SGER: Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Drop Dispersion

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT DIRECT NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TURBULENT DROP DISPERSION David P. Schmidt and J. Blair Perot University of Massachusetts-Amherst Droplets deform and dissipate energy in response to turbulent gas velocity fluctuations, creating complex interphase coupling. Nearly all past efforts have treated the particles as points and determined drag from simple solid-particle correlations. The current work will provide the information missing from past Direct Numerical Simulation efforts by calculating the gas and liquid behavior in unprecedented detail. The proposed work will simulate the droplets as well-resolved, deforming fluid domains. The exact location of the fluid interface will be tracked using novel moving-mesh methods. Every detail of the liquid and gas phases will simulated directly, based only on first principles. The simulations will be run in parallel on the P.I.s' 180 CPU Beowulf cluster. The results will show how the complex drag behavior of realistic droplets creates resonance with eddies, wake vorticity, and additional dissipation. Most importantly, the motion of the droplets will provide valuable data for understanding turbulent droplet dispersion.