A Lagrangian probability-density-function model for collisional turbulent fluid-particle flows. I. Model derivation

TL;DR

This paper develops a Lagrangian stochastic model for dense turbulent particle flows, capturing particle clustering, segregation, and turbulence generation due to particle-fluid interactions, advancing the understanding of complex multiphase flows.

Contribution

It introduces a rigorous Lagrangian formalism that includes two-way coupling and particle velocity decomposition, providing a novel framework for dense particle-laden flow modeling.

Findings

Framework captures particle clustering and segregation.

Model distinguishes correlated and uncorrelated particle velocities.

Provides a basis for future applications to dense flows.

Abstract

Inertial particles in turbulent flows are characterised by preferential concentration and segregation and, at sufficient mass loading, dense particle clusters may spontaneously arise due to momentum coupling between the phases. These clusters, in turn, can generate and sustain turbulence in the fluid phase, which we refer to as cluster-induced turbulence. In the present theoretical work, we tackle the problem of developing a framework for the stochastic modelling of moderately dense particle-laden flows, based on a Lagrangian formalism, which naturally includes the Eulerian one. A rigorous formalism and a general model have been put forward focusing, in particular, on the two ingredients that are key in moderately dense flows, namely, two-way coupling in the carrier phase, and the decomposition of the particle-phase velocity into its spatially correlated and uncorrelated components. Specifically, this last contribution allows to identify in the stochastic model the contributions due to the correlated fluctuating energy and to the granular temperature of the particle phase, which determines the time scale for particle-particle collisions. Applications of the Lagrangian probability-density-function model developed in this work to moderately dense particle-laden flows are discussed in a companion paper.