Academic literature on the topic 'Direct simulation;fibre suspension;flexible fibres'

The behavior of fiber suspensions during flow is of fundamental importance to the process simulation of discontinuous fiber reinforced plastics. However, the direct simulation of flexible fibers and fluid poses a challenging two-way coupled fluid-structure interaction problem. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) offers a natural way to treat such interactions. Hence, this work utilizes SPH and a bead chain model to compute a shear flow of fiber suspensions. The introduction of a novel viscous surface traction term is key to achieve full agreement with Jeffery’s equation. Careful modelling of contact interactions between fibers is introduced to model suspensions in the non-dilute regime. Finally, parameters of the Reduced-Strain Closure (RSC) orientation model are identified using ensemble averages of multiple SPH simulations implemented in PySPH and show good agreement with literature data.

Abstract A particle-level simulation technique has been developed for modelling fibre suspension flow in a converging channel of a papermachine headbox. The fibre model is represented by a chain of elements connected together. The model was verified by the simulation of rigid fibre dynamics in a simple shear flow. The period of rotation was found to be in a very good agreement with theory and reference data. The model was then employed to simulate fibre motion in a converging channel of a papermachine headbox. Fibre suspension motion was resolved using two-step procedure. Velocity field was calculated by means of a commercial CFD code ANSYS Fluent with RSM turbulence model applied and used as an input to the in-house code allowing to simulate fibre dynamics. Results of the calculations were used to construct the fibre orientation probability distribution (FOPD) which was found to be consistent with available experimental data.

In the present study, the flow of a fibre suspension in a channel containing a cylinder was numerically studied for a very low Reynolds number. Further, the model was validated against previous studies by observing the flexible fibres in the shear flow. The model was employed to simulate the rigid, semi-flexible, and fully flexible fibre particle in the flow past a single cylinder. Two different fibre lengths with various flexibilities were applied in the simulations, while the initial orientation angle to the flow direction was changed between 45° ≤ θ ≤ 75°. It was shown that the influence of the fibre orientation was more significant for the larger orientation angle. The results highlighted the influence of several factors affecting the fibre particle in the flow past the cylinder.

The present work investigates the mechanical behaviour of finite-size, elastic and inertial fibres freely moving in a homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow at moderate Reynolds number. Four-way coupled, direct numerical simulations, based on a finite difference discretisation and the immersed boundary method, are performed to mutually couple the dynamics of fibres and fluid turbulence, allowing us to account for the backreaction of the dispersed phase to the carrier flow. An extensive parametric study is carried out in zero-gravity condition over the characteristic properties of the suspension, i.e. fibre's linear density (from iso-dense to denser-than-the-fluid fibres), length (from short fibres comparable with the dissipative scale to long fibres comparable with the integral scale) and bending stiffness (from highly flexible to almost rigid fibres), as well as the concentration (from dilute to non-dilute suspensions). Results reveal the existence of a robust turbulence modulation mechanism that is primarily controlled by the mass fraction of the suspension (with only a minor influence of the fibre's bending stiffness), which is characterised in detail by means of a scale-by-scale analysis in Fourier space. Despite such alteration with respect to the single-phase case due to the non-negligible backreaction, fibres experience only two possible flapping states (previously identified in the very dilute condition) while being transported and deformed by the flow. In addition, we show that the maximum curvature obeys different scaling laws that can be derived from the fibre dynamical equation. Finally, we explore the clustering and preferential alignment of fibres within the flow, highlighting the peculiar role of inertia and elasticity.

A new Direct Simulation fibre model was developed which allowed flexibility in the fibre during the simulation of fibre suspension flow.This new model was called the 'Chain-of-Spheres' model.It was hypothesised that particle shape and deformation could significantly affect particle dynamics,and also suspension bulk properties such as viscosity.Data collected from the simulation showed that flexible fibres in shear flow resulted in an order of 7 −10% bulk relative viscosity increase over the 'rigid' fibre result.Results also established the existence of a relationship between bulk viscosity and particle stiffness. In comparison with experimental results,other more conventional rigid fibre based methods appeared to underpredict relative viscosity.The flexible fibre method thus markedly improved the ability to estimate relative viscosity.The curved rigid fibre suspension also exhibited increased viscosity of the order twice that of the equivalent straight rigid fibre suspension.With such sensitivity to fibre shape,this result has some important implications for the quality of fibre inclusions used.For consistent viscosity,the shape quality of the fibres was shown to be important. The 'Chain of Spheres' simulation was substantially extended to create a new simulation method with the ability to model the dynamics of arbitrarily shaped particles in the Newtonian flow field.This new '3D Particle' simulation method accounted for the inertial force on the particles,and also allowed particles to be embedded in complex flow fields.This method was used to reproduce known dynamics for common particle shapes,and then to predict the unknown dynamics of various other particle shapes in shear flow. In later sections, the simulation demonstrated inertia-induced particle migration in the non-linear shear gradient Couette cylinder flow,and was used to predict the fibre orientation within a diverging channel flow.The performance of the method was verified against known experimental measurements,observations and theoretical and numerical results where available.The comparisons revealed that the current method reproduced single particle dynamics with great fidelity. The broad aim of this research was to better understand the microstructural dynamics within the fibre-filled suspension and from it,derive useful engineering information on the bulk flow of these fluids.This thesis represents a move forward to meet this broad aim.It is hoped that future researchers may benefit from the new approaches and algorithms developed here.

A new Direct Simulation fibre model was developed which allowed flexibility in the fibre during the simulation of fibre suspension flow.This new model was called the �Chain-of-Spheres �model.It was hypothesised that particle shape and deformation could signi ficantly a ffect partic e dynamics,and also suspension bulk properties such as viscosity.Data collected from the simulation showed that flexible fibres in shear flow resulted in an order of 7 −10% bulk relative viscosity increase over the �rigid �fibre result.Results also es- tablished the existence of a relationship between bulk viscosity and particle sti ffness.In comparison with experimental results,other more conventional rigid fibre based methods appeared to underpredict relative viscosity.The flexible fibre method thus markedly improved the ability to estimate relative viscosity.The curved rigid fibre suspension also exhibited increased viscosity of the order twice that of the equivalent straight rigid fibre suspension.With such sensitivity to fibre shape,this result has some important implications for the quality of fibre inclusions used.For consistent viscosity,the shape quality of the fibres was shown to be important. The �Chain of Spheres �simulation was substantially extended to create a new simulation method with the ability to model the dynamics of arbitrarily shaped particles in the Newtonian flow field.This new �3D Particle �simulation method accounted for the inertial force on the particles,and also allowed particles to be embedded in complex flow fields.This method was used to reproduce known dynamics for common particle shapes,and then to predict the unknown dynamics of various other particle shapes in shear flow. In later sections, the simulation demonstrated inertia-induced particle migration inthe non-linear shear gradient Couette cylinder flow,and was used to predict the fibre orientation within a diverging channel flow.The performance of the method was verified against known experimental measurements,observations and theoretical and numerical results where available.The comparisons revealed that the current method reproduced single particle dynamics with great fidelity. The broad aim of this research was to better understand the microstruc- tural dynamics within the fibre-filled suspension and from it,derive useful engineering information on the bulk flow of these fluids.This thesis represents a move forward to meet this broad aim.It is hoped that future researchers may bene fit from the new approaches and algorithms developed here.

Determination of the relation between the bulk or rheological properties of a particle suspension and its microscopic structure is an old and important problem in physical science. In general, the rheology of particle suspension is quite complex, and the problem becomes even more complicated if the suspending particle is deformable. Despite these difficulties, a large number of theoretical and experimental investigations have been devoted to the analysis and prediction of the rheological behavior of particle suspensions. However, among these studies there are very few investigations that focus on the role of particle deformability. A novel method for full coupling of the fluid-solid phases with sub-grid accuracy for the solid phase is developed. In this method, the flow is computed on a fixed regular 'lattice' using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), where each solid particle, or fiber, is mapped onto a Lagrangian frame moving continuously through the domain. The motion and orientation of the particle are obtained from Newtonian dynamics equations. The deformable particle is modeled by the lattice-spring model (LSM).The fiber deformation is calculated by an efficient flexible fiber model. The no-slip boundary condition at the fluid-solid interface is based on the external boundary force (EBF) method. This method is validated by comparing with known experimental and theoretical results. The fiber simulation results show that the rheological properties of flexible fiber suspension are highly dependent on the microstructural characteristics of the suspension. It is shown that fiber stiffness (bending ratio BR) has strong impact on the suspension rheology in the range BR < 3. The relative viscosity of the fiber suspension under shear increases significantly as BR decreases. Direct numerical simulation of flexible fiber suspension allows computation of the primary normal stress difference as a function of BR. These results show that the primary normal stress difference has a minimum value at BR ∼ 1. The primary normal stress differences for slightly deformable fibers reaches a minimum and increases significantly as BR decreases below 1. The results are explained based on the Batchelor's relation for non-Brownian suspensions. The influence of fiber stiffness on the fiber orientation distribution and orbit constant is the major contributor to the variation in rheological properties. A least-squares curve-fitting relation for the relative viscosity is obtained for flexible fiber suspension. This relation can be used to predict the relative viscosity of flexible fiber suspension based on the result of rigid fiber suspension. The unique capability of the LBM-EBF method for sub-grid resolution and multiscale analysis of particle suspension is applied to the challenging problem of platelet motion in blood flow. By computing the stress distribution over the platelet, the "blood damage index" is computed and compared with experiments in channels with various geometries [43]. In platelet simulation, the effect of 3D channel geometry on the platelet activation and aggregation is modeled by using LBM-EBF method. Comparison of our simulations with Fallon's experiments [43] shows a similar pattern, and shows that Dumont's BDI model [40] is more appropriate for blood damage investigation. It has been shown that channels with sharp transition geometry will have larger recirculation areas with high BDI values. By investigating the effect of hinge area geometry on BDI value, we intend to use this multiscale computational method to optimize the design of Bileaflet mechanical heart valves. Both fiber simulations and platelet simulations have shown that the novel LBM-EBF method is more efficient and stable compare to the conventional numerical methods. The new EBF method is a two-Cway coupling method with sub-grid accuracy which makes the platelet simulations possible. The LBM-EBF is the only method to date, to the best of author's knowledge, that can simulate suspensions with large number of deformable particles under complex flow conditions. It is hoped that future researchers may benefit from this new method and the algorithms developed here.