Particle Flow Inside the Elbow, CFD Simulation Using DPM

Description

Particle Flow in an Elbow Project description

One of the most widely used multiphase analyses is the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) analysis, which is widely used to investigate the effect of fine matter mixtures in the main fluid flow on its conditions. Considering the various cases of fluid streams with particles that are seen in the industry as well as nature, the study and analysis of such flows can be a great help in understanding such issues. In this project, the airflow containing micro-particles inside an elbow is simulated. Air enters the pipe with a velocity of 17 m/s and carries particles until it reaches an elbow, most of the particles will collide with the outer elbow surface and gradually erode the inner surface of the pipe. The standard k-epsilon model is exploited for solving the turbulent fluid flow equation.

Elbow Geometry and mesh

The geometry of this model is designed in ANSYS design modeler®. It is meshed in ANSYS meshing®. The mesh type used for this geometry is unstructured. The total element number is 2832.

Particle Flow CFD simulation settings

The key assumptions considered in this project are:

• Simulation is done using pressure-based solver.
• The present simulation and its results are steady.
• The effect of gravity is neglected.

The applied settings are summarized in the following table.

	Models
Viscous model		k-epsilon
	Model	Standard
	Wall treatment	Standard wall functions
Discrete phase		on
		Interaction with continuous phase
	Particle type	inert
	X-velocity	4 m/s
	Diameter	0.003741 m
	Boundary conditions
Inlets		Velocity inlet
	Velocity magnitude	17 m/s
	DP BC type	escape
Outlets		Pressure outlet
	Gauge pressure	0 Pa
Walls		stationary
	BC Type	reflect
	Solution Methods
Pressure-velocity coupling		SIMPLE
Spatial discretization	pressure	Second order
	momentum	second order upwind
	Turbulent kinetic energy	first order upwind
	Turbulent dissipation rate	first order upwind
	Initialization
Initialization method		Standard
	gauge pressure	0 Pa
	velocity (x,y)	(17,0) m/s
	Turbulent kinetic energy	1.08375 m2/s2
	Turbulent dissipation rate	723.6514 m2/s3

Results

As can be observed in DPM concentration contour and particle tracks, the particle will collide with the inner surface of the elbow and will cause erosion in the long run.

Mesh file is available in this product. By the way, the Training File presents how to solve the problem and extract all desired results.