Numerical Simulation of Ethanol Glycol –Air Two-Phase Flow Mixture Using COMSOL Multiphysics

Abstract

Two-phase flows involving volatile organic liquids such as ethanol glycol are utilized in combustion, fuel atomization, spray cooling, and chemical process engineering. Numerical investigations of the reaction between liquid ethanol glycol and air employed a two-phase flow interface to model interface dynamics, with phases simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 software. These simulations included volume fraction of fluid (VOF) distributions, velocity fields, and temperature in Kelvin. With in the temperature range of 280 to 380 K, a minimal increase in heat capacity is observed, rising from 2300 J/K to around 2700 J/K at the same temperature, while the dynamic viscosity (eta(T)) diminishes from 0.65 Pa·s to around 0.05 Pa·s.  The density approximates 1130 kg/m³ at lower thermal conditions and around 1060 kg/m³ under elevated thermal conditions. It additionally denotes specific heat capacity measured in (J/kg·K), which exhibits slight variation, and thermal conductivity quantified in (W/m·K) ranging from 0.244 to 0.262 W/m·K.The thermal conditions of the simulation were maintained within the interval of 280–380 K. It has been observed that prior to the manifestation of any intricate flow phenomena over time, the volumetric ratio converges towards the region occupied by liquid ethanol glycol at an approximate velocity of 1.7 m/s.