High-order two-phase flow modelling

Flows of two immiscible fluids separated by an interface, referred to as ""two-phase flows"", are ubiquitous in nature and central to many engineering applications.

They contribute to the underlying principles and processes of a vast range of key sectors such as energy, transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare, and are relevant to the study of climate-change and disease-spreading.

Most important to Europe's current challenges, the study of two-phase flows is instrumental in achieving the ""European Green Deal"" objective of reaching carbon-neutrality by 2050. Yet, despite their clear significance, our understanding of two-phase flows remains limited.

Recently, computer simulations have become viable alternatives to experiments for their study, but they are still limited in terms of their flexibility, efficiency, and accuracy.The research programme proposed for this fellowship will provide a paradigm shift in the way two-phase flows can be simulated and therefore studied, with the development of the first high-order numerical framework for the accurate solution of their evolution in complex three-dimensional flow domains.

This will entail increasing the order of representation of the local numerical approximations of the interface between the two phases, from linear to quadratic.

This enhancement will in turn allow the development of high-order numerical schemes for the transport of this interface, and the estimation of the surface-tension force acting on it. These highly accurate schemes will be released to the research community in an open-source library.

Not only will this enable the design of the next generation of low-emission energy-conversion technologies, which are crucially needed to reach Europe's environmental targets, but this will also yield substantial advances in manufacturing and health-related applications and in the prediction of climate-change, and will help devising future environmental and public health policies.