Numerical Simulation and Validation of Slug Flow Dynamics Using The Standard K-Epsilon Model | ||
| Engineering Research Journal | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 December 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/erj.2025.397271.1256 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Omar Mostafa Khalifa* 1; Ashraf Mostafa Hamed2; Abdelaziz Morgan Abdelaziz3 | ||
| 1Mechanical Power Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt | ||
| 2Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Ain Shams University, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo, Egypt | ||
| 3Department of Mechanical Power Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This study presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of vertical air–water slug flow using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method and the standard k-epsilon turbulence model while employing a structured hexahedral mesh to ensure high-quality discretization. The geometry consists of a vertical pipe with a 52.5 mm diameter and a total length of 8 m. A structured hexahedral mesh was employed, and mesh independence was confirmed using three mesh sizes: 100555, 246330, and 479457 cells. Transient void fraction data and Power Spectral Density (PSD) analyses were performed, revealing that the finest mesh accurately captured both the time-domain slug structure and dominant frequency (~3.2 Hz) of the flow. The model was validated against published experimental data, with the best case showing a void fraction deviation of only ~8.7%. Results confirm that the VOF method combined with the k-epsilon model reliably captures the primary and secondary oscillations of slug flow, offering a validated, practical tool for industrial two-phase flow prediction. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Slug flow; K-Epsilon; Numerical modelling; Multi-phase flow; Volume of Fluid (VOF) | ||
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