Modeling and simulation of particulate flows

Particulate flows are ubiquitous in nature, engineering, and industry. They are important to study because they can have a significant impact on the environment, human health and safety, manufacturing processes, and many other applications. Hence, the ability to study realistic particle-laden flows numerically is an important aspect. As such, it is vital for these numerical studies to allow complex particle shapes, also in systems with high particle volume fractions. Because the coupling between the surrounding fluid and a particle depends heavily on the particle's shapes, which is evident in the drag force. Furthermore, the interactions with other particles and obstacles, such as a wall, also have a dependency on the shape.

While significant, the consideration of arbitrary particle shapes remains a major challenge. For this reason, it's crucial to improve the models and methods that are already in use or to create new ones that allow accurate studies of particulate flows. Here, the primary aim is to consider coarsely dispersed suspensions. However, it is likely that the resulting novel developments are appliable to other applications.