Study of Fluid Forces and Heat Transfer on Non-spherical Particles in Assembly Using Particle Resolved Simulation

Abstract

Gas-solid flow is fundamental to many industrial processes. Extensive experimental and numerical studies have been devoted to understand the interphase momentum and heat transfer in these systems. Most of the studies have focused on spherical particle shapes, however, in most natural and industrial processes, the particle shape is seldom spherical. In fact, particle shape is one of the important parameters that can have a significant impact on momentum, heat and mass transfer, which are fundamental to all processes. In this study particle-resolved simulations are performed to study momentum and heat transfer in flow through a fixed random assembly of ellipsoidal particles with sphericity of 0.887. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM). A Framework for generating particle assembly is developed using physics engine PhysX. High-order boundary conditions are developed for immersed boundary method to resolve the heat transfer in the vicinity of fluid/particle boundary with better accuracy. A complete framework using particle-resolved simulation study assembly of particles with any shape is developed. The drag force of spherical particles and ellipsoid particles are investigated. Available correlations are evaluated based on simulation results and recommendations are made regarding the best combinations. The heat transfer in assembly of ellipsoidal particle is investigated, and a correlation is proposed for the particle shape studied. The lift force, lateral force and torque of ellipsoid particles in assembly and their variations are quantitatively presented and it is shown that under certain conditions these forces and torques cannot be neglected as is done in the larger literature.