Particle transport in turbulent curved pipe flow

Azad Noorani, Gaetano Sardina, Luca Brandt, Philipp Schlatter

Published 2015-01-19Version 1

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of particle-laden turbulent flow in straight, mildly curved and strongly bent pipes are performed in which the solid phase is modelled as small heavy spherical particles. The objective is to examine the effect of the curvature on particle transport and accumulation, in particular how the turbophoretic drift of the particles is affected by weak and strong secondary motions of the carrier phase and geometry-induced centrifugal forces. A total of seven populations of dilute particles with different Stokes numbers, one-way coupled with their carrier phase, are simulated. Even a slight non-zero curvature in the flow configuration shows a strong impact on the particle dynamics. Near-wall helicoidal particle streaks are observed in the curved configurations with their inclination varying with the strength of the secondary motion of the carrier phase. A reflection layer, as previously observed in particle laden turbulent S-shaped channels, is also apparent in the strongly curved pipe with heavy particles. In addition, depending on the curvature, the central regions of the mean Dean vortices appear to be completely depleted of particles, as observed also in the largely re-laminarised region at the inner bend. The current data-set will be useful for modelling particles advected in wall-bounded turbulent flows where the effects of the curvature are not negligible.