Multiphase flow
Multiphase flow simulation: free surface, dispersed and boiling
Several distinct multiphase formulations rather than one setting labelled "multiphase" — interface-capturing for free surfaces, geometric reconstruction where the interface has to stay sharp, Eulerian and drift-flux for dispersed phases, and phase change for boiling and condensation. The formulation is chosen by what the flow is, which is the choice that decides whether the answer means anything.
Questions this answers
- Where is the interface, and does it stay sharp?
- What is the gas fraction through this line or column?
- What does this tank do when it sloshes or fills?
- Where does boiling start, and what does it do to heat transfer?
- Does this flow cavitate under its real operating pressure?
The analysis types that do it
Each of these is a case type in the application, not a configuration you assemble. Every one runs in the free build — the free tier limits mesh size and cores, never which physics you may use.
Backends underneath
interFoaminterIsoFoamcompressibleInterFoampotentialFreeSurfaceFoammultiphaseEulerFoamdriftFluxFoaminterCondensatingEvaporatingFoaminterPhaseChangeFoam
Open-source solvers, selected and configured from the case type. You can still read every dictionary the application writes.
When it will not fit on your machine
Paid accounts can send meshing and solving to SHD Cloud and keep working locally. The estimate is shown before the run starts.
What this does not do
- No population balance — bubble and droplet size distributions are not tracked.
- No surfactant or complex interfacial chemistry.
- Multiphase cases are the most expensive in the catalogue; expect to reach for cloud compute.
Naming a sector here says the physics suits the work. It is not a claim that anyone in it is a customer.