Eulerian Quadrature-Based Moment Models for Dilute Polydisperse Evaporating Sprays

Dilute liquid sprays can be modeled at the mesoscale using a kinetic equation, namely the Williams–Boltzmann equation, containing terms for spatial transport, evaporation and fluid drag. The most common method for simulating the Williams–Boltzmann equation uses Lagrangian particle tracking wherein a finite ensemble of numerical “parcels” provides a statistical estimate of the joint surface area, velocity number density function (NDF). An alternative approach is to discretize the NDF into droplet size intervals, called sections, and to neglect velocity fluctuations conditioned on droplet size, resulting in an Eulerian multi-fluid model. In comparison to Lagrangian particle tracking, multi-fluid models contain no statistical error (due to the finite number of parcels) but they cannot reproduce the particle trajectory crossings observed in Lagrangian simulations of non-collisional kinetic equations. Here, in order to overcome this limitation, a quadrature-based moment method is used to describe the velocity moments. When coupled with the sectional description of droplet sizes, the resulting Eulerian multi-fluid, multi-velocity model is shown to capture accurately both particle trajectory crossings and the size-dependent dynamics of evaporation and fluid drag. Model validation is carried out using direct comparisons between the Lagrangian and Eulerian models for an unsteady free-jet configuration with mono- and polydisperse droplets with and without evaporation. Comparisons between the Eulerian and Lagrangian instantaneous number density and gas-phase fuel mass fraction fields show excellent agreement, suggesting that the multi-fluid, multi-velocity model is well suited for describing spray combustion.