Two-way coupled particle-turbulence interaction: Effect of numerics and resolution on fluid and particle statistics

Abstract

We show that statistics from simulations of particle-laden turbulent flows modeled by the point-particle Euler-Lagrange methodology diverge with mesh refinement when the undisturbed fluid velocity used in the drag force that couples the dispersed and continuous phases is not properly modeled. For decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence, fluid and particle energies, particle acceleration, and energy dissipation rates are found to be grid insensitive only when the undisturbed fluid velocity is robustly modelled. Ultimately, this work provides insight into what types of questions are answerable using two-way coupled point-particle methods.