A Multiscale Approach Simulating Boiling in a Heated Pipe Including Flow Pattern Transition

The paper presents the extension of the GENeralized TwO Phase flow (GENTOP) model for phase transfer and discusses the submodels used. Boiling flow inside a wall heated vertical pipe is simulated by a multifield computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. Subcooled water enters the pipe from the lower end and heats up first in the near-wall region leading to the generation of small bubbles. Farther along the pipe, larger and larger bubbles are generated by coalescence and evaporation. This leads to transitions of the two-phase-flow patterns from bubbly to churn-turbulent and annular flow. The CFD simulation is based on the recently developed GENTOP concept. It is a multifield model using the Euler-Euler approach. It allows the consideration of different local flow morphologies including transitions between them. Small steam bubbles are handled as dispersed phases while the interface of large gas structures is statistically resolved. The GENTOP submodels and the wall boiling model need a constant improvement and separate, intensive validation effort using CFD-grade experiments.