Direct numerical simulation and analysis of solid body motion in dilute suspensions using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Abstract

Suspensions and their applications are found in many engineering, environmental or medical fields. While the effective rheological behavior is well understood in the framework of non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, contributions in the field of pore-scale fully resolved numerical simulations with non-spherical particles are rare. The motion of single particles immersed in the fluid is still on-going research and depends on hydromechanical forces as well as on solid-solid interactions. Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, a modeling approach for Direct Numerical Simulations of a single-phase fluid containing non-spherically formed solid aggregates is presented. The motion of single particles in dilute suspensions are observed to analyze effects like shear-wall migration or rolling, as seen in experiments. To be able to simulate the behavior of for example fresh concrete or mud flow as realistic as possible, the simulations taking into account a Newtonian as well as a non-Newtonian material model for the carrier fluid.