Numerical Simulation Method for Flash Evaporation with Circulating Water Based on a Modified Lee Model

Flash evaporation processes are widely adopted in the desalination, food processing, waste heat recovery and other industries for heat extraction or product separation. In this paper, a pressure-driven phase transition model is developed by improving the Lee model and combined with the VOF (Volume of Fluid) method to numerically simulate the flash evaporation process. In this modified Lee phase transition model, the driving force for the rates of the local phase transition is calculated using the local temperature and static pressure magnitude. Numerical simulations are carried out in a water-circulating flash chamber and compared with the experimental results to obtain the values of the time relaxation parameters. And the non-equilibrium fraction of the outlet water can be effectively obtained under different conditions of flow rate, inlet temperature and initial liquid level height. The time relaxation factor takes values from 0.195 to 0.43 (Pout,v = 19.9 kPa) and from 0.31 to 0.92 (Pout,v = 31.2 kPa) with increasing superheat. In addition, the model can effectively represent the evolution of the unstable flow flash evaporation from the initial rapid boiling state to dynamic equilibrium.