Numerical investigation of particle motion at the steel—slag interface in continuous casting using VOF method and dynamic overset grids

The capillary interactions are prominent for a micro-sized particle at the steel—slag interface. In this study, the dynamics of a spherical particle interacting with the steel—slag interface is numerically investigated using the volume of fluid method in combination with the overset grid technique to account for particle motion. The simulations have shown the particle’s separation process at the interface and successfully captured the formation and continuous evolution of a meniscus in the course of particle motion. A sensitivity analysis on the effect of different physical parameters in the steel—slag—particle system is also conducted. The result indicates that the wettability of particle with the slag phase is the main factor affecting particle separation behavior (trapped at the interface or fully separated into slag). Higher interfacial tension of fluid interface and smaller particle size can speed up the particle motion but have less effect on the equilibrium position for particle staying at the interface. In comparison, particle density shows a minor influence when the motion is dominated by the capillary effect. By taking account of the effect of meniscus and capillary forces on a particle, this study provides a more accurate simulation of particle motion in the vicinity of the steel—slag interface and enables further investigation of more complex situations.

Numerical Analysis of Single-Particle Motion Using CFD-DEM in Varying-Curvature Elbows

Centrifugal pumps are the critical components in deep-sea mining. In order to investigate the particle motion in the curved channel of the impeller, three different types of curvature conform to blade profile to simplify the impeller design of pumps. A numerical study is conducted to investigate the flow field in a varying-curvature channel for solid-liquid two-phase flow. The flow of particles within the varying curvature channel is studied by combining the discrete element method (DEM) with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a comparison with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) test results. The results show that a polyhedral mesh with a small mesh number yields very accurate results, which makes it very suitable for CFD-DEM. Based on this method, the movement of a single particle is compared and analyzed, and the particle-motion law is obtained. The effects of the curvature ratio Cr and area ratio Ar on the motion law for a single particle are studied, and the simulation results are analyzed statistically. The results show that the effect of Cr on both the particle slip velocity and the turbulent kinetic energy only changes its strength, while the distribution law does not change significantly. Compared with the curvature ratio Cr, the area ratio Ar has a greater impact on the particles, and its distribution law becomes clearly different. As the area ratio Ar increases, the arc radius and length of the corresponding particle trajectory decrease.

Particle motion in circularly polarized vacuum pp waves

Bialynicki-Birula and Charzynski argued that a gravitational wave emitted during the merger of a black hole binary may be approximated by a circularly polarized wave which may in turn trap particles [1]. In this paper we consider particle motion in a class of gravitational waves which includes, besides circularly polarized periodic waves (CPP) [2], also the one proposed by Lukash [3] to study anisotropic cosmological models. Both waves have a 7-parameter conformal symmetry which contains, in addition to the generic 5-parameter (broken) Carroll group, also a 6th isometry. The Lukash spacetime can be transformed by a conformal rescaling of time to a perturbed CPP problem. Bounded geodesics, found both analytically and numerically, arise when the Lukash wave is of Bianchi type VI. Their symmetries can also be derived from the Lukash-CPP relation. Particle trapping is discussed.

LBM modeling of solid particle dynamics in a viscous medium

This article discusses the mathematical and computer modeling of single solid particle dynamics in a viscous medium. The results of the study were obtained using a 3D numerical algorithm implemented on the basis of the D3Q19 model of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The moving «liquid-solid» interface is accounted for using an interpolated bounce back (IBB) scheme. The velocity of a solid particle motion and the trajectory of a particle at Re = 1,56 are obtained. The results are in good agreement with the experimental and numerical results of other authors.