Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Marshall, Jeffrey

Abstract

The current research seeks to develop a computational model that accurately describes particle dispersion in turbulent ow. Current particle dispersion models do not accurately predict the small-scale clumping of particles in turbulent ow that occurs due to interaction with turbulent eddies. A new stochastic vortex structure (SVS) model was developed and compared with current stochastic Lagrangian models (SLM) for turbulent ows. To examine what characteristics of the uid ow eld that lead to dispersion of particles, a number of non trivial measures were used. A discrete-element model is used to transport particle locations for cases with and without adhesive forces. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are used as a baseline for comparison between the two models. Initial results show that the SVS model matches the spatial structure of the ow eld of DNS reasonably well, while the SLMs do not. Investigation of particle collision rate suggest that while SVS matches the large length scales of ow, it omits the smaller scales of the ow.

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