Rheology and dynamics of dense, turbulent fluid-solid flows

Turbulent, dense fluid-particle flows are commonly encountered in engineering processes such as in air jet mills as well as terrestrial and extra-terrestrial phenomena, e.g., bedload sediment transport, movement of sand dunes, impingement of jets on planetary surfaces. High speed fluid flows on dense beds are complex in nature because of the coupling between the fluid and solid phases.

The project aims to account for the effect of fluid phase fluctuations on the particles using LES (Large Eddy Simulation)/DNS (Direct numerical Simulations) and particle feedback force using particle resolved technique. Simulation results will be compared with the experimental observations of high speed particle image velocimetry. An important impact of the project will be to enhance the basic understanding of the dense gas-solid flows. The project will result in the development of a computer code for such systems, validated by experiments, as well as continuum two-fluid models, which can be utilized for the analysis and design of practical systems.

It is a collaborative  project (DST funded  under SUPRA scheme) with Prof. Devang Khakhar and Prof. Manaswita Bose