Keynote: Mesoscale-Oriented Simulation of Multiphase Flow for Sustainable Technologies in Process Engineering

Sustainability science has emerged in the 21st century as a new academic discipline. However, the increasing tempo of change in human life, society, economics and environment creates a correspondingly urgent need for scientists and engineers seeking for new perspectives for traditional problems some of which may be longstanding, or posing new questions and offering new answers. The so-called meso-science provides a new angle to understand and resolve the traditional multiphase phase flow and transport problems, and hence serves as a new foundation for sustainability science. We highlight a heuristic mesoscale modeling approach starting from a conceptual Energy-Minimization Multiscale (EMMS) model and ending at the stability-constrained multifluid CFD model. The former demonstrates that the mesoscale stability condition is indispensible to describe the structure evolution of multiphase systems, and the latter supplies the mesoscale constraint for traditional CFD. Applications of this new approach in process industry will also be showcased.