Free Surface Flows

14. 5 Release

Multiphase Flow Modeling

in ANSYS CFX
© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-1 Release 14.5
 Overview
• Homogeneous and inhomogeneous free surface flows
• Resolving the free surface interface
• Modeling strategies
• Typical free surface applications
• Important physical phenomena
• Classifying free surface flows
• Including the effects of the surface tension force
• Free surface examples
• Coupled volume fractions
• Special boundary conditions for free surface flows

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-2 Release 14.5

 Introduction
• There are cases where two continuous phases are
separated by a distinct resolvable interface
– Oil-water separators
– Free surface flows
– Break-up of droplets which are large relative to the
grid scale

• There may or may not be slip between the phases:

– Homogeneous: both phases are assumed to move with
the same velocity (commonly assumed for free surface flows),
less overhead since phases share all field variables except
for volume fraction
– Inhomogeneous: there may be slip between the
two continuous phases - full overhead for multiple phases

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-3 Release 14.5

 Free Surface Calculations
• For free surface problems, the position of the interface
between the gas and liquid phases is of great interest.
• Numerics can lead to smearing of the interface and various
approaches have been developed to keep the interface well-
defined and crisp

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-4 Release 14.5

 Methods for Free Surface Problems
• Surface Adaptive Approaches
– The mesh boundary is moved to exactly conform with the free surface
interface
• Volume of Fluid (VOF) Methods
– Interface tracking: reconstruction of the interface from computed volume
fraction field using piecewise representation
– Interface capturing: special techniques used to keep the interface crisp
• Level Set Methods

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-5 Release 14.5

 VOF Implementation in ANSYS CFX
• ANSYS CFX relies on an interface capturing approach for VOF
– The interface is tracked across a fixed grid
– Continuity transport equation is solved for the volume fraction field
– A compressive discretization scheme is used to keep the interface sharp-
this typically reduces smearing at the interface to 2-3 elements
– Special Rhie-Chow treatment to prevent pressure-velocity decoupling

• ANSYS FLUENT features the interface capturing approach as well

as free surface reconstruction methods (i.e. geo-reconstruct)
which gives it an advantage for some VOF problems, particularly
those involving the surface tension force, where the mesh isn’t
finite enough to keep the smearing minimized

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-6 Release 14.5

 Modeling Strategies

Multiphase Flow Models

Homogeneous Inhomogeneous
(Ul=Uk) (UkUl)
• Phases not mixed at
microscopic scale Mixture Model
• Phases share velocity
field • Complex interfacial
• Free surface flows boundaries
• Disperse flows with high • Gas-liquid flows with
interfacial drag  small flow regime transition
particles
• Drag prediction not required
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 Free Surface Flows
• Free surface flows
– separated multiphase flow
– fluids separated by distinct resolvable interface
– examples: open channel flow, flow around ship hulls, water jet in air
(Pelton wheel), tank filling, etc.
– volume fractions are close to zero or unity except near the interface.

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-8 Release 14.5

 Free Surface Applications
• Surface tension usually negligible
– Mold filling
– Metal solidification (melt interface)
– Civil Hydraulics
– Flows in tanks

• Surface tension usually important

– Inkjets, dispensing
– Silicon crystal growth
– Coating (wire, dip, slide, extrusion)
– Bio-microfluidics

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 Free Surface Model
• Direct method of predicting interface shape between immiscible phases

• It relies on fact that two or more fluids ( phases ) are not penetrating i.e
immiscible fluids
• Two gases cannot be modeled since they mix at the molecular level.
• Liquid/liquid interfaces can be modeled as long as the two liquids are immiscible.

• Shape of interface of immiscible fluids is of interest. Requires a fine mesh

to resolve the scales at interface.

• The tracking of interface is accomplished by solution of phasic continuity

equations. The accuracy of interface can be increased by modeling
surface tension

• VOF model solves exact multiphase equations and boundary conditions

at interface.

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-10 Tank Filling Release 14.5

 Surface Tension Force
•An attractive force at the free surface interface,
characterized by a surface tension coefficient, s, which is
unique for each fluid pair
F
F σ
L

•Normal component p  s
– smooths regions of high curvature
– induces pressure rise within droplet:
•Tangential component
– moves fluid along interface toward region of high s
– often called Marangoni effect (s decreases with temperature)

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-11 Release 14.5

 Wall Adhesion

Non-wetting Wetting
Secondary Fluid Secondary Fluid

  90 o
Primary Fluid   90o Primary Fluid

• Wall adhesion is responsible for capillary effect in tubes

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-12 Release 14.5

 Classifying Free Surface Flows
• In the absence of surface tension, use the Froude number to characterize the
flow:

V convective speed
Fr  
gL wave speed

– L=h (water depth) for shallow water flow

– L=l/2p (wavelength) for sinusoidal wave train in deep water
– for flow around ship hulls, there is not single wave velocity, but a Froude number
can be defined for the ship geometry
• Analogies with Mach number
– Flow can be subcritical, transcritical, or supercritical
– For supercritical flow, the local velocity is greater than the surface wave speed,
while subcritical flow has a velocity less than the wave speed.
– A hydraulic jump occurs when the flow transitions from supercritical
(Fr > 1) to subcritical (Fr < 1)
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 Classifying Free Surface Flows

•If surface tension forces are important, different dimensionless

groups may be useful:
– Weber number (Re >> 1) - droplet formation

U 2 L Inertial force
We  
s Surface tension force
– Capillary number (Re << 1) - coating flows

U Viscous force
Ca   Re We 
s Surface tension force

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-14 Release 14.5

 Modeling the Surface Tension Force
• Conceptually a surface force at interface

f s  snˆ   ss
– awkward to deal with interface topology

• Reformulate as a continuum force

– Brackbill, Kothe, Zemach 1992
 
Fs  f s s
 s  r
    nˆ
nˆ  r / r
– wall contact angle specifies direction of normal at wall
• Due to dependence on the curvature, double precision is
recommended
© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-15 Release 14.5
 Surface Tension Force in ANSYS CFX
• Variable surface tension is implemented in
ANSYS CFX (Marangoni flows)
– in the example at right, a temperature gradient
induces a surface tension gradient which
gives rise to a tangential force at the
interface

• VOF method
– Interface tracked across fixed grid
– Good for large deformations, robust

• For free surface flows, a compressive discretization scheme is used to

sharpen the interface (smeared over 2-3 elements). This scheme is
conservative. No interface reconstruction algorithms are employed.

• Pressure-velocity coupling (Rhie-Chow)

– special treatment of buoyancy force to keep flow well-behaved at interface

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-16 Release 14.5

 Transient Surface Tension Force Simulations
• When running a transient problem with the
surface tension force in ANSYS CFX, the time
step should be chosen such that the average
mesh Courant number is approximately 1

• When this requirement is coupled with the fine

mesh at the interface required to reduce
smearing, this can result in very small time
steps for simulations involving motion of
bubbles or droplets, where the diameter should
be resolved by 10-20 elements

• Once smearing occurs, it generally persists and

this can affect the computation of curvature,
which is an important factor in computation of
the surface tension force

• Make sure the mesh resolution and the time

step are properly chosen for your problem!

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-17 Release 14.5

 Surface Tension Example

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-18 Release 14.5

 Inkjet Droplet Ejection

• Droplet ejected by pressure pulse prescribed to model

piezoelectric actuator

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-19 Release 14.5

 Free Surface Examples
• Maxwell's Experiment
• 2d transient problem

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 Wigley Hull

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-21 Release 14.5

 Wigley Hull Simulation Results

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-22 Release 14.5

 Free Jet with Adaption

• Adaption to volume fraction can help sharpen a smeared free

surface interface

No adaption One step Two steps

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-23 Release 14.5

 Modeling Advice for Free Surface flows
• Choice of model :
– The homogeneous model can be used when the interface between the
two phases remains well defined and none of the dispersed phase
becomes entrained in the continuous phase.
– Where the dispersed phase becomes entrained in the continuous phase,
the inhomogeneous model is a better choice.
• Turbulence Model :
– If the inhomogeneous multiphase model is selected, using the
homogeneous turbulence option is recommended.
• Time Step :
– The timestep for free surface flows should be based on a L/U
(Length/Velocity) scale. The length scale should be a geometric length
scale. The velocity scale should be the maximum of a representative flow
velocity and a buoyant velocity 𝑔𝐿
– In addition, it is often helpful to reduce the timestep for the volume
fraction equations by an order of magnitude below that of the other
equations.
© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-24 Release 14.5
 Coupled Volume Fractions
• Segregated volume fraction (SVF) algorithm
– Velocity and pressure are implicitly coupled
– Volume fractions are updated in a corrector step
– Inhomogeneous MPF: sum(r)=1 only at convergence
• Volume fraction renormalisation step necessary

• Coupled volume fraction (CVF) algorithm

– Velocity, pressure, and volume fractions implicitly coupled
– Guarantees sum(r)=1 at every step
– Newton linearisation of r*rho*u in continuity equation
– Buoyancy force can be linearised against volume fraction
• Buoyancy in momentum (when stably stratified)
• Buoyancy redistribution in Rhie Chow

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-25 Release 14.5

 Interface Compression Level
• This controls the volume fraction advection scheme details for free
surface flows, which in turn controls the interface sharpness.
Allowable values are:

Setting Value
0 No special compression — The advection scheme is the
same as the global advection scheme setting.
1 Intermediate compression
2 Aggressive compression — This is the default.

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-26 Release 14.5

 Homogeneous CVF Example
• Free surface flow over a ramp
– Mesh: 48608 nodes
– Inlet BC
• Bulk mass flow rate
• Zero gradient on volume fraction
– Outlet BC
• Pressure profile (hydrostatic)
– False Timestep Linearisation
• On

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-27 Release 14.5

 Homogeneous Flow Over a Ramp
• Observations
SVF
– Different plot lines with CVF
• No ‘P-Vol’ line
• Phasic mass plots in same
group as momentum as all
are solved as a coupled
system
– SVF is unstable
– CVF is stable
– CVF reduces spurious surface
ripples CVF

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-28 Release 14.5

 Homogeneous Flow Over a Ramp
SVF CVF

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-29 Release 14.5

 CVF – Conclusions for Homogeneous Flows
• Segregated volume fractions
– Numerics are not scalable
• Finer meshes require smaller timesteps
• Coupled volume fractions
– Numerics are scalable
• Can use a physical timescale consistent with L/V, independent of mesh size
• Reduced need for false timestep linearisation of buoyancy force

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-30 Release 14.5

 Inhomogeneous CVF Example

• Oil Water Separator

• Boundary Conditions
– Inlet
– 1.43 m/s
– 50/50 mixture
– Outlets: P=0
– Walls: Free slip
• Mesh
– 11950 nodes
– 10121 hexes

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-31 Release 14.5

 Oil Water Separator (Inhomogeneous CVF)
• Models
– Eulerian MPF
– Water: continuous fluid
– Oil: dispersed fluid (d=2 mm)
– Interphase drag: Schiller Naumann
– Turbulence: homogeneous k-epsilon
• Convergence control
– Physical Timescale: 1 s
– Residual target: 1.E-5 (RMS)
– Max iterations: 500

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-32 Release 14.5

 Convergence Behaviour (SVF)

Not converged after 500 iterations; imbalances 14% (oil); 2% (water)

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-33 Release 14.5
 Convergence Behaviour (CVF)

Converges in ~300 iterations

Imbalance: 1% (oil), 1.5% (water)

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-34 Release 14.5

 Special Boundary Conditions
• Zero Gradient for Volume Fraction
– Allows inlet height to remain
unspecified for subcritical flow
– Example: flow over ramp
• Inlet
– Bulk mass flow rate
– Zero gradient for volume fraction
• Outlet
– Hydrostatic pressure profile
– Sets outlet elevation

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-35 Release 14.5

 Zero Gradient for Volume Fraction
Non-Inflated Inlet

CAUTION: the zero gradient condition requires an

orthogonal grid at the inlet!

Inflated Inlet

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-36 Release 14.5

 BCs – NR outlet
• Specified pressure
– reflective

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-37 Release 14.5

 BCs – NR outlet

• Extrapolation
– Extrapolates pressure
from interior
– Much less reflective
– Can optionally blend
with a specified
pressure
– CCL (red optional):
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
Option = Extrapolation
PRESSURE PROFILE
Option = Relative Pressure
Relative Pressure = pout
Pressure Profile Blend =
0.1
END
END
© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-38 Release 14.5
 Appendix

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-39 Release 14.5

 Coupled Volume Fractions
• Coupled volume fractions (CVF), where the mass and
momentum equations for both phases are solved as a
coupled system were introduced in CFX 11.0 and were
targeted at homogeneous multiphase flows
• The 11.0 implementation worked well for
homogeneous multiphase flows and made the
computation of free surface flows faster and more
robust. Extension to inhomogeneous multiphase
flows was problematic at 11.0 due to robustness
issues
• At 12.0, some improvements have been made to
coupled volume fractions for inhomogeneous
multiphase flows:
– Only activate buoyancy linearisation wrt volume fraction
when it helps.
– Linear solver convergence criterion tightened.
– Still best for free surface-like flows or flows with IPMT

© 2013 ANSYS, Inc. 6-40 Release 14.5