New Two-Fluid Model Near-Wall Averaging and Consistent Matching for Turbulent Bubbly Flows

Abstract

A new two-fluid model averaging in the near-wall region is proposed to ensure consistent matching of the two-phase k–ε turbulence model with the two-phase logarithmic law of the wall (Marie J. L., Moursali, E., and Tran-Cong, S., 1997, “Similarity Law and Turbulence Intensity Profiles in a Bubbly Boundary Layer,” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 23(2), pp. 227–247). The void fraction distribution obtained with the averaging procedure is seen to conform to the two-phase wall function approach which is based on a double step function void fraction distribution. In particular, the proposed averaging technique is shown to achieve grid convergence in the near-wall region, which could not be obtained otherwise. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results with the proposed technique are in good agreement with experiments on upward bubbly flows over a flat plate, and upward and downward flows in pipes. An additional advantage of the proposed technique is that it replaces the wall force model, which has a significant degree of uncertainty in turbulent flow modeling, with a simpler geometric constraint.