Predicting particle transport in turbulent flows is today mostly done using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. While Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) approaches are generally unsatisfactory, and Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) computationally prohibitive, the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) stands as the most adequate tool to address complex flows at reasonably high turbulence. Particulate flows require that the wall boundary layer be fully resolved, since it is near the wall that particle physics is the most complex. Wall-bounded LES which resolve the boundary layer, have stringent spatial resolution requirements in all directions. This translates into large CPU needs, which grow exponentially with the Reynolds (Re) number. Recent research has proposed the so-called Wall Modeled LES (WMLES), which is a promising alternative to dramatically reduce the LES dependency on Re. The novel WMLES methodology has been applied with success in a limited number of complex wall-bounded fluid flow simulations in literature. The ongoing PhD project aims at modeling the dispersion of inertial particles using WMLES in an Euler/Lagrange frame under simplified conditions. The seminar will go through two main parts: (i) Lagrangian Particle Tracking (LPT) for describing the dispersed phase, and (ii) comparison between two hybrid LES/RANS methods’ predictions for fluid flow statistics against LES and DNS data.
Dr. Bojan Niceno