Numerical Simulation of Non-Equilibrium Two-Phase Wet Steam Flow through an Asymmetric Nozzle

Abstract

The present study reported of the numerical investigation of a high-speed wet steam flow through an asymmetric nozzle. The spontaneous non-equilibrium homogeneous condensation of wet steam was numerically modeled based on the classical nucleation theory and droplet growth rate equation combined with the field conservations within the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code of ANSYS Fluent 13.0. The equations describing droplet formations and interphase change were solved sequentially after solving the main flow conservation equations. The calculations were carried out assuming the flow two-dimensional, compressible, turbulent, and viscous. The SST k-ω model was used for modeling the turbulence within an unstructured mesh solver. The validation of numerical model was accomplished, and the results showed a good agreement between the numerical simulation and experimental data. The effect of spontaneous non-equilibrium condensation on the jet and shock structures was revealed, and the condensation shown a great influence on the jet structure.

Keywords

• compressible flow
• heat release
• non-equilibrium condensation
• shock wave
• supersonic