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Lecture 1: Introduction
ANSYS Fluent Multiphase Flow Modeling

1 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 What is Multiphase Flow?

• Multi-phase flows are simply any fluid flow

system consisting of
• Two or more distinct phases flowing
simultaneously in mixture
• Flows of components which are not mixed at
the molecular level
• Multi-phase flows exist in many different
forms in natural and industrial processes

2 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Examples of Multiphase Flows

• Power generation
– Steam generator
– Cooling towers
– Steam turbines
– IC engines
– …

Credit: Terry Whalebone CC-BY 2.0

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 Examples of Multiphase Flows

• Process systems
– Spray dryer
– Phase separators
– Distillation columns
– Oil production and transport
– …

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 Examples of Multiphase Flows

• Environmental control
– Sewage treatment plants
– Clarifier
– Erosion and debris flows
– Tsunami warning systems
– …

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 CFD Modeling

• Devices are very complex

• Turbulence, Phase Change,
Chemistry
• CFD modeling to gain insight and
understanding
– Flow regimes
– Holdups
– Size distributions

• Better insight helps to reduce

expensive experiments

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 Classification of Multiphase Flows
Cyclone
Separator

Gaseous
Wet Steam Smoke
Spray /Droplet flow Dust
Churn Gas- Gas- Diluted particle cloud
Stratified flow Liquid Solid
Dense particle cloud
Dense bubbly
Liquid- Granular flows
diluted bubbly Solid Solid motion Fluidized
Liquid Solid Bed Reactor

Packed bed motionless

Sedimentation Fluidized bed Porous medium

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 The Eulerian Approach

• Homogeneous Approach
• Phases are interpenetrating one another
𝜶𝒑 = 𝒑𝟐 𝜶𝒑 = 𝒑𝟐
• Volume fractions as well as other phasic are 𝜶𝒒 = 𝒒𝟏 𝜶𝒒 = 𝒒𝟐
solved for both the phases are also solved at 𝒗𝒑 = 𝒙𝟏 𝒗𝒑 = 𝒙𝟐
these control volumes
… …
• It can be used to compute any multiphase
flow regime if and only if adequate closure 𝜶𝒑 = 𝒑𝟑 𝜶𝒑 = 𝒑𝟒
relation are provided 𝜶𝒒 = 𝒒𝟑 𝜶𝒒 = 𝒒𝟒
• Not able to resolve details below grid size 𝒗𝒑 = 𝒙𝟑 𝒗𝒑 = 𝒙𝟒
level (averaging!) … …

8 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 The Lagrangian Approach

• Individual “particles” are marked

• Carrier Phase obeys continuum conservation
equations
• Particle Phase underlies Newton’s 2nd Law of
Motion
– The physical laws apply directly to each particle x(t)
v(t)
• Particle interacts with continuous (Euler)
“carrier phase”
• Concept of particle parcel
– Track representative number of physical particles
x(t+t)
• Limited to low particle number density v(t +t)

9 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 The Lagrangian Approach: Calculation Procedures

Control volume

Continuous Phase Particle Trajectory

Flow Field Calculation Mass, Momentum and
Heat Exchange

Particle Trajectory
Calculation 𝒅𝒖𝒑 𝒈 𝝆𝒑 − 𝝆
= 𝑭𝑫 𝒖 − 𝒖𝒑 + + 𝑭 Particle equation
𝒅𝒕 𝝆𝒑

Update Continuous
Phase Source Terms 𝒂𝒑 ∅𝒑 + ෍ 𝒂𝒏𝒃 ∅𝒏𝒃 = 𝒃𝒑 + 𝑺𝑫𝑷𝑴 Continuous phase
equation
𝒏𝒃

10 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Multiphase Flow Simulation Methods in FLUENT
Eulerian Multiphase
Models
• Interpenetrating continua
• Full N-phase framework
• Phase indicator function
• Phase weighted averaging
• Additional unknowns
 consequence of averaging
• Empirical closure
11 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017
Multiphase Flow CFD
Dense Discrete
Phase Model
• Solve disperse phase using
Lagrange Technique
• Provide averages to Euler-
Euler context
• Particle/particle interactions
considered during tracking
using collision techniques
Lagrange Particle
Tracking-DPM
• Continuous ‚carrier‘
phase  Euler
• Tracking of single
particles or particle
groups
• Interaction with carrier
phase
• Allows for broad size
distributions
 Fundamental Definitions: Volume Fractions
• The volume fraction of the dispersed phase is defined as:
𝜹𝑽𝒑
𝜶𝒑 =
𝜹𝑽
• Equivalently, the volume fraction of continuous phase is:
𝜹𝑽𝒒
𝜶𝒒 =
𝜹𝑽
• And by definition, the sum if the volume fractions must be unity

෍ 𝜶𝒊 = 𝟏
𝒊

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 Fundamental Definitions: Superficial and Phase Velocities

• The superficial velocity of each phase is the mass flow rate of that phase divided by
the pipe area A and phase density. The superficial velocity for the dispersed phase
is ሶ
𝑴𝒒
𝑼𝒒 =
𝝆𝒒 𝑨

• In other words, it the velocity of the phase if the phase occupied the whole pipe area
• The phase velocity is the actual velocity of the phase, and it is related to the
superficial velocity by the volume fraction

𝑼𝒒
𝒖𝒒 =
𝜶𝒒

13 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Fundamental Definitions: Response Time
• The response time of a particle or droplet is the time required for a particle to be
released from rest to achieve 63%, 𝒆−𝟏Τ𝒆 ,of the free stream velocity


dv p d p 2

q  q u  v  u  v
1
mp  CD
dt 2 4
dv 18 q C D Re
 u  v   u  v 
1
dt  p d p 24
2
p
 p d p2
p 
18 q Example: Water droplet in air
𝒌𝒈
𝒅𝒒 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝝁𝒎, 𝝆 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝟑 , 𝝁 = 𝟏. 𝟖𝒆 − 𝟓𝑷𝒂. 𝒔
v t   𝒎
 1 e p 𝝉𝒑 = 𝟑. 𝟎𝟖𝒔
u

14 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Fundamental Definitions: Stokes Number
• The Stokes number gives a measure of temporal correlation between particle velocity and the
fluid velocity and is defined as

𝝉𝒑
𝑺𝒕 =
𝝉𝑭

• If St <<1, the particle response time is much less than the characteristic time associated
with the flow field. In this case the particles will have ample time to respond to changes
in flow velocity and, the particle and fluid velocities will be nearly equal

• If St>>1, then the particle will have essentially no time to respond to the fluid velocity
changes and the particle velocity will be little affected by fluid velocity change

15 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Fundamental Definitions: Dilute and Dense Flows
• A dilute flow, is one in which the particle motion is
controlled by the fluid forces (drag and lift)
• A dense flow, on the other hand, is one in which the
particle motion is controlled by collisions
• There is a further classification of dense flows: collision-
and contact-dominated.
• In collision-dominated flow the collisions between the
particles control the features of the flow, such as in a
fluidized bed
• In a contact dominated flow, the particle motion is
controlled by continuous contact such as in a shear
granular flow

16 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Fundamental Definitions: Phase Coupling

• If the flow of one phase affects the other,

Four-way coupling
and there is no reverse effect, the flow is
said to be one-way-coupled Particle Particle
• If there is a mutual effect between the flows
of both phases, then the flow is two-way-
One-way coupling
coupled
• If in addition particle–particle collisions also Two-way coupling

affect the phase motion, then the flow is

said to be four-way couple
Fluid

Schematic diagram of coupling

17 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017
 Fundamental Definitions: Phase Coupling

𝒅𝒑

Inter-particle spacing
𝑼𝒒 100 10 1

Dilute disperse Dense disperse

One-Way Two-Way Four-Way

Coupling Coupling Coupling
10-8 10-6 10-4 10-1
𝑳
Four-way coupling effects become Volume fraction 
important when particle volume
Dispersed two-phase flow as a function of the particle volume fraction
fraction exceeds 10-3 and inter-particle spacing

18 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Fundamental Definitions: Averaging
• In multiphase flows the rapidly moving and deforming interfaces, and the
affects of turbulence, cause local fluctuations in flow variables
• However, it is not possible to solve for these local instant motions and
instead, we apply some averaging procedures to derive the conservation
• There are two notable consequences from the ensemble, spatial and temporal
averaging when it is applied to a two-phase mixture:
• Scale separation
• Smoothing out fluctuations in same sense as in a single phase flow turbulent flow
• Allow the phases to alternately occupy same pace in domain
• Interpenetrating assumption
• Lack of information

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 Fundamental Definitions: Averaging

Temporal Averaging Spatial Averaging

1  0.5

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 Fundamental Definitions: Dispersed Phase Diameter

• Particle diameter is used in interaction drag

calculations.
• There are three ways to calculate dispersed
phase diameter
• Constant – if you know representative size of
dispersed phase describing your size distribution

• User-defined – if you know some correlation for

your particle size as function of local flow
parameters (velocity, temperature, pressure)

• Population Balance Model (Sauter-mean)

21 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Dispersed Phase Diameter Estimation
• Critical Weber number definition to calculate an
equilibrium particle diameter:

• The critical Weber is given as:

Bubble
𝝉𝒕 𝟐ൗ
𝑾𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕 = 𝝉𝒕 = 𝟐𝝆𝒒 𝜺𝒅𝒑 𝟑
∆𝒑
𝟑ൗ
𝟐𝝈 𝝈𝑾𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕 𝟓 𝑊𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡,𝑏𝑢𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒 = 2.48
∆𝒑 = 𝒅=
𝒅 𝟐ൗ
𝝆 𝜺 𝟑 𝑊𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡,𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡 = 1.17
𝒒

22 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017

 Eulerian Multiphase Modelling Strategies in FLUENT

Eulerian Multiphase

One-Fluid Eulerian-N-Fluid
No-Slip Slip Dispersed Separated

Mixture Slip Mixture Granular- Multi-fluid

VOF Eulerian DDPM
Model Model KTGF VOF

23 © 2017 ANSYS, Inc. August 9, 2017