Parameter Study of Boiling Model for CFD Simulation of Multiphase-Thermal Flow in a Pipe

The demand for eco-friendly energy is expected to increase due to the recently strengthened environmental regulations. In particular, the flow inside the pipe used in a cargo handling system (CHS) or fuel gas supply system (FGSS) of hydrogen transport ships and hydrogen-powered ships exhibits a very complex pattern of multiphase-thermal flow, including the boiling phenomenon and high accuracy analysis is required concerning safety. In this study, a feasibility study applying the boiling model was conducted to analyze the multiphase-thermal flow in the pipe considering the phase change. Two types of boiling models were employed and compared to implement the subcooled boiling phenomenon in nucleate boiling numerically. One was the "Rohsenow boiling model", which is the most commonly used one among the VOF (Volume-of-Fluid) boiling models under the Eulerian-Eulerian framework. The other was the "wall boiling model", which is suitable for nucleate boiling among the Eulerian multiphase models. Moreover, a comparative study was conducted by combining the nucleate site density and bubble departure diameter model that could influence the accuracy of the wall boiling model. A comparison of the Rohsenow boiling and the wall boiling models showed that the wall boiling model relatively well represented the process of bubble formation and development, even though more computation time was consumed. Among the combination of models used in the wall boiling model, the simulation results were affected significantly by the bubble departure diameter model, which had a very close relationship with the grid size. The present results are expected to provide useful information for identifying the characteristics of various parameters of the boiling model used in CFD simulations of multiphase-thermalflow, including phase change and selecting the appropriate parameters.