Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Simulations of Irregular Particle Transport in Turbulent Flows Using Coupled LBM-DEM

K. Han ¹, Y. T. Feng ¹, D. R. J. Owen¹

1 Civil and Computational Engineering Centre, School ofEngineering, University of Wales Swansea, SA28PP, UK.

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2007, 18(2), 87-100. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2007.018.087

Abstract

Numerical procedures are introduced for simulations of irregular particle transport in turbulent flows using the coupled lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the discrete element method (DEM). The fluid field is solved by the extended LBM with the incorporation of the Smagorinsky turbulence approach, while particle interaction is modeled by the DEM. The hydrodynamic interactions between fluid and particles are realised through an immersed boundary condition, which gives rise to a coupled solution strategy to model the fluid-particle system under consideration. Main computational aspects comprise the lattice Boltzmann formulation for the solution of fluid flows; the incorporation of the large eddy simulation (LES) based turbulence model in the framework of the LBM for turbulent flows; the immersed boundary condition for hydrodynamic interactions between fluid and moving particles; and the DEM modelling of the interactions between irregular particles. As a demonstration of the applicability of the proposed methodology, a number of test cases are provided for polygonal and superquadric particle transport in fluid flows at high Reynolds numbers.

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Keywords

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