Martin Skote

The internal flow in oleo-pneumatic shock absorbers is a complex multiphysics problem combining the interaction between highly unsteady turbulent flow and multiphase mixing, among other effects. The aim is to present a validated simulation methodology that facilitates shock absorber performance prediction by capturing the dominant internal flow physics. This is achieved by simulating a drop test of approximately 1 tonne with an initial contact vertical speed of 2.7 m/s, corresponding to a light jet. The flow field solver is ANSYS Fluent, using an unsteady two-dimensional axisymmetric multiphase setup with a time-varying inlet velocity boundary condition corresponding to the stroke rate of the shock absorber piston. The stroke rate is calculated using a two-equation dynamic system model of the shock absorber under the applied loading. The simulation is validated against experimental measurements of the total force on the shock absorber during the stroke, in addition to standard physical checks. The flow field analysis focuses on multiphase mixing and its influence on the turbulent free shear layer and recirculating flow. A mixing index approach is suggested to facilitate systematically quantifying the mixing process and identifying the distinct stages of the interaction. It is found that gas–oil interaction has a significant impact on the flow development in the shock absorber’s upper chamber, where strong mixing leads to a periodic stream of small gas bubbles being fed into the jet’s shear layer from larger bubbles in recirculation zones, most notably in the corner between the orifice plate and outer shock absorber wall.

The diffuse interface models, part of the family of the front capturing methods, provide an efficient and robust framework for the simulation of multi-species flows. They allow the integration of additional physical phenomena of increasing complexity while ensuring discrete conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. The main drawback brought by the adoption of these models consists of the interface smearing, increasing with the simulation time, therefore, requiring a counteraction through the introduction of sharpening terms and a careful selection of the discretization level. In recent years, the diffuse interface models have been solved using several numerical frameworks including finite volume, discontinuous Galerkin, and hybrid lattice Boltzmann method, in conjunction with shock and contact wave capturing schemes. The present review aims to present the recent advancements of high-order accuracy schemes with the capability of solving discontinuities without the introduction of numerical instabilities and to put them in perspective for the solution of multi-species flows with the diffuse interface method.