Numerical simulation of heat transfer in particulate flows using a thermal immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

In the current work the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to investigate heat transfer phenomena in particulate flows. Different cases involving both two- and three-dimensional configurations are studied. For the fluid–particle interactions the direct-forcing and direct-heating immersed boundary (IB) method are applied to calculate the hydrodynamic force and energy exchange between the particle and the fluid, respectively. This Eulerian–Lagrangian approach captures the fluid flow around the particles with high accuracy. The Boussinesq approximation is applied to the coupling between flow and temperature fields. The energy equation is solved using a double-population model in the LBM framework. Numerical simulations reveal that this thermal IB-LBM can accurately predict the particle motion. A particularly interesting case involves particles with a variable temperature, where the competition between gravity and buoyancy induced by the temperature gradient can make particles sink or rise. It is observed that cold particles settle down faster than hot particles. Also, the thermal IB-LBM has been implemented for a collection of spherical particles. In this manner, the behavior of catalyst particles can be accurately predicted, as demonstrated in the last application, involving 60 particles interacting in an enclosure.