Confined turbulent fluid-particle flow modeling using multiple-realization particle trajectory schemes

A multiple-realization particle trajectory scheme has been developed and applied to the numerical prediction of confined turbulent fluid-particle flows. The example flows investigated include the vertical pipe upflow experimental data of Tsuji et al. and the experimental data of Leavitt for a coaxial jet flow, comprising a particle-laden central jet and a clean annular jet, into a large recirculation chamber. The results obtained from the numerical scheme agree well with the experimental data, lending confidence to the modeling approach. The multiple-realization particle trajectory turbulent flow modeling scheme is believed to be a more elegant and accurate approach to the extension of single-particle hydrodynamics to dilute multi-particle systems than the more commonly employed two-fluid modeling approach. It is also better able to incorporate additional force items such as lift, virtual mass and Bassett history terms directly into the particle equation of motion as appropriate. This makes it a suitable candidate for particle migration studies and an extension to situations involving liquid particulate phases with possible propulsion applications, such as in spray combustion, follows naturally.