Particles dispersion and deposition in inhomogeneous turbulent flows using continuous random walk models

Abstract

The suitability of the normalized Langevin stochastic equation with appropriate drift correction for simulation of instantaneous fluctuation velocities in inhomogeneous turbulent flows was studied. The Reynolds Stress Transport turbulence model of the ANSYS-Fluent code was used to evaluate the inhomogeneous turbulent flow properties in a two-dimensional duct flow. The simulation results were then used in an in-house Matlab particle tracking code and the trajectories of about 2 × 105 randomly distributed particles in the channel were evaluated by solving the particle equation of motion including the drag and Brownian forces under the one-way coupling assumption. The performance of the Continuous Random Walk (CRW) stochastic model using the conventional nonnormalized, as well as the normalized Langevin equations without and with the drift term for predicting a uniform distribution for the fluid-tracer particles in an inhomogeneous turbulent flow was examined. The accuracy of these models in predicting the deposition velocities and distribution of solid particles with diameters ranging from 10 nm to 30 μm was also carefully examined. In addition, the effects of including the finite-inertia coefficient in the drift term and using the corrected root mean square normal velocity in the near-wall region on the accuracy of the results were emphasized. By exploring the concentration profiles and deposition velocities of particles resulting from different CRW models, it was concluded that the Normalized-CRW model including the appropriate drift term leads to the most accurate results.