A drag model for filtered Euler–Lagrange simulations of clustered gas–particle suspensions

•We use data from EL simulations to assemble a model for the filtered drag force.•Corrections to gas–particle drag lead to superior predictions.•We identify an approximate characteristic length scale of particle clusters.

Fluidized gas–particle systems are inherently unstable and they manifest structures on a wide range of length and time scales. In this article we present for the first time in the literature a coarse-grained drag force model for Euler–Lagrange (EL) based simulations of fluidized gas–particle suspensions. Two types of coarse graining enter into consideration: coarse fluid grids as well as particle coarsening in the form of parcel-based simulations where only a subset of particles is simulated. We use data from well-resolved EL simulations to assemble a model for the filtered drag force that examines fluid and particle coarsening separately. We demonstrate that inclusion of correction to gas–particle drag to account for fluid coarsening leads to superior predictions in a test problem. We then present an ad hoc modification to account for particle coarsening, which improves accuracy of simulations involving both fluid and particle coarsening. We also identify an approximate characteristic length scale that can be used to collapse the results for different gas–particle systems.

Graphical abstractSnapshots for the particle distribution colored by the vertical particle velocity (left, the gray surface indicates an isocontour at ϕp=0.54) and the vertical fluid velocity (right, a thin cross section through the computational domain is shown; 〈ϕp〉=0.25).Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (216 K)Download as PowerPoint slide