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Lecture 03: Discrete Phase Model (DPM)

ANSYS Fluent Multiphase Flow Modeling

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 Outline

• Particulate Flow and DPM Applications

• Fundamentals of Discrete Phase Modeling (DPM)

• DPM Set Up in Fluent

• Post Processing

• Additional physics modeling features

− DDPM, DEM, Erosion-MDM

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 Dilute Dispersed Flows with Particles and Droplets

• Occur in many areas

– Automotive
– Power
– Environmental
– Health Care
– Fire Protection
– Consumer Products
– Electronics cooling

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 DPM Applications

Erosion in pipe bend

Cyclone separator
Particle inhalation

Spray impingement
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 Discrete Phase Model (DPM)

• Discrete Phase Model is a multiphase model in which the

dispersed phase is tracked in a Lagrangian reference frame
• Two different phases are defined in the DPM model:
− A continuous phase and a particle phase
• The discrete phase is modeled by the Lagrangian method 𝒅𝒑
• The continuous phase is modeled by the Eulerian method
• The discrete and continuous phases are coupled via sources 𝑼𝒒
terms in the governing equations
• Limiting assumption:
− DPM is valid for volume fraction lower than ~0.1, where the particle phase
is sufficiently dilute that particle-particle interactions and the effects of the 𝑳
particle volume fraction on the continuous phase can be neglected

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 Additional Simplifying Assumptions in DPM
What Assumption
Particle Volume Particle does not displace fluid (particle  mass point)
 Allows to neglect particle volume fraction in
continuous phase solver!
Particle Shape Particle is a sphere
 Simple (center + diameter)
 “Shape” needed for anything requiring the particle
surface (e.g. drag forces, heat-, mass transfer)
Flow in vicinity of particle Model flow details around particle
 Influence of flow details modeled by appropriate
(simple) assumptions
Number of particles Concept of particle parcel
 Track representative number of physical particles
 Details later in presentation

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 Particle Equation of Motion

• Particle position

• Particle velocity

• Particle angular velocity

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 Drag Force

• Particle relaxation time

• Particle relative Reynolds number

• Drag force

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 Particle Trajectory

• Other forces
− Rotational forces

− Thermophoretic force

− Brownian force Brownian Motion

Saffman Lift
− Saffman’s lift force

Virtual Mass
− Virtual mass force

− User-defined forces

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 Rotational Drag and Magnus Lift
Rotational drag Force
• Opposes rotational motion of particle
• Correlation in Fluent
‒ Dennis et al.
f  dp 
5
  
TRotational Drag    C   
2  2 
Magnus lift force
• Particle rotation generates lift force on particle
These forces are analogous to forces arising from
translational motion
• Translational drag
• Saffman lift
WWW.GRC.NASA.GOV

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 Parcel Concept

• It is very expensive to track each individual particle in a

particle flow system
− For a typical injection, the total particle number could be in millions!
• The solution: Parcel concept: Dukowicz (1980)
− Each parcel contains particles with same properties: diameter,
velocity, position, and others
− The behavior of each parcel is determined by the behavior of the
particles inside
− The number of particles in each parcel can be a fractional number

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 Coupling Between Phases

• One-way coupling:
Control volume
− DPM source term is updated
− Particle motion is affected by the continuous phase
− Continuous phase is not affected by the particle flow Particle Trajectory

Mass, Momentum and Heat

Exchange

• Two-way coupling:
− Particles and continuous flow interact with each other
− Particle motion is affected by the continuous phase
− Continuous phase is in turn is affected by the particle flow

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 Heat and Mass Transfer

• Heat transfer
𝒅𝑻𝒑 𝒅𝒎𝒑
𝒎𝒑 𝑪𝒑 = 𝒉𝑨𝒑 𝑻∞ − 𝑻𝒑 − 𝒉𝒇𝒈 + 𝑺𝒙
𝒅𝒕 𝒅𝒕
𝒉𝒅𝒑 𝟏 𝟏
𝑵𝒖 = = 𝟐. 𝟎 + 𝟎. 𝟔𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝟐 𝑷𝒓𝟑
𝒌∞
• Mass transfer
– Due to evaporation/boiling/devolatilization/heterogeneous-reactions
Particle Type Heat and Mass Transfer
Massless No drag! Used for Residence Time Distribution Studies
Inert Inert Heating and Cooling
Droplet Heating, Evaporation and Boiling
Multi-component Multi-component evaporation
Combusting Heating, Devolatilization and heterogeneous reaction
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 Setting Initial Conditions: Injections

• You will define Single

injection(s) which will
serve as a way to seed
the flow with the
discrete phase
• FLUENT provides 11
types of injections:
− Single
− Group Surface
− Cone / Solid Cone (3D)
− Atomizers
− Surface Hollow Cone
− File Group
− …
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 Injection Definition

• Every injection definition includes:

− Particle type (inert, droplet, or combusting particle)
− Material (from data base)
− Initial conditions (except when read from a file)
• Combusting particles and droplets require definition of destination species
• Stochastic tracking used to model turbulent dispersion
− Details on next slide
• Particle rotation can be modeled
− Additional equation solved to compute torque balance on particles including
• Rotational drag forces
• Magnus lift force

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 Incorporating Turbulence
When particles enter a turbulent eddy, they try to follow it for the time they are crossing
the eddy, depending on their Stokes number.
 This effect leads to lateral dispersion which has to be considered in modeling:
– Discrete random walk model (Stochastic Tracking)
• Accounts for local variations in flow properties
• Requires sufficient number of tries for accurate capture of turbulent dispersion
– Needed to achieve a statistically meaningful sampling
– Insufficient number of tries can lead to convergence
problems caused by non-smooth distribution of
particle sources

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 DPM Boundary Conditions
• Escape – Particle leaves the flow domain. • Wall Jet – Simulates an inviscid jet of
particles impacting the wall (no
significant liquid film is formed on the
wall).
• Trap – Particle is collected on the wall.

• Reflect – Particle bounces off the wall

• Wall Film – Similar to wall jet; simulates
with user-prescribed coefficient of
case where significant film is formed on
restitution.
the wall.

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 Rough Wall Model for Particles

• Virtual wall replaces the real wall during the

impact at the point of contact with particle
Virtual Wall
w
Real Smooth Wall
Dp

• The inclination angle w of the virtual wall is

sampled from a Gaussian distribution with 0
mean and standard deviation computed as a
function of
− Statistical surface roughness parameters
− Particle diameter

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 Particle Tracking Options

• Steady particle tracking with steady state solution

• Unsteady particle tracking with steady flow
• Unsteady particle tracking with unsteady flow
− Same particles and continuous phase time step size
− Different particles and continuous phase time step size

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 Steady Particle Tracking with Steady Flow

• DPM calculation at each Nth continuous phase iteration

• Particles tracked from injection point till final state/fate
N
• Tracking parameters
− Max. number of steps and
− Length scale or step length factor
• Integration time step is calculated as
− If length scale is specified
𝑳
• ∆𝒕 = 𝑼𝒑 +𝑼𝒄

− If step length factor is specified

t*  Estimated time required for particle to

∆𝒕∗
• ∆𝒕 = traverse the current cell
∅
  Step length factor

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 Unsteady Particle Tracking with Steady Flow

• Each particle is ADVANCED from its last position

in the previous DPM calculation
– For specified particle time step size (tp) N
• With the integration time step calculated from tp
tracking parameters
– For J number of time steps
J

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 Unsteady Particle Tracking with Unsteady Flow
Different time step size for particles and
continuous phase
• Particle injection
– Particle Time Step
• Injecting particles in each particle time step
• Integration time step is the specified particle time step
– Fluid Flow Time Step
• Injecting particle in each flow time step
• Integration time step is the specified particle time step
– Particles will always be tracked in such a way that they
coincide with the flow time of the continuous flow solver
• As long as the maximum number of time steps used to
compute a single trajectory is sufficient

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 Solution Strategies for Steady Flows

• Two strategies possible:

− Closer coupling between dispersed and continuous flow:
• Increase under relaxation factor for Discrete Phase
• Decrease number of continuous phase calculations between trajectory calculations ( < 3 )
• Lower under relaxation factors for continuous phase.

− Decoupling of dispersed and continuous flow:

• Lower under relaxation factor for Discrete Phase.
• Increase number of continuous phase calculations between trajectory calculations ( > 15 )

• Smooth out particle source terms

− Increase number of stochastic particle trajectories

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 DPM Source Calculations
𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒘 = 𝑬𝒐𝒍𝒅 + 𝜶 𝑬𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 − 𝑬𝒐𝒍𝒅

• Effect of Under-Relaxation Factor (URF)

– DPM source terms calculated and updated at every
particle DPM iteration/time step
• # of particle iterations required for achieving full
source term increases with decrease in URF
• Must use URF of 1 if only one particle iteration is
done in a time step
– Calculations may not be stable in some cases
• Effect of update DPM Sources Every Flow Iteration
– Recommended for unsteady calculations
• Particle source terms calculated every DPM iteration
and updated every continuous phase iteration

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 Postprocessing: Viewing Trajectories

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 Particle Track Export

• To export particle tracks for viewing in

other post-processing tools such as CFD-
Post or Ensight, use Export > Particle
History Data in the File menu
− Select File Type, injection, exported particle
variables
• By default, only particle geometry, ID and
residence time are exported
− In CFD-Post, use Import from the File menu
• The Insert menu can only be used to import
particle tracks calculated in CFX

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 Time Statistics of Particle Variables

• Ability to post process DPM variables

− Mean and RMS values for transient simulations

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 Time Statistics of Particle Variables

• Data sampling for Time Statistics of DPM post processing variables

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 Report Definitions for DPM

• Report definitions can be used to

monitor DPM variables as the solution
progresses
– Injected Mass
– Mass in Domain
– Evaporated Mass
– Penetration Length
– Escaped Mass

• Can be plotted as the solution

progresses and/or saved to a file

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 Additional DPM Physics Modeling Features: DDPM and DEM

• As the volume fraction of particles increases,

particulate flow changes from the dilute
disperse flow regime to the dense disperse
flow regime, and four-way coupling
develops
− Particle-particle interaction and particle volume
displacement can no longer be neglected
• There are a number of extensions to DPM
allowing these effects to be represented
− Dense Discrete Phase Model (DDPM)
− Discrete Element Model (DEM)
− Macroscopic Particle Model (MPM)

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 Overview of Modeling Approaches
DDPM-DEM:
Particles colored by residence time
• Dense Discrete Phase Model (DDPM)
– Treats secondary phase solids as discrete particles
dispersed in continuous fluid
– Particle-Particle collisions are either modeled (KTGF based
approach) or explicitly resolved (DEM based approach)
– Applicable from dilute to dense particulate flows with
wide particle size distribution
– Compatible with species transport, homogeneous and
heterogeneous reactions
DEM

• Discrete Element Method (DEM)

– Soft-sphere contact model to explicitly resolve particle-
particle collisions
– Efficiently handles dense and near packing limit
particulate flows

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 Overview of Modeling Approaches

• Macroscopic Particle Model (MPM)

− Available under addon-modules
− Particle scale simulation
− Particles are not point masses anymore
− Number of particles limited by computational expense
• Up to a few hundred particles
− Collisions mostly instantaneous and binary

Particle larger than several

cells (~10 or more)

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 Additional DPM Physics Modeling Features: Erosion
• Erosion is a complex process that is affected by Sand Erosion in a bend
numerous factors and small changes in operational
conditions can significantly affect the damage it
causes
• Erosion leads to a reduction in expected life time of
piping systems, and is therefore vital in risk
management studies
• Fluent's DPM provides validated solid-particle flow
modeling capabilities for a wide range of sand particle
sizes and loadings
– A wide array of industry-accepted erosion models, as
well as the ability to include proprietary erosion
models if needed
– The ability to deform the pipe wall if erosion is
affecting the flow pattern

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 DPM Erosion Modeling

Post-process particle tracks

Define Erosion Models at Walls – can use and erosion contours
multiple models at same time
• only when erosion modeling performed as a
post-processing operation
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 Erosion-MDM Coupling
Contour of Total Eroded
Distance

Contour of Erosion Rate

DPM erosion simulations can be coupled with
Dynamic Mesh (MDM) allowing walls to deform
due to particle induced erosion
• Quasi automatic mesh deformation setup of all
participating walls
• Simulation driven by mesh deformation time step,
i.e. allowable cell deformation, but uses a steady
state fluid solution

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 Summary

• Discrete Phase Model (DPM) allows tracking of dilute, dispersed secondary phases using the
Lagrangian method
− Secondary phases can be solid particles, liquid droplets, air bubbles, so long as the requirement of volume
fraction < 0.10 is satisfied
• Linear motion of particles in the surrounding continuous flow field is computed using Newton's
Second Law of Motion
− Forces acting on particles include drag and can include various other forces as appropriate for the problem
being solved
• DPM particles can exchange momentum, heat and mass (including species) with the continuous
phase
• Basic set up includes defining one or more injections, defining wall DPM boundary conditions and
setting particle tracking options and parameters (such as interaction with continuous phase)
• Particle Tracking display used for flow visualization of particles
• Additional features extend particle tracking to dense-dispersed flows and erosion

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