Work

Toward predictive multiscale models for HiGee devices

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: High gravity (HiGee) devices exploit centrifugal fields and compact volumes to intensify transport and reactions. Multiscale modeling advances show how HiGee thins boundary layers, enlarges interfacial areas, and accelerates mixing, heat, and mass transfer, increasing rates in fast reaction systems. A workflow links mechanistic descriptions, computational fluid dynamics reactor simulations, and process-level simulations while identifying gaps at interfaces where turbulence, mass transfer, and kinetics dominate. Priorities include rotation–aware turbulence closures, turbulence–chemistry interaction models for gas–liquid flows, and subgrid or molecular descriptions for reduced-order and process models. Advances drawing on combustion and aerothermodynamics will enable predictive design and scale-up of HiGee devices.

Source: Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.coche.2026.101230

Authors: Bing Wang, Siyuan Chen, Hamed Hoorijani, Qingang Xiong, Kevin M Van Geem, Yi Ouyang

Language: English

Topic: Fluid Dynamics and Mixing

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,250

Funders: Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Fondation Francqui - Stichting

Awards: Electrification of thermocatalytic decomposition of methane using computational fluid dynamics, G3643660793, G493142844, IGNITE – Innovative Gas-Liquid Systems: Visualization and Modelling for Electrified Reactor Design