Numerical study of particle turbulence interaction in liquid-particle flows

A comprehensive numerical model that was previously developed to study the turbulent behavior of dilute gas-particle flows and also the effect of the particles in modulating the gas turbulence behind sudden expansion geometry1,2 was used to study the turbulent behavior of dilute liquid particle flow behind a sudden expansion geometry. The major endeavor of the study is to ascertain the response of the particles within the carrier liquid phase. The main aim prompting the current study is the density difference between the carrier and the dispersed phases which is less in terms of the liquid-particle flows in comparison to its counterpart gasparticle flow. The numerical simulations carried out in this study were validated against the experimental data of Founti and Klipfel3 and qualitative results have been obtained. Furthermore, their response to the carrier phase has been investigated both at the mean and at the turbulence level for a range of particle Stokes number. While the particulate velocity seems to increase with the corresponding increase in Stokes number amidst the carrier phase the particulate turbulence shows entirely a different pattern.