Computation of the flow of a two-layer fluid near a rotating wall under spin-up (Q1912457)

The evolution of the flow in a boundary layer near a rotating horizontal wall is of interest in the optimization of mass exchange modes in centrifuges. The hydrodynamics of this process at the spin-up stage can be described by boundary layer equations, together with appropriate initial and boundary conditions. For the nonstationary equations of motion and the kinematic equation for the dynamics of the interphase boundary, two-layer difference schemes are formulated, so that the problem reduces to constructing a solution on the next time layer. To do this, a recursive procedure is proposed. The numerical solution of the problem is constructed on a uniform rectangular grid. To guarantee stability of the numerical algorithm, the convective terms in the momentum equations are approximated by the so-called directed differences, depending on the sign of the coefficient of the derivative. The continuity equation is approximated by an analogue of the Crank-Nicholson type. For the solution of the kinematic equation (transport equation) on the interface boundary an explicit difference scheme is utilized. The computational algorithm is tested by the method of condensing grids. Comparison of the computation of the dynamics of homogeneous fluid with the exact solution shows that the maximal deviation does not exceed 5\%. The numerical solution reflects all the qualitative peculiarities of the analytic solution, namely the characteristic form of the velocity diagram and the presence of back flows. The authors discuss also the numerical experiments in the study of the flow of a two-layer fluid in the Ekmann layer. Typical streamline pictures are presented as well as the characteristic shape of the ``tongue'' of the interphase boundary. The influence of Archimedean forces on the dynamics of the spin-up deserves most interest. Figures exhibit the influence of centrifugal forces on the dynamics of penetration of a light fluid into a heavy one and the formation of an upward flow of a light phase in a neighborhood of the interface.