A Low-Mach Sharp-Interface Solver for Two-Phase Flows with Phase Change and Multiresolution-Based Mesh Adaptation

Jury

• Mme Annafederica Urbano, professeure, ISAE-SUPAERO (Rapporteure)
• M. Daniel Fuster, directeur de recherche, Sorbonne Université (Rapporteur)
• Mme Marica Pelanti, maîtresse de conférences, ENSTA Paris (Examinatrice)
• M. Christian Tenaud, directeur de recherche, CentraleSupélec (Examinateur)
• M. Guillaume Oger, ingénieur de recherche, École Centrale de Nantes (Examinateur)
• M. Victor Boniou, ingénieur de recherche, IFPENIFP Energies nouvelles (Examinateur)
• Mme Caroline Nore, professeure, Université Paris-Saclay (Directrice de thèse)
• M. Nicolas Grenier, maître de conférences, Université Paris-Saclay (Co-encadrant)

Keywords

Compressible two-phase flows, sharp-interface model, low-Mach flows, phase change, mesh adaptation, multiresolution analysis

Abstract

Two-phase flows involving boiling and evaporation arise in a wide range of applications, yet their simulation remains challenging due to the strong coupling between compressibility, interfacial dynamics, heat transfer, and phase change, as well as their multiscale nature. This thesis develops an integrated framework for the direct numerical simulation of compressible liquid-vapor flows with phase change, combining (i) an all-regime compressible solver designed to remain accurate in the low-Mach regime, (ii) a sharp-interface phase-change model based on the Level Set / Ghost Fluid method, and (iii) a multiresolution-based mesh adaptation strategy. 

The proposed framework is validated through a series of benchmark problems of increasing physical complexity, including configurations involving large density ratios and large Jakob numbers. The phase-change model is based on the interfacial energy balance and allows the saturation temperature to vary with the local pressure. The mesh adaptation dynamically refines and coarsens the computational grid according to the local regularity of the conservative variables. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework accurately simulates low-Mach compressible two-phase flows with phase change while reducing computational cost by concentrating resources in regions requiring higher resolution.