[eric weddle]

Hello.

I'm work with simulations of multiphase flows.
And I've just started evaluating OpenFoam as an alternative CFD package for my project.

The aspect that most intrigues me is how the volume fractions are handled within the solvers.

In the TwoPhaseEulerFoam solver I saw that it solves a transport equation for one of the phase's volume fraction (alpha) and for the other phase its volume fraction is simply "1 - alpha".

But how would it handle this aspect if there were more than 2 fluids?
What do you guys think would be the best approach for solving these equations for three fluids while ensuring that the sum of all phases' volume fractions would always sum up to 1?
Would it be solving transport equations for two of the phases' volume fraction (alpha and beta) and then taking the third value to be "1 - alpha - beta"?
Has this been done before?

Thank you very much for your help.