In this research, a tribocharging model based on the prominent condenser model was used in combination with an Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD model to simulate particle tribocharging in particle-laden flows. The influence of different parameters on particle-wall interactions during particle transport in a particle-laden pipe flow was elucidated. An artificial neural network was developed for predicting particle-wall collision numbers based on a database obtained through CFD simulations. The particle-wall collision number from the CFD model was validated against experimental data in the literature. The tribocharging and CFD models were coupled with the experimental tribocharging data to estimate the contact potential difference of powders, which is a function of contact surfaces' work functions and depends on the physicochemical properties of materials. While the contact potential difference between the particles and wall is an essential parameter in the tribocharging models, the accurate measurement of the property is a complex process requiring a highly controlled environment and special equipment. The results from this research also confirm that particle tribocharging is very much dependant on the particle-wall collision number influenced by various parameters, such as particle size and density, air velocity, and pipe dimensions. Plotting the experimentally measured charge-to-mass ratios against the calculated contact potential differences for samples with different protein contents uncovered a linear trend, which opens a novel approach for protein quantification of powders for a given particle size. Therefore, an algorithm is proposed for rapid quantification of protein content and particle size determination of samples during transport in particle-laden flows based on the triboelectric charge measurement. The algorithm requires a CFD-based artificial neural network to estimate the particle-wall interactions based on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the particles and flow systems. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

This thesis reports an experimental investigation of low Reynolds number particle-laden turbulent flows in a horizontal plane channel. Experiments were conducted over a smooth wall and over two rough surfaces made from sand grain and gravel of relative roughness k/h ≈ 0.08 and 0.25, respectively, where k is the roughness height and h is the channel half-height. The flow was loaded with small solid particles with diameters less than 1/10 of the length scale of the energy-containing eddies, and whose concentrations decreased with time due to sedimentation. A novel particle image velocimetry (PIV) method that employed colour filtering for phase discrimination was used to measure the velocities of the fluid and solid particles. Over the smooth wall, the particles mean velocity, turbulence intensities and Reynolds shear stress matched those of the unladen flow very well. There were substantial differences between particle and fluid profiles over the rough wall, which include more rapid reduction in the particle mean velocity and significantly larger turbulence intensities and Reynolds shear stress compared to the unladen flow values. Stratification of the particle concentration led to attenuation of the fluid wall-normal turbulence intensity. This effect was nullified by the roughness perturbation leading to collapse of the wall-normal turbulence intensities over the rough wall. The streamwise turbulence intensity also collapsed over the rough wall but it was found that particles augmented the fluid Reynolds shear stress due to enhanced correlation between the rough wall streamwise and wall-normal velocity fluctuations. A quadrant decomposition of the fluid Reynolds shear stress also revealed corresponding enhancements in ejections and sweeps, the dominant contributors to the Reynolds shear stress, over the rough wall. Based on two-point correlations between the velocity fluctuations and between the velocity fluctuations and swirling strength, it was concluded that both wall roughness and particles modified the turbulence structure by increasing the size of the larger-scale structures. The idea of eddies growing from the wall, thereby enhancing communication between the inner layer and outer parts of the flow, has implications for wall-layer models that assume that the outer layer is detached from the turbulence in the inner region.

Les travaux numériques et expérimentaux de cette thèse contribuent à une meilleure compréhension de la dynamique de grosses particules dans un écoulement turbulent. Un premier volet m’a permis de quantifier leur mouvement relatif au fluide, ainsi que leur influence locale sur l’écoulement turbulent. Dans un second volet, j'ai trouvé que l'effet collectif des particules est d'atténuer l’amplitude des fluctuations turbulentes. En revanche, celles-ci n’ont pas d’influence sur les propriétés statistiques fines de l’écoulement. Aussi, ces mesures suggèrent l’existence d’une transition de phase dans les grandes échelles de l’écoulement au-delà d’un seuil critique du nombre de particules. / The numerical and experimental work of this thesis contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of large particles in a turbulent flow. The first part allowed me to quantify their relative motion to the flow and their local influence on the surrounding flow. In a second part, I found that the collective effect of particles is to reduce the amplitude of turbulent fluctuations. In revanche, they have no influence on the fine statistical properties of the flow. Also, these measurements suggest the existence of a phase transition in the larger scales of the flow beyond a critical threshold of the number of particles.

Kinematic simulation (KS) is a means of generating a turbulent-like velocity field, in a manner that enforces an input Eulerian energy spectrum. Such models have also been applied in particle-laden flows, due to their ability to enforce spatial organization of the fluid velocity field when simulating the trajectories of individual particles. A critical evaluation of KS is presented; in particular, its ability to reproduce single-particle Lagrangian statistics is examined. Also the ability of KS to reproduce the preferential concentration of inertial particles is explored. Some numerical results are presented, in which fluid tracers and inertial particles are transported alternatively by (1) simulated turbulence generated by direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and (2) KS. The effect of unsteadiness formulation in particular is examined. It is found that even steady KS qualitatively reproduces the continuity effect, clustering of inertial particles, elevated dispersion of inertial particles and the intermittent turbulence velocity signal. A novel method is then motivated and formulated, in which, for input RANS parameters, a simulated spectrum is used to generate a KS field which enforces a target Lagrangian timescale. This method is then tested against an existing experimental benchmark, and good agreement is obtained. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Turbulence arises in an immense variety of industrial and scientific applications; from weather to automotive design; from medicine to nuclear engineering. Because turbulence is chaotic, it is difficult to make accurate predictions of how a turbulent flow will behave in a given scenario. The objective of my research is to find easier ways of accurately modelling turbulence in a certain class of particle-laden flows.

Sandstorms are frequently accompanied by intense electric fields and lightning. In a very narrow region close to the ground, sand particles undergo a charge exchange during which larger-sized sand grains become positively charged and smaller-sized sand grains become negatively charged and then all particles become suspended by the turbulent fluid motion. Although the association of intense electric fields with sandstorms has long been observed, the mechanism that causes these intense electric fields has not yet been described. Here, we hypothesize that differently sized sand particles are differentially transported by turbulence in the flow, resulting in a large-scale charge separation and a consequential large-scale electric field. To confirm our hypothesis, we combined a large-eddy simulation framework comprising a turbulent atmospheric boundary layer and movement of sand particles with an electrostatic Gauss law to investigate the physics of the electric fields in sandstorms. We varied the strength of the sandstorm from weak to strong as parametrized by the number density of the entrained sand particles. Our simulations reproduced observational measurements of both mean and root mean squared fluctuation values of the electric field. Our results allowed us to propose a law in which the electric field scales to two-thirds of the power of the concentration of the sand particles in weak-to-medium strength sandstorms. The underlying approach to simulate the solid particle-laden flow is Eulerian-Eulerian in which the particles are characterized by statistical descriptors. To explore the essential physics of the electric field generation in a sandstorm, we model the high-Reynolds-number atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) using two different canonical turbulent flows: one model is that of a turbulent boundary-layer (TBL), and the second one is that of a turbulent half-channel flow. For the particle phase, the direct quadrature method of moments (DQMOM) is chosen in which the abscissas and weights of the quadrature method are tracked directly. The utilization of this framework is proposed to examine the transport of sand in sandstorms. Furthermore, the physical mechanisms necessary for production and sustenance of large-scale electric fields in sandstorms is investigated.

Le contexte général de cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la modélisation eulérienne instationnaire des écoulements turbulents anisothermes gaz - particules. La modélisation de ces écoulements est cruciale pour de nombreuses applications industrielles et pour la prédiction de certains phénomènes naturels. Par exemple, la combustion diphasique dans les moteurs automobiles et aéronautiques est précédée par l'injection et la dispersion de carburant liquide dans la chambre de combustion. Les phénomènes mis en jeu exigent alors une prédiction locale tenant compte du caractère instationnaire de l'écoulement turbulent et de la présence de géométries complexes. De plus, de nombreuses études expérimentales et numériques récentes ont mis en évidence le rôle prépondérant de l'inertie des particules sur les mécanismes de dispersion et de concentration préférentielle en écoulement turbulent. Ceci rend donc indispensable la prise en compte de ces mécanismes dans la modélisation diphasique. Au cours de ce travail de thèse, une approche eulérienne locale et instantanée a été développée pour prédire les écoulements gaz-particules anisothermes et turbulents. Elle est basée sur l'approche statistique du Formalisme Eulérien Mésoscopique (MEF) introduite par Février et al. (JFM, 2005). Cette approche a été ici étendue aux variables thermiques pour la prise en compte du caractère anisotherme de l'écoulement. Cette approche a été ensuite utilisée dans le cadre de la méthode des moments (Kaufmann et al., JCP, 2008), et un système d'équations locales et instantanées pour la phase dispersée a été proposé. La modélisation au premier ordre exige la fermeture des moments de second ordre apparaissant dans les équations de la quantité de mouvement et de l'énergie. La proposition de telles relations constitutives fait l'objet d'une partie de la thèse. Afin de fournir une méthode capable de prédire le comportement local, instantané et anisotherme de la phase dispersée dans des configurations `a une échelle réaliste, les équations pour la phase dispersée ont été filtrées et une modélisation aux grandes échelles (LES) est effectuée. Cette modélisation étends, par la prise en compte des variables thermiques, le travail de Moreau et al. (FtaC, 2010) sur l'approche LES Euler-Euler en conditions isothermes. L'approche complète est enfin appliquée aux résultats de simulation numérique d'un jet plan turbulent gazeux froid, chargé en particules, dans une turbulence homogène isotrope chaude monophasique. / The aim of this thesis is to provide an Eulerian modeling for the dispersed phase interacting with unsteady non-isothermal turbulent flows. The modeling of these flows is crucial for several industrial applications and for predictions of natural events. Examples are the combustion chambers of areo engines where the combustion is preceded by the injection and dispersion of liquid fuel. The prediction of such phenomena involves a local modeling of the mixture for taking into account the unsteady behavior of the turbulent flow and the presence of complex geometries. Moreover, many experimental and numerical studies have recently highlighted the significant role of the particle inertia on the mechanisms of dispersion and preferential concentration. Accounting for such mechanisms is therefore essential for modeling the particle-laden turbulent flows. In this thesis, a local and instantaneous Eulerian approach able to describe and to predict the local behavior of inertial particles interacting with non-isothermal turbulent flows has been developed. It is based on the statistical approach known as Mesoscopic Eulerian formalism (MEF) introduced by Février et al. (JFM, 2005). The statistical approach has been extended to the thermal quantities in order to account for the non-isothermal conditions into the modeling. This formalism is then used in the framework of the moment approach (Kaufmann et al., JCP, 2008) and a system of local and instantaneous equations for the non-isothermal dispersed phase has been suggested. The first order modeling requires to close second-order moments appearing in momentum and energy equations. The proposal of such constitutive relations makes the object of a part of this study. In order to provide an Eulerian approach usable in real configurations at industrial scale, the equations of the dispersed phase are filtered and the approach developed in the framework of the Large-Eddy Simulations. From the work of Moreau et al. (FTaC, 2010), the Eulerian-Eulerian LES approach is then extended to non-isothermal conditions. The whole modeling is then a priori tested against numerical simulations of a cold planar turbulent particle-laden jet crossing a homogeneous isotropic decaying hot turbulence.

Les écoulements chargés en particules sont présents dans de nombreuses applications industrielles telles que le transport de boues ou l’industrie chimique en général. Dans des mélanges constitués de particules solides immergées dans un fluide visqueux, les interactions entre particules jouent un rôle essentiel dans la viscosité globale du mélange.Le phénomène de suspension est causé par des interactions hydrodynamiques à courte distance, connues sous le nom de lubrification. Les forces de lubrification sont généralement sous-estimées en raison de leur nature et de la discrétisation spatiale du problème.Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un modèle de lubrification qui estime les forces et couples hydrodynamiques non résolues par un solveur couplant la résolution des équations de Navier-Stokes incompressible par une méthode de volumes pénalisés, à la résolution de la dynamique des particules par une méthode aux éléments discrets. Les corrections des contraintes hydrodynamiques sont faites localement sur la surface des particules en interaction sans aucune hypothèse sur la forme générale des particules. La version finale du modèle de lubrification proposée peut être utilisée pour des suspensions de particules convexes sans aucune tabulation. La méthode numérique a été validée avec des particules sphériques et des ellipsoïdes, en comparant des simulations à des données expérimentales.Dans le cas de particules sphériques, le modèle de lubrification est aussi précis que les modèles de lubrification existants qui sont limités à ce type de géométrie. La compatibilité du modèle avec des particules convexes a été validée en comparant des simulations,utilisant des ellipsoïdes, à des mesures expérimentales que nous avons réalisées. / Particle-laden flows can be found in many industrial applications such as slurry transport or the chemical industry in general. In mixtures made of solid particles emerged in a viscous fluid, particle interactions play an essential role in the overall mixture viscosity. The suspension phenomenon is caused by short-range hydrodynamic interactions, known as lubrication. Lubrication forces are usually underestimated due to their singularities and the spatial discretization of the numerical schemes. In this thesis, we propose a lubrication model for a coupled volume penalization method and discrete element method solver that estimates the unresolved hydrodynamic forces and torques in incompressible Navier-Stokes flows. Corrections are made locally on the surfaces of the interacting particles without any assumption on the global particle shapes. The final version of the local lubrication model can be used for suspension of convex particles without any tabulations. The numerical method has been validated against experimental data with spherical and ellipsoidal particles. With spherical particles, the lubrication model performs as well as existing numerical models that are limited to this specific particle shape. The model compatibility with convex particles has been validated by comparing simulations using ellipsoids to experimental measurements we made.

Le transport de particules par des écoulements turbulents est un phénomène présent dans de nombreux écoulements naturels et industriels, tels que la dispersion de polluants dans l'atmosphère ou du phytoplancton et plastiques dans et à la surface des océans. Les modèles prédictifs classiques ne peuvent prévoir avec précision la formation de larges fluctuations de concentrations. La première partie de cette thèse concerne une étude de la dispersion turbulente de traceurs émis à partir d'une source ponctuelle et continue. Les fluctuations spatiales de masse sont déterminées en fonction de la distance à la source et à l'échelle d'observation. La combinaison de plusieurs phénomènes physiques à l'origine du mélange limite la validité d'une caractérisation de géométrie fractale. Une approche alternative est proposée, permettant d'interpréter les fluctuations massiques en terme des différents régimes de séparation de pair dans des écoulements turbulents. La seconde partie concerne des particules ayant une inertie finie, dont la dispersion dans l'espace des vitesses requiert de développer des techniques de modélisation adaptées. Une méthode numérique originale est proposée pour exprimer la distribution des particules dans l'espace position-vitesse. Cette méthode est ensuite utilisée pour décrire la modulation de la turbulence bi- dimensionnelle par des particules inertielles. A grand nombres de Stokes, l'effet montré est analogue à celui d'une friction effective à grande échelle. Aux petits Stokes, le spectre de l'énergie cinétique du fluide et les transferts non-linéaires sont modifiées d'une manière non triviale. / The transport of particles by turbulent flows is ubiquitous in nature and industry. It occurs in planet formation, plankton dynamics and combustion in engines. For the dispersion of atmospheric pollutants, traditional predictive models based on eddy diffusivity cannot accurately reproduce high concentration fluctuations, which are of primal importance for ecological and health issues. The first part of this thesis relates to the dispersion by turbulence of tracers continuously emitted from a point source. Mass fluctuations are characterized as a function of the distance from the source and of the observation scale. The combination of various physical mixing processes limits the use of fractal geometric tools. An alternative approach is proposed, allowing to interpret mass fluctuations in terms of the various regimes of pair separation in turbulent flows. The second part concerns particles with a finite and possibly large inertia, whose dispersion in velocity requires developing efficient modelling techniques. A novel numerical method is proposed to express inertial particles distribution in the position-velocity phase space. Its convergence is validated by comparison to Lagrangian measurements. This method is then used to describe the modulation of two-dimensional turbulence by large-Stokes-number heavy particles. At high inertia, the effect is found to be analogous to an effective large-scale friction. At small Stokes numbers, kinetic energy spectrum and nonlinear transfers are shown to be modified in a non-trivial way which relates to the development of instabilities at vortices boundaries.

Ces travaux de recherche s'intéressent à la caractérisation des transferts thermiques dans les milieux fluide-particules, et en particulier, les lits fluidisés au sein desquels un solide divisé est mis en suspension par un fluide. La grande diversité d'échelles spatiales et temporelles dans ces procédés nécessite d'étudier les interactions hydrodynamiques, thermiques et/ou chimiques entre les particules et le fluide à l'aide d'une approche multi-échelles. Une étude des transferts thermiques dans des lits fixes puis fluidisés, est réalisée à deux échelles : locale (Particle Resolved Simulation) et moyennée (Discrete Element Method-Computional Fluids Dynamics). L'étude PRS permet de caractériser les couplages locaux des transferts thermiques entre particules ainsi que la dynamique de ces transferts dans les configurations fluidisées. Une étude comparative entre les échelles met en évidence les limites du modèle DEM-CFD à capter les fluctuations des transferts thermiques observées dans les simulations PRS. Dans un dernier temps, les fermetures du modèle DEM-CFD sont améliorées de manière à réintroduire les fluctuations perdues par le changement d'échelles. / This work aims at characterizing heat transfer into fluid-solid flows, and more particularly fluidized beds, into which a solid phase is suspended by a flowing fluid. The wide range of spatial and temporal scales present in such processes encourage to study hydrodynamic, thermal and/or chemical interactions between the particles and the fluid through a multi-scale strategy. The analysis of thermal interactions was first carried out for fixed bed configurations and then, fluidized beds at two overlapping scales: local (PRS; Particle Resolved Simulation) and mesoscopic (DEMCFD; Discrete Element Method-Computional Fluids Dynamics). The PRS approach accounts for the local coupling of heat transfer between the particles and its dynamics into fluidized beds. A comparative study of the two scales indicated the limits of the DEM-CFD model to capture the heat transfer fluctuations observed into PRS. In a last step, the closure laws for DEM-CFD were improved to reintroduce the fluctuations lost at this scale.