International Journal of Multiphase Flow 65 (2014) 143156

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International Journal of Multiphase Flow

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / i j m u l fl o w

Fluid lubrication effects on particle ow and transport in a channel

Ingrid Tomac , Marte Gutierrez
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Coolbaugh 318, 1012 14th St., Golden, CO 80401, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 25 September 2013
Received in revised form 17 April 2014
Accepted 27 April 2014
Available online 27 May 2014
Keywords:
Solid uid coupling
DEMCFD
Lubrication
Non-linear particles contact
Agglomeration

a b s t r a c t
The study presented in this paper investigates the effects of uid lubrication on solid particles ow and
transport in slurries at high solids concentrations. Particleparticle and particlewall collisions inuence
the behavior of slurries constrained between two parallel walls thereby affecting solids transport and the
uid ow eld. As the concentration of the particles increases, collisions become more frequent compared to the dilute ow, and their effect on the ow eld cannot be neglected. Particularly, lubrication
from a thin uid layer formed between approaching particles acts as non-linear damper affecting particle
kinetic energy and post-collision behaviors. The Discrete Element Method coupled with Computational
Fluid Dynamics (DEMCFD), with a new user-dened contact model that accounts for particle lubrication
and as implemented in the commercially available two-dimensional Particle Flow Code (PFC2D), was used
to improve the understanding of the micro-mechanical behavior that contributes to particle clogging in a
channel. It was found that the balance of uid drag, related to the pressure drop in the channel and slurry
properties such as uid viscosity, particles volumetric concentration, particles size and channel size substantially contribute to the particle agglomeration even without considering gravity.
Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Transport of solid particles mixed with uid in narrow pipes
and channels has been studied in the past within the scope of various industrial applications. Examples are the behavior of uidized
beds, sediment transport, proppant ow and transport in hydraulic
fracturing, and pipe conveyance of grains (Hu, 1996; Kajishima and
Takiguchi, 2002; Kobayashi et al., 2002; Li et al., 2013; Pan and
Banerjee, 1997; Tsuji, 2000; Tsuji et al., 1993; Xu and Yu, 1997;
Yu and Xu, 2003). Pipe conveyance of grains and uidized bed
behavior is associated mainly with gas ow, while proppant ow
and transport in hydraulic fractures, or mud ow, is associated
with viscous and dense Newtonian or non-Newtonian uids. Slurry
ow and transport in pipes exhibit a range of recognized ow
regimes which have already been classied in the literature. Examples include fully suspended ow with more or less evenly distributed particles over a pipes cross section, particles forming dunes,
stationary beds, and plug ow (Molerus, 1981). Parameters such
as ow stability, critical velocity, chocking velocity (Klinzing
et al., 1987), and saltation velocity (Hong et al., 1995) are used
for the prediction of the ow regimes in horizontal and vertical
pipes and channels (Fan and Zhu, 2005; Hewitt, 1978). The effects

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 3038035781.

E-mail address: itomac@mines.edu (I. Tomac).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseow.2014.04.007
0301-9322/Published by Elsevier Ltd.

of particle-to-particle interaction forces on the uidsolid coupling

and ow eld depend on the frequency of particle collisions
(Crowe et al., 2011). Based on the nature of particleparticle interactions, Tsuji (2007) classied the soliduid ow in several categories, namely collision-free ow, collision-dominated ow, and
contact-dominated ow (Fig. 1).
Models for studying soliduid slurry ows range from micro to
macroscales. At the micro-scale, uid and particle interactions can
be modeled with Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) that traces
the trajectories of individual particles in the ow eld. On the
other hand, at the meso- and macro-scale, continuum models, with
local averaging of the solid phase, are used. For the dilute phase
transport of particles, the uidsolid coupling is practically collision free, so micro-scale modeling is not necessary. Qualitative
and quantitative theories for estimating whether the particleuid
coupling is dilute or dense is given in the literature (Crowe et al.,
2011). The prediction of the slurry particleuid coupling is based
on the comparison between the average response time of particles
to the uid drag and particle collisions. In the dilute ow regime,
particles do not collide frequently and their motion is dominated
by uid drag forces. On the other hand, when the elapsed time
between particle collisions decreases because of their small distances at high particle concentrations, particle collisions signicantly impact the slurry ow eld. To conclude, for collision and
contact dominated ow, both particle and uid motions and their
interactions need to be modeled accurately to account for effect of

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Fig. 1. Scale based uid-particle models with applications examples, Direct

Numerical Simulation (DNS), EulerianEulerian (EE) and LagrangianEulerian
(LE) approach (Tsuji, 2007).

particle collisions. Better understanding of the micromechanics

related to dense-phase viscous uidsolid ow is important for
both remediation of undesirable ow phenomena related to segregation of slurries and enhancing slurry ow.
The research presented in this paper uses the Discrete Element
Method coupled with Computational Fluid Dynamics (DEMCFD)
to investigate dense collision-dominated ow of solid granular particles submerged in viscous uid from the micro-scale perspective.
The effects of lubrication on particle collisions in DEM has been
shown to exert important effects on post-collision particle behavior (Jen and Tsao, 1980; Joseph and Hunt, 2004; Joseph et al., 2001;
Lian et al., 1998; Mazzone et al., 1987; Thornton and Yin, 1991;
Yang and Hunt, 2006; Zhang et al., 2005). The liquid bridge force,
similar to lubrication, was modeled in DEM for studying the behavior of wet particles agglomerates (Lian et al., 1993, 1998; Thornton
and Yin, 1991), but the model was not coupled for multi-phase
ow. A new user-dened particle contact model in DEM is developed for modeling lubrication effects on particleparticle and particlewall collisions and implemented in the commercially
available two-dimensional Particle Flow Code (PFC2D) developed
by Itasca Consulting Group (2004). Generally, DEMCFD uses the
simple dry particle collision model with combinations of Kelvin
Voigt springs and dashpots for the normal and tangential components of the particle-to-particle contact force (Cundall and Strack,
1979). Unlike in gas, particle collisions in viscous uids cannot
be realistically modeled using a simple dry particle contact model
(Zhang et al., 2005). In physical system, kinetic energy of fully
submerged particles is dissipated by viscous uid during their collisions, which affects the post-collision particle trajectory in a
non-linear way. The new user-dened particle contact model in
DEM models the energy dissipation effect as a thin uid layer
between approaching particles. Davis et al. (1986) have investigated the behavior single particleparticle and particlewall collisions in viscous Newtonian uid (Barnocky and Davis, 1988; Davis
et al., 1986). The proposed user-dened contact model uses the
Davis et al. (1986) theoretical formulation, and combines the uid

lubrication damping effect with the elastic rebound contact model.

Davis et al. (1986) model was experimentally veried by Zeng et al.
(1996) for a falling sphere with a neutrally buoyant sphere model
(Zeng et al., 1996). The comparisons between numerical and experimental work of lubricated particle collisions revealed the importance of liquid interstitial effects on the particle collisions in
viscous uids (Zhang et al., 1999). Contact lubrication depends
on particle sizes, approaching velocity, distance between particles
and uid dynamic viscosity. As a result, the modied CFDDEM
code is able to capture the dependence of particle-interaction
forces on uid properties. The focus of this research is on modeling
dense-phase granular particle ow and transport between parallel
walls without considering gravity, because gravity causes particle
settling and, therefore, enhances aggregation of particles in the
channel. In order to better understand and isolate the micromechanics of lubrication effects on particle aggregation, gravity is
switched off in the model. However, the proposed model can also
be used in situations where gravity is important, simply by switching the gravity back on in DEMCFD. The effects of uid lubrication
on primary parameters of uidsolid transport in a narrow channel, such as pressure drop, particle concentration and uid properties, are evaluated. Pressurevelocity curves of the particleuid
ow, represented by a plot of the pressure drop against the supercial uid velocity in the loglog scale, are used to study the ow
regime for different parameter combinations. The importance of
uid lubrication in a dense-phase uid-particle coupled ow is
studied with respect to parameters including the pressure drop
in the channel, the particle volumetric concentration, the uid
viscosity, and the particle diameter and channel width ratio.
Results of this study are envisioned to contribute to the understanding of particle ow motion and transport in uid, considering
the lubrication of particle collisions.
2. Methodology
In multiphase uid ow, two or more materials or uid phases
ow together as a mixture, while the phases are mutually interacting at some extent. Multiphase ows are in general dened
through momentum, mass and energy phase coupling (Crowe
et al., 2011). The model in this paper uses momentum coupling,
while mass and energy coupling are not the main focus of the
study. Mass coupling can naturally be neglected for rigid particleuid ow and transport because it refers to the addition of
mass through evaporation or the removal of mass from the carrier
stream by condensation. Energy coupling occurs as a heat transfer
between particles and uid, and can be involved in modeling the
uidsolid interactions but is not considered in this work either.
Based on the character of phase interactions, multiphase ow can
be further described and analyzed either by neglecting phase interactions and assuming one-way coupling, or taking into account
mutual phase mass, momentum and inuences and to model the
ow as a two-way coupled processes.
2.1. DEMCFD coupling in PFC2D
Fluid ow modeling, uid and granular phase coupling scheme
and particleparticle (particlewall) interaction modeling is
described in this section. Fluid ow is modeled in PFC2D (Cundall,
2004) using CFD based on modied NavierStokes equations. The
CFD model adds the effect of a particulate solid phase mixed into
uid, where the particle radius is small compared to the length
of a single uid cell. A SIMPLE uid coupling scheme (Patankar,
1980) for incompressible laminar viscous ow is applied to uid
cells within a xed rectangular geometry. Boundary conditions
that are applied on the computational uid grid are average

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constant uid pressure, or velocities in the x and y directions. The

code-specic slip and non-slip boundary conditions can be chosen
for modeling uid interactions with a physical constraint. For contact with a wall, slip boundary conditions for the uid ow eld are
dened with a zero velocity normal and unconstrained velocity
tangential to the wall. Non-slip boundary conditions are dened
with both zero normal and tangential velocities to the boundary.
At the channel entrance and exit boundaries, uid cells have prescribed inlet and outlet normal velocities or pressures. Fig. 2 shows
an example of the DEM-CFD coupling scheme for a 2-mm wide
channel that is discretised with xed uid cells, and with monodisperse particles 0.5 mm in diameter that are transported along the
channel. Fluid ows from left to right across a grid of two rows
of cells over the channel width, and boundary cells are modeled
outside the ow region. At the contacts with the upper and the
lower walls, the non-slip uid boundary condition is applied, and
at the entrance and exit cells (i.e., left and right walls, respectively)
the pressures are xed to prescribed inlet and outlet pressures. The
boundary conditions for the particle phase are represented with
horizontal upper and lower channel wall, and at the channel
entrance particles have zero initial velocity.
The uid ow eld model uses a modied numerical scheme of
the NavierStokess equations. The effect of solid phase on uid
ow is modeled in a simplied manner using average quantities
over many particles, instead of modeling the individual uid ow
around the particles. The effects of solids are introduced to the
numerical scheme of the NavierStokess equations in terms of volumetric porosity and coupling force (Bouillard et al., 1989). For volumetric porosities e < 0.8 the following equation is used in PFC2D:

@e~
v
qf
qf ~
v  re~
v erp lr2 e~
v ~f b
@t
@e
re~
v 0
@t

where qf is the density of the uid, ~

v is the uid velocity, t is the
time, q is the particle density, r is the del operator indicating the
partial spatial derivative operator (with respect to x and y directions
in two-dimensional space), fb is the particle body force per unit volume, p is the uid pressure, and l is the uid dynamic viscosity. The
uid velocity can be observed in these equations as the interstitial
velocity ~
v and the macroscopic Darcy velocity dened as the quantity e~
v . The interstitial velocity is the actual velocity that a parcel of
uid has as it moves through the pore space. The macroscopic
velocity is the volumetric ow rate per unit cross-sectional area,
being a non-physical velocity since it assumes that the ow occurs
across the entire cross-sectional area, where ow actually only
occurs in the pore space. Eq. (1) gives the uid momentum equation
with included effects of varying porosity, and Eq. (2) is the conservation of mass (continuity) equation for an incompressible uid in a
porous medium. It can be seen that both time and space derivatives
of porosity are present in the formulation. Fluid and particle interaction in PFC2D is two-way coupled, because forces are applied from
the uid to the particles and vice versa. The use of such a model follows recommendations for modeling dense phase ows with particle volumetric concentration higher than cv = 0.1 (Crowe et al.,

2011). The interaction between particles and uid is modeled

taking into account both the average particle forces on uid and
the average uid force on the particles for each computational uid
cell. The drag force applied by particles to uid in each uid element
is dened as:

~
f b b~
vs

f b is the drag force per unit volume, b is a coefcient and ~

where ~
v s is
the average relative or slip velocity between the particles and the
uid, dened as:

~
v s ~u  ~
v

u is the average velocity of all particles in a given uid

where ~
element and ~
v is the uid velocity. Different expressions for the
coefcient b are given for volumetric porosities higher and lower
than 0.8 (Bouillard et al., 1989):

1  e
~
b 
1501  el 1:75qf dj
v s j;
d2 e2
b

v s jqf 1  e
4 j~
Cd
;
 1:7
3
de

e < 0:8

e P 0:8

 is the average diameter of the particles occurring in the

where d
element, and Cd is the turbulent drag coefcient dened in terms
of particle Reynolds number Rep:


8 
0:687
>
< 24 1 0:15Rep
;
Cd
Rep
>
:
0:44; Rep > 1000

Rep

Rep < 1000

j~
v s jqf ed

f b has unit of force per unit volume, and is

The body force term ~
applied to each particle proportional to the volume of each particle.
The drag force applied to each individual discrete particle ~
f drag is:

~
fb
4
~
f drag pr 3
3
1  e

where r is the particle radius. The particle motion in the uid is then
integrated over time according to the default PFC2D scheme, where
contact forces may be added. The uid-particle coupling is inactive
for rotational velocities which are not transferred from uid to
particles because the uid-induced force is always applied at the
particle center of mass. The rotational particle motion is only governed by mechanical particle interactions and contact friction. In
order to assure that the results were not dependent on simulation
or material properties, we kept the channel length relatively large
compared to the channel width, and we included only velocity
results after the ow stabilized. In the beginning of the simulations,
there is an unstable ow area at the entrance of the channel when
the uid velocity rises from zero until some constant value caused
by the pressure drop between channel entrance and exit. CFD mesh
size is taken as small as possible in order to enable the code to work,

Fig. 2. Illustration of the CFDDEM coupling in PFC2D for monodisperse 0.5 mm in diameter, spherical particles owing with a uid in a 2 mm wide channel.

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as generally recommended, so that at least couple of particles t

into the CFD mesh.
2.2. Lubrication force
Submerged particleparticle and particlewall collision model
is developed for PFC2D. Lubrication force is introduced in a new
user-dened contact model using the elasto-hydrodynamic theory.
The elasto-hydrodynamic deformation of a solid elastic sphere
which is immersed in a viscous uid and in close motion toward
another sphere (or a plane solid surface) is modeled using the theoretical two-particle collision model (Davis et al., 1986). The model
is based on the criteria for predicting whether two solid particles
will stick together or rebound from each other subsequent to
impact while immersed in a uid. Lubrication force is derived from
the NavierStokes equations for continuous uid layer between
particles and small elastic deformation (Davis et al., 1986):

Ft

6plr 2 v
a

10

where F(t) is the particle contact force, l is the uid dynamic viscosity, r is the particle radius, v is the relative velocity of two approaching particles, and a is the distance between particle surfaces. The
lubrication force is introduced to PFC2D for the normal component
of contact force as particles approach each other at small distance
using the apparent radius of the area around the particle for contact
activation (Fig. 3). In the PFC2D implementation, the same model is
used for the particleparticle and the particlewall collisions.
The apparent particle radius rap, which is 510% larger than the
real particle radius serves for contact detection. The lubrication
force acts upon contact when it is activated as dened in
Eqs. (11)(13) which represent the new particle contact law. The
elastic rebound depends on the overlap of two particles. If particles
are in contact, i.e. when the distance between particles centers, rij
is larger than 2rc, where rc is the is the real particle radius, then the
lubrication force is added to particle equation of motion. For this
contact logic to work properly, computational time step must be
sufciently small. The particle contact behavior evolution needs
to be modeled over at least several time steps. The lubrication force
magnitude depends both on the approaching velocity and the
distance between particle surfaces. During the time stepping, if
the particles are close enough that they overlap with their real
radii, then the elastic rebound and the friction are activated. The
contact force logic can be written here as:

r ij r i r j  aij

11

if rij P 2rc = dcr

F c 6plr 2c

v ij
xij

klub

v ij
r ij  2r c

12

if rij < 2rc = dcr

Fig. 3. Scheme of the apparent (rap) and real (rc) radii and the approaching distance
rij.

F c k2r c  r ij cv ij

13

where Fc is the contact force, aij is the overlap of the particles, rij is
the distance between centers of the particles that are in contact, rc is
the real particle radius, dcr is the critical distance between particles
centers at which the elastic contact behavior activates (dcr = 2rc), k
is the spring stiffness, c is the dashpot constant, vij is the relative
velocity of two contacting particles, m is the particle mass, l is
the uid dynamic viscosity, and klub is the lubrication constant.
The particle rebound can be elastic (only k) or it can have some
damping included (k and c), but this is only the behavior that occurs
upon the collision of the particles.
The tangential component of the particle contact force in this
model is simplied as for the dry collision. The slip behavior is
dened by the friction coefcient at the contact using the Coulomb
friction force. Joseph and Hunt (2004) concluded that tangential
component at the particle contact is similar to dry system, but with
a lowered friction coefcient due to the lubrication effects. However, for collisions of rough particles at increasing tangential Stokes
number, the friction coefcient rose to a value that approximates
the dry friction coefcient (Joseph and Hunt, 2004). The coefcient
of restitution for particlewall collision is used to validate the
lubrication model. In order to measure the coefcient of restitution, a particle is dropped in uid on a smooth horizontal wall from
an initial height (h1), and the rebound high (h2) that particle
reaches after impact is measured. The coefcient of restitution er
is dened as:

v 2 p
2gh2

er

v1
2gh1

s
h2
h1

14

where v2 is the velocity of particle after the impact with wall and v1
is the velocity of the particle before the impact with the horizontal
wall, and g is the gravitational acceleration. Yang and Hunt (2006)
investigated experimentally particleparticle immersed collision
behavior, and they concluded that the correlation between coefcient of restitution and Stokes number can also be applied to particlewall collision (Yang and Hunt, 2006). The singe-particle and
wall collision immersed Stokes number is dened as:

St

mv 1
6plr 2

15

where m is the particle mass, l is the uid dynamic viscosity, v1 is

particle approaching velocity and r is particle radius. Stokes number
represents the relation between particle inertia forces and uid
forces, where the numerator provides the measure of the available
momentum in the solid phase that sustains the particle motion
through liquid. The immersed particle collision model is based on
experimental results on steel and glass spheres particle-to-particle
collisions obtained by Barnocky and Davis (1988). The motion of
particles after collision is divided into normal and tangential components, but only the normal component is used in the validation.
Fig. 4 shows the non-linear curves of the coefcient of restitution
vs. Stokes number for a range of uid viscosity values. The results
obtained from PFC2D are compared with the results of numerical
study of surface roughness effect on collisions in gas by Zhang
et al. (2005) at hmin/h0 = 1/5, hmin/h0 = 1/10 and hmin/h0 = 1/20,
where hmin is surface asperity height due to roughness and h0 is particle radius. Zhang et al. (2005) studied the applicability of lubrication for gassolid systems using modied numerical solution for a
single particlewall collision. Our model compares to the gassolid
lubrication and when the offset regarding different surface roughness is relatively small. However, the surface roughness has not
yet been directly introduced to the PFC2D model, and this aspect
of modeling will be investigated in the future. The only discrepancy
is in the critical Stokes number at which the particle does not
rebound back from the horizontal surface and the coefcient of

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147

steady-state value. Fluid and particle velocities were monitored

during the simulations and averaged over the control volume that
is represented with 10 uid cells in the horizontal direction and
over the complete channel width.
An expression for average uid velocity between two parallel
plates is the classical solution derived from the NavierStokes
equations and boundary conditions. It describes the laminar ow
of incompressible uid (Fig. 5). Considering Newtonian uid owing laterally through a narrow slit (e.g., a fracture), the pressure
drop Dpnet along the length Dx of the channel is given by the parallel plate law:

Fig. 4. PFC results using the user-dened immersed contact model of wall and sand
particle (r = 0.3 mm) after theory developed by Davis et al. (1986).

restitution is zero. The modied PFC2D model with the lubrication

model give a critical Stokes number is smaller than experimentally
obtained by Yang and Hunt (2006) and Joseph et al. (2001), as seen
in Fig. 4. The discrepancy was investigated in previous research, and
it was found to be due to the elastic properties and asperity interactions of the spheres (Joseph and Hunt, 2004; Joseph et al., 2001;
Zhang et al., 2005). These were not accounted for in the implementation of the lubrication model in PFC2D.
3. Results and discussions
By its implementation in PFC2D, the model described above for
the two-sphere collision can be used to simulate systems of multiple particle collisions. The elasto-hydrodynamic model is a step
forward from the default DEM, which uses KelvinVoigt springdashpot contact model, because it introduces the contact criteria
for stick or elastic rebound of two spheres at their contact based
on the surrounding uid properties, rather than only damped elastic rebound. In a multi-particle system, if the lubrication force sufciently decreases the particle velocities when they approach each
other, the particles may stick together and get trapped in the uid
and start to agglomerate into clumps.
Coupled particle and uid ow is investigated in 2 and 4 mm
wide channels with uniform sand particles with a diameter of
0.5 mm. Table 1 lists physical and mechanical model parameters.
Particles with volumetric concentrations from cv = 0.070.39 are
transported through a 0.5 m length of the channel using a constant
pressure difference in the inlet (left) and outlet (right) boundaries.
Initially, both particles and uid in the channel have zero velocity.
Using PFC2D, it is possible to trace the motion of each particle and
uid over the xed grid. After a certain amount of time has passed
in the simulation, the ow stabilizes and the velocities reach

Table 1
Particle and model properties.
Property

Symbol

Unit

Value

Particle real radius

Particle apparent radius
Particle density
Particle surface friction coefcient
Elastic contact spring stiffness
Viscous damping coefcient
Out of plane model dimension
CFD channel length
Wall friction coefcient
Wall normal stiffness
Wall shear stiffness
Fluid density
Fluid dynamic viscosity
Time step

rc
rap

mm
mm
kg/m3

N/m2

mm
m

N/m2
N/m2
kg/m3
Pa s
s

0.25
0.32
2600
0.2
3  103
0
0.5
0.5
0.2
15  103
3  103
1000
0.0010.05
107

qp
fp
kp
c
b
L
fw
knw
ksw

qf
l
Dt

Dpnet 12lq

Dx
Lw3

16

where l is the uid dynamic viscosity, q is the ow rate, L is the

fracture length and w is the aperture of the channel. The parallel
plate law for single phase uid ow without particles will be used
below as an idealization of, and as a basis of comparison for the ow
of mixtures of particles in uids in a narrow channel.
3.1. Effect of pressure on particle ow and transport
Particle ow and transport with different concentrations in
uid under the prescribed pressure difference at the two ends of
a channel would ideally be linearly varying along the channel.
For dilute ows, where particle concentrations are low, it is
assumed that the pressure gradient in the channel yields linear
velocity distribution along the channel length, and transport of solids can be predicted from the ow data and initial conditions.
PFC2D simulations of dense particle transport taking into account
the particles interactions show a different trend. Fig. 6 shows the
results of uid-particle coupled ow in the 4 mm wide channel.
Four plots show the results of the average slip velocity (the difference between particle and uid velocity as dened in Eq. (5))
dependence on different values of pressure drop in the channel
grouped with the same volumetric particle concentrations. The
plots contains simulation results over a range of channel pressure
drop values and different uid viscosities.
For stable ows, the slip velocity is expected to be related to the
boundary pressure conditions at the entrance to the channel. That
would imply that it is possible to predict the particle transport
velocities across the channel by controlling the inlet pressure.
However, results of this study reveal that the particle transport
velocities cannot be predicted uniquely for different pressure rates
while keeping uid properties and solids characteristics constant.
The reason for this is the lubrication effect on particle collisions
and particles agglomeration that happens at higher concentrations
and viscosites, and lower pressures. At low particle concentrations,
the dependency of slip velocity on the pressure difference along
the channel can be described with power-low relationship, as
can be seen in the Fig. 6a and b. As the particle concentration
increases, the deviation from power-law relationship becomes
more pronounced, as can be seen in Fig. 6c and d.


Fig. 5. Parallel plate ow, where qi is the ow rate in each wing, q is the ow rate, v
is the average uid velocity, hf is the fracture height, and w is the fracture width.

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Fig. 6. Pressure drop vs. average slip velocity for particles in 4 mm wide channel.

Figs. 7 and 8 show average uid and particle velocities with

varying channel pressure difference in the entire channel, viscosity
and particle concentration. Comparing the uid velocities (Fig. 7)
with particle velocities (Fig. 8), differences can be seen how the
solid and uid phases respond to ow eld. As can be seen in the
slopes of the different plots in the two gures, the uid shows

more uniform response while particle velocities show larger scatter and unpredictability. For higher particle concentrations, uid
viscosity and low pressure strongly enhance the slowing down of
particles.
Dynamic equilibrium of the phases is achieved when particles
and uid have the same velocity (Crowe et al., 2011) and the Stokes

Fig. 7. Pressure drop vs. average uid velocity in 4 mm wide channel.

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149

Fig. 8. Pressure drop vs. average particle velocity in 4 mm wide channel.

number approaches zero. In such a situation, the mixture can be

regarded as the ow of a single phase with modied properties.
Lubrication force contributes to a difference between particle and
surrounding uid velocities, and therefore decreases the possibility
for dynamic equilibrium. It can be seen that for a given combination of uid and particles parameters in this study, dynamic equilibrium rarely occurs. As a result, this study suggests that it would
not be possible to model such slurry with a single phase ow eld.
From Figs. 68, it can be seen that the increase in pressure adds to
the increase in the slip velocity between particles and uid, and the
effect of the uid viscosity on the solids transport loses its importance. To conclude, at lower pressures, lubrication force dominates
in the ow and affects negatively the solids transport. On the contrary, at higher pressures uid drag dominates the slurry ow and
particle transport is easier.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the cumulative loglog plots of uid and
particle average velocities from Figs. 7 and 8 for a 4 mm wide
channel. The plots are created in a way that all the data shown

Fig. 9. Pressure drop vs. average uid velocities in the 4 mm wide channel, cv is the
initial particle volumetric concentration.

Fig. 10. Pressure drop vs. average particles velocities in the 4 mm wide channel, cv
is the initial particle volumetric concentration.

Figs. 7ad and 8ad are re-grouped, and points of same uid viscosity over different particle initial concentrations are shown
together. Dashed lines are then created that represent a margin
around the group, and the internal points are removed from the
plot for better clarity. The aim of plotting data in this way is to
see if power-law relationship exists between resulting uid and
particle velocities and the channel pressure drop that causes slurry
motion along the channel as a function of constant uid viscosity
and initial particle concentration. The uid and particle velocities
uctuate from the power-law as uid viscosity increases. As a
result, inter-particle collisions dominate particle ow and transport and increase the slip velocity. Fluid velocities (Fig. 9) have
smaller sensitivities than particle velocities (Fig. 10) to the increase
of uid viscosity. Higher uid viscosities are related with large
scatter (Fig. 10) of particles velocities, which also indicates the
importance of uid lubrication directly on particle motion.
Figs. 11 and 12 show the cumulative plots of ow simulations
for a 2 mm wide channel. There is a consistency in pressure drop

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Fig. 11. Pressure drop vs. average uid velocities in the 2 mm wide channel, cv is
the initial particle volumetric concentration.

the high concentrations. In Fig. 12, the ow velocity curves at

observed particle concentrations also do not have the same slopes.
Finally, ow irregularities are more pronounced at higher particle
concentrations. It is observed in the simulations that the narrow
channel clogged more abruptly and suddenly due to the buildup
of particle agglomerates than in the 4 mm wide channel.
Fig. 13 illustrates the effect of pressure on agglomeration when
particle volumetric concentrations are high in the 4 mm wide
channel. Affected by lubrication, inelastic collisions cause particle
agglomeration in the absence of the sufcient uid drag. These
concentrations represent the borderline value and further attempts
in simulating higher particles concentrations failed. Plots A, B and
C show ow at the highest channel pressures examined in this
study. Particles are transported through the channel while at low
pressures they tend to agglomerate more disrupting the particle
ow and transport (plots D, E and F). In the extreme case of very
high uid viscosity and low pressure (plot F), particles clog the
channel at the beginning of the simulation. Lubrication and damping of particle collisions are proportional to uid viscosity (Eq.
(11)). These plots clearly indicate that at higher pressures, uid
drag dominates over particle collisions and they can be transported
through the channel, while at low pressures particles choke the
channel.

3.2. Effect of volumetric particle concentration on particle ow and

transport

Fig. 12. Pressure drop vs. average particles velocities in the 2 mm wide channel, cv
is the initial particle volumetric concentration.

for all the simulations for 4 mm and 2 mm wide channels. However, many simulations in 2 mm channel showed particle channel
clogging instead of steady ow, and we ended up with less data
points. For example, in uids with higher viscosities than water,
it was not possible to establish a consistent pattern for particle
ow and transport at the volumetric concentrations higher than
cv = 0.14. Therefore, instead of plotting only the margins the area
where the data points are (as in Figs. 9 and 10), all the data points
are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. In Fig. 11, the average uid velocity
curves do not have the same slopes at the different concentrations,
and their distances from each other are different for the low and

Fig. 14 shows the effects of the initial particle concentrations on

the solid transport between parallel walls. The graphs on the left
side in Fig. 14 show the average uid velocity vs. initial particle
volumetric concentrations and on the right side the average particles velocities. Observations from the model are separately shown
for different uid viscosities to obtain a better clarity of the presented results. The hypothesis that an increase in particle concentrations enhances the number of collision events can be explained
using Fig. 14 and subsequent gures. Average uid velocity is larger than average particle velocity at all observed particle concentrations and uid viscosities in Fig. 14. At the same time, it can
be seen in Fig. 14 that both uid and particle velocities decrease
with concentration increase. As the frequency of particle collisions
in uid increases, the viscous uid lubrication damps particle collisions. Because of the high uid viscosity, lubrication effect is

Fig. 13. Effect of pressure and uid viscosity on particle agglomeration in 4 mm channel.

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dominant and particles do not rebound. As a result, the particles

agglomerate in uid and are further transported in a trapped form
adjacent to each other forming a clump.
For low viscosity uid in both 2 mm and 4 mm wide channels,
the general trend is an increase in particle concentration results
in systematic decrease of both uid and particles velocities. This
trend is also theoretically observed and elaborated by Ishii and
Zuber (1979). The velocity decrease is observed for any uid pressure rate drop (Fig. 14a and b). On the other hand, as the carrying

151

uid dynamic viscosity increases, it can be seen that the particle

concentration increase does not completely agree with the trend
of velocities decrease. More particularly, at a lower channel pressure drop and for medium uid dynamic viscosity, uid and particle velocities are similar for any particle concentrations as can be
seen in Fig. 14c and d for Dp/L < 2000 Pa/m, and in Fig. 14e and f
for Dp/L < 10,000 Pa/m.
Fig. 14g and h shows results of particle and uid ow and
transport in a relatively high uid viscosity of l = 0.050 Pa s. Two

Fig. 14. Average uid and particle velocities vs. the initial particle volumetric concentrations the 4 mm wide channel.

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Fig. 15. Fluid and particles average velocities and theoretical uid velocity ratio in a 4 mm wide channel.

phenomena can be observed in these plots that are important for

the understanding of the effects of the uid lubrication on particles
collisions in the ow. First, particle concentrations played negligible role for velocities, and uid and particles seem to have similar
or constant velocities at any particle concentrations. Second, the
low channel pressure drops were not even enough to induce

particle transport before large clumps have been formed and have
stopped the ow of the solids. To conclude, particle concentration
is not the only parameter that accounts for the decrease in uid
and solids velocity, but the lubrication and particles collisions
may prevail at certain conditions obstructing the ow and clogging
of the channel. The maximum packing parameter for solid particle

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Fig. 16. Fluid and particles average velocities vs. particle volumetric concentrations in 2 mm wide channel.

Fig. 17. Fluid and particles average velocities and theoretical uid velocity ratio vs. particle volumetric concentrations in 2 mm wide channel.

153

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Fig. 18. Fluid and particles velocities vs. uid dynamic viscosity in 4 mm wide channel.

systems before clogging occurs depends on the uid dynamic viscosity and the channel pressure drop (drag force), and might be
less than cv,max = 0.3 as observed in this simulations.
Fig. 15 shows the dependency of the average uid and particles
velocities from performed simulations, which were divided with
the theoretical value of the parallel plate velocity solution for the
viscous uid eld in the channel (Eq. (16)), vs. particle volumetric
concentrations. Because the velocities are here shown as divided
with the corresponding parallel plate solution of the uid ow
without the particles for each viscosity and pressure drop case,
the ow disturbances caused by the particles agglomerations are
easier to see. For example, when the particles form a clump while
owing in the channel, the uid velocity locally increases around
the clump due to narrowing of the available ow path. This effect
of agglomeration does not exist in water (l = 0.01 Pa s), but at the
higher viscosity uid l = 0.010 Pa s it is detected for the small pressure drop (Dp/L = 200 Pa/m), and for the medium pressure drop at

the Dp/L = 200 Pa/m and the cv = 0.39. For the l = 0.025 Pa s the
uid ow around clumps is more pronounced, and occurs already
at the Dp/L = 2000 Pa/m and the cv = 0.28, and for the Dp/
L = 10,000 Pa/m and the cv = 0.39. For example, in Fig. 15c uid
velocity seems higher with the increase of the particle volumetric
concentration at the Dp/L = 2000 Pa/m, but this only indicates that
uid was forced to ow through the narrower channel around the
particles clump. By comparing the plots at the left graph (uid
velocities) and the right graph (particles velocities), it can be seen
that when the uid velocity increases the particles velocity
decreases at the same time. The high uid viscosity (l = 0.050 Pa s)
shows an inconsistent particle ow and transport behavior with
respect to the particle concentrations.
Figs. 16 and 17 show the results of the study of the effect of the
particle concentrations on uid and the particle velocities in the
2 mm wide channel. Both plots, shown in Figs. 16 and 17, indicate
a decrease in velocities with the particle volumetric concentrations

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155

Fig. 19. Particles ow and transport in viscous uids (l = 0.001 Pa s), w = 2 mm, cv = 0.56, DP/L = 10,000 N/m0 : (a) From the model with spring contact model, l = 0.001 Pa s.
(b) From the model with spring contact model, l = 0.01 Pa s. (c) From the model with spring contact model, l = 0.1 Pa s. (d) from the model with lubrication force,
l = 0.001 Pa s. (e) From the model with lubrication force, l = 0.01 Pa s.

increase. Again, as the uid dynamic viscosity increases, the lubrication effect on the particle collisions increases and some particle
agglomeration is present in the ow. There are a signicantly less
number of the successfully transported particles in the 2 mm wide
channel. It is observed that the clogging of channel occurs more
rapidly and suddenly as the ratio of channel width and particle size
decreases. Unlike in the 4 mm slot, the particle agglomerations in
2 mm slot quickly obstructed the ow without a prior warning.
In terms of the channel drop pressures, the lower pressures combined with the higher viscosities increased the occurrence of the
particles agglomeration and the uid ow around clumps.

DEMCFD model is able to capture the effect of a thin layer of uid

which dissipates particle kinetic energy upon collision. As a result,
lubrication causes particle agglomerations, clumping and channel
clogging. In Fig. 19d uid has viscosity l = 0.001 Pa s and partial
particle agglomeration is already visible. For l = 0.01 Pa s in
Fig. 19e particle agglomerations are critical and after some time
particle transport stops due to channel clogging. Further increase
in uid viscosity causes even faster channel clogging, and the simulations with l = 0.1 Pa s were not even able to be performed.

4. Conclusions
3.3. Effect of uid viscosity on particle transport
Fig. 18 shows plots that clarify the effects of the uid dynamic
viscosity on particle and uid ow and transport. For clarity, the
results are grouped for different channel pressure drops on separate plots. An increase of the uid dynamic viscosity has a signicant importance on the uid and particles velocities at each
pressure level. However, the curves with the lower particles volumetric concentrations show more sensitivity to the viscosity
increase than the higher particles volumetric concentrations. Fluid
viscosity is a parameter in both the uid drag force and in the
lubrication force expressions. Therefore, it affects all the forces that
are responsible for the horizontal particle transport. Plots shown in
Fig. 18 indicate balanced results, namely for all the channel pressure drops increase in the uid viscosity causes decrease in the
uid and particles velocities.
3.4. Comparison with a DEMCFD model without lubrication force
Results presented in this paper show how the uid lubrication
force disturbs ow and transport of uid and solid particles slurry
in a narrow channel, causing particle agglomerations and channel
clogging. In order to present a critical evidence of lubrication force
importance, few samples of classical CFDDEM simulations are
given here and compared with the model with lubrication force.
In the classical DEMCFD code, particle collisions are modeled with
the spring and dashpot representing the behavior of a dry collision.
Fig. 19 shows simulation results in 2 mm wide channel, where the
initial volumetric concentration of particles is relatively high,
cv = 0.56. Fluid viscosities that were used are l = 0.001, 0.01 and
0.1 Pa s with the pressure drop in the channel DP/L = 10,000 Pa/m.
Fig. 19ac plots are snapshots from the classical DEMCFD simulations for three different uid viscosities, where (a) has
l = 0.001 Pa s, (b) has l = 0.01 Pa s and (c) has l = 0.1 Pa s. All three
simulations were successful, because the channel did not clog and
particles are transported in regular and stable assembly along the
channel. On the contrary, when lubrication force is introduced, in

This study investigated the effects of lubrication on particle collisions in viscous uid on solids transport in a narrow channel. The
contact lubrication theory developed by (Davis et al., 1986) was
incorporated in the DEMCFD computer program PFC2D as a
user-dened particle contact model. The improved DEMCFD
scheme revealed the effects of uid lubrication using a number
of simulations via parametric analyses. Particularly, dense phase
ows were characterized with frequent particle collisions that
obstruct solids transport along the channel. Two-dimensional discrete element analysis was conducted to better understand effect
of particles collisions. When particles approach each other in a viscous uid, a thin layer of uid between their surfaces dissipated
their kinetic energy. Particles slowed down, and in some cases
stayed adjacent to each other without rebound. This phenomenon
may have ultimately caused particles agglomeration and channel
clogging.
From the micro-mechanical perspective, the motion of an individual particle in uid was determined from forces that act on the
particle at each moment in time. More specically, the particle
trajectories were derived here from uid drag forces and particleparticle or particlewall collisions forces because only ow
without gravitational acceleration was modeled. Fluid drag exerted
forward motion of a particle toward the lower uid pressure
region. Particles collisions exhibited a non-linear behavior nature
that lead to particles rebound or clumping.
Results of the presented simulations indicated that, due to
increase non-linear particle collisions, pressure drops in a narrow
channel alone cannot be used to predict particle ow and transport. Agglomeration was more likely to occur at higher particle volumetric concentrations combined with lower pressures and
smaller uid drag. Particularly, the use of high viscosity uids
increased the effect of lubrication, and particles were transported
successfully only if there was enough uid drag available in the
system.
Comparing the results from 2 mm and 4 mm wide channels that
are 0.5 m long with uniform 0.5 mm diameter particles, it was

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concluded that the width of the channel vs. particles diameter ratio
played a signicant role for particles transport. In uid with higher
viscosity, in the 2 mm channel, maximum packing or the maximum particle volumetric concentration was signicantly lower
(cv,max = 0.14) than in the 4 mm channel, where no clogging was
observed at maximum simulated concentrations of (cv,max = 0.39).
When particles started to agglomerate in the 2 mm channel,
they caused abrupt and sudden channel clogging. As a result, most
of the analysis with lower pressure drop rates or higher uid
dynamic viscosities combined with increased particles volumetric
concentrations were stopped once clogging occurred.
Acknowledgments
Financial support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy
under DOE Grant No. DE-FE0002760 is gratefully acknowledged.
The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and
not the DOE.
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