In the multiphase simulation of material handling and filtration processes the coupling between the fluid phase, which imposes aero- or hydrodynamic forces onto the particles, and the particulate matter, which in turn impose momentum into the fluid, is of major importance. Conventional simulation methods such as CFD-DEM-coupling are based upon empirical and analytical drag models. Moreover, they have the degradation of particles to point masses in common. Thus empirical modeling neglects the microscopic details that are essential to a profound understanding of micro scale processes and accurate macro scale simulation results.
A new simulation model which is built upon numerical simulation methods like CFD and the immersed boundary method is developed for OpenFOAM®. It is capable of fully discretizing the geometry of arbitrarily shaped bodies.
This work demonstrates the application of our simulation model to the multiphase flow in the near wall shear flow field of centrifugal separators. The validation of the model regarding particle drag and spin of variously shaped particles in the shear flow shows that the particle shape determines essentially the process of settling, separation and resuspension.
