing models. As a start, the framework includes the following curvature calculation methods for surface tension: height function, parabolic fit, and reconstructed distance function method. As for phase change, interface heat resistance and direct heat flux models are available. These can be combined with three solvers covering the range from isothermal, incompressible flow to non-isothermal, compressible flow with conjugated heat transfer. By design, addition of new models and solvers is straightforward and users are invited to contribute their specific models, solvers, and validation cases to the library.