Numerical Simulation of a Supersonic Three-Phase Cavitating Jet Flow Through a Gaseous Medium in Injection Nozzle

Abstract

A new multiphase mathematical model based on a mixture formulation of the laws of conservation for a multiphase flow is used to simulate a supersonic three-phase cavitating jet flow through a gaseous medium. The model does not require an adhoc closure for the variation of mixture density with regards to the attendant pressure and yields a thermodynamically accurate value for the acoustical propagation generated by the process. A source term for cavitation is added into the equations of the mixture formulation and the resultant cavitation is mathematically modeled accordingly. The new numerical formulation has been incorporated into a multi-physics unstructured code “RocfluMP” that solves the modified three-dimensional time-dependent Euler/Navier-Stokes equations for a multiphase framework in integral form. A modified form of the Harten, Lax and van Leer approximate Riemann equations are used to resolve the isolated shock and contact waves. The newly developed multiphase flow equations provide a general framework for analyzing coupled incompressible-compressible multiphase flows that can be applied to a variety of supersonic multiphase jet flow problems such as fuel injection systems and liquid-jet machining. Preliminary results for three-phase cavitating jet flow through a gaseous medium in injection nozzle are presented and discussed.