A compressible multiphase Mass-of-Fluid model for the simulation of laser-based manufacturing processes

Abstract

A new model for compressible multiphase flows involving sharp interfaces and phase change is presented, that uses a variant of the Volume-of-Fluid model to track phases by advecting their respective mass, and is hence called Mass-of-Fluid model. The framework is aimed at predicting the coupled multi-physical phenomena involved in most processes encountered in laser material processing, with the aim of minimizing a priori assumptions on the nature of the process. Emphasis is put on the multiphase fluid flow model, especially on the treatment of compressibility and phase change. The model’s accuracy and suitability is demonstrated on problems of increasing complexity, including well-known benchmarks and problems encountered in laser material processing, where simulation results are compared to experimental observations.