Dynamics of particle-laden turbulent Couette flow. Part1: Turbulence modulation by inertial particles

TL;DR

This study investigates how inertial particles influence turbulence in particle-laden Couette flow, revealing a critical particle volume fraction where turbulence abruptly collapses due to reduced energy production.

Contribution

It demonstrates the occurrence of a discontinuous turbulence transition in Couette flow caused by inertial particles, differing from channel flow behavior, through detailed DNS analysis.

Findings

Turbulence intensity drops abruptly beyond a critical particle volume fraction.

Discontinuous transition is linked to reduced turbulence production and dissipation.

Particle presence is the primary cause of the turbulence collapse.

Abstract

In particle-laden turbulent flows the turbulence in carrier fluid phase gets affected by the dispersed particle phase for volume fraction above $10^{-4}$ and hence reverse coupling or two-way coupling becomes relevant in that volume fraction regime. In a recent study by Muramulla $et.al.^1$, a discontinuous decrease of turbulence intensity is observed in a vertical particle-laden turbulent channel-flow for a critical volume fraction O($10^{-3}$). The collapse of turbulent intensity is found out to be a result of catastrophic reduction of turbulent energy production rate. Mechanistically, particle-fluid coupling in particle-laden turbulent Couette-flow differs from that in a closed channel flow. In this article, the turbulence modulation in Couette-flow by inertial particles is explored through two-way coupled DNS where particle volume fraction ($\phi$) is varied from $1.75\times10^{-4}$ to $1.05\times10^{-3}$ and Reynolds Number based on half-channel width ($\delta$) and wall velocity ($U$) ($Re_{\delta}$) is $750$. The particles are heavy point particles with $St\sim367$ based on fluid integral time-scale represented by $\delta/U$. A discontinuous decrease of fluid turbulence intensity, mean square velocity and Reynolds stress is observed beyond a critical volume fraction $\phi_{cr}\sim7.875\times10^{-4}$. The drastic reduction of shear production of turbulence and in turn the reduction of viscous dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy are two important phenomena for the occurrence of discontinuous transition similar to channelflow. The step-wise particle injection and step-wise removal study confirms that it is the presence of particles which is majorly behind this discontinuous transition.