Numerical simulation of non-spherical microparticles' deposition on single fiber

Abstract

As a classical gas-solid two-phase flow system, the processes of fiber filtering microparticles are prevalent in nature and engineering. However, the impact of microparticle shape on fiber filtration processes is still largely unexplored. Herein, using the self-developed spheropolyhedral-based discrete element lattice Boltzmann method, the filtration process of non-spherical microparticles through a single fiber is investigated. Results show that the single fiber efficiency (SFE) for non-spherical particles exhibits a trend of initially increasing and subsequently decreasing trend with the increase in Stokes number (St), which is similar to the case of spherical particles. However, it is interesting to note that the peak values of SFE increase significantly with decreasing particle sphericity (ψ) and the corresponding St values become larger. As ψ decreases from 1.0 (sphere) to 0.671 (tetrahedron), the SFE increase from 0.205 to 0.49 and the corresponding St rises from 1.0 to 1.75. The enhanced SFE can be explained by elevated collision probability and adhesion probability, based on detailed particle kinematics and dynamics behavior analysis as well as microscopic depositional structure evaluation. The depositional structures of the non-spherical particles have larger capture areas, leading to higher initial collision probabilities. Meanwhile, the anisotropic collisions between non-spherical particles and fibers greatly contribute to higher secondary collision probabilities. In addition, compared to spherical particles of the same volume, the non-spherical particles experience greater fluid resistance, resulting in lower initial collision velocities and larger initial adhesion probabilities. The face-to-face contacts between non-spherical particles also lead to stronger interparticle adhesion and enhanced adhesion probabilities.