Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of flow past stationary particles in a channel

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent flow past stationary particles in a channel are carried out to determine the influence of the particle on the flow structure. The position of the particles in the channel, the particle size, the Reynolds number, and the number of particles are varied. The studies are carried out using the lattice-Boltzmann method. The details of the flow field are analyzed to provide insight into the factors that control the distance of influence. In the case of a single particle, when the particle is close to the wall, the mean wake moves away from the wall. Moreover, there is only one dominant vortex in the wake instead of two symmetric vortices. In the case of multiple particles, the vortices shed from the particles interact with each other. In the single particle cases considered, the effect of the particle is felt for about 20 diameters downstream. When multiple particles are present, interaction between the vortices shed by the particles lengthens the distance of influence.

Additional information

Funding

Computational resources for this work were provided by the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) that is supported by the National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1548562.