This study focuses on the numerical investigation of gas-liquid two-phase flow within an effervescent atomizer using two commercial CFD tools: ANSYS Fluent and CONVERGE CFD. In ANSYS Fluent, the Volume of Fluid (VOF) simulations are carried out using the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach with the k-ω SST turbulence model. Two advection schemes: High Resolution Interface Capturing (HRIC) and Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) are employed to track the gas-liquid interface. In contrast, CONVERGE CFD uses the URANS approach with the RNG k-ε turbulence model and applies only the HRIC scheme for interface capturing, due to limitations in using PLIC with compressible flows. Water is used as the liquid medium and air as the gas medium for the effervescent atomization process. The simulations are conducted at a gas-liquid ratio (GLR) of 0.93%. The VOF simulation results of the internal two-phase flow from both tools are qualitatively compared with the experimental observations. This study aims to compare the performance and modeling capabilities of both CFD tools to support improved design and optimization of the atomizer.
