High-order moving immersed boundary and its application to a resolved CFD-DEM model

Abstract

The sharp interface immersed boundary method (IBM) is a powerful tool to simulate the flow around moving objects. This paper extends this method to simulate the motion of particles immersed in a fluid. We introduce a new implicit coupling scheme between the solid and fluid phases, verify the high–order of convergence of the scheme, and validate it using four cases. The fluid dynamics is simulated using a streamline upwind Petrov–Galerkin and pressure-stabilizing Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG/PSPG) stabilizations. The particles’ dynamics and contact are solved using Newton’s second law of motion and a soft sphere contact model derived from the discrete element method. The first validation case is the sedimentation of a lone particle with a Reynolds number smaller than 32. The second validation case is the rise of a positively buoyant particle at a high Reynolds number (2500). The third validation case demonstrates the stability of the scheme when particles are in contact and exhibit the classical drafting, kissing, and tumbling (DKT) behavior. Finally, we use the scheme to study the Boycott effect with a larger number of particles (64) to show the stability of the scheme in cases with numerous particle–particle and particle–wall contacts.