Numerical Simulation of Two-Phase Flow Driven by Rotating Object

Abstract

Air-oil two-phase flows driven by a rotor with teeth are studied by a numerical simulation with an interface capturing Conservative Level Set method. The code has been developed on the rotating frame in cylindrical coordinate system. The experiments were also conducted and the snapshots of the oil distribution and the friction moment were compared with the numerical results. The pitch and the height of the tooth were taken as parameters to figure out the effect on gas-liquid interface profile and frictional moment. The behavior of the air-oil interface is in good agreement with the experiment at 100-rpm rotational speed. The detailed contribution of the pressure and the shear stress acting on the tooth surface is also understood. It is found that the numerical simulation is able to describe the two-phase flow very well at 100-rpm rotational speed and higher grid resolution is necessary in order to capture the phenomena at 500-rpm rotational speed.