Development and implementation of a polydispersed multiphase flow model in OpenFOAM

The two-phase flow solver implemented in the open-source OpenFOAM code was extended to a multiphase flow formulation (n dispersed and one continuous phases) and then coupled to the population balance equation (PBE) solution by the Direct Quadrature Method of Moments (DQMOM), originating a polydispersed multiphase flow solver. Although each dispersed phase has its own velocity field, the present implementation considers only the interfacial momentum exchange between the continuous and the dispersed phases. The multiphase flow formulation was described and the details of the PBE–CFD coupling algorithms in OpenFOAM were provided. The implementation of the multiphase flow code was verified and evaluated against the original OpenFOAM two-phase flow solver for flow through a 2D backward facing step, using simplified breakage and aggregation kernels. The computational cost of both codes were compared for serial and parallel simulations.

► An implementation of DQMOM in the OpenFOAM CFD code was developed.
► A detailed description of this implementation was given.
► The code was verified against an existing two-phase flow solver in OpenFOAM.
► Some polydisperse flow problems with breakage and aggregation were solved.
► Computational costs for serial and parallel runs were analyzed.