Lattice Boltzmann simulation of particle-laden flows using an improved curved boundary condition

Abstract

In the application of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for the simulation of the interface-resolved particulate flows, the bounce-back (BB) type rules have been widely adopted to handle the complex boundaries of moving particle. However, the original method cannot preserve the integrity of the particle shape, resulting in a low-resolution for the flow description near the solid boundary. Even though the subsequent modified BB scheme, i.e. the curved boundary condition (CBC), improves the overall accuracy, it generally loses the local-computation property of the simple BB. Therefore, a CBC is proposed in this paper, which maintains the two advantages of the second-order accuracy and local computation in the boundary treatment simultaneously. In the present scheme, information of only a single fluid point is needed. Furthermore, the relative distance between the fluid point and the boundary surface is involved, contributing to the second-order accuracy that is validated in the Poiseuille and cylindrical Couette flows. Particularly, it is found that the precision of the present scheme can be greatly improved with the nonequilibrium distribution functions of two directions included. Three more test cases of particle-laden flow, including particle migration in a channel, the sedimentation of a particle under gravity and the drafting-kissing-tumbling (DKT) dynamics of two settling particles, further demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of the present scheme.