Direct numerical simulation of a particle-laden low Reynolds number turbulent round jet

Direct numerical simulation method is used for the investigating of particle-laden turbulent flows in a spatially evolution of low Reynolds number axisymmetric jet, and the Eulerian–Lagrangian point-particle approach is employed in the simulation. The simulation uses an explicit coupling scheme between particles and the fluid, which considers two-way coupling between the particle and the fluid. The DNS results are compared well with experimental data with equal Reynolds number (R_e = 1700). Our objects are: (i) to investigate the correlation between the particle number density and the fluctuating of fluid streamwise velocity; (ii) to examine whether the three-dimensional vortex structures in the particle-laden jet are the same as that in the free-air jet and how the particles modulate the thee-dimensional vortex structures and turbulence properties with different Stokes number particles; (iii) to discover the particle circumferential dispersion with different Stokes number particles. Our findings: (i) all the particles, regardless of their particle size, tend to preferentially accumulate in the region with large-than-mean fluid streamwise velocity; (ii) the small Stokes number particles take an important part in the modulation of three-dimensional vortex structures, but for the intermediate and larger sized particles, this modulation effect seems not so apparent; (iii) the particle circumferential dispersion is more effective for the smaller and intermediate sized particles, especially for the intermediate sized particles.     

各向同性湍流内颗粒碰撞率的直接模拟研究

对 Re_{\lambda } 约为51均匀各向同性湍流内 St_{k}(=\tau_{p}/\tau_{k}) 为 0 ~10.0 的 有限惯性颗粒的碰撞行为进行了直接数值模拟，以研究湍流对有限惯性 颗粒碰撞的影响. 结果表明，具有一定惯性颗粒的湍流碰撞率完全不同于零惯性的轻颗粒 (St_{k}=0) 和可忽略湍流作用的重颗粒 (St{k} \to \infty) , 其变化趋势极其复杂： 在Stk为 0~1.0 之间，颗粒的碰撞率随 St 的增加而近乎线性地剧烈增长，在 Stk≈1.0 3.0(对应的StE=τp/Te≈0.5)附近，颗粒碰撞率出现两个峰值，在Stk>3.0以后，颗粒的碰撞率随惯性增 大而逐渐趋向于重颗粒极限；在峰值处，有限惯性颗粒的平均碰撞率的峰值较轻颗粒增强了 30倍左右. 为进一步分析湍流作用下颗粒碰撞率的影响因素，分别使用可能发生碰撞 的颗粒对的径向分布函数和径向相对速度来量化颗粒的局部富集效应和湍流掺混效应，表明 St_{k} \approx 1.0 时局部富集效应最为强烈，使得颗粒的碰撞率出现第1个峰值； 湍流掺混效应则随着颗粒Stk的增大而渐近增大；局部富集和湍流掺混联合作用的结果， 使得颗粒碰撞率在 St_{k} \approx 3.0 附近出现另一个峰值.     

Dispersion of particles in wall-bounded particle-laden turbulent flows with high wall permeability

A series of numerical simulations were performed to investigate the distribution and deposition properties of particles in turbulent flows bounded by permeable walls using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with a Lagrangian trajectory approach. The wall permeation speeds were taken from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻² of the bulk velocity. The directions of the permeation speed were the same at both walls, and they were inward on one wall but outward on the other wall to reserve the fluid mass. Particles with Stokes number (respecting viscous time scale) around 0.1, 1 and 10 were released in the fully developed turbulent channel flow. The particle–particle interaction and the retroaction from particles to the fluid were neglected. The fluid-phase turbulence statistical properties and particle's transport characteristics by vortexes were then analyzed in details. If the wall permeation exists, the turbulence intensities will be depressed close to the outward permeable wall but increased near the inward permeable wall. Not influenced by the wall permeation, the suspended particles with St⁺ ∼O(1) tend to accumulate in the less vortical zones away from the wall, while those particles in the flow regions near the outward permeable wall will distribute disregarding of the vorticity. The turbulence structures near the outward permeable wall are found to exert promotional effects on the particle deposition rate, but such effects are different for particles with various Stokes number. A distribution tendency of streamwise streaks for the deposited particles is also found on the wall imposed by the high outward permeation speed and the clustering deposition pattern is more obvious with increasing particle Stokes number.     

Rotational dynamics of bottom-heavy rods in turbulence from experiments and numerical simulations

We successfully perform the three-dimensional tracking in a turbulent fluid flow of small axisymmetrical particles that are neutrally-buoyant and bottom-heavy, i.e., they have a non-homogeneous mass distribution along their symmetry axis. We experimentally show how a tiny mass inhomogeneity can affect the particle orientation along the preferred vertical direction and modify its tumbling rate. The experiment is complemented by a series of simulations based on realistic Navier–Stokes turbulence and on a point-like particle model that is capable to explore the full range of parameter space characterized by the gravitational torque stability number and by the particle aspect ratio. We propose a theoretical perturbative prediction valid in the high bottom-heaviness regime that agrees well with the observed preferential orientation and tumbling rate of the particles. We also show that the heavy-tail shape of the probability distribution function of the tumbling rate is weakly affected by the bottom-heaviness of the particles.     

Particle response in a planar sudden expansion flow

Particle velocity and concentration statistics were measured in a vertically downward planar sudden expansion flow for large-eddy particle Stokes numbers (τ_pU_o/5H) ranging from 0.5 to 7.4. Particles with Stokes numbers greater than 3 did not enter the recirculation zone, exhibited substantial attenuation of cross-stream velocity fluctuations, and had large streamwise velocity fluctuations in regions of strong velocity gradient. The smallest particles filled the recirculation zone and showed strong response to the large eddies in the flow. Phase-locked particle concentration measurements showed that these particles were centrifuged away from vortex cores and concentrated between vortices. Intermediate-size particles with Stokes numbers of 1.4 were injected intermittently into the recirculation zone as tongues of particles moving down between vortices. Particle Reynolds number was found to have negligible effect on the particle velocity statistics.     

Filtered particle tracking in isotropic turbulence and stochastic modeling of subgrid-scale dispersion

A numerical study based on the Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation is performed for dispersed phase motion in a turbulent flow. The effect of spatial filtering, commonly employed in large-eddy simulations, and the role of the subgrid scale turbulence on the statistics of heavy particles, including preferential concentration, are studied through a priori analysis of DNS of particle-laden forced isotropic turbulence. In simulations where the subgrid scale kinetic energy attains 30–35% of the total we observe the impact of residual fluid motions on particles of a smaller inertia. It is shown that neglecting the influence of subgrid scale fluctuations has a significant effect on the preferential concentration of those particles. A stochastic Langevin model is proposed to reconstruct the residual (or subgrid scale) fluid velocity along particle trajectories. The computation results for a selection of particle inertia parameters are performed to appraise the model through comparisons of particle turbulent kinetic energy and the statistics of preferential concentrations.     

Direct numerical simulation of modulation of isotropic turbulence by poly‐dispersed particles

A direct numerical simulation technique based on two‐way coupling is presented to study a particle‐laden, decaying isotropic turbulent flow. Physical characteristics of turbulence modulation because of the mono‐dispersed (i.e., particles with single Stokes number) and poly‐dispersed particles (i.e., particles with more than one Stokes number) were investigated. A scale dependent effective viscosity that summarizes the aspects of the interaction between the velocity field and particles is defined in the study. Particles of Stokes number (St) 3.2,6.4 and 12.8 were used in performing the simulations. Poly‐dispersed particles were acquired by mixing particles of two different Stokes numbers at a time. As a whole, decay of turbulence because of the poly‐dispersed particles is observed to be larger than that of the decay of turbulence because of the mono‐dispersed particles. Simulations of poly‐dispersed particle indicate nonlinear characteristics in the modification of the temporal evolution of turbulence energy and dissipation. The scale dependent effective viscosity, which correlates with the energy spectrum plot, indicates that the decay of turbulence is mostly observed at the intermediate scales of turbulence. The effective viscosity for the simulations of the poly‐dispersed particles was calculated to be higher than that of the simulations of the mono‐dispersed particles. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the quantification of preferential accumulation

It is well-known that heavy particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence tend to collect in certain regions of the flow, leading to preferential accumulation. In this study, we investigate different measures of preferential accumulation, some of which show a dependence on Reynolds number. All the measures used in this study confirm that this phenomenon is most pronounced for a Stokes number, St 1, based on the Kolmogorov time-scale. The variation with Stokes number has been studied over a wider range for all the measures than in previous studies. Though the effect of changing St, for a particular Re, has been well understood, the scaling with Re is not so obvious. The measures used in this study seem to suggest a structure to the particle concentration field which scales with Re. To investigate this structure, we introduce a concentration distribution length scale which shows a dependence on Re, especially at higher St. The results in the present work agree with several previous computational and experimental works and provide a more unified picture of the dependence of preferential accumulation on St and Re.     

Turbulent stresses and particle break-up criteria in particle-laden pipe flows

Three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (3D-PTV) is applied to particle-laden pipe flows at Reynolds number 10,300, based on the bulk velocity and the pipe diameter. The effects of flow direction (upward or downward) and mean concentration (in the range 0.5 × 10⁻⁵–3.2 × 10⁻⁵) on the production of turbulence are assessed for inertial particles with a Stokes number equal to 2.3, based on the particle relaxation time and viscous scales. The turbulence production and the Kolmogorov constant, both measured for particle laden flows in upflow and downflow, allowed for the derivation of a break-up criterion as a function of the radial coordinate. This criterion predicts the maximum possible particle size before break-up may occur. It is shown that the maximum particle size is bigger at the pipe centerline than in the near-wall zone by more than a factor of 5. Flow direction affects the particle concentration profile, with wall peaking in downflow and core peaking in upflow. This affects both the residence time and the maximum particle size, the latter by 7%.     

稀疏两相湍流的惯性颗粒倾向性弥散

气相采用大涡模拟、颗粒相采用拉格朗日轨道模型的方法对后台阶突扩流、充分发展槽道流和圆湍射流3种典型的稀疏气固两相流动进行了数值模拟,研究了颗粒倾向性弥散的特征和规律. 研究表明颗粒的跟随性和倾向性相联系,颗粒惯性和大涡结构同时决定颗粒的倾向性分布特征. Stokes数量级为1(气相时间参考尺度取为宏观特征时间尺度)左右的颗粒,倾向性分布特征最强烈. 颗粒倾向分布于低涡量(或是低脉动速度)的湍流区域.      

Simulation of particles released near the wall in a turbulent boundary layer

A direct numerical simulation was used along with a Lagrangian particle tracking technique to study particle motion in a horizontal, spatially developing turbulent boundary layer along an upper-wall (with terminal velocity directed away from the wall). The objective of the research was to study particle diffusion, dispersion, reflection, and mean velocity in the context of two parametric studies: one investigated the effect of the drift parameter (the ratio of particle terminal velocity to fluid friction velocity) for a fixed and finite particle inertia, and the second varied the drift parameter and particle inertia by the same amount (i.e. for a constant Froude number). A range of drift parameters from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁰ were considered for both cases. The particles were injected into the simulation at a height of four wall units for several evenly distributed points across the span and a perfectly elastic wall collision was specified at one wall unit.Statistics collected along the particle trajectories demonstrated a transition in particle movement from one that is dominated by diffusion to one that is dominated by gravity. For small and intermediate sized particles (i.e. ones with outer Stokes numbers and drift parameters much less than unity) transverse diffusion away from the wall dominated particle motion. However, preferential concentration is seen near the wall for intermediate-sized particles due to inhomogeneous turbulence effects (turbophoresis), consistent with previous channel flow studies. Particle–wall collision statistics indicated that impact velocities tended to increase with increasing terminal velocity for small and moderate inertias, after which initial conditions become important. Finally, high relative velocity fluctuations (compared to terminal velocity) were found as particle inertia increased, and were well described with a quasi-one-dimensional fluctuation model.     

The effect of two-way coupling and inter-particle collisions on turbulence modulation in a vertical channel flow

Turbulence modulation due to its interaction with dispersed solid particles in a downward fully developed channel flow was studied. The Eulerian framework was used for the gas-phase, whereas the Lagrangian approach was used for the particle-phase. The steady-state equations of conservation of mass and momentum were used for the gas-phase, and the effect of turbulence on the flow-field was included via the standard k–ε model. The particle equation of motion included the drag, the Saffman lift and the gravity forces. Turbulence dispersion effect on the particles was simulated as a continuous Gaussian random field. The effects of particles on the flow were modeled by appropriate source terms in the momentum, k and ε equations. Particle–particle collisions and particle–wall collisions were accounted for in these simulations. Gas-phase velocities and turbulence kinetic energy in the presence of 2–100% mass loadings of two particle classes (50 μm glass and 70 μm copper) were evaluated, and the results were compared with the available experimental data and earlier numerical results. The simulation results showed that when the inter-particle collisions were important and was included in the computational model, the fluid turbulence was attenuated. The level of turbulence attenuation increased with particle mass loading, particle Stokes number, and the distance from the wall. When the inter-particle collisions were negligible and/or was neglected in the model, the fluid turbulence was augmented for the range of particle sizes considered.     

A Unifying Explanation for the Damping of Turbulence by Additives or External Forces

Recent calculations for the turbulent flow of a suspension of solid spheres in a gas were carried out by solving a Navier Stokes equation for the fluid that recognizes the presence of particles as external point forces. These show that a strong damping of the fluid turbulence can be realized at remarkably small volume fractions. The suggestion is made that the presence of point forces, pseudo-point forces, or added point shear stresses could provide a general explanation for turbulence suppression caused by additives or by the acceleration of a turbulent boundary-layer.     

Investigation of particle-laden turbulent pipe flow at high-Reynolds-number using particle image/tracking velocimetry (PIV/PTV)

An experimental investigation of a high Reynolds number flow (Re = 320 000) of a dilute liquid-solid mixture (<1% by volume) was conducted. The turbulent motion of both the liquid phase (water) and particles (0.5, 1, and 2 mm glass beads) was evaluated in an upward pipe flow using a particle image/tracking velocimetry (PIV/PTV) technique. Results show that the Eulerian mean axial velocity of the glass beads is lower than that of the liquid phase in the central region but higher in the near-wall region. Moreover, the presence of the coarse particles has a negligible effect on the turbulence intensity of the liquid phase. Particles show higher streamwise and radial fluctuations than the liquid-phase at the tested conditions. The profiles of particle concentration across the pipe radius show almost constant concentration in the core of the pipe with a decrease towards the near wall region for 0.5 and 1 mm particles. For the 2 mm particles, a nearly linear concentration gradient from centre to the pipe wall is observed. The results presented here provide new information concerning the effect of a dispersed particulate phase on the turbulence modulation of the liquid carrier phase, especially at high Reynolds numbers. The present study also demonstrates how correlations developed to determine if particles cause turbulence attenuation/augmentation are not applicable for solid-liquid flows at high Reynolds numbers. Finally, the importance of particle-fluid slip velocity on fluid phase turbulence modulation is illustrated.     

Agglomeration of inertial particles in a random rotating symmetric straining flow

This paper is concerned with the development and validation of a simple Lagrangian model for particle agglomeration in a turbulent flow involving the collision of particles in a sequence of correlated straining and vortical structures which simulate the Kolmogorov small scales of motion of the turbulence responsible for particle pair dispersion and collision. In this particular study we consider the collision rate of monodisperse spherical particles in a symmetric (pure) straining flow which is randomly rotated to create an isotropic flow. The model is similar to the classical model of Saffman and Turner (S&T) (1956) for the collision (agglomeration) of tracer particles suspended in a turbulent flow. However unlike S&T, the straining flow is not frozen in time persisting only for timescales ∼Kolmogorov timescale. Furthermore, we consider the collision of inertial particles as well as tracer particles, and study their behavior not only at the collision boundary but also in its vicinity. In the simulation, particles are injected continuously at the boundaries of the straining flow, the size of the straining region being typical of the Kolmogorov length scale η_K of the turbulence. For steady state conditions, we calculate the flux of particles colliding with a test particle at the centre of the straining flow and consider its dependence on the inertia of the colliding particles (characterized by the particle Stokes number, St). The model replicates the segregation and accumulation observed in DNS and in particular the maximum segregation for St ∼ 1 (where St is the ratio of the particle response time to the Kolmogorov timescale). We also calculate the contributions of the various turbulent forces in the momentum balance equation for satellite particles and show for instance that for small Stokes number, there is a balance between turbulent diffusion and turbophoresis (gradient of kinetic stresses) which in turn is responsible for the build-up of concentration at the collision boundary. As found in previous studies, for the case of inertialess tracer particles, the collision rate turns out to be significantly smaller than the S&T prediction due to a lowering of the concentration at the collision boundary compared to the fully mixed value. The increase in collision rate for St ∼ 0.5 is shown to be a combination of particle segregation (build-up of concentration near the collision boundary) and the decorrelation of the relative velocity between the local fluid and a colliding particle. The difference from the S&T value for the agglomeration kernel is shown to be a consequence of the choice of perfectly absorbing boundary conditions at collision and the influence of the time scale of the turbulence (eddy lifetime). We draw the analogy between turbulent agglomeration and particle deposition in a fully developed turbulent boundary layer.     

Particulate Dispersion in a Turbulent Serpentine Channel

Particulate dispersion in an S-shaped duct, with periodicity between inlet and exit, is studied by direct numerical simulation. Stokes numbers range from 0.125 to 6.0. In a straight, turbulent channel flow, eddies are responsible for particulate impact. Turbophoresis causes a mean drift toward the wall. In a curved channel, particle inertia can be the dominant cause of impact. Above the lowest Stokes number, particles form into a plume that leaves the inner bend and flows toward the outer wall. Turbulence then disperses the plume. Heavier particles cross the bend and reflect from the outer wall, forming a high concentration layer near the surface. The heaviest particles reflect again from the wall and are dispersed across the duct by turbulence. An empirical formula is used to analyze the propensity for particle impacts to erode the wall. The region of maximum erosion is not the region of maximum number of impacts, nor is it where the impact velocity is highest: the impact angle determines where erosion is largest.     

Stochastic modeling of particle diffusion in a turbulent boundary layer

Several Continuous Random Walk (CRW) models were constructed to predict turbulent particle diffusion based on Eulerian statistics that can be obtained with Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) solutions. The test conditions included a wide range of particle inertias (Stokes numbers) with a near-wall injection (y⁺ = 4) in a turbulent boundary layer that is strongly anisotropic and inhomogeneous. To assess the performance of the models, the CRW results were compared to particle diffusion statistics gathered from a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). In particular, comparisons were made with transverse concentration profiles, root-mean-square of particle trajectory coordinates, and mean transverse particle velocity away from the wall.The results showed that accurate simulation required a modified (non-dimensionalized) Markov chain to handle the large gradients in turbulence near the wall as shown by simulations with fluid-tracer particles. For finite-inertia particles, an incremental drift correction for the Markov chain developed herein to account for Stokes number effects was critical to avoiding non-physical particle collection in low-turbulence regions. In both cases, inclusion of anisotropy in the turbulence model was found to be important, but the influence of off-diagonal terms was found to be weak. The results were generally good, especially for long-time and large inertia particles.     

Effects of vortex pairing on particle dispersion in turbulent shear flows

Particle dispersion in large-scale dominated turbulent shear flow is investigated numerically with special emphasis on the effects of the vortex-pairing phenomenon. The particle dispersion is visualized numerically by following the particle trajectories in a flow consisting of large vortices which are undergoing pairing interaction. The flow field is generated by a discrete vortex method. Important global and local fiow quantities from the numerical simulation compare reasonably well with experimental measurements.

For both cases of point sources with continuous particle release and an initially distributed line source, the particle dispersion results demonstrate that the extent of particle dispersion depends strongly on the Stokes number, the ratio of the particle aerodynamic response time to the characteristic time of the vortex-pairing flow field. Particles with relatively small Stokes numbers disperse laterally at approximately the saine rate as that of the fluid particles and particles with large Stokes numbers disperse much less than the fluid particles. Particles with intermediate Stokes numbers (0.5-5) may be dispersed laterally farther than the fiuid particles and may actually be flung out of the vortex structures. Due to the strong particie entrainment power, the flow during the vortex-pairing process seems to produce higher particle lateral dispersion than the pre-pairing and post-pairing flows.     

Inertial Particles in Homogeneous Shear Turbulence: Experiments and Direct Numerical Simulation

The properties of the transport of heavy inertial particles in a uniformly sheared turbulent flow have been investigated by combining experimental and numerical data at particle Stokes number St?≈?0.3?÷?0.5 respectively. As in isotropic turbulence, particles are observed to avoid zones of intense enstrophy and to cluster in strain-dominated regions, resulting in highly intermittent spatial distributions. Moreover, the anisotropy of the mean flow is found to imprint a clear preferential orientation of the particle clusters in the direction of the maximum mean strain. These features are observed both in the numerics and in the experiments, and have been consistently quantified by a number of complementary statistical tools, such as the Voronoï tessellations and the pair correlation function. The latter quantity has been generalized in the form of the Angular Distribution Function and has allowed to evaluate the anisotropy content of the particle field at each scale. The behavior of this observable exhibits the same trend in the two datasets and suggests that, owing to increased inertia, the particle distribution starts to recover isotropy at scales smaller than the carrier velocity field. A proper rescaling of the two datasets in terms of their respective values of the shear scale allows to account for differences in the Reynolds number of experiments and numerics in the range of scales dominated by the mean shear.     

Lagrangian particle dispersion in turbulent flow over a wall mounted obstacle

Large-eddy simulations (LES) of particle-laden turbulent flows are presented in order to investigate the effects of particle response time on the dispersion patterns of a space developing flow with an obstruction, where solid particles are injected inside the wake of an obstacle [Vincont, J.Y., Simoens, S., Ayrault M., Wallace, J.M., 2000. Passive scalar dispersion in a turbulent boundary layer from a line source at the wall and downstream of an obstacle. J. Fluid Mech. 424, 127–167]. The numerical method is based on a fully explicit fractional step approach and finite-differences on Cartesian grids, using the immersed boundary method (IBM) to represent the existence of solid obstacles. Two different turbulence models have been tested, the classical Smagorinsky turbulence model and the filtered structure function model. The dispersed phase was modelled either by an Eulerian approach or a Lagrangian particle tracking scheme of solid particles with Stokes numbers in the range St = 0–25, assuming one-way coupling between the two phases. A very good agreement was observed between the Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches. The effect of particle size was found to significantly differentiate the dispersion pattern for the inhomogeneous flow over the obstacle. Although in homogeneous flows like particle-laden turbulent channels near-wall particle clustering increases monotonically with particle size, for the examined flow over an obstacle, preferential concentration effects were stronger only for an intermediate range of Stokes numbers.