Cryogenics Fluid Dynamics Lab, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford: Cryogenic Fluid Interaction with Surfaces

Cryogenic Fluid Interaction with Surfaces

Cryogenic fluids are crucial in applications such as rockets, cryosurgery and energy storage. In particular, the interaction of cryogenic liquid droplets and jets with solid surfaces is one of the more intriguing areas, however only limited research has been performed, mostly from the experimental side. 

Physically, fluid/surface interactions for common fluids are mostly controlled by the fluid properties, the surface properties and the impact velocity. If the same parameters also control the impact of cryogenic fluids has not been fully investigated yet. We aim to provide insight into the impact dynamics of cryogenic droplets with solid surfaces,  and to address whatever the conclusions from the current literature for non-cryogenic conditions can be applied for cryogenic drops.  

 

We have developed a tailored in-house solver in OpenFOAM, which employs algebraic Volume of Fluid method with adaptive mesh refinement and numerical treatments to improve the interface description are also implemented.  The code is available upon request to Konstantina.vogiatzaki@eng.ox.ac.uk