Parallel Computation and Numerical Visualization for Non-Uniform Particles Included in Gas and Liquid Flows

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ushijima, S. | Nezu, I.

Affiliations: Department of Global Environment Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto-shi 606-8501, Japan. email: ushijima@gee.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Abstract: A parallel computation method has been proposed for the mixing and segregation of granular mixture included in gas and liquid flows. In this method, a three-dimensional (3D) computational volume is decomposed into multiple sub-blocks and their geometries are represented by 3D body-fitted coordinates. The fluid-particle interactions are treated by two types of models: a two-way model for liquid-solid flows and a one-way model in case of gas-solid flows. The computations of the particle motions in the multiple sub-blocks are executed simultaneously on the basis of the distinct element method (DEM). Since a graphic process is also executed as one of the parallel jobs, the particle distributions can be visualized during the computations. The computational method was applied to the gas-solid flows consisting of different diameters and densities in the horizontal and inclined cylinders rotating around their axes. From the comparison with the experimental results, nearly uniform mixing and particle segregation are successfully predicted in the oscillating liquid flows. In addition, it has been indicated that the particle pathline is very effective to visualize and understand the flow patterns of the particles with different properties. The result of the computations for the liquid-solid flows demonstrated that the vertical segregation of the non-uniform particles is reasonably reproduced.

Keywords: parallel computation , multiblock grid , multi-phase flow , particle segregation , particle pathline

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 327-334, 2002