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CFD-DEM coupling for bluff body aerodynamics

Hello,

I did the tutorial 3 on coupled CFD-DEM fluidized bed.

I have a bluff body ready to be used to study particle adhesion using a 2 way coupled simulation. I need to ask a few questions before I proceed with the setup.

From EDEM-Fluent tutorial 3 for fluidized bed, the mesh file is just a tapered cylinder, how would Fluent calculate he flow if there is no fluid volume mesh inside the tapered cylinder? Just confused as to how the fluid volume cells in fluent calculate for thermal and fluid flow parameters like velocity and etc.,
From the top wall I need particles falling vertically down with a velocity and accelerated by gravity.

I have attached an image for your reference of what I'm trying to achieve.

1. Should I make a domain with filled fluid cell volume for fluent to calculate the fluid flow? or shall I just include a shell kind of an enclosure as different boundaries for EDEM to spray particles and provide the particles a boundary then couple this with CFD for a 2 way coupled simulation?

2. Should I import the model of the bluff body as a mesh or as a solid body?

3. Do I need to keep something in mind before I attempt to execute the simulation.

Thanks,

Kiran

schematic.png

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Stephen Cole

Hi Kiran,

You will need a volume to be meshed to calculate the fluid flow. The volume would be the area between the particle inlet, floor, air inlet and outlet with the bluff body as a cut-out. If there is no volume mesh in an area no calculations will happen.

Best make sure your mesh boundary conditions are correct, there is a guide on best practices for AcuSolve here - https://help.altair.com/hwcfdsolvers/acusolve/topics/acusolve/training_manual/guidelines_for_cfd_modeling_r.htm

If using Fluent the mesh has to be equal to or larger than the particles, for AcuSolve there is a smoothing function which allows the particles to be larger than the mesh.

Regards

Stephen

Kiran Purushothama Keshavan

Hello Stephen,

Thanks for your comment.

My question arose because the mesh we import into EDEM for tutorial 3 does not have any fluid volume inside the cylinder, but i can see an inlet and an outlet when it comes to the mesh import in Fluent.

Why do I see an empty hollow cylinder when I import the mesh in EDEM but when I import the same mesh in fluent I see a closed mesh with inlet and an outlet.

Regards,

Kiran

Stephen Cole

Hello Stephen,

Thanks for your comment.

My question arose because the mesh we import into EDEM for tutorial 3 does not have any fluid volume inside the cylinder, but i can see an inlet and an outlet when it comes to the mesh import in Fluent.

Why do I see an empty hollow cylinder when I import the mesh in EDEM but when I import the same mesh in fluent I see a closed mesh with inlet and an outlet.

Regards,

Kiran

hi Kiran,

For a mesh file containing a volume mesh EDEM only reads the surfaces and ignores the volume part as it's not needed for EDEM simulations. Anything as a surface (wall) will be read into EDEM and all other components like inlets and outlets will be ignored.

Regards

Stephen