Coupled three‐dimensional discrete element‐lattice Boltzmann methods for fluid‐solid interaction with polyhedral particles

Abstract

Summary Interaction between solid particles and fluid is of fundamental interest to scientists and engineers in many different applications—cardiopulmonary flows, aircraft and automobile aerodynamics, and wind loading on buildings to name a few. In geomechanics, particle shape significantly affects both particle‐particle and particle‐fluid interaction. Herein, we present a generalized method for modeling the interaction of arbitrarily shaped polyhedral particles and particle assemblages with fluid using a coupled discrete element method (DEM) and lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) formulation. The coupling between DEM and LBM is achieved through a new algorithm based on a volume‐fraction approach to consider three‐dimensional convex polyhedral particles moving through fluid. The algorithm establishes the interaction using linear programming and simplex integration and is validated against experimental data. This approach to modeling the interaction between complex polyhedral particles and fluid is shown to be accurate for directly simulating hydrodynamic forces on the particles.

Effect of gas content in macropores on hydraulic fracturing in rocks using a fully coupled DEM/CFD approach

“…Hu et al 13 applied FVM (OpenFOAM) for investigating both the kinetics of fines' removal and the micromechanisms of suffusioninduced deformation of soils. Intensive research works have also been carried out by applying LBM in coupling with DEM [14][15][16][17][18] To model a seepage-induced fine particle migration through the skeleton formed of coarse particles, Cheng et al 19 proposed a semi-resolved CFD-DEM model, wherein a resolved fictitious domain method was used to resolve the fluid flow around coarse particles and an unresolved method based on a locally averaging theory was adopted to describe interactions between fine particles and fluid flow. To study the complicated impacts of debris flow on flexible barriers, Li and Jidong 20 proposed a discrete-based approach to couple CFD with DEM, wherein they solved the continuity equation and the locally averaged Navier-Stokes equation in a discretized fluid domain.…”