Hello,
I am and I am interested in the possibilities to extend the lesInterFoam solver in OpenFoam to include cavitation of the liquid phase. How can this be done?
Also, I'm interested in how much it would cost if one were to contract Weller's group for this kind of job.

Sincerely,
Fabian Peng Kärrholm

I hope to release cavitatingFoam as part of OpenFOAM-1.0.3 if we get time to setup FoamX and a tutorial. This code uses the Barotropic equation of state with HEM to model the cavitation which is a good approach for some problems but not all. Currently turbulence modelling is not included but the LES modelling used in lesInterFoam could be used. What kind of cavitation problems are you interested in and do you think the Barotropic approch is appropriate? If so OpenCFD would be happy to quote you for writing lesCavitatingFoam including FoamX support and a tutorial case.

We are currently using cavitatingFoam, with the barotropic equation of state, to analyze a flow inside a nozzle. However, we're now also considering the possibilities of modeling outside of the nozzle, thus we need the lesInterFoam "coupled" with cavitatingFoam.

/Fabian

cavitatingFoam has not yet been released with OpenFOAM so I guess you are using the old version I supplied to Chalmers a while back. I have now completed the new version which will be included in the 1.0.3 release but I am not sure I will have time to setup FoamX for it.

Coupling cavitation with interface-capturing is not a trivial exercise because the system becomes three-phase and compressible. I guess it's possible but I will have to think about the details. If you are interested in contracting OpenCFD to undertake this development please contact enquiries and we will quote you for the work.

[vatant]

If the liquid phase in the Les simulation can be made compressible and HEM applied to within the liquid phase, cant a single lesinterfoam be used for simulating a cavitating flow with 3 phases ?

[henry]

lesInterFoam is an incompressible two-phase code, that is incompressible in both phases and the VOF interface capturing scheme is also for incompressible flow and relies on the divergence of the mean velocity being zero. Before cavitation effects can be included the code would have to be made compressible in both phases and the appropriate developments made to the VOF scheme. I have all the details pretty much worked out and if I can find sponsorship for this work I will implement it.

[haghajani]

I have read part of Fabian's PhD Thesis; In page 11-15 he points to a solver which he developed to simulate cavitation of a liquid(Diesel) injected in to air. As far as I understood in this approach he didn't use Volume of Fraction method. Am I right?

I would like to simulate flash evaporation of liquid hydrogen {P0 >10 bar, T0 ~ 20K} in to air , which will consist of
1- liquid Hydrogen,
2- Hydrogen Vapour and
3- Air
I don't know if I should build up a code based on cavitatingFoam or I should solve for each phase seperately? In each case, please shed light on how should I deal with two gases and one liquid?

Beside the point, I think I would need, to solve for dryness fraction, which I am wondering to use Downar-Zapolski's relationship; Dx/Dt = - (x-xeq)/teta

In the phoneomna of interest, I think I should consider inter-phase heat transfer, because of extreme Tempreture difference, (I dont know if the effect of Tempreture is negligible) , Please include your point of view in this regard.

Thank you,
Hamed

[Marta]

Dear all, I'm using the cavitatingFoam solver to simulate the injection of N2O inside a combustion chamber. I set the simulation according to the tutorial, and I changed the input parameters for the case of the specific fluid i'm using.

The thing is I have a problem, and i am wondering if it depends on a solver limit...my saturation pressure is of the order of 5 MPa, and this causes instabilities and unphysical rho and P ranges in my simulation.

I saw that if it was just an order of magnitude lower, everything would work.

Can i do something for this problem? Is there any solution that can be applied?

Thank you in advance!

Marta