Representing Polydispersed Droplet Behavior in Nucleating Steam Flow

Abstract

The quadrature method of moments (QMOM) is applied to the particle size distribution (PSD) present in nucleating steam flow, with a particular emphasis on conditions relevant to low-pressure steam turbines. These machines exhibit heterogeneous and homogeneous phase transition in the presence of strong flow discontinuities due to shocks and complex geometry. They offer a particularly difficult two-phase modeling situation. The present work shows that QMOM is a robust and efficient method and, in comparison to current practice of using a monodispersed PSD in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models, offers promise for dealing with the complex two-phase conditions present in real machines.