SBIR Phase I: Development of a multiscale code for two-phase and cavitating flows for engineering applications

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on the development of advanced software for the description of complex multiscale bubbly flows such as those encountered in a variety of chemical and mechanical engineering processes. The strength of this proposed hybrid model is that it will address cases where bubbles are present on a wide range of scales. A major component of the proposed work is a continuum-based model, which will be extended using matched asymptotic expansions. This will allow for representation of bubble-bubble interactions, non-spherical bubble dynamics, and bubble-flow interactions. The resulting successfully developed code will greatly benefit the fundamental multiphase flow research community and be strongly attractive to a broad range of industrial applications which require accurate and efficient software for predicting and analyzing multiphase flow problems. The developed software can be used directly in optimization and design of industrial devices such as pumps, propellers, foils, valves, cavitating jets, piping and nuclear and chemical reactors etc. where the technical applications involve a dispersed bubble flows in a continuous liquid.