Numerical investigation of particle motion at the steel—slag interface in continuous casting using VOF method and dynamic overset grids

The capillary interactions are prominent for a micro-sized particle at the steel—slag interface. In this study, the dynamics of a spherical particle interacting with the steel—slag interface is numerically investigated using the volume of fluid method in combination with the overset grid technique to account for particle motion. The simulations have shown the particle’s separation process at the interface and successfully captured the formation and continuous evolution of a meniscus in the course of particle motion. A sensitivity analysis on the effect of different physical parameters in the steel—slag—particle system is also conducted. The result indicates that the wettability of particle with the slag phase is the main factor affecting particle separation behavior (trapped at the interface or fully separated into slag). Higher interfacial tension of fluid interface and smaller particle size can speed up the particle motion but have less effect on the equilibrium position for particle staying at the interface. In comparison, particle density shows a minor influence when the motion is dominated by the capillary effect. By taking account of the effect of meniscus and capillary forces on a particle, this study provides a more accurate simulation of particle motion in the vicinity of the steel—slag interface and enables further investigation of more complex situations.

Study on bubble-induced turbulence in pipes and containers with Reynolds-stress models

Bubbly flow still represents a challenge for large-scale numerical simulation. Among many others, the understanding and modelling of bubble-induced turbulence (BIT) are far from being satisfactory even though continuous efforts have been made. In particular, the buoyancy of the bubbles generally introduces turbulence anisotropy in the flow, which cannot be captured by the standard eddy viscosity models with specific source terms representing BIT. Recently, on the basis of bubble-resolving direct numerical simulation data, a new Reynolds-stress model considering BIT was developed by Ma et al. (J Fluid Mech, 883: A9 (2020)) within the Euler—Euler framework. The objective of the present work is to assess this model and compare its performance with other standard Reynolds-stress models using a systematic test strategy. We select the experimental data in the BIT-dominated range and find that the new model leads to major improvements in the prediction of full Reynolds-stress components.

Correction to: Multi-fluid modelling of bubbly channel flows with an adaptive multi-group population balance method

The article “Multi-fluid modelling of bubbly channel flows with an adaptive multi-group population balance method ” written by D. Papoulias, A. Vichansky, and M. Tandon, was originally published electronically on the publisher ’s internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 21 October 2020 without open access. After publication in Volume 3, Issue 3, page 171–185, the author(s) decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Correction to: Complex bubble deformation and break-up dynamics studies using interface capturing approach

The article “Complex bubble deformation and break-up dynamics studies using interface capturing approach” written by Yuqiao Fan, Jun Fang, and Igor Bolotnov, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 18 July 2020 without open access. After publication in Volume 3, Issue 3, page 139–151, the author(s) decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.