Direct Numerical Simulation of pulsating flow effect on the distribution of non-circular particles with increased levels of complexity: IB-LBM

Abstract

Equilibrium position, as well as dynamic patterns of suspended particles, plays a dominant role in particle manipulation of segregation, transporting, or sorting. The current paper aims to investigate the falling manners of non-circular particles in an enclosure while the pulsatile flow is involved as a counter-flow. The direct-forcing immersed boundary method is coupled with the lattice Boltzmann method to simulate this widespread issue numerically. Corresponding boundary conditions are hired to take into account pulsatile flow. Findings were first successfully verified against the existing literature and the accuracy of the results is well-demonstrated. For the first time, a series of proof-of-principal simulations with an increased level of geometric complexity, particle aspect ratio, as well as the number and initial configuration (release positions), is carried out. The force resulting from the particle acceleration is also considered. It is shown that considering such factors, particle settling manners would markedly differ. The collective behavior of particles is also studied, and it is revealed that the presence of neighboring particles makes the influence of the particle shape less clear; however, pulsatile flow presents considerable differences in the settling manners of particles.