Direct numerical simulation of pattern formation in a rotating suspension of non-Brownian settling particles in a fully filled cylinder

In this article we have investigated the pattern formation of a rotating suspension of non-Brownian settling particles in incompressible Newtonian viscous fluids by direct numerical simulation. These phenomena are modeled by the Navier–Stokes equations coupled to the Euler–Newton equations describing rigid–solid motions. The numerical methodology relies on the combination of a finite element approximation with operator-splitting and Lagrange multiplier based fictitious domain methods allowing the flow calculations to take place in a fixed rectangular parallelepiped. We found the particles attract and expel each other all the time when rotating in a horizontal cylinder and the formation of clusters depends on the rotating speed.