Direct Numerical Simulation of Gas–Particle Flows with Particle–Wall Collisions Using the Immersed Boundary Method

Abstract

We investigated particulate flows by coupling simulations of the three-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes equation with the immersed boundary method (IBM). The results obtained from the two-way coupled simulation were compared with those of the one-way simulation, which is generally applied for clarifying the particle kinematics in industry. In the present flow simulation, the IBM was solved using a ghost–cell approach and the particles and walls were defined by a level set function. Using proposed algorithms, particle–particle and particle–wall collisions were implemented simply; the subsequent coupling simulations were conducted stably. Additionally, the wake structures of the moving, colliding and rebounding particles were comprehensively compared with previous numerical and experimental results. In simulations of 50, 100, 200 and 500 particles, particle–wall collisions were more frequent in the one–way scheme than in the two-way scheme. This difference was linked to differences in losses in energy and momentum.