Agglomeration Regimes of Particles under a Linear Laminar Flow: A Numerical Study

YZ Qian and SP Usher and PJ Scales and AD Stickland and A Alexiadis, MATHEMATICS, 10, 1931 (2022).

DOI: 10.3390/math10111931

In this work, a combined smoothed particle hydrodynamics and discrete element method (SPH-DEM) model was proposed to model particle agglomeration in a shear flow. The fluid was modeled with the SPH method and the solid particles with DEM. The system was governed by three fundamental dimensionless groups: the Reynolds number Re (1.5 similar to 150), which measured the effect of the hydrodynamics; the adhesion number Ad (6 x 10(-5) similar to 6 x 10(-3)), which measured the interparticle attraction; and the solid fraction a, which measured the concentration of particles. Based on these three dimensionless groups, several agglomeration regimes were found. Within these regimes, the aggregates could have different sizes and shapes that went from long thread-like structures to compact spheroids. The effect of the particle- particle interaction model was also investigated. The results were combined into 'agglomeration maps' that allowed for a quick determination of the agglomerate type once alpha, Re, Ad were known.

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