Swirling, Particle-Laden Flows Through a Pipe Expansion

The present study concerns a particle-laden, swirling flow through a pipe expansion. A gas-particle flow enters the test section through a center tube, and a swirling air stream enters through a coaxial annulus. The swirl number based on the total inflow is 0.47. Numerical predictions of the gas flow were performed using a finite-volume approach for solving the time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The predicted mean velocity profiles showed good agreement with experimental results when using the standard k-ε turbulence model. The turbulent kinetic energy of the gas phase, however, is considerably underpredicted by this turbulence model, especially in the initial mixing region of the two jets. The particle dispersion characteristics in this complex flow were studied by using the Lagrangian method for particle tracking and considering the particle size distribution. The influence of the particle phase onto the fluid flow was neglected in the present stage, since only low particle loadings were considered. The particle mean velocities were again predicted reasonably well and differences between experiment and simulation were only found in the velocity fluctuations, which is partly the result of the underpredicted turbulent kinetic energy of the gas phase. The most sensitive parameter for validating the quality of numerical simulations for particle dispersion is the development of the particle mean number diameter which showed reasonable agreement with the experiments, except for the core region of the central recirculation bubble. This, however, is attributed again to the predicted low turbulent kinetic energy of the gas phase.