A numerical model of translational and rotational momentum transfer of small non-spherical rigid particles in fluid dominated two-phase flows

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Paul Steinmann
• Subject Area: Mechanics ; Applied Mechanics, Statics and Dynamics ; Mechanical Process Engineering ; Fluid Mechanics
• Term: from 2014 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 265898722

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

In response to the Covid 19 pandemic, starting in 2020 we also studied aerosol deposition in realistic human lung replicas considering realistic aerosol size distributions. In this context, we investigated the effect of susceptible age as well as the effect of cardiovascular activity on viral load within the respiratory system. In a next step, we proposed a specific slip length model for the Maxwell slip boundary conditions in the Navier-Stokes solution of flow around a microparticle in the no-slip and slip flow regime. In a further work, we extended our research to the interaction between nonspherical particles, i.e. prolate spheroids, and rigid walls, proposing a novel hybrid analytical numerical model to determine the maximum elastic force acting on the particles during wall collision. Recently, we derived a numerical drag and lift prediction framework for superellipsoidal particles in multiphase flows and illustrated the deficiency of commonly used shape-factors in predicting nonspherical particle motion. In this context, we presented a novel framework for determining drag, lift coefficients and torque coefficients of nonspherical particles by performing an excessive number of (offline) DNS simulations that enables accurate (online) modeling and simulation for an unprecedented variety of superellipsoidal particle shapes. Moreover, we showed that Stokes Flow induced drag and torque on asbestos-like fibers can not be estimated by a simplistic ellipsoidal approximation. In addition, we successfully participated in a CFD challenge targeting aerosol transport. As highlighted in the above, our extensive preliminary work puts us in a perfect position to address further challenges of numerical modelling related to suspended micro particles in dilute two-phase flows.

Publications

• A novel model for the lift force acting on a prolate spheroidal particle in an arbitrary non-uniform flow. Part I. Lift force due to the streamwise flow shear. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 104, 103-112.
  Cui, Yan; Ravnik, Jure; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Steinmann, Paul
  
• On Constitutive Models for the Momentum Transfer to Particles in Fluid-Dominated Two-Phase Flows. Advanced Structured Materials, 1-25.
  Cui, Yan; Ravnik, Jure; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Steinmann, Paul
  
• A novel model for the lift force acting on a prolate spheroidal particle in arbitrary non-uniform flow. Part II. Lift force taking into account the non-streamwise flow shear. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 111, 232-240.
  Cui, Yan; Ravnik, Jure; Verhnjak, Ožbej; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Steinmann, Paul
  
• Settling characteristics of nonspherical porous sludge flocs with nonhomogeneous mass distribution. Water Research, 158, 159-170.
  Cui, Yan; Ravnik, Jure; Steinmann, Paul & Hriberšek, Matjaž
  
• Towards a unified shear-induced lift model for prolate spheroidal particles moving in arbitrary non-uniform flow. Computers & Fluids, 196, 104323.
  Cui, Yan; Ravnik, Jure; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Steinmann, Paul
  
• Can CFD establish a connection to a milder COVID-19 disease in younger people? Aerosol deposition in lungs of different age groups based on Lagrangian particle tracking in turbulent flow. Computational Mechanics, 67(5), 1497-1513.
  Wedel, Jana; Steinmann, Paul; Štrakl, Mitja; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Ravnik, Jure
  
• Risk Assessment of Infection by Airborne Droplets and Aerosols at Different Levels of Cardiovascular Activity. Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering, 28(6), 4297-4316.
  Wedel, Jana; Steinmann, Paul; Štrakl, Mitja; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Ravnik, Jure
  
• A hybrid analytical–numerical model for calculating the maximum elastic force acting on a flow-driven elastic prolate spheroidal particle during its collision with a rigid wall. Computational Mechanics, 69(4), 1021-1029.
  Hu, Rongxuan; Liu, Yinshui; Ravnik, Jure; Hriberšek, Matjaž; Steinmann, Paul & Cui, Yan
  
• A Model for Translation and Rotation Resistance Tensors for Superellipsoidal Particles in Stokes Flow. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 10(3), 369.
  Štrakl, Mitja; Hriberšek, Matjaž; Wedel, Jana; Steinmann, Paul & Ravnik, Jure
  
• A specific slip length model for the Maxwell slip boundary conditions in the Navier–Stokes solution of flow around a microparticle in the no-slip and slip flow regimes. Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, 36(5), 723-740.
  Wedel, Jana; Štrakl, Mitja; Ravnik, Jure; Steinmann, Paul & Hriberšek, Matjaž
  
• Anatomy matters: The role of the subject-specific respiratory tract on aerosol deposition — A CFD study. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 401, 115372.
  Wedel, Jana; Steinmann, Paul; Štrakl, Mitja; Hriberšek, Matjaž; Cui, Yan & Ravnik, Jure
  
• Numerical drag and lift prediction framework for superellipsoidal particles in multiphase flows. International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements, 10(1), 38-49.
  Štrakl, Mitja; Wedel, Jana; Steinmann, Paul; Hriberšek, Matjaž & Ravnik, Jure
  
• STOKES FLOW INDUCED DRAG AND TORQUE ON ASBESTOS-LIKE FIBRES CANNOT BE ESTIMATED BY A SIMPLISTIC ELLIPSOIDAL APPROXIMATION. WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, 1, 33-44.
  RAVNIK, JURE; ŠTRAKL, MITJA; WEDEL, JANA; STEINMANN, PAUL & HRIBERŠEK, MATJAŽ
  
• Tensor coefficient model for superellipsoids
  M. Strakl; J. Wedel; P. Steinmann; M. Hribersek & J. Ravnik