A fast projection scheme for the direct numerical simulation of rigid particulate flows

A formulation is presented for the direct numerical simulation of freely moving rigid particles in fluids. This approach is an improvement upon an earlier formulation (Int. J. Multiphase Flow 2000; 26: 1509-1524) and does not rely on any model for fluid-particle interaction. The idea is to assume that the entire fluid-particle domain is a fluid and to constrain the particle domain to move with a rigid motion. The fluid-particle motion is treated implicitly so that the mutual forces of interaction cancel because they are internal to the combined system. The formulation can be implemented by an immersed boundary and a fractional time stepping technique. It can be conveniently employed within finite volume, finite element or other techniques. Due to its ability for fast projection of rigid motion this method has been used for animations and its application to turbulent particulate flows merits investigation. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.