A kinetic energy-and entropy-preserving scheme for compressible two-phase flows

Accurate numerical modeling of compressible flows, particularly in the turbulent regime, requires a method that is non-dissipative and stable at high Reynolds (Re) numbers. For a compressible flow, it is known that discrete conservation of kinetic energy is not a sufficient condition for numerical stability, unlike in incompressible flows. In this study, we adopt the recently developed conservative diffuse-interface method (Jain et al., 2020 [30]) for the simulation of compressible two-phase flows. This method discretely conserves the mass of each phase, momentum, and total energy of the system and consistently reduces to the single-phase Navier-Stokes system when the properties of the two phases are identical. We here propose discrete consistency conditions between the numerical fluxes, such that any set of numerical fluxes that satisfy these conditions would not spuriously contribute to the kinetic energy and entropy of the system. We also present a set of numerical fluxes-which satisfies these consistency conditions-that results in an exact conservation of kinetic energy and approximate conservation of entropy in the absence of pressure work, viscosity, thermal diffusion effects, and time-discretization errors. Since the model consistently reduces to the single-phase Navier-Stokes system when the properties of the two phases are identical, the proposed consistency conditions and numerical fluxes are also applicable for a broader class of single-phase flows. To this end, we present coarse-grid numerical simulations of compressible single-phase and two-phase turbulent flows at infinite Re, to illustrate the stability of the proposed method in canonical test cases, such as an isotropic turbulence and Taylor-Green vortex flows. A higher-resolution simulation of a droplet-laden compressible decaying isotropic turbulence is also presented, and the effect of the presence of droplets on the flow is analyzed. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study utilizes the conservative diffuse-interface method to simulate compressible two-phase flows and proposes discrete consistency conditions for numerical fluxes to ensure conservation of kinetic energy and entropy. The stability of the proposed method is verified in canonical test cases, as well as in flows with droplets.