Wall function approach for boiling two-phase flows Original Research Article

One of the important goals of the NURESIM project is to assess and improve the simulation capability of the three-dimensional two-fluid codes for prediction of local boiling flow processes. The boiling flow is strongly affected by local mechanisms in the turbulent boundary layer near the heated wall. Wall-to-fluid transfer models for boiling flow with the emphasis on near-wall treatment are being addressed in the paper. Since the computational grid of the 3D two-fluid models is too coarse to resolve the variable gradients in the near-wall region, the use of wall functions is a common approach to model the liquid velocity and temperature profile adjacent to the heated wall. The wall function model for momentum, based on the surface roughness analogy has been discussed and implemented in the NEPTUNE_CFD code. The model has been validated on several upward boiling flow experiments, differing in the geometry, working fluid and operating conditions. The simulations with the new wall function model show an improved prediction of flow parameters over the boiling boundary layer. Furthermore, a wall function model for the energy equation, based on enhanced two-phase wall friction has been derived and validated.