A Discrete/Continuous Numerical Approach to Multi-physics

Abstract

A variety of technical applications are not only the physics of a single domain, but include several physical phenomena, and therefore are referred to as multi-physics. As long as the phenomena being taken into account is either continuous or discrete i.e. Euler or Lagrangian a homogeneous solution concept can be employed. However, numerous challenges in engineering include continuous and discrete phase simultaneously, and therefore cannot be solved only by continuous or discrete approaches. Problems include both a continuous and a discrete phase are important in applications of the pharmaceutical Industry e.g. drug production, agriculture and food processing industry, mining, construction and Agricultural machinery, metal production, power generation and systems biology. The Extended Discrete Element Method (XDEM) is a novel technique, which provides a significant advance for the coupled discrete and continuous numerical simulation concepts. It expands the dynamics of particles as described by the classical discrete element method (DEM) by a thermodynamic state or stress/strain coupled as fluid flow or structures for each particle in a continuum phase. XDEM additionally estimates properties such as the interior temperature and/or species distribution. These predictive capabilities are extended to fluid flow through an interaction by heat, mass and momentum transfer important for process engineering.

The First Unified and Transient Modeling Platform to Build a Digital Twin of Blast Furnaces Based on the Extended Discrete Element Method

“…Further validation studies on drying in particular for moving beds are to be found in refs. [45][46][47].…”

Resolving Multiphase Flow through Packed Bed of Solid Particles Using eXtended Discrete Element Method with Porosity Calculation

“…The void fraction in fixed bed reactors is not uniform and varies from the vicinity of the walls toward the bulk of the bed, and it needs to be incorporated into the model to also consider the wall effects. The XDEM has the ability to provide porosity distribution inside the flow field by considering the position and number of particles in each CFD cell . This advantage eliminates the need for correlations to calculate porosity distribution, and as a consequence, it predicts the fluid properties such as velocity and volume fraction in a more accurate and precise way.…”

“…The XDEM has the ability to provide porosity distribution inside the flow field by considering the position and number of particles in each CFD cell. 30 This advantage eliminates the need for correlations to calculate porosity distribution, and as a consequence, it predicts the fluid properties such as velocity and volume fraction in a more accurate and precise way. The porosity calculation algorithm is based on the method proposed by Xiao et al, 31 which considers that the volume of each particle is distributed to all the neighbor cells according to its distance to the cell centers.…”