Numerical Analysis of the Liquid-Gas-Solid Three Phase Flow Inside AWJ Nozzle

The multiphase flows inside the two abrasive waterjet (AWJ) nozzles with different abrasive inlet tube angles are simulated using the standard k-ε turbulence model based on the Euler-Lagrangian approach. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to simulate the water-air multiphase flows. And, the abrasive particles are treated as dilute dispersed phase and tracked with the discrete particle method (DPM). The results indicate that the abrasive inlet tube angle has little impact on the water-phase flows. Further analysis shows that a larger abrasive inlet tube angle can enhance the particle accelerations. The particle number independence analysis is conducted, and the results indicate that sufficient particles should be tracked in order to obtain statistically representative results. The effects of particle initial velocities, particle shape factors, and the restitution coefficients on the predicted particle movements are further analyzed for the two nozzles with abrasive inlet tube angles of 45° and 60°. The results reveal that at the current velocity range, the particle initial velocities have little impact on the predicted particle velocities. However, both the shape factors and the restitution coefficients play an important role on the calculated particle velocities. The results provide a deeper understanding of particle acceleration performance inside the AWJ nozzles with different abrasive inlet tube angles