Center-to-face momentum interpolation and face-to-center flux reconstruction in Euler-Euler simulation of gas-solid flows

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel momentum interpolation and flux reconstruction method for Euler-Euler gas-solid flow simulations, improving accuracy and stability over standard solvers by reducing oscillations and enhancing smoothness.

Contribution

It develops a time-step independent momentum interpolation and a complete flux reconstruction method for cell-centered velocities in gas-solid flow simulations.

Findings

Effective in simulating solids settlement and fluidized beds

Reduces high-frequency oscillations compared to OpenFOAM

Improves smoothness and accuracy of flow simulations

Abstract

In order to resolve the pressure checkerboard field problem with collocated grid, it is essential to employ the momentum interpolation method when formulating the pressure equation, and the flux reconstruction method when updating the cell-centered velocity fields. In this study, we first derive a momentum interpolation method for Euler-Euler simulation of gas-solid flows, which is independent of the time step, the transient term discretization scheme, the under-relaxation factor and the shape of grid; a complete first-order flux reconstruction method is then proposed to update the cell-centered velocities. Their effectiveness are proved by simulating the hydrodynamics of solids settlement, gas-solid fixed bed, bubbling fluidized bed and circulating fluidized bed riser, and then comparing the simulation results to the theoretically known solutions. Their superiority over the standard solver of OpenFOAM in suppressing the high-frequency oscillations and enhancing the smoothness and accuracy is also proved. Finally, the difficulty in fully eliminating the high-frequency oscillations is attributed to the insufficiency of current methods in handling the situations where the independent variables undergo abrupt change.