Events
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Place: IC 02/718
Amin Safi, Combustion Fundamentals Group, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland
Since the advent of kinetic methods in early 1990s, the numerical communities in physics, applied mathematics and mechanical engineering have been actively assessing the capabilities of such schemes, the most popular of them being the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, so as to establish their reliability as an alternative to classical CFD tools. Almost three decades later, kinetic approaches are now in a position to be applied with confidence to answer key questions in science and industry, offering high numerical accuracy, low coding complexity and an exceptional parallel scalability. Among various applications of interest in physics and engineering, in this talk, I would be focusing on some latest generations of LB-based technologies for multiphase and multicomponent flows as being actively used for current and upcoming energy-related projects at the Combustion Fundamentals Group (CFG) of the Paul Scherrer Institute. We start with a brief review over a new class of coupled LB-Level Set solvers for high density ratio, high deformation rate two phase systems. Moving towards more realistic energy systems, I will then introduce a recently developed tool to predict evaporation inside Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC), where flow and mass transport must be realized at the micro-pores of gas diffusion layers in PEFCs. The last part of the talk would be dedicated to introducing our ongoing project on multiscale simulation of flow and surface reactions in methanation fluidized beds, where catalytic reactions take place inside and outside a swarm of porous catalytic particles at variable temperatures to convert the mixture of CO and hydrogen into the highly desirable methane fuel.
