We study the sedimentation of finite-size particles in quiescent wall-bounded Newtonian and shear-thinning fluids by interface resolved numerical simulations. The suspended phase consists of Non-Brownian rigid spherical particles with particle to fluid density ratio ρp/ρf=1.5 at three different solid volume fractions Φ=1%, 5% and 20%. Firstly, to focus on the effect of shear-thinning on the particle dynamics and interactions, the Archimedes number is increased for a single particle to have the same settling speed in the Newtonian fluid as in the shear-thinning fluid. Secondly, we consider fixed Archimedes and vary the shear-thinning properties of the fluid. Overall, we report a twofold effect of shear thinning. First and more important, the substantial increase of the particle sedimentation velocity in the shear-thinning case due to the increase of the shear rate around the particles, which reduces the local viscosity leading to a reduced particle drag. Secondly, the shear-thinning fluid reduces the level of particle interactions, causing a reduction of velocity fluctuations and resulting in particles sedimenting at approximately the same speed. Moreover, the mean settling velocities decrease with the particle concentration as a consequence of the hindering effect. Particles tend to sediment in the middle of the channel, preferentially positioning in the wake of neighbouring particles or aside them, resulting in lower levels of fluid velocity fluctuations in the gravity direction in the shear-thinning fluid.

Particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry have been employed to investigate the dynamics of finite-size spherical particles, slightly heavier than the carrier fluid, in a horizontal turbulent square duct flow. Interface resolved direct numerical simulations (DNSs) have also been performed with the immersed boundary method at the same experimental conditions, bulk Reynolds number Re2H=5600, duct height to particle-size ratio 2H/dp=14.5, particle volume fraction Φ=1%, and particle to fluid density ratio ρp/ρf=1.0035. Good agreement has been observed between experiments and simulations in terms of the overall pressure drop, concentration distribution, and turbulent statistics of the two phases. Additional experimental results considering two particle sizes 2H/dp=14.5 and 9 and multiple Φ=1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5% are reported at the same Re2H. The pressure drop monotonically increases with the volume fraction, almost linearly and nearly independently of the particle size for the above parameters. However, despite the similar pressure drop, the microscopic picture in terms of fluid velocity statistics differs significantly with the particle size. This one-to-one comparison between simulations and experiments extends the validity of interface resolved DNS in complex turbulent multiphase flows and highlights the ability of experiments to investigate such flows in considerable detail, even in regions where the local volume fraction is relatively high.

To study the dynamics of particles in turbulence when their sizes are comparable to the smallest eddies in the flow, the Kolmogorov length scale, efficient and accurate numerical models for the particle-fluid interaction are still missing. Therefore, we here extend the treatment of the particle feedback on the fluid based on the volume-averaged fluid equations (VA simulation) in the previous study of the present authors, by estimating the fluid force correlated with the disturbed flow. We validate the model against interface-resolved simulations using the immersed-boundary method. Simulations of single particles show that the history effect is well captured by the present estimation method based on the disturbed flow. Similarly, the simulation of the flow around a rotating particle demonstrates that the lift force is also well captured by the proposed method. We also consider the interaction between non-negligible size particles and an array of Taylor–Green vortices. For density ratios ρd /ρc ≥ 10, the results show that the particle motion captured by the VA approach is closer to that of the fully-resolved simulations than that obtained with a traditional two-way coupling simulation. The flow disturbance is also well represented by the VA simulation. In particular, it is found that history effects enhance the curvature of the trajectory in vortices and this enhancement increases with the particle size. Furthermore, the flow field generated by a neighboring particle at distances of around ten particle diameters significantly influences particle trajectories. The computational cost of the VA simulation proposed here is considerably lower than that of the interface-resolved simulation.

We study the settling of rigid oblates in a quiescent fluid using interface-resolved direct numerical simulations. In particular, an immersed boundary method is used to account for the dispersed solid phase together with lubrication correction and collision models to account for short-range particle-particle interactions. We consider semi-dilute suspensions of oblate particles with aspect ratio AR = 1/3 and solid volume fractions (Phi = 0.5-10%. The solid-to-fluid density ratio R = 1.02 and the Galileo number (i.e. the ratio between buoyancy and viscous forces) based on the diameter of a sphere with equivalent volume Ga = 60. With this choice of parameters, an isolated oblate falls vertically with a steady wake with its broad side perpendicular to the gravity direction. At this Ga, the mean settling speed of spheres is a decreasing function of the volume Phi and is always smaller than the terminal velocity of the isolated particle, V-t. On the contrary, in dilute suspensions of oblate particles (with Phi <= 1 %), the mean settling speed is approximately 33 % larger than V-t. At higher concentrations, the mean settling speed decreases becoming smaller than the terminal velocity V-t between (Phi = 5 % and 10%. The increase of the mean settling speed is due to the formation of particle clusters that for Phi = 0.5-1 % appear as columnar-like structures. From the pair distribution function we observe that it is most probable to find particle pairs almost vertically aligned. However, the pair distribution function is non-negligible all around the reference particle indicating that there is a substantial amount of clustering at radial distances between 2 and 6c (with c the polar radius of the oblate). Above Phi = 5 %, the hindrance becomes the dominant effect, and the mean settling speed decreases below V-t. As the particle concentration increases, the mean particle orientation changes and the mean pitch angle (the angle between the particle axis of symmetry and gravity) increases from 23 degrees to 47 degrees . Finally, we increase Ga from 60 to 140 for the case with (Phi = 0.5 % and find that the mean settling speed (normalized by V-t) decreases by less than 1 % with respect to Ga = 60. However, the fluctuations of the settling speed around the mean are reduced and the probability of finding vertically aligned particle pairs increases.

We report experimental observations of turbulent flow with spherical particles in a square duct. Three particle sizes, namely 2H/d(p) = 40, 16 and 9 (2H being the duct full height and d(p) being the particle diameter), are investigated. The particles are nearly neutrally buoyant with a density ratio of 1.0035 and 1.01 with respect to the suspending fluid. Refractive index matched-particle image velocimetry (RIM-PIV) is used for fluid velocity measurement even at the highest particle volume fraction (20 %) and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) for the particle velocity statistics for the flows seeded with particles of the two largest sizes, whereas only pressure measurements are reported for the smallest particles. Settling effects are seen at the lowest bulk Reynolds number R-e2H approximate to 10 000, whereas, at the highest R-e2H approximate to 27 000, particles are in almost full suspension. The friction factor of the suspensions is found to be significantly larger than that of single-phase duct flow at the lower R-e2H investigated; however, the difference decreases when increasing the flow rate and the total drag approaches the values of the single-phase flow at the higher Reynolds number considered, R-e2H = 27 000. The pressure drop is found to decrease with the particle diameter for volume fractions lower than (sic) = 10% for nearly all R-e2H investigated. However, at the highest volume fraction (sic) = 20 %, we report a peculiar non-monotonic behaviour: the pressure drop first decreases and then increases with increasing particle size. The decrease of the turbulent drag with particle size at the lowest volume fractions is related to an attenuation of the turbulence. The drag increase for the two largest particle sizes at (sic) = 20 %, however, occurs despite this large reduction of the turbulent stresses, and it is therefore due to significant particle-induced stresses. At the lowest Reynolds number, the particles reside mostly in the bottom half of the duct, where the mean velocity significantly decreases; the flow is similar to that in a moving porous bed near the bottom wall and to turbulent duct flow with low particle concentration near the top wall.

We study the settling of finite-size rigid spheres in quiescent fluid and in sustained homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) by direct numerical simulations using an immersed boundary method to account for the dispersed solid phase. We consider semi-dilute and dense suspensions of rigid spheres with solid volume fractions ϕ= 0.5 - 10 % , solid-to-fluid density ratio R= 1.02 , and Galileo number (i.e., the ratio between buoyancy and viscous forces) Ga= 145. In HIT, the nominal Reynolds number based on the Taylor microscale is Re λ ≃ 90 , and the ratio between the particle diameter and the nominal Kolmogorov scale is (2 a) / η≃ 12 (being a the particle radius). We find that in HIT the mean settling speed is less than that in quiescent fluid for all ϕ. For ϕ= 0.5 % , the mean settling speed in HIT is 8 % less than in quiescent fluid. However, by increasing the volume fraction the difference in the mean settling speed between quiescent fluid and HIT cases reduces, being only 1.7 % for ϕ= 10 %. Indeed, while at low ϕ the settling speed is strongly altered by the interaction with turbulence, at large ϕ this is mainly determined by the (strong) hindering effect. This is similar in quiescent fluid and in HIT, leading to similar mean settling speeds. On the contrary, particle angular velocities are always found to increase with ϕ. These are enhanced by the interaction with turbulence, especially at low ϕ. In HIT, the correlations of particle lateral velocity fluctuations oscillate around zero before decorrelating completely. The time period of the oscillation seems proportional to the ratio between the integral lengthscale of turbulence and the particle characteristic terminal velocity. Regarding the mean square particle displacement, we find that it is strongly enhanced by turbulence in the direction perpendicular to gravity, even at the largest ϕ. Finally, we investigate the collision statistics for all cases and find the interesting result that the collision frequency is larger in quiescent fluid than in HIT for ϕ= 0.5 - 1 %. This is due to frequent drafting–kissing–tumbling events in quiescent fluid. The collision frequency becomes instead larger in HIT than in still fluid for ϕ= 5 - 10 % , due to the larger relative approaching velocities in HIT, and to the less intense drafting–kissing–tumbling events in quiescent fluid. The collision frequency also appears to be almost proportional to the estimate for small inertial particles uniformly distributed in space, though much smaller. Concerning the turbulence modulation, we find that the mean energy dissipation increases almost linearly with ϕ, leading to a large reduction of Re λ .

We study the turbulent square duct flow of dense suspensions of neutrally buoyant spherical particles. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are performed in the range of volume fractions phi = 0-0.2, using the immersed boundary method (IBM) to account for the dispersed phase. Based on the hydraulic diameter a Reynolds number of 5600 is considered. We observe that for phi = 0.05 and 0.1, particles preferentially accumulate on the corner bisectors, close to the corners, as also observed for laminar square duct flows of the same duct-to-particle size ratio. At the highest volume fraction, particles preferentially accumulate in the core region. For plane channel flows, in the absence of lateral confinement, particles are found instead to be uniformly distributed across the channel. The intensity of the cross-stream secondary flows increases (with respect to the unladen case) with the volume fraction up to phi = 0.1, as a consequence of the high concentration of particles along the corner bisector. For phi = 0.2 the turbulence activity is reduced and the intensity of the secondary flows reduces to below that of the unladen case. The friction Reynolds number increases with phi in dilute conditions, as observed for channel flows. However, for phi = 0.2 the mean friction Reynolds number is similar to that for phi = 0.1. By performing the turbulent kinetic energy budget, we see that the turbulence production is enhanced up to phi = 0.1, while for phi = 0.2 the production decreases below the values for phi = 0.05. On the other hand, the dissipation and the transport monotonically increase with phi The interphase interaction term also contributes positively to the turbulent kinetic energy budget and increases monotonically with phi, in a similar way as the mean transport. Finally, we show that particles move on average faster than the fluid. However, there are regions close to the walls and at the corners where they lag behind it. In particular, for phi = 0.05, 0.1, the slip velocity distribution at the corner bisectors seems correlated to the locations of maximum concentration: the concentration is higher where the slip velocity vanishes. The wall-normal hydrodynamic and collision forces acting on the particles push them away from the corners. The combination of these forces vanishes around the locations of maximum concentration. The total mean forces are generally low along the corner bisectors and at the core, also explaining the concentration distribution for phi = 0.2.

We study turbulent channel flows of monodisperse and polydisperse suspensions of finite-size spheres by means of Direct Numerical Simulations using an immersed boundary method to account for the dispersed phase. Suspensions with 3 different Gaussian distributions of particle radii are considered (i.e. 3 different standard deviations). The distributions are centered on the reference particle radius of the monodisperse suspension. In the most extreme case, the radius of the largest particles is 4 times that of the smaller particles. We consider two different solid volume fractions, 2% and 10%. We find that for all polydisperse cases, both fluid and particles statistics are not substantially altered with respect to those of the monodisperse case. Mean streamwise fluid and particle velocity profiles are almost perfectly overlapping. Slightly larger differences are found for particle velocity fluctuations. These increase close to the wall and decrease towards the centerline as the standard deviation of the distribution is increased. Hence, the behavior of the suspension is mostly governed by excluded volume effects regardless of particle size distribution (at least for the radii here studied). Due to turbulent mixing, particles are uniformly distributed across the channel. However, smaller particles can penetrate more into the viscous and buffer layer and velocity fluctuations are therein altered. Non trivial results are presented for particle-pair statistics.

We study the inertial migration of finite-size neutrally buoyant spherical particles in dilute and semidilute suspensions in laminar square duct flow. We perform several direct numerical simulations using an immersed boundary method to investigate the effects of the bulk Reynolds number Re-b, particle Reynolds number Re-p, and duct to particle size ratio h/a at different solid volume fractions phi, from very dilute conditions to 20%. We show that the bulk Reynolds number Re-b is the key parameter in inertial migration of particles in dilute suspensions. At low solid volume fraction (phi = 0.4%), low bulk Reynolds number (Re-b = 144), and h/a = 9 particles accumulate at the center of the duct walls. As Re-b is increased, the focusing position moves progressively toward the corners of the duct. At higher volume fractions, phi = 5%, 10%, and 20%, and in wider ducts (h/a = 18) with Re-b = 550, particles are found to migrate away from the duct core toward the walls. In particular, for phi = 5% and 10%, particles accumulate preferentially at the corners. At the highest volume fraction considered, phi = 20%, particles sample all the volume of the duct, with a lower concentration at the duct core. For all cases, we find that particles reside longer times at the corners than at the wall centers. In a duct with lower duct to particle size ratio h/a = 9 (i.e., with larger particles), phi = 5%, and high bulk Reynolds number Re-b = 550, we find a particle concentration pattern similar to that in the ducts with h/a = 9 regardless of the solid volume fraction phi. Instead, for lower Bulk Reynolds number Re-b = 144, h/a = 9, and phi = 5%, a different particle distribution is observed in comparison to a dilute suspension phi = 0.4%. Hence, the volume fraction plays a key role in defining the final distribution of particles in semidilute suspensions at low bulk Reynolds number. The presence of particles induces secondary cross-stream motions in the duct cross section, for all phi. The intensity of these secondary flows depends strongly on particle rotation rate, on the maximum concentration of particles in focusing positions, and on the solid volume fraction. We find that the secondary flow intensity increases with the volume fraction up to phi = 5%. However, beyond phi = 5% excluded-volume effects lead to a strong reduction of cross-stream velocities for Re-b = 550 and h/a = 18. Inhibiting particles from rotating also results in a substantial reduction of the secondary flow intensity and in variations of the exact location of the focusing positions.