Numerical simulation of the sedimentation of cylindrical pollutant particles in fluid

The sedimentation of cylindrical pollutant particles which fall through a fluid is investigated. Differing from previous research work, particle oscillation and effect of particle on the fluid are considered, and the torque exerted on a particle when viscous fluid flow around a particle is got through experiment and included in the numerical simulation. The computational results showed that the sedimentation velocities of particle increase slowly with the increase of particle aspect ratio . For disk like particle, when the motion direction of particle is parallel to axis of particle, particle falls more slowly than the case of perpendicular to axis of particle; while for rod like particle, it is inverse. For sedimentation of a crowd of high frequency oscillating cylindrical particles with arbitrary initial orientation, both vertical velocity and horizontal velocity oscillate dramatically, the degree of oscillation of the former is stronger than the later. A crowd of particles fall more quickly than an isolated particle. Particles tend to strongly align in the direction of gravity. The computational results agreed well with the experimental ones and helpful for controlling of pollutant particles.

Sedimentation of a single particle between two parallel walls

The sedimentation of a single circular particle between two parallel walls was studied by means of direct numerical simulation (DNS) and experiment. The improved implementation of distributed Lagrange multiplier/fictitious domain method used in our DNS is a promising new way for simulation of particulate flows. The settling behaviors of the particle are presented ranging in Reynolds number from 0 to about 700, which showed that our results for low Reynolds numbers agreed well with that reported before. Nevertheless, for higher Reynolds numbers our results were different from theirs. The long-term mean equilibrium positions in our results were all on the centerline, but not at off-center position as reported before. In order to validate our simulation, experiments were also conducted. The results showed that the sedimenting behavior simulated in this paper agreed well with our experiment result.

The stress-microstructure relationship in an evolving mixing layer of fiber suspensions

The equations for fiber suspensions in an evolving mixing layer were solved by the spectral method, and the trajectory and orientation of fibers were calculated based on the slender body theory. The calculated spatial and orientation distributions of fibers are consistent with the experimental ones that were performed in this paper. The relationship between the microstructure of fibers and additional stress was examined. The results show that the spatial and orientation distributions of fibers are heterogeneous because of the influence of coherent vortices in the flow, which leads to the heterogeneity of the additional stress. The degree of heterogeneity increases with the increasing of St number and fiber aspect ratio. The fibers in the flow make the momentum loss thickness of the mixing layer thicker and accelerate the vorticity dispersion.

Direct numerical simulation of the motion of circular pollutant particles in Newtonian fluid

An improved implementation of distributed multiplier/fictitious domain method is presented for the direct numerical simulation of particulate flow. The key improvement is to replace a finite element triangulation for the velocity and a “twice coarser' triangulation for the pressure with a rectangular discretization for the velocity and pressure. For code validation, the sedimentation of a single particle in a two dimensional channel was simulated. The results showed that the simulation is independent of the mesh size as well as the time step. The comparison between experimental data and this simulation showed that our code can give a more accurate simulation on the motion of particles than previous DLM code. The code was then applied to simulate the sedimentation of 600 particles in a rectangular box. The falling course is presented and discussed. At the same time, this simulation also demonstrates that the method presented in this paper can be used for solving the initial problems involving a lager number of particles exactly with computing durations kept at acceptable levels.

SEDIMENTATION OF CIRCULAR PARTICLES IN OLDROYDB FLUID

The sedimentation of circular particles in a vertical channel filled withOldroyd ― B fluid was studied by an improved Distributed Lagrange Multiplier/fictitious domain(DLM) method. The sedimenting behaviors of two particles are presented firstly, which shows that,when the particles are dropped in a viscoealstic fluid, the stable configuration is the one wherethe particles are aligned parallel to the flow direction when the Mach number Mis less than 1 andthe elasticity number E is greater than 1. This agrees well with the known experimental in Ref. [1]and simulation results in Ref. [2]. Our simulations also show that, as in Newtonian fluid, thesedimentation of the particles will be accelerated due to the .interaction between particles in aviscoealstic fluid.