Comparison of Intergroup Mass Transfer Coefficient Correlations in Two-Group IATE for Subcooled Boiling Flow

The interfacial area concentration (IAC) is of vital importance in determining the interfacial transfer terms of mass, momentum, and energy between phases in the two-fluid model. The two-group (2-G) interfacial area transport equation (IATE) dynamically models the IAC evolution of large and small bubbles, and the intergroup transfer bookkeeps the mass transferring between two groups. Different intergroup mass transfer coefficient correlations are employed in the 2-G IATE model, which include one old correlation and three new correlations previously developed by the authors. The two-group IATE is benchmarked with subcooled boiling experimental dataset. The group-1 interfacial area concentration results show that the three modified correlations improve the physically incorrect prediction by the old correlation. With the modified correlations, the 2-G IATE is foundationally capable of predicting the group-1 interfacial area concentration in subcooled boiling flow.