Numerical Study of Evaporation in a Vertical Porous Channel By the volume of fluid method in OpenFOAM

In this study, using volume of fluid method in open source software OpenFOAM, the phenomenon of evaporation in the porous medium was analyzed. At the beginning of the solution, the system consists of a water phase and a porous copper environment. In the next steps of numerical simulation and as a result of partial evaporation of water, the vapor phase appears as the second fluid phase. Water and vapor are assumed to be incompressible and incompatible, and the phenomenon of evaporation occurs unevenly. The interface between phases is modeled by the VOF method and the Lee model has been used to mass transfer between two phases of water and vapor. For surface tension between phases, the continuous surface force (CSF) method was considered. The comparison of simulation results with experimental results showed that the combined solver of porous medium evaporation would well estimate the rate of evaporation at different sections of the channel. In addition, the results of the wall temperature indicate that the channel is divided into two zones of heating and evaporation. In the region of heating, the temperature increases linearly with the channel length to reach saturation temperature. After the point of saturation, the wall temperature first remains constant and eventually forms an oscillatory shape, in which locally there are temperature jumps. The evaporated flow rate also increases at high intensity first, but in the end regions of the porous channel, its growth rate is slow.