Eulerian Model for Prediction of Particle Transport and Deposition in Turbulent Duct Flows with Thermophoresis

Abstract

The Reynolds-averaged equations for turbulent particle population/transport in an Eulerian framework must be closed by specifying models for several terms: a turbophoretic force; a turbulent thermophoretic force; and a turbulent particle-diffusion term. In this article, new models are proposed for the turbophoretic term, as a particle-size dependent extrapolation of the corresponding turbulent fluid-velocity correlation, and for the turbulent thermophoretic term as an eddy-viscosity-scaled multiple of the corresponding mean thermophoretic term, appropriate for small low-inertia particles with τ⁺_p < 10. When the turbophoresis model is incorporated in a system of equations that describes particle motion within the surrounding fluid, it predicts particle deposition velocities that are in good agreement with experimental data over a range of particle sizes. When this equation system is included in a computational model to predict particle transport in turbulent pipe flows, the efficiency of particle deposition in pipes with upstream heating and downstream cooling is found to be in fair agreement with experimental measurements at two different Reynolds numbers, and over a range of particle sizes and temperature differences.

Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research