Abstract Atomization and evaporation processes have extensively existed in a variety of scientific and engineering applications, such as, rain formation, spray cooling, and spray combustion in propulsion devices. In spray combustion, atomization and evaporation processes govern the resultant liquid droplet characteristics, which strongly affect the combustion efficiency and pollutant emissions. However, atomization and evaporation are very complicated processes that involve convoluted interfaces as well as the breakup and coalescence of liquid masses, together with mass and heat transfers on the interface. Deep insights into atomization and evaporation put a significant challenge to the measuring techniques due to the harsh conditions and multi-scale nature of the problem within the apparatus. With the developments of computational algorithm and computer capacity, detailed numerical simulation of the atomization and evaporation processes has been a promising tool to explore the underlying physics. Level set method is such an interface capturing method, and tremendous progresses have been made for detailed numerical simulation of atomization and evaporation over the past few decades. In this article, we attempt to review the recent progresses in the development of the level set method and its applications to atomization and evaporation. Firstly, the fundamentals of the level set method are introduced and recent advances in improving the mass conservation are emphasized. Secondly, numerical issues for detailed numerical simulation of atomization and evaporation are summarized and the strategies for treating them are highlighted. We then review the state-of-the-art progresses in detailed numerical simulation of atomization and evaporation with the level set method. The challenges and future prospects are summarized in the end.

中文翻译：

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雾化和蒸发模拟的水平集方法

摘要 雾化和蒸发过程广泛存在于各种科学和工程应用中，如造雨、喷雾冷却和推进装置中的喷雾燃烧。在喷雾燃烧中，雾化和蒸发过程控制着所得液滴的特性，这对燃烧效率和污染物排放有很大影响。然而，雾化和蒸发是非常复杂的过程，涉及复杂的界面以及液体物质的分裂和聚结，以及界面上的质量和热传递。由于设备内问题的恶劣条件和多尺度性质，对雾化和蒸发的深入了解给测量技术带来了重大挑战。随着计算算法和计算机能力的发展，原子化和蒸发过程的详细数值模拟已成为探索基础物理的有前途的工具。水平集方法就是这样一种界面捕获方法，在过去的几十年里，原子化和蒸发的详细数值模拟取得了巨大的进步。在本文中，我们试图回顾水平集方法的最新进展及其在雾化和蒸发方面的应用。首先，介绍了水平集方法的基本原理，并强调了在改进质量守恒方面的最新进展。其次，总结了雾化和蒸发的详细数值模拟的数值问题，并强调了处理它们的策略。然后，我们回顾了使用水平集方法对雾化和蒸发进行详细数值模拟的最新进展。最后总结了面临的挑战和未来的前景。