Particulate flows with the subspace projection method

A novel finite element method for the 3d simulation of (many) particles in a Newtonian carrier liquid is presented. The methods features the celebrated one domain approach, a subspace projection method to account for the rigid body motion within the particles and operator splitting. Combined with local mesh refinement the method results in a fast and accurate, though conceptually simple to implement algorithm.Validation is achieved using the sedimentation of one particle and comparing the resulting drag coefficient with theoretical and experimental results. Furthermore, a viscometer is considered, where the effective viscosity of a particle laden fluid is compared with analytic results.

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