Drag force modification model for turbulent suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow

Abstract

The calculation accuracy of a solid–liquid two-phase flow numerical simulation is related directly to the reliability of the results obtained. The interphase drag force significantly affects the calculation results of the solid concentration distribution of suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow. However, the conventional Wen–Yu drag force model is obtained by adding solid concentration to the standard drag force coefficient curves. The model does not consider the influence of turbulence, which is a comprehensive reflection of particle inertia and liquid turbulence intensity. To improve the calculation accuracy of the Wen–Yu model, the particle inertia and turbulence intensity factors are introduced to express the comprehensive influence of the particle inertia and liquid turbulent intensity on the drag force coefficient for the suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow. The turbulence modification function preliminary expression is determined and further modified to improve the calculation accuracy for a particle Reynolds number of less than 100 by combining experimental data and the least square method through experiments and theoretical research. Then, the final expression of the turbulence modification function is proposed to help modify the drag force coefficient of the Wen–Yu model, and finally establish the modified turbulence effect (MTE)-Wen–Yu drag force modification model. The calculations for the suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow in the circular tubes show that the solid-phase concentration values calculated by the MTE-Wen–Yu drag force model are considerably closer to the experimental results than those obtained by the Wen–Yu drag force model in the suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow calculation for different inlet velocities, inlet solid concentrations, and particle diameters. Hence, the calculation accuracy of the MTE-Wen–Yu model is higher than that of the Wen–Yu drag force model. The calculation precision of the solid-phase concentration distribution calculated using the MTE-Wen–Yu drag force model decreases with the increase in particle diameter owing to the high quality and large inertia of large particles. Therefore, it is more suitable for the numerical simulation of suspended-load sediment solid–liquid two-phase flow with a small particle diameter.