Stability assessment of the phase-field lattice Boltzmann model and its application to Taylor bubbles in annular piping geometries

Mitchell T, Holzer M, Schwarzmeier C, Bauer M, Rüde U, Leonardi C (2021)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Book Volume: 33

Journal Issue: 8

DOI: 10.1063/5.0061694

Abstract

This study parametrically assessed the stability of the phase-field lattice Boltzmann model (PFLBM) before applying it to analyze the effect of annular piping geometry on the flow of Taylor bubbles. The impacts of both eccentricity and pipe diameter ratio were examined, providing an insight into the behavior of these bubbles as well as the applicability and shortcomings in current prediction methodologies. A recently developed PFLBM was implemented into the open-source simulation framework, waLBerla, for this analysis. The stability properties of the code were investigated in detail by assessing various lattice discretizations and relaxation kernels applied to the Rayleigh-Taylor benchmark problem and a Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a tubular geometry, with gravitational Reynolds numbers of up to 30 000 and 10 000, respectively. This paper makes three contributions relating to the stability and usage of the PFLBM as well as the flow of Taylor bubbles in annular pipes. First, the work numerically explored the stability properties of the velocity-based, PFLBM and concluded the impact of various collision models and lattice discretizations on simulation results. Second, it provided a flexible open-source code that the interested researcher can use interactively for practical flow problems as well as the analysis of numerical properties of various lattice Boltzmann algorithms. Finally, it quantified the effect of pipe eccentricity and diameter ratio on the propagation of a Taylor bubble inside a water-filled annular pipe, concluding that a previously defined closure model captured the diameter ratio for the cases examined. To extend this work, future studies aim to analytically investigate the stability properties parametrically observed in this study and apply the findings to simulate the interaction of multiple Taylor bubbles.

Authors with CRIS profile

Additional Organisation(s)

Involved external institutions

University of Queensland Australia (AU)

How to cite

APA:

Mitchell, T., Holzer, M., Schwarzmeier, C., Bauer, M., Rüde, U., & Leonardi, C. (2021). Stability assessment of the phase-field lattice Boltzmann model and its application to Taylor bubbles in annular piping geometries. Physics of Fluids, 33(8). https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0061694

MLA:

Mitchell, Travis, et al. "Stability assessment of the phase-field lattice Boltzmann model and its application to Taylor bubbles in annular piping geometries." Physics of Fluids 33.8 (2021).

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