Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308

www.elsevier.com/locate/ces

Shorter Communication
A discrete particle model for particleuid ow with considerations of
sub-grid structures
Ming Xu a,b , Wei Ge a, , Jinghai Li a,
a Multiphase Reaction Laboratory, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 353, Beijing 100080, China
b Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China

Received 9 September 2006; received in revised form 1 December 2006; accepted 2 December 2006
Available online 13 December 2006

Abstract
The effect of meso-scale structures on the hydrodynamic behaviors of particleuid systems is considered in an EulerianLagrangian model
utilizing the detailed particle distribution information provided by such models. The uid ow is distributed within each computational cell
from pressure balance considerations according to weighted local porosities, rather than by using traditional linear interpolations. The drag on
each particle is then calculated with its local porosity and slip velocity, which shows signicant difference to traditional methods. Simulations
in this model have reproduced multi-scale ow behaviors in better agreement with experimental results, suggesting the validity of the model.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Discrete particle model; Particleuid ow; Sub-grid structure

1. Introduction fundamental and reliable Newtonian mechanics directly (Tsuji

Particleuid two-phase ows are very common in both
natural and industrial processes, which are characterized by
remarkable nonlinear non-equilibrium phenomena and multi-
scale dynamical structures. Traditional two-uid model (TFM),
where both phases are treated as continua, presents the prevail-
ing and, in many engineering applications, the only practical
simulation approach so far (e.g., Anderson and Jackson, 1967;
Gidaspow, 1986; Kuipers et al., 1992). However, as the basis
of the model, the constitutive laws for the solid phase and its
interactions with the uid phase still lack matured theoretical
treatment. Therefore, empiricism has to be introduced in one
way or another, which results in gross uncertainty and poor
generality of the model.
By tracking down the motion of each particle and the inter-
actions between particles, discrete particle modeling (DPM)
seems to be capable of reproducing the continuum behavior,
which is described with constitutive laws in TFM from more
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 82616050.
E-mail addresses: wge@home.ipe.ac.cn (W. Ge), jhli@home.ipe.ac.cn
(J. Li).
0009-2509/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ces.2006.12.008
et al., 1993; Hoomans et al., 1996, Xu and Yu, 1997; Ouyang
and Li, 1999). However, a common deciency of this model
is the incompatibility between the resolutions for the two
phases. As mentioned by Ge and Li (2003), the uid phase
is still calculated on the same scale as in TFM, so the trajec-
tory of any specic particle is actually predicted inaccurately
because of the coupling between the two phases. Moreover,
DPM traditionally calculates the drag on a particle with a
local slip velocity interpolated at the particle position from
values on neighboring grid nodes, which apparently deviates
further from the original meaning of those correlations than
in TFM.
In this shorter communication, we try to demonstrate that, to
some extent, this deciency can be remedied within the frame-
work of DPM by distributing uid ow on the sub-grid scale
in a physically more meaningful way (Ge et al., 2006). The
idea is seeded by the perception that the velocity and posi-
tion of each particle are known in DPM, which has, unfortu-
nately, been overlooked previously. In this way, local particle
conguration, or in other words, the sub-grid ow structure is
taken into account, which introduces multi-scale properties into
DPM.
 M. Xu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308 2303

2. Formulation of the model In this exploratory work, we make the following approxima-
tions to deal with arbitrary porosity distributions:
As in traditional DPM, the uid ow is described by the
NavierStokes equations over the uid occupied volume on the
(1) The porosity gradients at different points in the cell have
grid scale, that is,
similar directions which can be represented by the direction
j(g ) of their summation dened as
+ ( g u) = 0, (1)
jt 
N
 = i , (7)
j(g u)
+ ( g uu) = p Sp ( g ) + g g, i=1
jt where i is the local porosity at the position of particle i,
(2) and N is the total number of particles in the cell.
where Sp is the momentum exchange source term, and g is (2) The ow velocity in the cell can be decomposed into the
the viscous stress tensor. According to Newtons third law of components parallel and perpendicular to , denoted as
motion, Sp can be obtained by summating the drag exerting on u and u , which are distributed in the cell according to
all the particles in the cell, i.e., the elementary processes, respectively.

1 
Sp = Fd . (3) First, each i is calculated by a weighted averaging method
Vcell
which discriminates the inuence of the particles (j) with
For laminar uid ow and solid particles with homogeneous different distances from the considered particle i, similar to
mass distribution, Ge et al. (2006) have proved that this average that used in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) (Lucy,
is exact and the constitutive laws to close this equation set 1977; Gingold and Monaghan, 1977), that is,
remain unchanged.
Accordingly, the external forces acting on each particle is i = 1 ni 16 dp2 (8)

dv in which ni is the weighted local number density of the particle

mp = mp g + F d + Fc , (4) constructed by
dt
where Fc is the collision force between the particle and its 
Ni
 
neighbors. Following Wen and Yu (1966), the drag force Fd is ni = W (ri rj  , h), (9)
given by j =1

where Ni is the number of the neighbors of particle i

Fd = 18 dp2 Cd 2.7 g |u v|(u v). (5)
and

W (r, h) is a normalized kernel function which satises
The local uid velocity at the position of particle i, ui , is tra- 0 W (r, h) 2r dr = 1. For two-dimensional simulations, the
ditionally calculated by bilinear interpolation using the values quintic form introduced by Morris et al. (1997) is taken in this
of four surrounding grid nodes (Hoomans, 2000), that is, work, that is,
W (r, h)
ui
Ai,j ui,j +Ai+1,j ui+1,j +Ai,j +1 ui,j +1 +Ai+1,j +1 ui+1,j +1 (3 r/ h)5 6(2 r/ h)5
=

, +15(1 r/ h)5 , 0 r/ h < 1,
Ai,j + Ai+1,j + Ai,j +1 + Ai+1,j +1 7
= (3 r/ h)5 6(2 r/ h)5 , 1 r/ h < 2,
(6) 478h2

(3 r/ h)5 ,
2 r/ h < 3,
where Ai,j is the area weighting of the node velocity ui,j as 0, r/ h3,
shown in Fig. 1a. However, this approximation results in linear (10)
variations of the ow velocities within a cell, which smoothes where h is a characteristic radius of the neighboring area, or
the effect of sub-grid structures on local slip velocities. the smoothing length. Also with reference to SPH, i in Eq.
In fact, the uid would distribute its velocity according to (7) can be calculated as
the local conguration of the particles with a tendency of min-
imizing the resistance it bears, as have been analyzed in the 1 i
N

so-called energy minimization multi-scale model (EMMS) (Li i = dp2 W (ri rj  , h). (11)
6
and Kwauk, 1994; Li et al., 1988; Ge and Li, 2002). As shown j =1

in Fig. 1b, two elementary processes involved in this distribu- Then, as shown in Fig. 1c the particles are grouped into layers of
tion has been studied (Ge, 1998; Li and Kwauk, 2001): when different phases according to their local porosity (i ), which
the uid ow is parallel to the gradient of porosity (), the reconstructs the simplied sub-grid structure as considered by
supercial uid velocity will be distributed evenly across the our model. The volume fraction of each layer is
cell, and when it is perpendicular to , a non-uniform dis-
nl /(1 l )
tribution develops to ensure the pressure drop balance across fl = , (12)
each ow stream. nl /(1 l )
2304 M. Xu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308

ui,j+1 ui+1,j+1

Ai+1,j Ai,j

i ui

Ai+1,j+1 Ai,j+1
ui,j ui+1,j

c
f l , u l , l f l , u l , l

i
u
u d

ul
u

u
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for determining local uid velocities at the position of each particle.

where nl is the number of particles in each group and l is their and the pressure drop balance expressed as
average local porosity.



Now the uid ow velocity as felt by particle i in layer l p p
can be calculated as (l , ul ) = (l  , ul  ), (15)
L l L l

ui ul = ul + u// , (13)
where l  denotes any another layer. The pressure drop per unit
where ul is the component of the uid ow velocity perpen- length (p/L)l (l , ul ) can be calculated by Wen and Yus
dicular to  in layer l, which should satisfy the continuity correlation as
condition

p 3g 1 l
 (l , ul ) = Cd (ul vl )2 , (16)
fl ul = u (14) L l 4dp 2.7
l
 M. Xu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308
give a te st value of u l for layer l
p
calculate ( ) l accord ing to E q. 16
L
ge t u l ' of all other layers according to Eq. 15
sum up the weighted velocity fl u l
ful l u <
fu fu
No No
Increase u l l l < u l l
Yes
stop
Fig. 2. Flow chart of the iterative process for solving for ui .
where vl is the component of the average particle velocity
perpendicular to  in layer l. The number of layers actually
used in the simulation, which is regulated by the interval of
porosity, presents a compromise between accuracy and compu-
tational cost. Our experience is that the results are not sensitive
to this number when it is greater than 10 in most cells, which,
in our case, corresponds to porosity intervals less than 0.025.
Note that the approximation adopted here only affects the pres-
sure drop balance, or the distribution of u, the motion of each
particle is still predicted by integrating Eqs. (4) and (5) with ui
solved from Eqs. (13)(16).
The iterative process for solving ui is illustrated in the ow
chart of Fig. 2. To speed up this computation, a matrix of
(p/L) under different values of l and |ul vl | are cal-
culated based on Eq. (16), and the ui values are determined by
table-looking and linear interpolation. With these techniques,
the computational cost is roughly tripled as compared with tra-
ditional DPM, which is still acceptable. A version of the dis-
tinct particle model (DEM, Tsuji et al., 1993) developed by
Xu and Yu (1997) is used to calculate particleparticle and
particlewall collisions. And the SIMPLE scheme (Patankar,
1980) is used to solve the equation for the uid ow. As stag-
gered grids are used in this scheme, the two components of the
average gas velocity in a cell is taken as the arithmetic mean
of their values at the two edges of the cell in that direction,
respectively.
3. Results and discussion
Two typical gassolid uidization systems, which display
signicant heterogeneity, are simulated with the sub-grid model
described above, so as to verify its validity and demonstrate
its performance. In both cases, as shown in Fig. 3, a specied
gas velocity is xed at the inlet. For the gas phase, the no-slip
2305
low gas velocity case high gas velocity case
W=0.2m
H=1.2m
H=1m
W=0.04m
> u Decrease u l
0.1m
ug ug
Fig. 3. Sketch of the simulated uidization systems.
boundary condition is applied to the side walls, and zero normal
gradient is assumed at the top exit. In the low velocity case
(a), the particles are initially packed in the bottom of the tube,
whereas in the high velocity case (b) the particles are initially
distributed randomly in the tube. The simulation conditions and
parameters are listed in Table 1.
3.1. Simulation of slugging under low uid ow velocity
Fluidization in a thin tube under low uid ow veloc-
ity, i.e., case (a) in Table 1, is studied rst. Fig. 4a shows
the snapshots of the ow structures computed by traditional
DPM. Initially, the bulk of the particles undergoes a plug
ow, while discrete particles fall apart from the rear of the
bulk continuously, forming a homogeneous tail behind. As
the leading plug gets shorter, the falling particles eventually
stack on the distributor again and give rise to a new plug. For
this simulation, the leading plug has nally exceeded the bed
top.
Snapshots in Fig. 4b show the corresponding results from
our revised DPM. In the start-up process, particles move up as
a plug and blocks of particles break away from the rear of the
slug intermittently. The particles aggregate when falling down
because of different velocities or encountering particles owing
upward, and multi-plugs form thereby, which exhibit stronger
resistance to the gas phase, result in the lower maximum height
of slugging.
For comparison, experiments under identical condi-
tions are carried. A slugging pattern is also found and the
2306 M. Xu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308

Table 1
Simulation conditions for the two cases ((a) and (b) in Fig. 3)

Particle Case (a) Case (b) Gas Case (a) Case (b)

Density p (kg m3 ) 810 1170 Density g (kg m3 ) 1.29 1.29

Number Np 4800 6000 Velocity ug (m s1 ) 1.6 5.6
Restitution coefcient 0.8 0.9 Viscosity g (kg m1 s1 ) 1.8 105 1.8 105
Friction coefcient 0.4 0.2 Incipient uidization 0.8 2.7
Diameter dp (mm) 0.8 2 velocity Umf (m s1 )

Geometry Case (a) Case (b) Numerical Case (a) Case (b)

Height H (m) 1.0 1.2 Grids 50 10 40 15

Width W (m) 0.04 0.2 Time step t (s) 1 104 1 104
Smoothing length h 1.5dp 3dp Simulation time t (s) 3 20
Porosity interval of a layer 0.02 0.02

a b c

0s 0.2s 0.4s 0.6s 0.8s 0s 0.2s 0.4s 0.6s 0.8s

Fig. 4. Slugging as simulated by the different models.

maximum height of slugging, as illustrated by the snap- 3.2. The simulation results under high ow velocity
shots in Fig. 4c, is comparable to that in our new sim-
ulation, but signicantly lower than in traditional DPM The riser of a circulating uidized bed under high ow ve-
simulations. locity is then simulated. The particle number is maintained
 M. Xu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 62 (2007) 2302 2308 2307

This phenomenon is often observed for Geldarts (1973) D-

type powders. According to Stewart and Davidson (1967), the
minimum gas velocity for slug ow is

Fig. 5. Evolution of the ow pattern as simulated without considering sub-grid
structure.
Fig. 6. Simulation result of ow pattern evolution with consideration to
sub-grid structure.
constant during the simulation. Once a particle moves out of
the bed top, a new one is inserted at the bottom.
Fig. 5 shows the ow pattern simulated with traditional DPM.
The dispersed particles aggregate into clusters at rst, and then
the clusters merge into larger swarms or split back into dis-
crete particles at different areas. These processes evolve into a
dynamic balance eventually, with dilute and relatively homo-
geneous suspension seen in the upper and central part of the
tube, and dense suspension appearing near the wall and bottom
parts, which is typical for the so-called core-annulus struc-
ture (Nakamure and Capes, 1973) in CFBs.
Fig. 6 shows the results from the simulation that has con-
sidered sub-grid effects. Although the general picture is similar
to Fig. 5, the heterogeneity is apparently more distinguished in
that large swarms of particles nearly block the cross-sections of
the tube to form plugs. Due to the lower porosities in the plugs,
the drag force on the particles can overcome their gravity and
the plugs are accelerated upward until the gas push them aside
to the walls. And then the particles slip down the wall and ag-
gregate into new plugs. As a result, the bed layer uctuates in a
slugging pattern and the circulating solids ux is much lower.
umsl = umf + 0.07 gW ,
and the minimum bed height for slug ow proposed by Baeyens
and Geldart (1974) is
Hmsl = 1.34W 0.175 .
In this case, the value of umsl and Hmsl is 2.8 m s1 and
1.01 m, respectively, so the operating gas velocity and bed
height have well exceeded these limits and the results in Fig. 6
should be more reasonable than that in Fig. 5.
4. Conclusions
A sub-grid model is proposed for EulerianLagrangian sim-
ulation of particleuid two-phase ows, which utilizes the de-
tailed particle distribution information provided by these meth-
ods. The uid ow is distributed within each computational cell
according to weighted local porosities from pressure balance
considerations, rather than traditional linear interpolations. In
general, the sub-grid model produces stronger heterogeneity in
simulations, with relatively lower uid ow velocity in particle-
rich regions, which is supported by experimental correlations
and observations. Although a long way is ahead in develop-
ing a theoretically more rigorous and practically more accurate
and efcient sub-grid model along this direction, the prospect
is illuminated by this exploratory work.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof.
Mooson Kwauk for his valuable suggestions to this work. The
work is sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (NSFC) under the Grant nos. 20336040, 20221603
and 20490201 and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) under
Grant no. KJCX-SW-L08.
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