Author(s)

M. Benz, T. Schulenberg

Abstract

The aim of this work is to develop a new numerical model for countercurrent stratified two-phase flows with wavy interface that is able to predict time averaged flow properties, such as velocity, turbulence and void profiles. Assuming an equilibrium condition between gravitational and surface energy on one hand and turbulent kinetic energy on the other hand, a statistical model for the turbulent length scale in the inner region of a two-layer turbulence approach was derived to account for the influence of the waves. The model was then compared to the originally implemented k-ε-model and a modified version of the k-ε-model of OpenFoam 2.2.0. The simulation results of the new approach were found to be in very good agreement with experimental data.

Keywords

countercurrent, stratified, two-phase flow, turbulence, waves, CFD