The capillary pressure curves from upscaling interfacial and unsaturated flows in porous layers with vertical heterogeneity

We provide the capillary pressure curves p_(c)(s)as a function of the effective saturation s based on the theoretical framework of upscaling unsaturated flows in vertically heterogeneous porous layers proposed recently(Z.Zheng,Journal of Fluid Mechanics,950,A17,2022).Based on the assumption of vertical gravitational-capillary equilibrium,the saturation distribution and profile shape of the invading fluid can be obtained by solving a nonlinear integral-differential equation.The capillary pressure curves p_(c)(s)can then be constructed by systematically varying the injection rate.Together with the relative permeability curves k_(rn)(s)that are already obtained.One can now provide quick estimates on the overall behaviours of interfacial and unsaturated flows in vertically-heterogeneous porous layers.

The axisymmetric long-wave interfacial stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluid with surfactant

The long wave stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluids with an axial pressure gradient is investigated at low Reynolds number. The interface between the two fluids is populated with an insoluble surfactant. The analytic solution for the growth rate of perturbation is obtained with long wave approximation. We are mainly concerned with the effects of shear-thinning/thickening property and interfacial surfactant on the flow stability. The results show that the influence of shear-thinning/thickening property accounts to the change of the capillary number. For a clean interface, the shear-thinning property enhances the capillary instability when the interface is close to the pipe wall. The converse is true when the interface is close to the pipe centerline. For shear-thickening fluids, the situation is reversed. When the interface is close to the pipe centerline, the capillary instability can be restrained due to the influence of surfactant. A parameter set can be found under which the flow is linearly stable.

A three-dimensional robust volume-of-fluid solver based on the adaptive mesh refinement

The present study provides a three-dimensional volume-of-fluid method based on the adaptive mesh refinement technique.The projection method on the adaptive mesh is introduced for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations.The octree structure mesh is employed to solve the flow velocities and the pressure.The developed solver is applied to simulate the deformation of the cubic droplet driven by the surface tension without the effect of the gravity.The numerical results well predict the shape evolution of the droplet.

Mass transfer coefficients in metallurgical reactors

An overview on the application and achievements of physico-mathematicalmodeling of metallurgical processes in China is briefly declared. The important role of coefficientsin model formulation is shown from our experience. The mass transfer coefficients of the slag-metalreactions and the gas-metal reactions are discussed referring to the flow conditions near theinterface. The influence of the surface-active species on the mass transfer and the interfacialreaction is also discussed briefly.

Formation of radially expanding liquid sheet by impinging two round jets

A thin circular liquid sheet can be formed by impinging two identical round jets against each other. The liquid sheet expands to a certain critical radial distance and breaks. The unsteady process of the formation and breakup of the liquid sheet in the ambient gas is simulated numerically. Both liquid and gas are treated as incompressible Newtonian fluids. The flow considered is axisymmetric. The liquid-gas interface is modeled with a level set function. A finite difference scheme is used to solve the governing Navier-Stokes equations with physical boundary conditions. The numerical results show how a thin circular sheet can be formed and break at its circular edge in slow motion. The sheet continues to thin as it expands radially. Hence, the Weber number decreases radially. The Weber number is defined as ρu 2 h/σ, where ρ and σ are, respectively, the liquid density and the surface tension, and u and h are, respectively, the average velocity and the half sheet thickness at a local radial location in the liquid sheet. The numerical results show that the sheet indeed terminates at a radial location, where the Weber number reaches one as observed in experiments. The spatio-temporal linear theory predicts that the breakup is initiated by the sinuous mode at the critical Weber number We c =1, below which the absolute instability occurs. The other independent mode called the varicose mode grows more slowly than the sinuous mode according to the linear theory. However, our numerical results show that the varicose mode actually overtakes the sinuous mode during the nonlinear evolution, and is responsible for the final breakup. The linear theory predicts the nature of disturbance waves correctly only at the onset of the instability, but cannot predict the exact consequence of the instability.

Thin film dynamics in coating problems using Onsager principle

A new variational method is proposed to investigate the dynamics of the thin film in a coating flow where a liquid is delivered through a fixed slot gap onto a moving substrate. A simplified ODE system has also been derived for the evolution of the thin film whose thickness hf is asymptotically constant behind the coating front. We calculate the phase diagram as well as the film profiles and approximate the film thickness theoretically, and agreement with the well-known scaling law as Ca2/3 is found.

Numerical Simulation of Moving Contact Lines with Surfactant by Immersed Boundary Method

In this paper,we present an immersed boundary method for simulating moving contact lines with surfactant.The governing equations are the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with the usual mixture of Eulerian fluid variables and Lagrangian interfacial markers.The immersed boundary force has two components:one from the nonhomogeneous surface tension determined by the distribution of surfactant along the fluid interface,and the other from unbalanced Young’s force at the moving contact lines.An artificial tangential velocity has been added to the Lagrangian markers to ensure that the markers are uniformly distributed at all times.The corresponding modified surfactant equation is solved in a way such that the total surfactant mass is conserved.Numerical experiments including convergence analysis are carefully conducted.The effect of the surfactant on the motion of hydrophilic and hydrophobic drops are investigated in detail.