Evaluation of several liquid–vapor phase change models for numerical simulation of subcooled flow boiling

The phase change model has recently attracted attention for use in flow-boiling numerical simulation research. Comparison and evaluation of the calculation accuracies and resource consumptions of phase change models are essential for developing an efficient and high-precision phase change model. In this study, the Dong and Chen models, were added to the FLUENT software as two new models by introducing a unique user-defined function (UDF). The two unique models and the Lee model served as the foundation for numerical research, and the values of dependabilities and properties for flow and heat transmission predicted by these models were compared. Visual studies and flow-boiling heat transfer correlations were used to validate the results. The results reveal that the Chen model, which considers the active nucleation density site of bubbles, has a significant advantage over the other two models in terms of predicting flow characteristics. The Lee and Dong models are better suited for forecasting the changing tendency of the heat transfer coefficient, whereas the values obtained with the Chen model are closer to the reference values for the Liu–Winterton correlation. Besides, the two novel models also have higher computational costs.