Total enthalpy-based lattice Boltzmann method with adaptive mesh refinement for solid-liquid phase change

A total enthalpy-based lattice Boltzmann (LB) method with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) is developed in this paper to efficiently simulate solid-liquid phase change problem where variables vary significantly near the phase interface and thus finer grid is required. For the total enthalpy-based LB method, the velocity field is solved by an incompressible LB model with multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) collision scheme, and the temperature field is solved by a total enthalpy-based MRT LB model with the phase interface effects considered and the deviation term eliminated. With a kinetic assumption that the density distribution function for solid phase is at equilibrium state, a volumetric LB scheme is proposed to accurately realize the nonslip velocity condition on the diffusive phase interface and in the solid phase. As compared with the previous schemes, this scheme can avoid nonphysical flow in the solid phase. As for the AMR approach, it is developed based on multiblock grids. An indicator function is introduced to control the adaptive generation of multiblock grids, which can guarantee the existence of overlap area between adjacent blocks for information exchange. Since MRT collision schemes are used, the information exchange is directly carried out in the moment space. Numerical tests are firstly performed to validate the strict satisfaction of the nonslip velocity condition, and then melting problems in a square cavity with different Prandtl numbers and Rayleigh numbers are simulated, which demonstrate that the present method can handle solid-liquid phase change problem with high efficiency and accuracy. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.