A Polydispersed Gaussian-Moment Model for Polythermal, Evaporating, and Turbulent Multiphase Flow Applications

Abstract

A novel higher-order moment-closure method is applied for the Eulerian treatment of gas-particle multiphase flows characterized by a dilute polydisperse and polythermal particle phase. Based upon the polydisperse Gaussian-moment model (PGM) framework, the proposed model is derived by applying an entropy-maximization moment-closure formulation to the transport equation of the particle-number density function, which is equivalent to the Williams-Boltzmann equation for droplet sprays. The resulting set of first-order robustly-hyperbolic balance laws include a direct treatment for local higher-order statistics such as co-variances between particle distinguishable properties (i.e., diameter and temperature) and particle velocity. Leveraging the additional distinguishing variables, classical hydrodynamic droplet evaporation theory is considered to describe unsteady droplet vaporization. Further, studying turbulent multiphase flow theory, a first-order hyperbolicity maintaining approximation to turbulent flow diffusion-inertia effects is proposed. Investigations into the predictive capabilities of the model are evaluated relative to Lagrangian-based solutions for a range of flows, including aerosol dispersion and fuel-sprays. Further, the model is implemented in a massively parallel discontinuous-Galerkin framework. Validation of the proposed turbulence coupling model is subsequently performed against experimental data, and a qualitative analysis of the model is given for a qualitative liquid fuel-spray problem.