The Polymer Flow Module Physics Interface Guide
The physics interfaces in this module are based on the laws for conservation of momentum, mass, and energy in fluids. The different flow models contain different combinations and formulations of the conservation laws that apply to the physics of the flow field. These laws of physics are translated into partial differential equations and are solved together with the specified initial conditions and boundary conditions.
A physics interface defines a number of features. These features are used to specify the fluid properties, initial conditions, boundary conditions, and possible constraints. Each feature represents an operation describing a term or condition in the conservation equations. Such a term or condition can be defined on a geometric entity of the component, such as a domain, boundary, edge (for 2D components), or point.
Figure 4 shows the Model Builder, including a Laminar Flow interface, and the Settings window for the selected Fluid Properties 1 feature node. The Fluid Properties 1 node adds the marked terms to the component equations in a selected geometry domain. Furthermore, the Fluid Properties 1 feature may link to the Materials feature node to obtain physical properties such as density and constitutive parameters — in this case, rubber modeled with a power-law fluid. The fluid properties, defined by the Rubber, Power law material, can be functions of the modeled physical quantities, such as pressure and temperature. In the same way, the Wall 1 node adds the boundary conditions at the walls of the fluid domain.
Figure 4: The Model Builder including a Laminar Flow interface (left), and the Settings window for Fluid Properties for the selected feature node (right). The Equation section in the Settings window shows the component equations and the terms added by the Fluid Properties 1 node. The added terms are underlined with a dotted line. The arrows also explain the link between the Materials node and the values for the fluid properties.
The Polymer Flow Module includes a number of Fluid Flow interfaces for different types of flow. It also includes Chemical Species Transport interfaces for reacting flows in multicomponent solutions, and physics interfaces for heat transfer in solids and in fluids found under the Heat Transfer branch.
Figure 5 shows the Polymer Flow Module interfaces as they are displayed when you add a physics interface (see also Physics Interface Guide by Space Dimension and Study Type for further information). A short description of the physics interfaces follows.
Figure 5: The physics interfaces for the Polymer Flow Module, as shown in the Model Wizard.
Single-Phase Flow
The Creeping Flow interface () approximates the Navier–Stokes equations for very low Reynolds numbers. This is often referred to as Stokes flow and is applicable when viscous effects are dominant, such as in very small channels or microfluidics devices.
The Laminar Flow interface () is primarily applied to flows at low to intermediate Reynolds numbers. This physics interface solves the Navier–Stokes equations for incompressible, weakly compressible, and compressible flows (up to Mach 0.3). The Laminar Flow interface also allows for simulation of non-Newtonian fluids.
The Rotating Machinery, Laminar Flow interface () combines the Laminar Flow interface and a Rotating Domain, and is applicable to fluid flow problems where one or more of the boundaries rotate in, for example, mixers and around propellers. The physics interface supports incompressible, weakly compressible and compressible (Mach < 0.3) laminar flows of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.
The Viscoelastic Flow interface () is used for simulating incompressible isothermal flow of viscoelastic fluids. It solves the continuity equation, the momentum equation, and a constitutive equation that defines the elastic stresses. The physics interface supports the formulation of constitutive equation in terms of stress or conformation. There are several predefined models to model the elastic stresses: Oldroyd-B, FENE-P, FENE-CR, Giesekus, Rolie-Poly, LPTT, and EPTT.
The Potential Flow interface () can be used to model irrotational flow, or to get initial values for other fluid-flow interfaces.
Porous Media and Subsurface Flow
The Brinkman Equations interface () models flow through a porous medium where shear stresses cannot be neglected. The physics interface supports both the Stokes–Brinkman formulation, suitable for very low flow velocities, and Forchheimer drag, which is used to account for effects at higher velocities. The fluid can be either incompressible or compressible, provided that the Mach number is less than 0.3.
The Free and Porous Media Flow, Brinkman interface () models both porous media (using the Brinkman Equations) and laminar flow, automatically providing the coupling between them.
The Darcy’s Law interface () models relatively slow flows through porous media for cases where the effects of shear stresses perpendicular to the flow are small.
The Free and Porous Media Flow, Darcy interface () models porous media flow connected to free flow domains. This multiphysics interface couples the Laminar Flow interface with the Darcy’s Law interface over their common boundary.
Multiphase Flow
The Two-Phase Flow, Level Set interface (); the Two-Phase Flow, Phase Field interface (); and the Two-Phase Flow, Moving Mesh interface () are used to model two fluids separated by a fluid–fluid interface. The moving interface is tracked in detail using the level set method, the phase field method, or by a moving mesh, respectively. The level set and phase field methods use a fixed mesh and solve additional equations to track the interface location. The moving mesh method solves the Navier–Stokes equations on a moving mesh with boundary conditions to represent the interface. In this case, equations must be solved for the mesh deformation. Since a surface in the geometry is used to represent the interface between the two fluids in the Moving Mesh interface, the interface itself cannot break up into multiple disconnected surfaces. This means that the Moving Mesh interface cannot be applied to problems such as droplet formation in inkjet devices (in these applications, the Level Set or Phase Field in Fluids interfaces are appropriate). These physics interfaces support incompressible flows, where one or both fluids can be non-Newtonian.
The Two-Phase Flow, Level Set, Brinkman Equations interface () is designed to track the interface between two immiscible fluids within a porous medium.
The Laminar Three-Phase Flow, Phase Field interface () models laminar flow of three incompressible phases, which can be either Newtonian or non-Newtonian. The moving fluid–fluid interfaces between the three phases are tracked in detail using the phase-field method.
Nonisothermal Flow
The Nonisothermal Flow, Laminar Flow interface () is primarily applied for modeling flow at low to intermediate Reynolds numbers in situations where the temperature and flow fields have to be coupled. A typical example is natural convection, where thermal buoyancy forces drive the flow. This is a multiphysics interface for which the nonlocal couplings between fluid flow and heat transfer are set up automatically.
The Rotating Machinery, Nonisothermal Flow, Laminar Flow interface () combines the capabilities of the Rotating Machinery, Laminar Flow interface and the Heat Transfer in Fluids interface. This interface can be used to model nonisothermal laminar flow in rotating domains, such as in an externally heated mixer.
The Nonisothermal Flow, Viscoelastic Flow interface () is used to model nonisothermal flow of viscoelastic fluid. The couplings between fluid flow and heat transfer are set up automatically. The irreversible losses due to transformation of mechanical energy into internal energy can be added.
Reacting Flow
The Laminar Flow interface () under the Reacting Flow branch combines the functionality of the Single-Phase Flow and Transport of Diluted Species interfaces. The physics interface is primarily applied to model flow at low to intermediate Reynolds numbers in situations where the mass transport and flow fields have to be coupled.
Curing
The Curing Reaction interface () is intended for modeling curing of polymers during the heat treatment.
For liquid thermosets, viscosity is influenced by both temperature and the degree of cure. The Curing Reaction interface provides several chemoviscosity models that describe the relationship between viscosity, degree of cure (conversion), and temperature.
Fluid–structure interaction
The Fluid–Structure Interaction interfaces () couple a Single-Phase Flow, Viscoelastic Flow or Two-Phase Flow, Phase Field interface to a Solid Mechanics interface for studies of deformation induced by fluid forces.
Physics Interface Guide by Space Dimension and Study Type
Chemical Species Transport
Reacting Flow
Fluid Flow
Single-Phase Flow
Rotating Machinery, Fluid Flow
Potential Flow
Multiphase Flow
Two-Phase Flow, Moving Mesh
Two-Phase Flow, Level Set
Two-Phase Flow, Phase Field
Three-Phase Flow, Phase Field
Porous Media and Subsurface Flow
Nonisothermal Flow
Rotating Machinery, Nonisothermal Flow
Fluid–Structure Interaction
Heat Transfer
Curing
Moving Interface
1 This physics interface is included with the core COMSOL Multiphysics software but has added functionality for this module.
2 This physics interface is a predefined multiphysics coupling that automatically adds all the physics interfaces and coupling features required.