THE LEVICH INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES THE FOLLOWING SEMINAR:

Tuesday, 9/29/98
4:00 PM
Steinman Hall, Room #1M-22
Professor Howard H. Hu
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Mechanical Engineering/Applied Mechanics
"Simulation of Particulate Flows of Newtonian and Viscoelastic Fluids"


ABSTRACT


A numerical method for computing motions of large numbers of in flows of solid-liquid mixtures was developed. In the method the fully coupled motions of liquid and solid are solved using a finite element technique, and solid particles move under the action of the hydrodynamic forces and movements exerted by the suspending fluid. The software uses a finite element technique based on moving unstructured body-fitted grids, and simulates the motion of particles in both Newtonian fluids, governed by the Navier-Stokes equations, and in several popular models of non-Newtonian viscoelastic fluids. The software is able to simulate the motion of thousands of particles in 2-D and around 100 in 3-D domains. The developed numerical package has been used to study the micro-structural effects which produce clusters and anisotropic structures in particulate flows. We have studied the motion of large number solid particles in Newtonian and Oldroyd-B fluid subjected to a pressure gradient. We have also investigated the effect of inertia (finite particle Reynolds number) on the macroscopic properties of a suspension of rigid particles in a Newtonian and an Oldroyd-B fluid. The numerical scheme has also been used to solve practical problems of industrial interest such as particulate flow through an inertial impactor and within a mixer.

BRIEF ACADEMIC/EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: RESEARCH INTERESTS:


Return to Fall, 1998 Seminar Schedule