A unified single-field Volume-of-Fluid-based formulation for multi-component interfacial transfer with local volume changes

This paper presents a novel unified single-field formulation for Volume-Of-Fluid simulation of interfacial mass transfer with local volume changes. By comparison with the previous models referred as Continuous Species Transfer in the literature, our improved model uses a single-field formulation of the local mass transfer across the interface, enabling us to take into account local volume changes induced by non-dilute species transfer. The numerical model, implemented in our in-house OpenFOAM-based simulator, is validated by comparison with analytical solutions in 1D and 2D, and a semi-analytical solution in 3D. The implemented approach is first applied to investigate competing mass transfer in an infinite cylinder. We then simulate the shrinking of a single-component rising bubble at low Schmidt number. The numerical model is shown to be well adapted to investigate Sherwood numbers and existing correlation for mass transfer at fluid interfaces. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.